Week 4

Animation Principles

2D
This week we talked about character acting and interaction, which was good because it feels like we're starting to branch out from physical technicalities.

Our task was to create an interaction between two block characters this time, one dominant and one submissive.




The animation works individually. If you watch the characters separately the animation is believable in my eyes though perhaps a little fast. However when watched together as a piece there is too much going on and it becomes too busy to appreciate the animation. I needed to devote more time to keeping the characters movements separate and give them pause while the other is moving-this is demonstrated at the end when the smaller(dominant) character stops moving completely whilst the larger character moves out of his way, making this bit the most successful part of the animation for me.

Character Reaction Test

I made another short video quickly to practice giving the characters separate times to act. I know that this particular scene is childish and unimaginative, but it shows the timing and actions much more clearly than the last. Also I am annoyed with myself since the drawings always seems to change shape, probably due to the fact that I work quickly and, some might say, lazily, which is something that I need to work on.






3D
This week we animated a 3D block character, much like the one we have been using in 2D. We made him jump off of a ledge.
I found this exercise a lot more fun than the bouncing ball which i found quite painstaking. I am happy with the outcome of my video i feel that the animation looks smooth and natural, i have been a little over ambitious perhaps with the fall backwards, but i think that there is enough forward momentum for the fall to be realistic.



Motion Studies
Lets talk about life drawing quickly. To someone who previously considered themselves to be good at anatomical drawing it has been an eye opener and a lesson in humility. I suppose its because i am used to character design from imagination and using reference only now and again, I am also used to laboring over pieces and doing them slowly, making sure i get everything right. there doesn't seem to be time for that with our poses and its knocking the confidence a little, but its about getting the feeling not producing a masterpiece so, not to worry.

Animation Priciples Week 3

This week in 2D we learned about the priciple OVERLAP. This is where someone jumps forwards and when they land they topple or bend forwards a little due to the foward momentum, again this is exaggerated in animation to make it more obvious.

Our task was to take our block character (whom I have modified to make less oblong) and make them jump from position A to position B with an overlap at the end. Similar to the Ledge Jump, I needed to aticipate and then add squash and stretch with an overlap at the end. For this one I sketched out a plan of the of the most important keys to give me an idea of the timing and to keep the scaling correct. I completed a rough animation to give me an idea of what was missing and what I needed to do. This technique worked well because it identified that I was infact shrinking my character by about a third, so I needed to rectify that, I also needed to add a few frames in at the end to make the overlap match the force of the anticipation, and add a frame to make the apex of the jump more natural.

Having done that I feel that this animation is probably the most natural one so far, although my chracter does still shrink slightly so I need to practice my scaling, but other than that I'm pleased with it. I am looking forward to trying these techniques on more complicated characters.


Up until now we had just been getting to grips with the priciples of animating in Maya; moving around, getting the weight and timing right, and learning some of the functions of Maya. This week we started on squash and stretch balls that Georg had set up. So far it has been a nightmare, all I have managed to achieve is to make the ball look like a blob desperatley trying to hop away from the screen, I find all the graphs and key framing awkward, especially when the software doesn't do what you asked it to. But it'll get better, hopefully. I'll get a video of it up when it looks a little better.

Animation Principles Week 2

This week we learned about the principles SQAUSH and STRETCH, and ANTICIPATION. Our first task was to create a bouncing ball that had a realistic feel to it. The squash and stretch give the ball a sense of weight that it should have were it a real ball. I'm not paticularly pleased with how it came out. I think that the squash at the bottom works well, but it has no sense of weight because the timing is off, it is not natural, the accelerationand deceleration are not there. If the ball were to accelerate on the downward pull and the beginning of the upward thrust, and then slow as it reached the top, I feel that it would look much more natural. Our next task was to draw a block character - no legs or facial features, just a block(although mine is more of a sausage) with arms and a round head - jumping from a ledge onto the ground at a lower level. The point of this task was to teach us about anticipation; when a person jumps, they need to build up the energy to do so, in much the way a spring does, and when they land they squash down in order to absorb the shock. In animation, this is exaggerated to make it more obvious to the human eye. I feel as the though the sense of weight is better in this one. The anticipation works well in my eyes and the arms in the fall give a good idea of how fast the character is moving. The bottom however, is not so good. I don't think that it squashes enough or holds the shape well enough for it to look realistic and it looks messy and slow at the bottom. Although, part of that may be that I copied some frames, which is lazy I know, but that is why the arms suddenly jump forwards and backwards suddenly at the bottom, I hadn't noticed that when I did it. (The videos are still not working, says something about them not being closed, will sort it out when I know how)

Week One of Animation Principles

This week we learned about the principle TIMING. We were tasked with making a zoeotrope strip. My strip did not work due to the fact that i did not reverse the pictures to create a loop. Our next task was to draw 6 frames of a circle morphing into another shape. I found this helpful with the timing, it gave a good indication of what looks right. I chose to morph my circle into water via a wave.



I feel that it worked well, and introducing the colour works nicely, although the whole thing does looks a bit scrappy due to the colour, but overall I think that I have achieved what I wanted from it.