Next week I unveil my newest 3-d character- the digital John McCain. Creating a 3-D animated caricature has its challenges. Up to now, I have been sculpting a static version of my characters and then carrying them to a local imaging company, Direct Dimensions LLC for scanning. The sculptures are devoid of expression as they are the “default” poses for the new characters.  

Politicians by their nature are quite active and animated people. As a result, I found it tricky to capture a politician without any motion in their face. When they are still they often do not resemble themselves! I found that my lifeless sculptures do not adequately capture the targeted politicians very well. However, after the new digital characters are rigged with the facial expressions of the politicians, suddenly the caricatures take life.

I have employed the great team from Digital Steamworks to help me in this exercise. You will see below how we moved from a sculpture of George bush to its final manifestation in a recent 3-D movie.

Below you will see the bust that resulted in the Obama caricature as well as the finished Hillary character that resulted from the sculpture above. A screen grab from a recent animation shows how they ended up in motion.

Check in tomorrow for news of my adventures in Azerbaijan.