waiting to start

I did a selection of poses i could remeber from the cinema, as well as from observation of what people do while sitting and waiting

Poses task

Yesterday we were given another task of creating poses as practice for pose to pose animation. Our assignment is; create 3 still poses from two of the following 2.

Waiting to Start
Late for
Whats inside
Troubled
Er... excuse me
Overjoyed

I've decided to do "waiting to start" and.... "Er... excuse me".

I recently went to see a film with the usual group of friends, we were waiting AGES for the movie to start, we got so fed up people we were slouching and climbing on the chairs. Also at work (i work in a retail store) a customer decided to jump the queue causing quite a stir. The lady behind decided to give him a piece of her mind with very... interesting gestures. I've got quite a few decent ideas from these two events, hopefully this will help create a fair few interesting poses.

First attempt - ball and tail

Heres te notes i collected from feedback:
ball and tail

hold the log underwater longer for the audience

adjust the bounce off the grass onto the first log to be the same as the pervious bounce so not to lose the  bounce of the character.

 I also think it would be a good idea to place a little more antcipation before te jump of the first log, it will give the ball more character. 

Ball and tail blocking

Blocking stage: Ive blocked out the intial idea for my ball and tail, basically hes moving towards the edge in a content manner, (hence the tail wag). sees the water, reacts then sees the parent moving away. He panics and jumps onto the logs which bounce him up, but the last log dipps underwater and poor little foxy is left soaking.

The tranistion between the tail's secondary action when the ball is boucing towards the edge and into the tail wag seems a little off, I dont think it works to well. I've looked at a few references from foxs to (my) cat and found they tend not to swing thier tail when moving as much.

Staging - ball and tail

I've set about the scene from one clear camera angle so the balls actions can be seen clearly, i might have to mess with the lighting to show the riverbank and tweak the log a bit but the balls actions should be visable from this angle

Ball and tail inbetweens

Not to keen on the tail wag, think it nees to be taken out, seems to overcomplicate the character with too meny actions. i can see a few adjustments il need to be made o the timing, before the jump and with the tail at the end. Lots of work to be done.

ball and tail rig

 quick note:

found softimage ball and tail rig @http://formandspace.com/blog/2010/03/red-the-ball-with-a-tail/



thank you matt x

The ball and tail

I've drawn out my initial idea for this animation and have been disscussing some of the feedback from rafal's work (a colleage) about their animation.

 A big question that popped up about the animation was "What is the goal/target/meaning"?. This was a valid point as the motive of the character would presumably shape and define the personality of the ball tail making it perform differently. 

With this in mind i decided to give the ball a little background and setting, i have a few ideas and want to keep it as simple as possible, i like the idea of a young ball and tail following the parent across the river.

second attempt pendulum

Added more frames at the beginning and adjusted the timing so the swing follows through with the movement of the box. The animation flows alot smoother now, but has too much of a swing 00:02 seconds into the animation.

second attempt bouncing ball

I've added more to the scene to make it look more like a house, well a house form the 70s. The flow of the animation seems a little stiff, i think it would require more key frames to smooth out the animation, particularly on the inflatable exercise ball. third bounce in on the soft ball seems a little off too, less time air time would allow it to flow more clearly.  

boucing ball first attempt

First attempt at the boucing ball, first major problem i've relised and from feedback is the timing, when played back i real time the timing of the second ball is slightly off. Kind of hit the blindnss so i shall see what my college have to say.

Presentation time

Wednesday we will be giving our presentations to the class on each principle. I managed to pull the principle exaggeration from the hat, not vague at all. However i think i have found a method of concluding how the principle may apply to use as computer animators, anywho i've posted the slides below along with the notes i've written gathered from researching the principle. I found alot of useful information from disenys: the illustion of life including a strong exsplanaiton of how it is used. However this was only one point of view, there are a many different animators out there who have all applied the same principle in thier own terms.

Wednesday we will be giving our presentations to the class on each principle. I managed to pull the principle exaggeration from the hat, not vague at all. However i think i have found a method of concluding how the principle may apply to use as computer animators, anywho i've posted the slides below along with the notes i've written gathered from researching the principle. I found alot of useful information from disenys: the illustion of life including a strong exsplanaton of how it is used. However this was only one point of view, there are a many different animators out there who have all applied the same principle in thier own terms.

Exaggeration refers to biging something up –

to make it larger than life, stretching the limits, 

In general we relate the phrase exaggeration to a form of lying or stretching the truth ~ make something larger than life and so on which is essentially what we do as animators

With animation we can exaggerate anything from physical forms of characters in 3D models, for caricatures for example. As well as backgrounds, physical abilities,

 it can be used to over dramatize a situation for comedic effect, or even stretch the natural laws of the animation universe.

Exaggeration can be as extreme as bending an arm back on a pose which would be physically impossible to a human being.

Or as small as bending a finger back further than physically possible 

According to Lassiter the key to exaggeration is balance, particularly the balance between what to exaggerate and what not.

Over exaggerating everything in a scene would lose the believability in the audience ~ the scene just wouldn't appear real

 He describes that if too many ideas are exaggerated then the scene can become too unrealistic.

From Walt Disney's the illusion of life book Walt’s interpretation for exaggeration was “realism”

however he wasn’t referring to the realism in terms of realistic drawing or movement, (like rotoscoping)

he was referring to the idea of breaking the concept down to the bare bone and developing the essence.

if a character is scared, make him terrified, if a character is sad make him sadder.

 only show first 20 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN80Z2KZa-Y - Silly Symphony - The Skeleton Dance - 1929

In the clip the owl inhales, moves and turns its head as any real owl would, but in a exaggerated style with an exaggerated chest and over spinning the head.

For walt, the idea was about exaggerating the real but keeping it within the realm of realism and not something completely surreal or disturbing.

But this isn’t the only method to use exaggeration in animation

 

Tex Avery the American animator had a different point of view.

He believed "In a cartoon you can do anything," he encouraged animators to push bounties and exaggerate beyond the physical laws. His exaggerated gags included slapstick comedy, exaggerating physical violence beyond common sense,  speedy transitions, dramatic poses, and jumps off the page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gurhu2bbrP4&NR=1 ~ red hot riding hood (1943)

These are only two examples as there are many more different styles to exaggeration,

In conclusion Exaggeration can be a rather vague principle,

but as a character animator I think the idea of exaggerating

 a particular emotion or action and emphasizing the characteristics to a degree larger than life would best describe

how we use exaggeration as a principle.

Pendulum swing working progress

First attempt at the pendulum task, still  needs a few  inbetweens on the swings, and possibly move the ball further back when accending, have had some useful feedback from my colleages.

Courage the cowardly dog

perfect example of exaggerating a characters personality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ5J8b_SZEs

<3 courage

Sketches

a few sketches i did today from the town centre

where to start

first post of the season, I'll be uploading all my work through the MA digital character animation course on here ~ fun times :)

So far I've been given a few simple tasks; a principle of animation to research (mine was exaggeration) a few *cough* 6 pages of drawings from life - which will be uploaded in due time, and collect two balls, one heavy one light in preparation for animating bouncing ball.

Can already see this is going to be a busy busy year.