Week 9

This week we had to animate our walks that we recorded in 2D and 3D.

This is my walk in 2D



The problems with this are:
- I think i could have exagerated the movements more to make the character look more happy.
- The arms change length during the animation
- The volume of the left leg is a bit inconsistant
- Could have been better with more squash and stretch.

What went well is:
- The timing of the walk is good.
- The movement of the arms are more flowing than previous animations.
- You can see the bend in the feet as the character picks it up alot more clearly in this walk.
- There is no limp in the walk
- The character does have a bounce in its walk and it is quite quick which shows a happy emotion.

This is my 3D walk



The problems with this are:
- The timing is a little bit too fast.
- The bounce in the characters walk looks a bit mechanical and should have been more flowing.
- The arms look a little mechanical as well.

What went well is:
- I think the movements of the legs and feet worked well apart from the right foot looks a bit strange when it makes contact with the floor as the foot bounces slightly.
- I think the twist in the characters body as it walks looks good.
- The bounce in the characters walk does show a happy emotion.

Life drawing















In this life drawing lesson we did a series of quick poses. I think that i have improved in my proportions of the figure over the weeks but now need to improve on the weight of the figures in my drawings.

week 8

Next stage in drawing walk cycles and this week we had to add emotion to our walks. I decided to make mine creep.




I think this walk is a lot better than my previous walk.

The things that went well are:
- The timing of the walk
- I also remembered to straighten out the leg before it made contact with the floor.
- I think the volume of this character is pretty consistant.

The problems with it are:
- I didn't make the character squash and stretch at the passing points so he is always at the same height which i'm not sure whether it looks right or not.
- The arms movements are not exactly right either as they flick instead of flow through the movement.

In 3D we had to make the character walk on the spot.



The movement of this walk didn't go very well as the character looks like its limping as one leg is faster than the other. Also the arms in the walk don't move all the way back. The whole of this walk looks very robotic.

I then went on to try a creeping walk instead and this is my outcome



Again i have a problem with one of the legs being faster than the other but i think this walk is alot more effective. Also by watching it i notice that the left foot never goes flat like the right it always stays in the same position which i should have improved on.

Life Drawing

in life drawing class this week we had to film ourselves doing a walk that had some emotion. I decided to do a happy walk.




I wasn't sure whether this walk looked very happy but it will help me with my animation as i can see how the body moves throughout the walk.

In the lesson after we recorded our walk we didn't have a model so instead we drew each other in the class these are the drawings i came out with.

week 7

Back to work!! and this week we are starting walk cycles.

This is the walk cycle i did in 2D. We had to draw a simple character walking on the spot.



I think the walk is ok the problems with it are:

- the volume of the legs decrease and increase.
- the arm pops back and it should go more smoothly, and it should straighten out more.
-The feet are too blobby so you can't see how the feet move.
-Also when we looked at each others walks in the studio mine was played slower and i noticed one of the drawings in the walk was in the wrong order. this was because i didn't number them and they got jumbled up. so now i always number them. lesson well learned!!! =D

What went well:
-The timing of the walk is good
-there is no limp.

This is the 3D walk.



i don't like this walk as it looks too robotic and not flowing enough so i will redo this and try and improve it.

this is my second walk



This walk is too quick. It was fine when i had it in maya and i playblasted it to check but it wouldn't play at the right speed so when i did get to play it i was disapointed that it was so quick. But i learnt that i always need to check my animations with playblast to check the timing.

though the good thing about this walk is that it doesn't look as robotic.

Life Drawing
This week we had to draw the model walking in stages. These are the drawings i came out with.




















I think the proportions of these drawings look good. What i need to improve with my quick sketches in life drawing is adding more detail. Because i usually only get the basic shape.

We then did an exercise where we weren't allowed to look at the paper and just draw the model using a continuos line. These were my outcomes which i found very funny.

Week 6 (Bradford Trip WOOO!!!!)

I really enjoyed the Bradford trip my favorite animations that i saw there were:

Descendants


This student film really interested me and i loved the style of the animation. I thought the environment in the animation looked really realistic. I was kinda sad they didn't win an award though.




Varmints


I loved this film and was really glad they won an award. It was really emotional and i thought the main character looked really cute ^_^.




Cat-Man-Do


I've always loved Simon's cat and was really happy when they showed cat-man-do. The style is really basic but it is really effective and very funny =D. Also it reminds me of my cat lol.



SNOWMAN!!!!!



I've loved the Snowman ever since i was little and watching this made me feel like a little kid again (also wanted it to be christmas ^_^) Seeing the rest of John Coates work was really interesting as i had watched Grandpa before but only remember the beach scene and didn't realise he died at the end which i found really emotional =(. When we were watching his films i realised alot of the main characters in his films died but that made them effective because it grabs the audience and makes it more emotional.

Week 5

This week we discussed each others work and analysed how well they showed the principles of animation. I found this really useful as i now find it easier to look at what is wrong with my own animation and how i would improve it.

In life drawing this week we were encouraged to use a different medium besides pencil, I decided to use pastels. We also had to experiment with drawing loose images instead of detailed.

These are two of my drawings the first were quick sketches that we had to draw of the model moving around the second was a longer pose.

In my opinion this looks a bit like a childrens drawing but i did enjoy using a different medium. I think the drawing looks more interesting overlapping the figures.










I think the proportions in the image are alright though could be improved. The image might have looked better if i filled the page. I also need to add more detail to the hands feet and face. I tried to do a more detailed image of the face but was quickly running out of time so it was kinda rushed.

