walk cycles

This project with Mario was about basic walk cycles, the aim was to produce a walk cycle from the side and front and the walk cycle of a quadruped. To start this brief Mario first showed us an example of what he wanted us to produce, he used Photoshop to do this to demonstrate another program available for us to use to animate. We started with the basic parts of a walk, each step has 5 points the two contacts, the pass and the two in-betweens which are the down and up. The first part of the sequence we started with was the contacts, at this point both feet are on the ground and this makes up the beginning and end of a step. The next drawing is the pass, this is in-between the two contacts with the character on one leg the other leg passing it. Between contact 1 and the pass is the first in-between, this is the down, at this point the character has the leading foot firmly planted and the other just about to leave the ground, both knees are bent and the characters head and torso are slightly lower than the previous frame. The second in-between is the frame after the pass and before contact 2 this position is the highest in the sequence with the character being on one leg and standing on their toes leaning in the direction of motion to move forward the passing leg is now in front of the weight bearing leg. Mario drew each one of the frames in a separate layer on Photoshop, changing the opacity of them to create an onion skin so he could judge each drawing as he made it, he then went to the timeline at the bottom of the screen and made each layer a frame to view his work. Using Photoshop was not compulsory so i decided to draw my work on paper and photograph it to create my piece. I began by drawing out the full sequence which is two steps to see how each frame looks in relation to all the others, I then marked all my pages with a base line so I had a reference point for my character to walk along. Because I had already drawn each frame on the same sheet when drawing the sequence I traced each step and moved it to its own separate page for each frame. For the front view I used the Animators Survival Kit and videos to see how the body bends during a step, for this sequence I decided to do both a male and female character to see the separate characteristics of each walk. A female walks with her legs very close together and crossing over slightly walking as if on a tightrope, her hips moving more than a males whereas a male walk tends to be with the feet wider apart the shoulders twisting more than a females does. The final sequence was a quadruped, for this I chose to do a squirrel as it coincided with national red squirrel week so I could also use this sequence for my one second a week project. I used videos and Muybridge's work to visualise this piece and then draw each frame, because this movement is slightly different to a walk rather than creating it using contacts and in-betweens I decided to just draw the frames in the linear order that that occur.

one second a week inverting man

My initial source of inspiration for this weeks animation was going to come from the news that there had been an new piece of information regarding Madeline Maccann's disappearance. For this I was going to have a man carrying away a child. However when I was seeking other sources of inspiration and questioning my flatmates it was put to me that I could have a person bending over as earlier in the week I had managed to lean backwards into a crab. I decided to take this and change it so it was a person leaning backwards into themselves and then unfolding from the other side. This movement is difficult to describe with words although I managed to visualise it and then draw a basic idea down which is now in my second a week sketchbook. I then started by just drawing a man from a 3/4 profile, I started like this because we have been doing gesture drawing this week so it seemed comfortable to do. Being able to clearly visualise the movement and how I wanted it appear on the paper really helped me with this piece as I began to draw. I could clearly see what I wanted to happen and knew whether each drawing was successfully moving in the direction I wished or needed editing without having to create the animation and watch it back. I stuck to just black fine line drawings for this piece as it was already a complicated and strange movement and I didn't want it to become too overpowering and begin to draw attention away from what was actually happening, so leaving colour out of it seemed like the best. I decided to have two cycles of this because it gives time for the movement to register, i also keep it on repeat for this reason when viewing it.

one second a week Mad Hatter

The inspiration for this pieces has come from the hatter from Alice adventures in wonderland, this is because it has been mad hatter day during this week and this seemed as good a source of inspiration as any. I started by drawing the large hat and then large mad looking eyes, I also thought the hatter should have an overly large and disturbing smile. In all I decided the way to make this character appear mad was to have his features excessively big. I also used colour in this piece and this played a part in creating the mad persona, I used yellow and orange for the eyes quite pale skin and a red toned hat with dark areas to make it look tattered and parts which appear torn. I drew up this character and then cut it out to use as a puppet for a stop motion animation, I decided to do this because the character was coloured and redrawing it would have been difficult, also I wanted to use coloured ink splats in the background but as I didn't have any I used black ink which when mixed and allowed to run with water separates into its constituents. I think this may be better than the different coloured inks as it gives a busy but dark background which emphasises the colours in the foreground so doesn't take anything away from the hatter. Having cut out the character I cut out its eyes and hat separately, I also placed a teacup on the head of the hatter and put a slit in the hat so it could slide underneath and appear to be being unveiled. As I animated this I changed the background between the ones I had created so it flashed, I also rolled the eyes in different directions and raised and lowered the hat so the teacup was briefly visible and for a couple of frames had the eyes and face disappear in turn, this was effective when working slowly animating but after being sped up and viewed full speed it makes the animation seem a little more jumpy like a frame is skipping or something, I think if I had just made the eyes disappear this would have been more effective. I am happy with this piece though because when seeking feedback from my flat mates I was told by one that he couldn't handle it which is how i wanted to make this although I only wanted it to be strange not unbearable.

