#ba1a dynamic animation

[ekniemisba1a]

BA1a Dynamic Animation weekly summary (Week 8)

I have finally finished all my Dynamic Animation work this week by completing my walk cycle with a emotion/performative aspect. This walk cycle was a skipping figure and I’m happy with the animation on a whole, it is clearly a skip and my figure is pretty constant. There are always small things you can pick at and with this one I think the high frame moves to far forward but other than that I’m glad it came out well.

I could have animated the skip or more dynamic animations on the computer to challenge myself, but in the end, I was more comfortable doing in on paper. I have also done other work on the computer, so I know I can do it. However, I am fond of working on a computer with a tablet, I think you can create some very neat and well-structured work on it, so in the future I would like to do some more animations on programmes such as TV Paint. If I was to do this week again I would have re-drawn some of the high frames in my animation but unfortunately I didn’t have time. Overall I have found Dynamics frustrating and difficult at times, I feel I have learnt some new, very useful techniques that I hope to put into practice in the future.

[ekniemisba1a]

As I intended I drew out two more frames to put in between to place just before the knee reaches its highest point in the air and personality I think it looks a lot better. It always surprises me how a few frames can really make a difference with animation, its great. So this is my final skipping walk cycle for my Dynamic Animation work and I am pretty happy with it, my only concern is that looking at it now the body seems to move unnatural forward when in the air on my high frame. If I could do this process again I would redraw those high frames and move the figure more into the centre of the page, where the rest of the figure stays in the other frames. 

[ekniemisba1a]

As I said in my weekly summary, first thing I did this week was to film the key frames for my Dynamic skipping walk cycle on a line tester so here it is his is. I chose a skip because originally I was going to do a man with a big wobbly belly but my tutor suggested that instead of making my character in Character Design skip, I could do it as my attribute walk cycle. At first I was a little sceptical because it looks quite tough to capture but I ended up accepting the challenge and it hasn’t turned out half bad. I’m very glad it looks OK as I was very worried that I had done it mostly wrong but, the movement seems pretty good to me. I ended up drawing a few inbetweens as well as the key frames which is why the movement is fairly smooth. 

I spoke to my tutor asking how I could improve it and she said there should be a inbetween frame as the knee lifts high into the air. I agree with this as I think the movement would look more realistic with these added frames. I aim to draw these new frames and film them as soon as I can, so I can complete my Dynamic’s work to start focusing on the Character Essay. To draw these frames I used these videos as reference: http://tyokio.deviantart.com/art/skipping-cycle-with-inbetweens-148687813, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ffy-YwybA&list=PL-RhqqYuEIowa7joVkUc_8dyTIDEL2vnR&index=53 and this technical drawing:

[ekniemisba1a]

BA1a Dynamic Animation weekly summary (Week 7)

This week I worked on my Dynamic Animation Exercise, as mentioned in my previous weekly summary, I wanted to focus and complete some of the Dynamics work I have been set. Instead of just doing the key frames, filming them and moving onto doing all 50-75 of them, I did all of them in one sitting. I did them all at once because on the day I wasn’t feeling well enough to come into uni and shoot the key frames on the line tester. So instead of testing them I went for it and drew all 53 frames ready to shoot for the next morning. Thankfully my animation came out well without the initial test, I didn’t have to re-draw any frames, I only added one in like my tutor suggested. 

I was relived that the animation came out well despite my lack of testing, after completing this animation I unfortunately didn't have time to work on the Dynamic walk cycle until the weekend. In this time I drew out the key frames for a 2D traditional animated skip walk cycle, ready to be tested next week. The process of drawing these frames for the walk cycle was stressful, I was getting quite frustrated as I struggle to capture an emotion/attribute in a walk cycle, a skip for me was difficult. It felt great to get it done, although I still have reservations on whether its going to work out well, I’ll just have to test it next week and see.

