To view other pre production work for this animation click here:

http://thomashallpreproductionanim3013.blogspot.co.uk/

Conclusion

For this module I decided to 3D model and print 11 faces for Sam (the main character) as well as 1 forehead section that will have hand modelled eye brows that will move separately to match the facial expression. This should make the faces a lot easier to animate as the top section of the face should always hold the eyes in position. I will also hand paint these faces to add detail and make them match the boys skin colour.

I would of liked to also digitally model and print faces for Envy (the main demon) but as I developed the character more I realised that it would be a lot less work to hand model than to create it in Maya. A hand modelled (cast in silicone) face would also produce a smoother animation due to the tentacles on the demons face.

Because I had quite a big 3D printing queue for both modules and left it a bit late to start the printing process, as well as the technician not been able to come in for part of the last week, I wasn't able to get all my faces dryed and painted in time for my hand in. I will be spending the next two days making sure the faces are painted, the rest of the break will be spent creating my puppets.

I am happy with the faces I did get to finalize as I feel they are modelled a lot better than the faces I created last year and because of this I feel they display which expression they are more clearly.

One regret I have was that while cutting the faces from the excess material after printing, the side of a couple of the faces chipped but I have done my best to cover this with paint, and I think when animating I will be able to hide this with camera shots and fast transitions between the faces. While cutting out the rest of the faces I will take caution to prevent this from happening to more of them.

Another big regret I have for this module is that I had to limit my self to only 12 faces. Even though I do feel that this will be enough to display the expressions and emotions that my animation requires; I would of liked to create more so that after university I have a character that I can animate speaking. Although, I do still have the files so next semester if I have time I would like to carry on positioning and printing these faces.

Finished Product

Below are the 4 faces I managed to get printed and painted.

Apart from not been able to print them all before hand in I am happy with how the faces turned out and feel they will work well for animating my characters expressions and emotions. I feel that the painting I have done is quite minimalistic but think that if I had tried to add more detail it would of been too much, especially because the character is young and adding more could make the faces look aged. The faces also need to have a smooth transition in multiple combinations so the colour and detail has to be almost identical in most of them.

Here's a test animation of the 4 faces I managed to get finished, it isn't as smooth it will be when actually animated because I don't have the head yet to hold the faces so had to use plasticine. 

Painting

First I gave all the faces 2 thin coatings of a beige colour spray paint (the most skin like colour I could find) as a base colour. You do this to stop the colour of the material they are printed out of coming through and making the finished product look blotchy.

I then gave the faces two layers of a paint called 'Kislev Flesh' as the skin colour.

First layer:

Second layer:

Finally I added white to the teeth and a very faint shading to make the expressions slightly more exaggerated.

3D Printing

After modelling and sizing the faces I exported the files as .stl files and gave them to the technician to print, because of multiple reasons I wasn't able to print all the faces but will hopefully get the last 5 and forehead printed and painted throughout the week after hand in.

When the faces are printed the machine uses extra material to hold up the faces while they set, because of this once the faces fully dried I cut away all the unwanted plastic. While cutting away the plastic a couple of my faces chipped slightly on the side which was a design flaw on my behalf as the sides are just a bit too thin. When painting I realised the chips shouldn't be a problem as the paint covers it well and If needs be I can hide them with camera shots.

Because it hasn't been sunny the faces took way longer to dry, this gave me less time to finish the faces and meant I didn't want to risk transporting the two below how to paint because they hadn't fully dried after 2 days. I didn't anticipate the extra drying time because last time I 3D printed it was sunny and took less than a day to print and dry when been left in the sun.

The back of the faces has a raised bump on each side as well as a groove down the middle of the nose to help hold it in place when been attached to the head which will be moulded to match the shape. 

The remaining faces are currently drying and hopefully will be ready to collect tomorrow. 

For one of the prints I shadowed and helped Pete as he cleaned up the newly printed faces. To do this process we added two clear liquids to the faces separately to stop the printing material from been sticky and soft. We then blew and shook off the excess liquid and left them to dry.

Below are the images taken from the process in chronological order.

Because these faces will take at least a day to dry I wasn't able to paint the remaining faces.

All Expressions

Below are all the expressions I digitally created in Maya.

To position each expression I selected and moved groups of edges and faces and then moved the vertexes individually to sort out any problems this caused with the model (this occurred mostly around the corners of the mouth as moving it into a frowned expressions caused the corners of the mouth to warp each time).

The top of the face will be secured in position on the head as the eye brows will be attached separately to allow more freedom when moving them and reduce printing costs as it has become a lot more expensive than I first anticipated.  

Finished Face Model

This is the finished model of the face before I positioned the expressions, because I modelled the face with a smile it made it a lot harder to position frowning faces when creating the facial expressions.

The back of the face had three bumps to help it attach to the head without using magnets so that the pull of the magnets doesn't move the puppet while changing the faces.