Hey Everyone!

Expressions...I use a mirror and Marilyn Monroe for references. 

Body language...check out "How to read a person like a book"  it's a great reference for body language.

Animation...I read somewhere there's key elements to both 2d and 3d,  forget though the reference when I get the time I'll look it up.

Here's the animation morphs I have so far for high end Jane:  Blink,  Breasts Up/Down,  Breasts Left/Right,  Breathe Chest/Stomach,  Glute Flex Left/Right,  Glute Raise Left/Right,  Glute Sway Left/Right,  Jaw(Mouth closed) Up/Down,  Jaw Left/Right,  Shin calf flex Left/Right,  Shoulder Bicep flex Left/Right,

Corrective morphs...breasts,  hand,  glute,  thigh  and foot compression.

I use the facial rig for the expressions and phenomes.  I also use it to create expression and phenome morphs.  Remember the rule "Stick to the Storyboard"  model only what the camera sees and use only what you need.

Which brings me to another topic.  Which is better modeling a figure with arms out or arms down at a 45*.  The answer is...tah dah...both!  If the storyboard calls for your figure to swing around like Tarzan then model it with arms out.  If the storyboard calls for your figure to dead lift a 100 tons or so then model it with arms down at a 45* angle.

Now through this long winded reply the essence is the storyboard.  The storyboard is the most important element to animation.  To support the storyboard we create multiple meshes,  textures and materials,  Uvs and rigs.  cameras and lighting rigs.  Which can be swapped out at any keyframe.

The problem with poser figures in animation is that they are geared for 3d stills.

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Figure in that animation is V3 (it's in the movie title, plus you can tell by the elbow/shoulders). But that is a pretty natural looking animation.

 very!

I just remembered that Cage was working on a python script that would let you transfer morphs from one figure to another. Like for example you could transfer morphs from Vicky 2 to Vicky 4. If he got the script working then I could transfer Miki2's expressions to V4. That could be really helpful. Does   anyone remember what that thread was called? I can't find it now.

Quote - i beg to disagree. Audiences forgive a lot in animation. Now, if you obviously try, but do a poor job, that sticks out and they frown. But if you signal to the audience that you are not attempting to bring absolute verismilitude with a certain aspect of movement, such as highly subtle hand motion, they will not mind.

For goodness sake the (and I am NOT a fan) entire 'South Park" thing has NO body/arm motion, right?

So, the barest minimum is mouth movement. Not even full facial, but at least mouth.

It is not really a hot point, but my contention is that the first thing audiences expect is some sorth of mouth, then facial correspondence. I can not think of one case of animation with dialog where other movments were animated -- on a sliding scale of realism -- but no facial animation was attempted.

I think there was a misunderstanding - in an obvious anmation, you can get away with missing movements, even with missing facial animations. South Park is a good example for that. And of course any Poser figure could be used in that kind of movie.

But the starting question was if V4 could ever replace a c-movie actress, in a real movie - if I got it right. If you put an animated 3D model in a normal movie, to replace an  actor there, all would have to fit. Otherwhise you cannot be "better" than a C-movie actress, because you have something which is clearly different.

bantha, I got something different from the title of the thread. but if you are correct, and the question is: will V4 every replace an actual CMovie actress and fool the audience completely.....that's different. I am not sure how to respond. Here are two that leap to mind:

1. She is already better because a talented animation artist can use her as is to get the audience to suspend disblief better than a bad actress every could. I believed in Jessica (Rabbit). I don't believe in Torri Spelling.

2. never.

::::: Opera :::::

" She is already better because a talented animation artist can use her as is to get the audience to suspend disblief better than a bad actress every could. I believed in Jessica (Rabbit). I don't believe in Torri Spelling."