Hey, thank you! I agree with you about the stretching , maybe it´s a little bit too much, just a tiny bit though.
You got that right!, we aimed for a balanced combination between anime and classical animation, we love the final result, although we do admit it´s kind of a crazy mix, haha. 
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I got trapped in a loop of watching this video. Also, I’m looking forward to this, his design is really cute.
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Thanks man! we´ll post some more content soon.
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Wow! Really impressive work!!
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It’s incredible, really impressive, props to Avery one who worked on this
If you don’t mind sharing what are the main principles used? Is this done using shape keys? Bones? A mix of both?
Congrats anyways, it’s really beauyiful
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Thanks a lot!
Thank you man! I´ve always been a huge fan of shapes-only facial rigs, but in this case I wanted to try the extreme opposite, not a single shapekey was used on this one, just bones automated by simple controllers. It´s a two layered rig, one layer of controllers to block out the “big shapes” of a particular emotion, and a second layer to polish and tweak every single aspect of it.
These are the bones used for the rig, you never get to actually touch them, their movement is automated by fewer simpler controllers. You can see they are not that many, I try to keep everything working just fine with the fewer possible elements.
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Wow, that makes getting those stylized expressions all the more impressive. Congrats, and good luck on your project!
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Thanks man! 
You guys have a date yet 
If everything works out fine, we plan to screen it for the first time at the next Blender Conference, we may finish it earlier but still we would keep it in the shadows until the event. 
Nontheless we´ll be making noise and posting content until that day. It´s ten minutes long, so there is a lot of material.
Hello Mauricio,
We met at the Blender Conference in 2017 where we could delight in the music, animatics, and first stages of your beautiful project.
How wonderful that you and your team of teachers and students have accomplished to bring The Rustle of Leaves to its final stages and I’m looking forward to seeing the film and watch the full story unfold. This must have been quite a ride!
Such endearing facial expressions in your main character. If the squishing is reduced a bit it will be just right. I am amazed how you could accomplish this all purely with bones.
I prefer using bones without shape keys and you show that with enough dedication it can be done.
Thank you for sharing this and lots of luck and joy with the final stages of The Rustle of Leaves,
Simone
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Hi Simone,
I´m so happy to read you. I remember perfectly, it was so nice meeting you back in 2017. How are you? What are you working on? I would love to see your work.
Thank you so much for your kind comments, yes, I totally agree that this facial animation test is a little too squishy, we all discussed it in our studio and decided to make it more subtle, I guess you´ll notice it on the final product.
We´ll be attending the 2020 Blender Conference if everything works out fine, I will be great to see you again.
Thanks again for your kind comments!
This is amazing, thank you for sharing.
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Hello Mauricio,
I was so glad to find your post on Blender Artists.
I’m new here so I haven’t made any posts yet but will do so soon.
As a 2D/3D and Web generalist, my focus is on creating WebGL applications, mainly for educational, cultural, and storytelling purposes.
I have built a few WebGL applications, mostly to try things out and test the diverse possibilities. Now and then I will improve them and add new features.
Besides that and a few other things, I’m working on the interactive (WebGL) children’s book (age 9-99) I told you about.
Now, with version 2.81 and a few extra addons I can do (nearly) everything in Blender, which doesn’t only give more creative freedom but also is a huge time saver.
It will still take some years though to complete the book project… With a lack of proper funding, I have to do everything by myself. Maybe that will change in the future.
You can find my work on illussimo.com
I’m so looking forward to seeing the full film and meet you again in the coming year.
Lots of luck,
Simone
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Thanks a lot!
Magnificent!
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Appreciated!
Hello Simone,
I´m so glad to read about your work and the way you have incorporated Blender 2.81 into it, making things easier for you and much more efficient I guess. I really hope you can get some funding in the future in order to continue the book project, have you considered crowdfunding it? We would gladly support you.
Looking forward to meet you next year,
All the best,
Mauricio