I was happy that I was able to get my Dynamic Animation Exercise out of the way in order to finish my Character Design Sheet and start on my Character Research Essay. I’m also pleased with the result of the exercise, I’m glad I made time for it and didn't rush the process. I’m quite on track but I could have maybe drawn out my walk cycle in the week and been able to film it this week instead of next week. Next week I will film the key frames on the Monday, stay in uni to draw the in between frames and film the final animation before the end of the day.

[ekniemisba1a]

To start the week off I drew my frames for the Dynamic Animation Exercise like I aimed to do in my weekly summary. Although instead of just doing the key frames, filming them and moving onto doing all 50-75 of them, I did all of them in one sitting. I did them all at once because on the day I wasn’t feeling well enough to come into uni and shoot the key frames on the line tester. So instead of testing them I went for it and drew all 53 frames ready to shoot for the next morning. This is the final animation of these frames, shot in twos then which I then altered by deleting or adding in more of the same frames to show more realistic movement. For example as the water balloon bounces up after hitting the ground, it doesn’t bounce upwards very high because of the weight of the water inside it, also the frames change from twos to ones as the balloon moves further from the floor. 

For reference of how a water balloon bounces and bursts when squashed I watched these two videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGC3cfuOag8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_OyHUqIIOU. After finishing up my alterations I showed one of my tutor’s the animation and asked if there were any improvements I could make. She suggested that I make the foot stay on the ground for longer and the balloon bounce a bit higher after hitting the ground. I made these adjustments and the animation shown above is the final result. I’m very glad this came out well without any tests and without redrawing any frames. 

[ekniemisba1a]

BA1a Dynamic Animation weekly summary (Week 6)

I didn’t do much for Dynamics this week as I was focusing on my Character Design Sheets, however I did come up with some ideas for my Dynamic Animation Exercise and then finalised it after the group tutorial with my tutor. During this group tutorial my tutor suggested that I follow through with my squash and stretch water balloon idea, as it emphasises the dynamics the most out of my three ideas. We also discussed the animation walk cycle with an emotion/performative aspect, I was thinking of doing a man with a big wobbly belly, which my tutor said would be fine and I should get started planning the key frames. 

I like my idea for the water balloon Dynamics Animation Exercise but I am still unsure about the walk cycle idea, I found the walk cycle process quite difficult in our session a few weeks ago so it’s a little daunting. I need to think more about my walk cycles and do research into different movements that I would like to recreate. I’m glad I got my key frame plan drawn for the animation exercise, but If I was to do this week again I would have drawn the real key frames. I aim to do this at the beginning of next week and complete all 50-75 frames by week’s end. This week I prioritised Character Design as I can only rent out the tablet during the week and it takes me the longest amount of time, however, I will focus on Dynamics next week to stay on top of things. 

[ekniemisba1a]

Storyboard planning for my BA1a Dynamic Animation Exercise and feedback from my BA1a Dynamic Animation tutorial.

[ekniemisba1a]

BA1a Dynamic Animation weekly summary (Week 5)

Dynamic Animation this week consisted of trying our hand at animating short walk cycles on TV Paint, and having our first Acting Workshop, looking at character movement for animators. This was my first experience with animating on a computer and although I found it very difficult drawing on a tablet at first, I did adjust to it a bit better towards the end of the session. The reason I found it so hard was trying to get used to keeping your eye on the screen while drawing on the tablet. However, I can see that if I practiced more I could really come to like this way of creating. The idea of an Acting Workshop was very daunting because I’m not comfortable with acting at all, but it actually turned out to be quite an enjoyable session. I found Laban’s Effort Drives particularly interesting and useful for when it comes to acting and analysing a character. 

Overall I thought this week’s Dynamics was tough at the start but I turned out to be absorbing and actually quite fun. In addition to this I could have experimented more with my TV Paint animations by, for example, adding more frames to flesh out the animation or giving my character arms or attributing an emotion to the walk. If I could do this week differently I would continue to play with my second animation on TV Paint and create a new one with a feature or emotion that changes up the movement.