Week 4

2d animation

I really enjoyed this weeks lesson as i really wanted to see what the outcome of my drawings were gunna be. This week we were focusing on emotion and we had to animate two characters one character was small and submissive the other was a larger and more dominant character. The little character had to do something to annoy the larger one. This is my outcome.




I am pleased with my outcome however i need to work on the volume of my characters as the larger character gradually grew as the animation went on. The reactions near the end where the big one gets up seem too quick and they are hard to follow as too much is going on. Also i think i needed to make the little character look more depressed when he was getting told off as you don't feel enough sympathy for it. I think when the little character walks off at the end of the animation is too fast as he should be more depressed and dragging himself more, it looks like on this that he is just hurrying away.


3d Animation

I enjoyed this lesson more than the others as we were trying to make a character jump off a wall instead of using a ball which i found a lot of fun.




I think the squash and stretch and the arms in this worked well. I think the timing might have been a little slow. Also i didn't add any overlap to this which if i did would have made it more realistic.


Life Drawing

Im starting to loosen up a bit with my drawings and think i am slowly improving =). But i need to get quicker with my drawings as with the quick poses we did this week i didn't have a chance to add any detail. I need to improve my proportions as well.

Week 3

History and Theory

This weeks lesson was about early animation history. It was interesting finding out what influenced early animation such as slap stick, clowning, magic acts, song and dance acts and lightning cartoonists whose work i thought was really clever as you would try to guess what they were drawing but it turns out to be something different. We also looked at the industrialisation of animation and when studios started and how they competed with each other. We were also shown Duck Amuck by Chuck Jones which i really enjoyed as i found it really funny and i liked how Daffy Duck was telling the animator off.

In Screening we watched The Sandman and Peter and the Wolf. I liked both but felt they were a little frightening though i was more scared of the boy in peter and the wolf than the wolf (still can't believe the wolf ate the goose!!!! *tears well up*) I prefered the style of the sandman because i liked the camera angles used and how the rooms were crooked, and the colours used.

2D Animation

This week we had to make our cube character jump from one place to another across the page and add overlap.

This is my first atempt



This didn't work very well as i didn't add the overlap also when the character lands it should lean forwards first then lean backwards. The character looks very mechanical because it is very square so i need to add more curves to the characters movements so then it should flow better.



This is my second attempt and i think it worked better as the movement is more fluid and i added the overlap however i needed to add more anticipation to the beginning of the movement as he jumped to quickly. I think i needed to have added more to the landing and the character leaning forward as that is very quick as well. Also when the character leans back i think i should have made his arms spin more and he leaned back longer. I think the leaning back part worked better in the first attempt.

3D Animation

For this lesson we had to make a ball bounce across the screen again but this time we had to add squash and stretch.



I think the squash and stretch on this ball worked well however i dont think the path the ball bounces along is flowing enough as it looks more zig zagged than curved. I think the ball should slow down a bit more at the top of the bounces as well.

Life Drawing

In this lesson I found that i need to be a bit more experimental with the materials i use as i keep relying on pencil =/ I think that this will also make my drawings more interesting as well.

Week 2

History and Theory

This lesson we learned about film form and genre it was interesting learning about all the different styles of film such as German Expressionist and French impressionism and their characteristics. I also found it interesting talking about genre and how some films have more than one such as Star Wars. I wouldn't have thought of it being a western before this lecture I just thought it was Sci-Fi.

I really enjoyed Screening as we watched the The Iron Giant which i never saw before but had wanted to for ages. I loved the film and felt really sad when the iron giant sacrificed himself for the village but he lived!! yay. I loved all the characters in the film especially the guy who lives in the scrape yard i found him very funny. The characters in the film really connect with you which makes it a lot more emotional.

2D Animation

We started off by learning about squash and stretch and we had to draw a ball bouncing up and down. I learnt that i need to make sure that the volume of the ball stays the same throughout the animation. I am pleased with my outcome however it could have been better as the ball looks like it is being pushed down instead of it falling naturally.




We then moved on to learn about anticipation and we had to draw a cube shaped character jumping from a ledge and show the character building up to jumping so that it shows anticipation. For my animation i added the character to flap his arms a little so there was a pause before he fell. I think i needed to add more of a build up to the jump.





Life Drawing

From this lesson i found that i need to work on my proportions. As the lesson went on i found it easier to draw and they looked more acurate. I need to practise drawing faces as i find them difficult and at the moment they are not very detailed. I also need to work on hands and feet as with some of my sketches i leave the toes out and they look like flippers, opps!!!

Week 1

First week on the animation course and i am really excited about what is coming next.

Monday was our first day of lectures on history and representation. I had already done a little bit on signs, signifier and signified but understood it a lot better this time. I found it really interesting how the change in colour, shape etc can change how you see an object or character and how they are represented. I also really enjoyed the cartoons that were shown especially the Felix the cat cartoon with the army of sausages which i found very funny and i like how they animated something that you wouldn't normally see fighting. We also watched "Coonskins" which was a very different animation than what i usually watch. The style was very urban and at points there were some random things that happened that left me confused like how there was a green clown like character in the mafia.

Tuesday we started to learn how to animate and used maya for the first time. I enjoyed learning how to use maya and seeing what did what as now i feel more confident to experiment with it myself. I enjoyed the drawn animation as well with the Zoetrope though i thought mine could have been more effective as i drew an eye blinking but should have made it open up wider as you couldn't see it very clearly. The circle animation i think i could have done better as i found mine a little dull and could have added colour to it to make it more exciting.

Thursday was the first lesson on motion studies and as i started drawing i found that i was out of practise. But as i drew more i found it easier and saw that i need to draw more regularly to improve.