Week 12 mainly focused on breathing idle animation. Breathing idle animation is a very subtle movement, but it can make a character feel more alive when they are standing still. The character is not completely still. There can be small movements in the chest, shoulders, head, and body weight. When making this type of animation, the movement should not be too exaggerated, otherwise it may look like the character is acting too much. The key is to keep it natural and make the loop smooth.
These references helped me understand that breathing idle is not about adding many movements, but about showing the character’s state through very small changes.
This week, I also worked on Assignment: Dialogue Shot – Blocking. I needed to arrange the character’s pauses according to the key words in the audio. I found that dialogue animation is not as simple as I thought. It also needs many keyframes to control subtle facial expressions.