Walk Cycles

I found "The Animators survival kit" a very useful reference for this.. After reading some info on Walk cycles I sketched out some thumbnails to work from then got down to it. It helped having seperate colours for the different limbs. For the second half I was able to copy the first half of drawings by just switching the colours of the limbs.




I enjoyed doing the 3D walk as I'm beginning to get used to the software. I found it easier to do then I expected. It helped doing the 2D walk beforehand to strengthen my knowledge of the different steps in a walk cycle.

Experimental Cut-out Animation

Here is my work for the experimental cut-out Animation project:

I really enjoyed working on this as it is a quick way to get your ideas into an Animation..
In hind-sight I would have given more frames to the 2 skiers who look a bit confused at the scene going on in front of them.

Here is a faster version:





I love the Mighty Boosh animations and am fairly sure that they use the same technique. They are always very inventive - and seem to follow a stream of consciousness (from the minds of Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding). The animations contain great characters, are full of colour and always contribute to the story.

2D and 3D animation exercises complete!

2D Animation:

I feel confident that I have grasped the main principles of Timing, Squash and stretch, Anticipation and Over lapse, Exaggeration and Emotion. I timed myself doing a jump before hand to help with the timing.




3D Animation:

I feel happy with the character that I gave to Cubey.. he definitely looks sad then happy. In future I will be more aware about keeping the volume the same to increase the realism of it.




We have seen some more interesting Animations in the last couple of weeks.

"Sita sings the blues" was very good artistically with great use of colour and creative character designs. It told the Indian story of Rama through different characters. You can watch it all for free at the website...

http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/

"The Hand" by Jiri Trnka is a short yet very powerful and engaging stop motion Animation reflecting on how Artists are recruited to spread propaganda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf5sakekBqI

Publish Post

3d Cubey

I have just completed the 3d Cubey character. It took me a couple of days. I payed some attention to the timing and getting the key frames in the right places.. I think I gave it quite a bit of character and realism...




We watched Waltz with Bashir early last week - I enjoyed this film and found it to be very artistic in the way it was animated. It also had quite an interesting and absorbing story as we follow the film makers attempt at regaining his memory of the massacres commited in the Lebanon war.

"The Traveller Returns" - My Art Foundation Animation inspired by my travels in Asia

Here is a link to my final Art foundation project.

Its an animation inspired by a 4 month trip me and my mate went on through China and south-east Asia. It took me 6 weeks - mainly using the pixellation technique. If you watch it have the volume on as the music took me a week to do as well !

The Traveller Returns - Final major project

It was fun making this. I would spend the week preparing drawings then have them photographed and animated every Friday. 

This week I have started work on the principles of Animation. We learned how to apply Timing, Weight and Stretch & squash. I applied these principles to some 2d Animation - animating a ball, then a 'cubey character.'




Looking back at this I definetely think it could be improved by adding several more frames. Its a bit too quick and lacks realism...

I took more time to produce more frames for my bouncy cubey character:



I'm much happier with this :-)

After completing these 2d exercises I had a shot at using Maya to do the bouncy ball thing. I'm glad to say that I feel fairly confident with using this software but obviously a long way to go before getting to pixar levels...





We also started some life drawing this week which I really enjoyed. We did some quick blind drawings then using circles to show the figure. After this we learned about the basic shapes that the body is made up of, I found learning this useful to keep in mind whilst drawing figures.

Next week I look forward to experimenting with Pixellation. I enjoyed watching the videos that Derek showed us - "Roof Sex" by PES - a very funny portrayal of Sofas having sex on a roof. The bedwetter was really good as well - showing a man still in bed but travelling around a lot. Theres some clever scene change bits...

The Bedwetter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc0m74dsLTw

Roof Sex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aodpb3vFU0&feature=PlayList&p=8DF92209E38C3A26&index=0&playnext=1

Enjoy!

Circle Animation complete...

I have completed my circle animation now and am pleased with the result. The line testing was fairly straightforward. I've also done a few quick Maya tutorials - they have helped me get used to the interface and I look forward to developing my skills with it.

First week

After completing a year on the Illustration BA course at Falmouth I have decided I want to make the pictures move and I am much more inspired by films/cartoons so thought it wise to start fresh on the Digital Animation BA course here at Falmouth.

Its been an interesting week. I used a lightbox for the first time on Wednesday. I found this an enjoyable process that wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. Having said that I still need to line test it to make sure it runs smoothly. I am also looking forward to experimenting with Maya.

I enjoyed learning a bit about the history of Animation and how its roots lie in the "business of illusion." It seems like an exciting media to work with as it seems as though anything can be achieved with it.