Ok this is a short blog for a small piece of work.
First assignment on After Effects and its nothing special. Some cheese rebounding off a hasty rat. (Oh and a bit of trivia-mice hate cheese but rats loooove it!)
The motion of the rebound is to slow to portray the "bounce". That's all this time. Really nothing special. Pfffft!
Friday, 21 January 2011
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Squirrely
More animation.
Just spent an morning and an evening on this short character animation-a rodent called Squirrely. I wanted to practice facial expression and general body language. I chose this rig because this wee dude is charismatic and the rig is wonderfully intuitive. Check it out.
Sqirrely
Well that's squirrely. Any thoughts and feed back would be really appreciated.
And that's all for today.
Just spent an morning and an evening on this short character animation-a rodent called Squirrely. I wanted to practice facial expression and general body language. I chose this rig because this wee dude is charismatic and the rig is wonderfully intuitive. Check it out.
Sqirrely
Well that's squirrely. Any thoughts and feed back would be really appreciated.
And that's all for today.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Drawing again
Yep. More drawing talk.
I've spent some of my holiday practicing a few character sketches for a third year project and also doing some of my own thing. Not so long ago I had another drawing rant and displayed a drawing "work in progress." This thang down here.
I've spent some of my holiday practicing a few character sketches for a third year project and also doing some of my own thing. Not so long ago I had another drawing rant and displayed a drawing "work in progress." This thang down here.
And then I...er...finished it.
Ok I will admit that I'm pleased with how it turned out. It was a biro pic so if I made a mistake I couldn't rub it our or easily undo it on some digital program with an easy click of the mouse and I really thought I was gonna mess it up hence I put the work in progress in an earlier blog. Anyway it's done, so I can breath again.
Well thats that. Hay I just did a blog with almost no ranting! Huzzah!
Monday, 27 December 2010
Gerald and Doogle
Just came across an old animation-something I did years and years ago. Thought I might share it.
Back in the ancient days of 2004, when I was shorter, I did an animation workshop with the BBC. I was taught how to use a stop motion camera and shown the basics of animation then I was set lose to do what I wanted.
I decided to do a short about a couple of hamsters because their shape can be easily simplified and their general size would be in proportion with the environment we were in. I devised a script, created character deigns and then constructed them out of plasticine.
Ok so it's far from perfect but I was a wee person when I did this. Oh and I voiced Doogle (dude with the moe-hawk!)
Back in the ancient days of 2004, when I was shorter, I did an animation workshop with the BBC. I was taught how to use a stop motion camera and shown the basics of animation then I was set lose to do what I wanted.
I decided to do a short about a couple of hamsters because their shape can be easily simplified and their general size would be in proportion with the environment we were in. I devised a script, created character deigns and then constructed them out of plasticine.
The geek and the dude.
Then I animated it! Allow me to introduce Gerald and Doogle.
Gerald and Doogle
Ok so it's far from perfect but I was a wee person when I did this. Oh and I voiced Doogle (dude with the moe-hawk!)
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Animation is dangerous
So my end-of-term holiday has begun...but I still want to animate.
I think I've grown oddly addicted. On my first day back home I went straight to my laptop and down loaded Maya. (And if you were wandering, no this wasn't an illegal down load-its just a thirty day trial.) Anyway I then proceeded to create an account on creativecrash.com and immediately set about searching for some interesting rigs.
That was when I discovered Nico, some awesome quadruped dude who I just had to have a crack at. His rigging was wonderfully intuitive but really complex. Take a look.
I was able to practicece a quadruped walk and I know I've made some improvements since the monkey. This time there is a sense of weight in the feet and the corresponding fore limbs and hind limbs don't rise and lower at the same time. I noticed I made that mistake with the monkey. I'm not so happy with the little twirl at the end. I think perhaps it is a little ridged and not tight enough to convey his little burst of excitement...if you can identify that.
I learnt a couple of things while animating this little dude. The first would be that in order to make wider strides I should lower the body closer to the ground as this creates more flexibility in the knees. The other thing would be that imaginary creatures are great to animate because they are not taken from true life. You are not restricted by the limitations of a real life version of that creature and you are not forced to mimic any idiosyncrasies that creature might have.
Well that's Nicky. I will be doing him again some time but right now there is an elephant rig that has caught my eye...
Oh and the blog lies. It never get the correct time of posting.
I think I've grown oddly addicted. On my first day back home I went straight to my laptop and down loaded Maya. (And if you were wandering, no this wasn't an illegal down load-its just a thirty day trial.) Anyway I then proceeded to create an account on creativecrash.com and immediately set about searching for some interesting rigs.
That was when I discovered Nico, some awesome quadruped dude who I just had to have a crack at. His rigging was wonderfully intuitive but really complex. Take a look.
Sooo may lines! Scary huh?
I spent many hours on this guy. Last night I didn't stop until half one in the morning and today I forgot to eat. Animation is dangerous see? Only one with a will of titanium, a will so strong that they can tear themselves away from the screen or paper and pencil to go and grab a bite to eat should take on such a mighty task.
My will goes the other way. Meh. I don't care. It's fun.
Anyway I really enjoyed animating Nico. (I nic-named him Nicky.) Take a gander.
