This semester I learned a lot about the relationship between performance and animation, and I also learned a lot of performance techniques to help me make better animations.

During the acting class, I learned how body language helps express emotions and why body language plays a huge role in animation. A good reference can help animators make better animations, and make the emotions brought by animations more intense, so that the audience can feel it better.

Expression is an important part of animation. In daily life, our expressions are usually part of emotional expression, so this is equally important in animation. After two acting classes, I understand the importance of expression. When recording the reference of challenge 02, I also tried my best to make my expression look more obvious, larger, and more expressive.

This semester was also my first time to come into contact with lip sync production.  Although it seems like a simple lip syncing, it actually requires repeated modifications and trial and error. I have to constantly listen to the audio and lip sync to produce it myself. It’s very interesting to make and modify the lip sync animation. When I’m producing, I usually recite the lines myself to better feel the changes in the mouth shape. After the initial production of the character’s mouth opening and closing, I later modified the timing and amplitude of the mouth movement. Everything made me feel the importance of facial performance.

Although my acting this semester is much better than last school year, I still think there is a lot of room for improvement. After taking the acting class, I have been able to better use body language in front of the camera and get good results, but my expressions are often still a little stiff. I think I need to practice my facial expressions more and try to relax my facial muscles to get the best performance. I also need to work on the lip sync animation. I don't have a big problem with the jaw bounce, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in the details. The timing and size of the mouth opening and closing can be improved.

In future animation production, if I need to record a reference, I will not only record the one with body language, but also record a separate one that is still with only the mouth moving, to help me better do lip syncing.

I also need to pay more attention to the timing and amplitude of each action when making the animation, so that the character's movements are more in line with the reference. At the same time, I also try to modify some details that are not in the reference to improve the animation.

Challenge 01

Challenge 02