Hungry Eyes Animation

I find the best way to improve on anything is to try new things. This is why I set myself a challenge. Going through animationbuffet.com looking for free rigs to download, I came across this really simple rig; a pair of cartoon eyes (and accompanying eyebrows). I immediately starting coming up with performances this guy could do and thought about what if the eyes were the character (not just part of a character). I strongly believe in the saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul and using this as a starting point, I began thinking of what this particular pair of eyes could be thinking …

First I came up with a quick model sheet to test out poses and the accompanying emotions

I then decided to use several emotions in my animation - going from tired to surprised, and then being  sneaky and finally to greed. Next I needed a prop or some other indication to back up the emotions above. I thought about having a cake next to the pair of eyes. I decided to draw some concepts before I started modelling a simple cake model ...

Cupcake model in wireframe mode

Cupcake model with simple textures applied (Lamberts and Blinns)

Animation WIP after an hour of getting used to the rig and putting him in key poses

Screenshot in Maya of the Hungry Eyes scene set up

I think this animation is going well and am really enjoying it. I will continue this at a later date and start something new for my reel as I am happy with the animation I have done for this piece.