Boris Rautenberg "Metropia" Style 2.5D Animation Questions

#1

Hello Forum,

 I am working on an animation project for which I want to achieve a  semi-realistic", textured look. While doing research, I stumbled upon  the movie "Metropia", which visually is exactly what I am looking for.
 
 Like the "Metropia" movie, I would like to animate as much as possible in After Effects.
 I already set up a test face with all the necessary layers (eye  open/close, phonemes, eyebrows, etc..) and "rigged" them. Partially with  Dan Ebberts "marker triggering", partially with the "time remapping"  method.
 
 It seems to me though, that the "Metropia" guys didn't work with the  "phoneme replacement method" but rather separated teeth & lips and  animated the lips with the puppet tool.
 Am i right? Do you have any exeriences or insights reagrding that kind of animation?
 
 What drives me crazy is the main characters head turns. Not only seems  e.g. the perspective of the nose to shift correctly, but also the head  turn reveals (formerly hidden) parts of the cheek, hair and ear. I  understand that you can fake the ear with moving the separate ear layers  in the opposite direction of the head turn.
 But how did they do it with the cheek, hair and nose? 
 
 Is there maybe some kind of depth matte involved?

Thanks for Reading - All Kinds of ideas are more then welcomed,
Boris

Here is an example:

http://reels.creativecow.net/film/metropia-head-turning

#2

To me, that looks like photos have been projected onto basic 3D geometry, then animated to achieve the turning - even if the facial animation itself is 2D warping/puppet tool on the photo(s). I’m trying to confirm that, but haven’t found many write-ups of their process (3D projection is however mentioned here)

Maybe that’s not the news you wanted to hear, since it doesn’t really suggest After Effects as a one-stop solution for achieving something like this. However it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to do in a 3d program of your choice, or if you wanted to stay within After Effects maybe using something like 3D Invigorator Pro (that plugin is a little dated now, I’m sure there’s more modern solutions out there).

#3

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