Reference Photos

Nearly ready to animate. The most important step now was to create a plan for the chess match. There's a lot of scope for different moves, fidgetting and twitches... so it helped to have a vague idea of how it'd play out. What I decided upon was to watch through all the reference videos again, and to pick out the key behaviours/actions I wanted to incorporate. As I would plan the scripts and moves, I would work these key movements in. This would allow me to efficiently work in as much character as possible, and essentially "tick off" all the boxes of the different movements and behaviours within one video. Here's the key actions I decided to choose from:

Bridge

The bridge is essentially clasping the forehead with the sides of the hands, allowing the fingers to rest on top, as the thumb supports the area just below the areas. It's a good sign of frustration or deep concentration. It allows the chess player to lean in close.

Clasp

This is essentially an extension from the above. Only the fingers now almost 'close' over the forehead, and is a sign of deeper concentration/anxiety.

Covering the Ears

This is perhaps the easiest verion of the above 2 to create. The heads of both Carl and Kris are quite large in comparison to their hands - Potentially making bridging quite difficult to pull off. So if all else fails, I'll be resorting to this one: resting the head on the palms of the hands, as the fingers snake up and over the ears

Cupping the Nose

Cupping the nose is an interesting one to incorporate. Whilst the distinct lack of nose in both characters makes this somewhat difficult to pull off, the motion is certainly useful. The action of the character bringing their hand over their face and cupping it as it goes from their nose, so that their fingers and thumb almost brush down their cheeks, is definitely a good sign of nerves or frustration.

Folded Arms

Though not 'clasped', the casual folding of the arms as the player leans forward is a good sign of comfort. It also leaves the upper arm free to move easily (Rather than having to unfold the arms)

Hover

Hovering the hand over the piece whilst 'dabbling' over which piece to move is a nifty little action to use. As the player hovers, they also seem to slightly open/close their hand as they're thinking. This one is a definite to use.

Leaning In

Simply leaning in to get a better look, uninhibited by the arms. If all else fails with the bridging... I'll resort to this.

Pinkie over the lip

This is a nice, fun one to use. It's interesting how the player uses their little finger to cover their mouth. This is also great for casually making a move from. From here, nonchalantly lift the hand, make the move and then return to the above pose. It'd be a good sign of calmness for the animation.

Resting on the Palm

Leaning on one arm is a good, well-known gesture, and would be a lot easier to pull off than the bridge. This is a pretty versatile gesture, and can be used to nervously cover the mouth, or perhaps lean to one side on (Signifying boredom or discomfort)

Holding the Pawn

In the above picture, the pawn is grasped with a lot of 'force' and is almost engulfed. From here, the move can be a lot more determined and confident.

Holding the Queen

In contrast to the above: The Queen is held a lot more delicately than the pawn. The movement has a lot more finesse and appears more calculated.

Twiddling a chess piece in your fingers

This is a must! Deftly twiddling a chess piece is a nice little nervous habit (Or confident gesture) to incorporate, much like drumming fingers on the table. Personally, this lends itself nicely to Kris, being more 'calculated' and 'deft', it suits his character far better than Carl.