This week there was no formal lecture, with most of the time dedicated to feedback and individual support. However, Ting noticed that many of us were struggling with the facial transition assignment, so she paused to give a quick demonstration using one of the students’poses. Watching her work through the problem was extremely helpful because it showed how she approached the shot from broad changes down to smaller details. Rather than treating each pose as isolated keyframes, she focused on the transition itself and demonstrated how breakdowns, eye darts and subtle head movements helped create a more believable performance. Seeing the process unfold in real time made the assignment feel much less mysterious.
Using the feedback from previous weeks, I spent most of my time revisiting my own facial animation. Ting had pointed out that the transitions between expressions felt too slow and lacked enough breakdowns. She encouraged me to make some of the changes snappier and reminded me that the body and head should not remain completely still while the face moves. Adding these subtle movements made a surprising difference and helped prevent the character from feeling rigid. Although facial animation still felt challenging, I began to understand that expressions are not simply about moving facial controls but about creating a complete performance.
I also continued working on my “Heavy Object / Change of Mind” shot, but by this point I realized I had become completely lost. After so many passes and adjustments, I had lost sight of what I was trying to achieve and found myself constantly fixing one thing only to break another. When I spoke to Ting about this, she suggested something I initially found difficult to accept: starting over. Since the Easter break was approaching, she recommended putting the shot aside and beginning again later with a clearer plan. After thinking about it, I realised this was probably the best option. Starting from scratch would allow me to focus on the Project 1 deadline coming up in a few weeks and, more importantly, give me the opportunity to rethink the shot and establish a better workflow. Although it felt frustrating to abandon so much work, I began to see that sometimes starting over is not a failure but an opportunity to apply everything I have learned with a fresh perspective.