I'm really impressed with how this turned out, given how many things always seemed to be wrong with it every time I played it back! I just kept combing over and over it, making lists of the things that needed to be tweaked and then fixing them. There are still things now, of course, that I can see are a bit stiff or not quite timed right, but it's my second lip sync and first attempt at real, complex human movement, so those things will get better in time as I continue to animate.
My reference video (on the 'planning' page) was mostly just used for figuring out the initial thumbnails, then as I was animating I relied heavily on either doing the moves in a mirror to see the order in which the joints moved and rotated, or dancing in my chair! The 'snake' move especially was a challenge given that the head has to lead, which is totally against the way rigs like this work.
I got the rig here: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/max-for-maya
In hindsight, another rig might have been better -- one with more advanced or human-like facial controls (with more eyebrow/face deformation, for example) -- but this was only something I thought once I had seen what kind of animation I was producing with it quite far into the process. Different rigs are better for different tasks; you live and learn, I guess!
This is my last post for this module, but I will hopefully continue to use the blog in future. I have learned so much in a short space of time through this module, and I'm really excited now to be able to use my newfound skills to pursue my character animation career!
Caitlin :)
