I've been to ...

I've been to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square this week (5/11/12), doing a few sketches of some of paintings inside the gallery which included sketching Leonardo da Vinci's piece The Virgin of the Rocks (1483-1486). Also, done sketches of class mates as-well as these sketches below shows.

Bye.

Chocolate sex change

Did a simple stop motion exercise using a computer program called Dragonframe. Dragonframe is a stop motion animation software for Mac and Windows/PC computers with using a digital still camera, video camera or a webcam and so forth.

Basically a quick half day project in random groups. I had four people in my group (included myself in the group of four). Got the idea done within minutes. A chocolate man created from M&M's and chocolate buttons to a chocolate woman, basically a chocolate sex change animation.

When we took all the images down, and checked if the animation works. We exported the video to a Quicktime video file from Dragonframe to create this stop frame animation below.



End of that exercise.

Bye.

Pull!!!

Fifth week on my MA Character Animation course. This week was how to animated a pull or a push and I went for a pull animation this week. I started off with a subject to film, so I will have something to animate with later on.



Then, I jumped onto a light box and then use the Flipbook program on the mac, to drawn down the frames to test if the pull worked well and looked if it's right.



Then I went back onto a light box and try another pull. Then gone onto Flipbook on the mac, to drawn down the key-frames to test if the pull worked well and placed right before I drawn down the in-between to complete the drawn drawing down.



I decided that to continue with the pull to add the in-between frames that were missing. And needed to drawn in as this animation below show.



Then I gone into Adobe Flash and try to do this exercise once again with the pull. I partly traced/Rotoscop the model who was in my first video above. I added colour to give it a abstract/loose fill.



Overall, I felt this exercise worked than the lift exercise in my opinion. Because, I easily understand how to animate a pull rather than how to do a lift in an animation. Overall better week. End of that exercise.

Bye.

Lift!!!

Forth week on my MA Character Animation course. This week was how to animated a lift, and personally a difficult exercise to do. Started off looking at people lifting heavy bowling balls and how to lift a heavy object and then sketch down the key-frames.

Then, I jumped onto a light box drawn down the keyframes down and then use the Flipbook program on the mac, to drawn down the frames to test if the keyframes worked. Which it didn't felt that the keyframes didn't work due to the lengths of the legs.



Then, I went into a 3D program called Maya3D. Possibly the only time I will be using this 3D program within the next two years. I downloaded a character who already model and rigged called Blake to do this animation. Instead of myself to created a model and rigging it, which will take some time to create.

Then in Maya, I created two different lifts were Blake lifts up the bowling ball. I felt the second animation below (lift3D v2) worked better, because the lifting of the bowling ball looked more natural to pick up in my opinion.





Then I gone into Adobe Flash and try to do this exercise once again with lifting, felt that the first flash animation didn’t work due to the body had different body sizes throughout the animation in my opinion.



The second go in flash, I had a looked at Richard Williams technique from his book (The Animators Survival Kit) and I traced/Rotoscop his model lifted the rock in flash and added some more frames in-between to give the animation a little more smoothness to the animation.



Overall, I felt this exercise was a difficult challenge to animate a lift in my opinion. Personally my animation out of the four was possibly be the second 3D animation because it look more natural  to lift. End of that exercise.

Bye.

Jump!!!

Third week on my MA Character Animation course. This week was how to animated a jump in a cartoon style. I was influenced by the fall of Hardcore legend and WWE wrestler Mick Foley (who was playing as Mandkind) from an 21 feet cell onto a table back in 1998 in a match called Hell in a Cell against the Undertaker.



Then, I roughly planned out how I am going to plan the jump.

Then, I jumped onto a light box and then use the Flipbook program on the mac, to drawn down the frames to test if the jump worked well and placed right to hit the table.



Then, I finished off the animation with the last few drawings and also add a few more frames in-between.



Then, I tried out again with a new jump and added some comedy styling to it such adding a broken head to the end of the animation.



Overall, I was satisfied with the exercise. But, I could have improvement the jump on both animations above. But for now, end of this exercise.

Bye.

Followthrough test

This is a followthrough test, I will come back to this at a later date. But for now, below I started with a balloon with string as a basic exercise using a light box and Flipbook program on the mac to check if this basic exercise does work.



Then, I tried it out a plain spider, using the same technique and using a sharpie pen instead of a pencil to draw it down.



I need to back and to develop and maybe use a different animal instead in my opinion.

Bye.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling the ball down the table then bouncing, bouncing, bouncing on the floor, animation

Second week on my MA Character Animation course. This week was how to Animate Bouncy Balls. Started off with balls falling of a table, such as ping-pong balls, bowling balls, beach balls, footballs and water balloons and so forth. Then recording a few examples with this video below.



Then I roughly planned out were the bounces will hit with a ping-pong ball and a beach ball.



Then I jumped onto a light box and Flipbook on the mac, to drawn down the key-frames to test if the bounces worked well and placed right.





And then I decided to continue to animate either the ping-pong or the beach ball for my finished product of the bouncing ball. I decided that to continue with the beach ball to add the in-between frames that were missing. And needed to drawn in as this animation below show.



My feedback was the animation needed some frames to remove to flow better and a positive feedback was my timing for the bounces were right. End of that exercise.

Bye.