I was unsure at first of its stylistic looking appearance, however once I started playing around with the controls and experimenting with its limitations, my opinion soon changed. In fact, the huge advantage this rig has over others is its huge variety of appearance-changing attributes. You can differentiate characters based on skin colour, eye colour, hair colour, hair style, size, gender - the possibilities are almost endless!
I experimented with the rig's capabilities by creating the three characters shown above: a large man, an elderly, spindly woman and a young girl. Pleased with the result, I then went on to posing each character respectively.
It was during this time I spent posing my characters that I was able to get a good grasp of the many Morpheus controls. The rig is extremely manageable and I'm sure I won't have many problems in getting it to do what I want it to do.
The next time I handled the rig was my first time animating the human face. I picked up some helpful tips from Keith Lango videos on lip sync animation, such as utilising the entire head for facial animation, not just the golden triangle (eyes & mouth). I also learned some terminology I hadn't come across before, such as 'saccadic eye movement' in which the eye stops a few times along its line of movement. After I'd read some more about lip sync, I was able to try it for myself with a sound clip given to me by my tutor.
As a first attempt, I'm pleased with the result. I like the eyebrow movement and the lips don't seem too forced or manipulated. There is a lot more to work on, however, so I'll need to get some practice in before I start animating my final performance piece.
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