Nicky
I was able to practicece a quadruped walk and I know I've made some improvements since the monkey. This time there is a sense of weight in the feet and the corresponding fore limbs and hind limbs don't rise and lower at the same time. I noticed I made that mistake with the monkey. I'm not so happy with the little twirl at the end. I think perhaps it is a little ridged and not tight enough to convey his little burst of excitement...if you can identify that.
I learnt a couple of things while animating this little dude. The first would be that in order to make wider strides I should lower the body closer to the ground as this creates more flexibility in the knees. The other thing would be that imaginary creatures are great to animate because they are not taken from true life. You are not restricted by the limitations of a real life version of that creature and you are not forced to mimic any idiosyncrasies that creature might have.
Well that's Nicky. I will be doing him again some time but right now there is an elephant rig that has caught my eye...
Oh and the blog lies. It never get the correct time of posting.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
The Rat and the Monkey.
I finished my mini project! Yay!
It is a traditional hand drawn animation of a character I have given the most complex name-Rat.
Rat the Graceful One
Twenty four frames a second. As this is my first non assigned animation I'm rather pleased with it as a whole. There are a few things that could be improved such as lack of squash and stretch. It is there but I need to exaggerate it a little more so I'll keep this in mind for next time. Also when his chin collides with the ground he glares and grits his teeth but this is so brief that you can't really tell what kind of face he has pulled.
Also with a bit more spare time I re-animated the "maya monkey" but this time I chose to animate him as a monkey instead of making him walk upright as I had to do for an assignment. It's brief again but take a gander.
Not brilliant again but it has fluidity. I just need to improve on expressing distribution of weight through the feet.
Anyway thanks for reading.
That's all for now.
It is a traditional hand drawn animation of a character I have given the most complex name-Rat.
Rat the Graceful One
Twenty four frames a second. As this is my first non assigned animation I'm rather pleased with it as a whole. There are a few things that could be improved such as lack of squash and stretch. It is there but I need to exaggerate it a little more so I'll keep this in mind for next time. Also when his chin collides with the ground he glares and grits his teeth but this is so brief that you can't really tell what kind of face he has pulled.
Also with a bit more spare time I re-animated the "maya monkey" but this time I chose to animate him as a monkey instead of making him walk upright as I had to do for an assignment. It's brief again but take a gander.
Not brilliant again but it has fluidity. I just need to improve on expressing distribution of weight through the feet.
Anyway thanks for reading.
That's all for now.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Drawing, drawing, drawing...
Well it's almost six in the morning and I've been up since about four. I don't actually know why. I just woke up and felt wide awake and that was that. I went to bed some point after midnight too. Oh well.
So drawing. If there is one thing an animator should probably be good at it should be drawing-especially if they want to do traditional animation. (Personally at the moment I'm enjoying all the animation medias-especially now Maya and I are getting along-so I'm keeping an open mind.) The more versatile you are the better and one of the most frequently animated things you come across are human. Unfortunately for me that's my week point probably because I spent the majority of my childhood drawing anything but human-my philosophy being that there were so many of them around that the idea of creating a drawing of another was just plane dull. I also thought that people were too boring to draw too as, as far I as I was aware, the adults spent their days in offices at computers while the younger half sat mesmerised in front of TV screens.
Anyway the result is obvious. My ability to draw human anatomy is shameful where as I will happily tackle anything else...
See?
My human anatomy is just diabolical. This isn't an ok drawing. This is a terrible drawing so I'm going to have to practice drawing the human anatomy big time.
Also there's something rather unusual going on. If I attempt an ordinary life drawing this is the result but if I do an life drawing on negative space this is the result...
So drawing. If there is one thing an animator should probably be good at it should be drawing-especially if they want to do traditional animation. (Personally at the moment I'm enjoying all the animation medias-especially now Maya and I are getting along-so I'm keeping an open mind.) The more versatile you are the better and one of the most frequently animated things you come across are human. Unfortunately for me that's my week point probably because I spent the majority of my childhood drawing anything but human-my philosophy being that there were so many of them around that the idea of creating a drawing of another was just plane dull. I also thought that people were too boring to draw too as, as far I as I was aware, the adults spent their days in offices at computers while the younger half sat mesmerised in front of TV screens.
Anyway the result is obvious. My ability to draw human anatomy is shameful where as I will happily tackle anything else...
(Coloured pencil) And so my nerdy love for mechs (robots) is revealed.
(Biro) I'm sane. I promise. (Pencil) Shoooooo!
(Water colour) A small rodent armed with a quiver and crossbow intended for human...of course...
This is a biro work in progress bellow. My reference source is beneath it.
Now this is where it all goes wrong.
See?
My human anatomy is just diabolical. This isn't an ok drawing. This is a terrible drawing so I'm going to have to practice drawing the human anatomy big time.
Also there's something rather unusual going on. If I attempt an ordinary life drawing this is the result but if I do an life drawing on negative space this is the result...
Now it's much more accurate. W-w-why is this? How can I create an outline that appears to resemble the human form much more closely than an actual line drawing?
Well I'm done ranting. I'm just going to have to practice like crazy...and devour the little chocolate Christmas tree I got in my advent calendar this morning. Oh yes I am so very cool. Te, he, he.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)