Evaluation

Evaluation on Dynamics

In this part of the project I got to learn about the fundamentals of movement, weight, timing and calibration, I was required to pick a pair of words in which mine were ‘stretch and squash’ until they turned into ‘weight and effort’. We had to develop a scenario from our character design and/or storyboard project to contextualise the chosen properties.

This project was a completely new experience for me, since I had never studied animation I found it fascinating looking at the way in which characters move. And the meaning behind it. I was introduced to completely new software like ‘TVPaint’ and ‘Dragonframe’, while simultaneously learning how to use the rostrums. I felt like my first walk cycle went really well, along with my dynamics animation considering everything was so new.

I would have to talk about timing for what didn’t go so well, I need to prioritise what comes first within this project. Even though I felt like my dynamic work came out pretty well, I did it very close to hand in, and as a result felt like it could be better. I wish I researched even further into dynamics for my character, I feel what I did was too basic.

Next time I know that I need to start getting the practical side down of animating sooner, since then I can experiment with what it is I’m doing and get the best results I can.

Walk Cycle with no Background

Here is an example of the walk cycle and tears that I plan to animate on TVPaint, I think it worked fairly well. You can see the swing of the egg due to the weight of it compared to the yolk. I do feel however that it could swing more. If I had more time I would possibly play around with the yolk a bit. The yolk does move around well, but I feel like the actual yolk could react more with the direction of the walking.

Examples of Weight and Effort

I know this is an example of someone picking up something heavy instead of being heavy, I just thought it was incredibly will done. What caught my attention was the hair, it reacts perfectly to her movements.  

I wanted to pint point the bits of my character that will be heavy and what will be light, I also thought about it in a less physical sense. In that he must also be carrying a lot of emotional baggage.
Emotionally he's carrying the weight that he isn't useful any more, he was used in the process of baking. So he's no longer needed, he's trying to find a meaning.

Weight and Effort

Weight is defined as: 
a body's relative mass or the quality of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force; heaviness of a person or thing.

Effort is:
a vigorous or determined attempt

I went to my book of wonders for help 'The animators survival guide' for tips on how I can get a believable weight and effort walk. There was a lot on the way people look when they're carrying something heavy. Just not a lot on drawing heavy characters. I did however find one showing a mans belly moving up and down as he walked which is similar to the idea of what I had. In that the shell of the egg swings quite dramatically back and forth depending on what leg was where.   

I found this great animation similar to the image above, but instead the characters stomach is moving side to side. Slowing the movements of his walk, as he has to spend that extra bit of time moving the weight of his belly as he walks. I feel like my characters shell would be moving more front to back, as I feel most of the weight would be at the bottom of the egg. 

I wanted to work of the sequence of my animation, I always knew that I wanted to do a walk cycle with my egg. But I decided that I wanted to go a little extra and have him walk his eye through crying and then carry on walking. Near the bottom of the page you see I was trying to figure out in which way the egg and yolk would correspond with one another.

TVPaint

I'm not happy with my walk cycle at this current time to add it to my background yet, but when I am I'll record it on the rostrums add it on to this. Just making sure I got my head around this software.

I did some adjusting and decided to cut away the edge of the kitchen top, I wanted the illusion  that when he's walking he won't stop. The illusion that he'll walk in a loop I felt stopped when you could see the end of the table.

Trying Different Backgrounds for my Character

I was just going to collect some pictures online of the areas I would want my character to walk through, but I decided to take some myself. They're all related to my story. I also blurred them all to put my character in focus.

I would produce this walk cycle on TVPaint, where the pixel dimensions would be much higher (4000x1080). This is depending on how far I want my character to go, and how big his movements are.

Kitchen Floor 

Kitchen Work Top - (Where all the tea happens)

Windowsill

I have to be careful when it comes to my background, as it needs to be the right angle. If not it might look a bit off with him walking.

Progress Check

I visited my  tutor today and showed him my animation I had previously done, and like I figured he said I needed to focus now on the words at hand that I'm trying to portray through the character. In my case 'Weight and effort' and finding the focus point of the egg, what part is heaviest?

I also need to think about making it loop, as at the moment when he stops walking it jumps back to him face on. If I can get him turning back around at the end there will be a smoother transaction.

I will experiment with this further.

My attempt as a cycle with my character

This walk cycle was really to get my head around how my characters legs were going to move, since he didn't really have legs and I was using the yolk within him. I wanted to try and make the walk cycle look as natural as possible to him.

Dynamics Crit

We had a crit today with our tutor just to make sure we are on the right track with our project, I stated that the words I was focusing on 'stretch and squash' and showed him my very short walk cycle.

I was told to maybe think about weight distribution, how heavy is the egg compared to the yolk coming out. Maybe I can show this by the body doing a slower swing etc. Maybe I should focus on showing weight and effort.

Experimenting with how fast I want their movement to be too, but I know I must create seconds worth of animation with 20-50 frames.

Flubber

I was trying to think about a character that would move similar to mine, this is where Flubber came to mind. His one of the only animated characters I know completely made of a yolk substance. The only issue I have with using Flubber as a reference is that he (especially in this clip) is lively, where as my character is filled with anxiety and sadness.

For this clip I would just be focusing on the physical side of flubber.

Dynamics - Walk cycle

It was a day of dynamics, and a day of learning how to make a basic walk cycle. I had attempted one before, just never animated it. We ended up with 31 frames, of this character.

I personally feel like it went pretty well, we had to make sure that he had a nice 'lean' as he walked to show the force. Along with this I feel like my character had a nice hop in his step. However this is just a basic walk cycle, it's when we want to portray something through it that it gets tricky.

Dynamics - metronome/ball animation

We had a tutorial today about dynamics, and the way that object move. One of the objects that we got given to play with was a bouncy ball (which went all over the place), I watched it as it fell from my hand on to the surface and it was pretty interesting to observe something this closely. 

I decided to draw what I could see, the ball thrown from 2 angles. Above and from the side. I noticed that as it hit the surface the balls matter didn't really change, the balls shape stayed the same.

I made a quick animation of this ball, but gave him 'character' in terms of a face, in that when he hits the surface he doesn't change shape. His face develops a different emotion.

BA1a - Dynamics

In this part of the project I will learn about the fundamentals of movement, weight, timing and calibration, which can be applied to all forms of animation. I will work in 2D drawn animation for this project, however what I learn here will carry through and be built upon further in subsequent projects.

I will be required to pick a pair of words from the following list and develop a scenario from my character design and/or storyboard project to contextualise my chosen properties and create a drawn animation that emphasises the dynamics

• Weight and effort
• Speed and acceleration 
• Stretch and squash
• Impact and reaction

I MUST SUBMIT

• Animation Exercises minimum 2 - include a looped walk cycle
• Dynamic Animation Cycle with composited background - of around 10 seconds and rendered as QuickTime Movie
• Research Portfolio reflecting on the results of the iterative process - used to develop your character and narrative concepts
• Evaluation of 250-300 words- on the project and achieved outcomes