Churchill and Emily: Rigged with a test animation!

It took me a long while to work out how to get the elements rigged properly. But I finally made it! There are one or two elements I will have to work out later on during the animation, such as 'weighting' (for want of a better term) either the eye or the lips to the top of the nose stalk, so that when it bends around, the eye/lips follow along. I'll probably use a variant of locators with constraints but only when the scene calls for it.

In the meantime I started to animate the introduction of the animation to make sure what I've built works. I think it works! Though nailing down timing to the music is probably going to be my biggest challenge. Especially when occasionally the playback is offbeat! The animation is not bad for a first attempt though!

The full rig and all its controls

Please forgive the strange ratio of the video. I tried out creating a 'canvas' that closer matched the original artwork. For the main event I shall evolve the artwork from a portrait into a landscape for the sake of animation. I will also have recreate d the original artwork background as a layer in After Effects... its on the to do list!