Secondary Action

Sketches


Turn Around Sketch

Line Tests








Added Sound


Final

I refined some scenes and timing.

To start this project, I listed all the principals and scribbled down quick definitions for each one. I started brainstorming different ways to show each principal and how to fit them all together in a scene. For instance, I used arcs in the washing line and orange branch, easing in the fall, squash and stretch in the orange roll, etc. In this animation, I think my improvement comes across clearly and I can see that I am starting to become more consistent and upping the quality of my work.
I sketched out the character a few times, made a small turnaround that I later refined as well as started to sketch some statues from reference. My personal goal was to challenge myself with the story board and to make a well paced piece.

I wanted to attempt three difficult scenes: a panning shot, a zoom out and a tracking shot (panning with character). It was difficult to imagine each key frame of a moving shot and I found that story boarding it was difficult in small pieces. Instead, I decided to draw three large illustrations and, using colour coded rectangles and annotations, I clearly squared off the key frames and directions of movement. It was really helpful to work from one large piece than many small sketches.

I found that I had been too ambitious with this project. I decided to do it all hand drawn on a line tester and had planned to colour it in Photoshop. However, I didn't realise that the way I wanted to colour it was not possible so I changed my plan to focus on making strong lines and a clean animation. I wanted to attempt a dreamy quality to the piece by skipping frames in the tracking shot through the statues. I don't think this was successful as, without the colour, it looks jumpy rather than fading in.

I am really happy with how the sound and hand animation came out. I think that they are well timed and the slow pull of the orange off the branch reads clearly to the viewer. I am also happy with succeeding in producing a clean panning shot. In the future, I would have made a single large illustration of the statue and tugged it across the camera rather than drawing a load of different frames as that is not what the industry does.

The biggest difficulty I met was in completing the tracking shot. It was difficult to fit the walk of the character with the panning of the camera while also wanting to fully render and colour the scene. I think that this is the weakest part of my animation. To improve it, instead of, again, drawing each frame, I would draw one long illustration of the background statue, a cut out strip of the foreground states and then used paper cut outs to and editing to fade in and out the characters movement. This would have allowed for quicker working, a more successful and complete shot, more control of the pace and much less line testing and redrawing.

Overall, I think this animation shows how my understanding of the principals has improved. An element I had been trying to improve from the second task was being more mindful of volume and I think that the consistency in the shape of the hands (especially through turning and zooms) shows that I am beginning to get an applied understanding of it.

Squash, Stretch, Easing, Arcs

Unfortunately, my project for this task become corrupted. I wanted to produce some experimental animations that would demonstrate my understanding of the principle without becoming too far behind the other tasks. I decided to animate a baseball player using the straight-ahead method. I found this technique more freeing as it produced cartoonish results but the anatomy lacks anchor points in the movement due to the freehand method. I also think the end of the movement is jumpy and would be smoother with more frames and cleaner lines.



I used squash and stretch to exaggerate the expression of the character. I used easing in the speed of the swing and a dramatic arc in the direction of the swing.

I wanted to demonstrate this more throughly so I also produced two animations on the line tester. The first is of an old man pulling a disgusted face. I squeezed the head inwards and pinched the eyes and mouth to bunch up his features.
In the second I used pose-to-pose to draw a man sneezing.

While I am disappointed my original project cannot be used here, I feel that these three animations utilise squeeze and stretch, easing and arcs just as well. The original had issues to do with lack of characterisation and stagnate movements which I tried to remedy this time with the look of the characters and the liveliness I tried to bring to the dynamic baseball bat swing.
I have noticed that i struggle with a sense of volume through out my animations (the character design sheet, the clay ball bounce and now in the man's face). I think that being more mindful and producing more detailed sketches/storyboards to use as a frame work will allow me to be more consistent in the dimensions of my forms.

Let Me Entertain You!

12 Animations produced around the world ranging from historical to modern.

• (2016) Forms in Nature- Chromosphere (International)
  
  Chromosphere is a international (spanning  design and animation studio. I selected this piece for its effective visual storytelling by blending organic and man made structures through stitching scenes together by a strong geometric shape.
• (1998) Kirkou and the Sorceress - Michel Ocelot (France)

The french and Belgium production 'Kirkou and the Sorceress' was the source of unpredictable and frivolous controversy about the use of unsexualised nudity in this African folk tale inspired film.The pictorial style of animation is heavily influenced by African and Egyptian art. 


• (1955) Gumbasia- Art Clokey (USA)
  
  Claymation is first used in 1921. As an early experimental use of claymation in abstract storytelling, Clokey followed kinesthetic film principles where he relied on the feeling the reality-suspending visuals induce for understanding.
• (2018/19) Significant Otherness - Onesal (Japan)

A complex CGI piece created for Pause Fest 2019. I like the intense choreography of the motions. The focus on texture and lighting allows for that visual mesh of technology and human organs to come across fluently to the viewer.


• (2018) A Gong (Grandpa) - Zozo Jhen, Yen-Chen Liu, Ellis Kayin Chan, Tena van der Galovic (France)
  
  Oil pastels and 2D animating are fully celebrated through the warm textures of the backgrounds and slow, human staging of each scene.
• (1949) Song of the Prairie Arie - Jiri Trnka (Czech)
  
  I like the use of sound and the character designs of the puppets. The constant stream of music sets the pace of the story and helps to clue in the audience to upcoming downfalls and immersive them into the mood of the film.
• (1949) Marriage Wows - Famous Studios (USA)
  
  A funny 2D animation full of light-hearted visual gags and good examples of exaggeration and subversion. 
• (1908) Fantasmagorie - Emile Cohl (france)
  
  Often credited as the first animation ever, Fantasmagorie seems imperative to reference to (even only internally) as a critical source in understanding the development and history of animation.
• (2014) The Bigger Picture - Daisy Jacobs (UK)
  The Bigger Picture from daisy jacobs on Vimeo.
  
  Immediately, the use of squash and stretch to spring out the main character and the clash of 2d and 3d form are very jarring to the eye. It unsettles the scene giving way for tension and an uncomfortable dynamic within the family.These effective storytelling techniques reminding me of The Ring as they are subtle like the trick of recording scenes backwards to only play them forward to achieve a sense of wrongness.
• (2017) In/Ex Troversion - Julia Gomes Rodrigues (Brazil)
  
  While the roughness of the animation leaves this source far from the polished quality of those above, the narrative is clearly conveyed. The style is a good example of what is trendy for the time as well as the overall narrative clearly linking to a popular subject for the tumblr era: the struggles and charm of the introvert.

Anticipation, Exaggeration, Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Notes:
Reference, thumbnail sketches, key frames, inbetweens, line tests - fixing issues, relief overlay, add sound, final.

Reference


 Line Test

The action i chose to focus on was knife/axe throwing. To start off this project, I sketched out all the key frames while looking at reference. Then, I sketched in the in-betweens and refined until I was satisfied and ready to start the clay relief part of the animation. I wanted to try and watch my volume in forms so simplified the character into basic shapes. I feel that from this task, I have learnt a lot about consistency and how important it is in order for the motion to read correctly.

I (almost) split the animation into the two mediums by the anticipation for the action (the throw) and the follow through. By simplifying the design of the person into block colourful shapes, I tried to explore exaggeration in the back bend and arm swings.

I added a light throwing sound and thud to help bring impact to the throw.

Final

From this task, I can clearly see improvement in my timing and volume. The final piece is slightly out of focus which lowers the production of the piece. If i did this again, I would want to add the knives/axes to the throw as i think it would look more dynamic and finished.