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Portraiture (which most of my work consists of) often forces me to keep expressions subtle. A quirk of the eyebrow, maybe a hint of a smile or frown, but expressions usually alter a person's features so drastically that it is actually counterproductive for me to put too much expression into the subject's face, given that the whole point of a portrait is to capture the visage or features of a person, and not always the personality (there's a reason why most IC/passport photos look neutral). There are exceptions where the expression IS a trademark of the character (the Joker from Batman, or Kefka from Final Fantasy 6), and in those cases, you need to incorporate the expression into the portrait, like what I'd done for Jackson Garrett here:



But for most cases, the norm is to keep portraits subtle in expression. There's a reason we have a "Mona Lisa smile" and not a "Mona Lisa grin" ;-)

ILLUSTRATIONS, however, require a different approach. Because illustrations are often meant to convey a story of some sort, mood and expression are important. Bouguereau's illustration of Dante and Virgil in Hell, or his "The First Mourning" painting, for example, are illustrations meant to convey a certain story and mood, so the face and body language of the characters have to be expressive.

Gaizen Umi (the girl whose wip I posted earlier) is a concept design, and again I need to keep the focus on the aesthetics. She IS, however, a stoic, cool-headed sort, so the calm expression is actually in character

Her boots currently have form and shape placeholders only, because the boot design isn't finalised yet. They will be overpainted once the final design is set.

well i think i there are similarities in all the work in did, that why I can learn all the different softwares. I believe anyone can do this too. not just me

for animation, it is about keyframe and inbetween. even in manual traditional animation, lead animator will do the keyframe, and the junior will do the inbetween.

Keyframe in wikipedia

I learn all this concept while doing Flash game, flash banner. Flash itself is a timeline layer based software tools. you put keyframe for your asset and the software will animate the inbetween.

for aftereffects, it is also timeline layer based. same thing, u put keyframe to animate. so, I "learn" aftereffects pretty quick. But aftereffects is bitmap base, unlike Flash which is vector base. and aftereffects have filters like in photoshop, so your photoshop filters skill will put into good use here.

Blender3D or any other 3d software. same concept. just need to put in the keyframe. So in alot of time, the keyframe or key pose is very important for good animation. my henshin hero test animation look good, because I can reference the pose base on real masked rider youtube video.

You migh ask how about modeling? dont be suprise, it is the same concept as 2d vector art, instead of moving your "points" in 2d, you move it in 3d space. but ofcourse, there are more depth/details in modelling 3d stuff.

there is another way of modeling, which is digital sculpting. usually is use for more natural and realistic stuff. Most ppl will use zbrush for it.