one second a week squirrel

This week has been national red squirrel awareness week so I decided to use this as my inspiration for my work. I started this by drawing some sketches of how the squirrel might appear, it was also suggested to me that I could have a grey and red squirrel boxing so symbolise how the grey has taken over the red squirrel in its habitat. I sketched this idea out but I was not happy with the way it looked because it seemed to me to be quite a childlike visualisation. As we have been studying work cycles with Mario I decided to also incorporate this into my work too, the project with Mario required us to create a walk cycle for a quadruped so for this I used the squirrel and then used this animation for both projects. I used a squirrel running rather than walking as a squirrels is more typically seen running or skipping and rareley walking. First I visualised the movement and watched videos of squirrels walking and running to refresh my mind and stimulate my imagination of this sequence. I also looked at Muybridge's studies of animals and people which helped to determine how many frames to have in one of the squirrels leaps. After I had done this I began to draw beginning with a hunched position ready to spring forward, I then opened up the body and the squirrel extended creating momentum and leaving the floor, holding its position flat in the air and then coming down in an arc with its front feet making contact first, the back legs follow this motion and land in front of the front feet so it is then hunched and ready to spring again. In this way the squirrel is always readying itself for the next jump and can also be played on a loop. I drew the rough sketches for this in my walk cycles book and then traced these and neatened them up using fine liner to put into my one second a week sketch book. For the walk cycle I had the squirrel move across the page however when I neatened it I kept it in the same spot on the page so it appears to be running on the spot or the camera is panning with it.

one second a week week 2. finding my feet

This project is challenging because it requires you to convey a message and relay information in a very short period of time. As this week has been the first proper week of classes not the induction week I thought an appropriate title and theme would be finding me feet. Initially my idea was to have a person reaching above their head trying to grab papers as they passed by. This was to represent all this new information and experiences going over my head and myself having to work to grasp it. I still like this idea and may return to it at a later date. However for this week I decided instead to draw a pair of shoes and have the owner search for them, I made an observational drawing of the shoes and was happy with the outcome but I did not know how to execute the person. In my test I had them with a blind stick and also crawling, I had wanted them crawling or dragging themselves along however I chose to have them sat and looking side to side. I still struggled with this even though I used a stick figure. I was going to leave the face blank but decided to add features and hair just so it was easier to give the impression that the head was turning and searching.

bouncing balls project

This project continues to look at timing and motion but also introduces squash and stretch to give a better expression of emotion and character to an object. We used the program Maya which alloys you to create key frames and will animate the movement in-between, you can still create each frame yourself if you wish but there is no need to most of the time. The subject of our work was a sphere and the initial work was creating movement similar the falling blocks project then further developing it. We were introduced to the 3 parts of a movement, the initial pause to build up apprehension for the upcoming action, the action or movement, and then the recover or post action afterwards. For a jumping ball the was a squash a stretch and then another squash. the ball would squash to appear to be preparing for the jump, as it jumped it would stretch to give the impression it is trying to gain height, a smaller squash at the top of the jump similar to a tuck just helps to give more life to the movement and after the ball falls down a squash to recover and compose itself. After the initial jumps we experimented with others incorporating sideways movement and twists and then an interaction. I did encounter problems after introducing sideways movement and had to add key-frames to certain points in order to stop the ball moving at unwanted times. A good thing I found when using this program is that it allows you to study the graphs showing particular axis and certain stretch, movement and rotation of each which can be separately viewed this was extremely beneficial to study for correcting areas within the animations when something was wrong but it was difficult to work out what exactly or how to rectify it.

falling blocks project

This project is to help us get our heads around timing. We used flash to animate because it is fast and gives results straight away which is most beneficial when learning because instant feedback means you can edit your work and test new areas. Our main aim was to give character to an expressionless block bearing in mind that these techniques will continue to be used throughout the course and our futures in the subject.
  The first tests revolved around a linear movement on a flat plane having the square move from side to side with equal spacings between frames so the movement was  uniform. I experimented with different sized spacings gradually increasing them so the block moved faster until I found the popping point at which point the block no longer appears to move and just seems to disappear and reappear.The second test was based on acceleration and using increasingly larger or smaller distance of movement between frames so the block appears to be increasing and decreasing in speed. From this point on I have been surprised at the amount of physics from A-level I have called upon to assist my work. Having experimented with acceleration we applied what we had learnt to a pendulum. This uses the same principles but works on a curved plane rather that a linear horizontal plane. Changing the rate of acceleration on the block gave the impression that the block had different masses and that gravity was affecting the differently. During this test I used a large amount of my time on one animation trying to make the block appear to naturally slow down and come to a stop resting underneath the fulcrum, this was a challenge that I enjoyed and helped to summarise my acceleration work.
The final test was to make the block fall on a vertical plane and upon hitting a base line take on the qualities of a bouncing ball, a cannon ball, an apple and a balloon. the first two of these were not overly complicated because it was easy to visualise in my head how these would fall. I found with these test that the easier it was to imagine the movement the easier it was to recreate on the screen, sound also played a large part in helping me to produce these pieces as I could imagine the noises that would be produced when the objects were dropped. A bouncing ball I found to be similar to the pendulum gradually coming to a stop each bounce losing height, however this wok is only on a vertical plane not a curved one. A cannon ball would come to an abrupt stop with very little bouncing afterwards. An apple I managed as it lies somewhere between the two bouncing less than a ball but more than a cannon ball. The balloon I had problems with I had a tendency to make it float in the air too long when it does accelerate towards the floor quite fast, I also had a problem with the period of time and number of bounces afterwards. I thought about it and then watched a video of a balloon falling and noted its springy material this would mean on contact with the floor it would bounce and accelerate quite fast but because of its light weight it would have a low momentum so would loose speed quite fast and would fall towards the ground slower than it gained height. After a great deal of experimentation I was happy with the movement and finished the work.