Monday 23 March 2009

week 24


In some respects my idea is simlar how ever implyfied virsion of the kings story as he goes throught so much and end up with nothing and dies.i also feel in some ways king kong has the melancholy feeling his state of mind is gloomy and lonelyness followed with depression the island in which he love on is in hbbited by dnagerous creatures. his only way to survive is to fight them off and so this is how i think his kind become extinct over time.




bouncing ball


the 2 walk cycles




rotating bouncing ball




Evaluation


The overall project has had some of its strengths and weeaknesses highs and lows however i have definetly gained a greather knowelege into the whole aspect of 2d animation ive stufied into artist work ventured into films and so on.


I enjoyed the design process of my amiantion comin up with ideas about my toadstool i felt very ambitious and creative, areas in which could have been inproved my animation included the way in which it was layed out perhaps i could have used 24 frames per second other than 12 improving the picture qualtiy moveing more smoothly.


When animating the area in which the animation went correctly was the drawing and editing it togther although saying this i found that if there more of the same procsses bein done then more problems occur the futher you travel into the task.



So many problems occured when creating the animation , i made the mistake of useing small A6 peices of paper rather than doin it on A4 as this would have improved my time went scanning, i wasnt familar with adding sounds this couls have been improved by creating them myself perhaps colour woudl have enhanced the picture quaity.


Final Life of a toadstool

Sunday 15 March 2009

week 23

At this stage I'm fairly comfortable with my work some areas still need improvement however nothing to major I'll b looking to start writing my essay as i have completed some of the other tasks in the previous week.


character sheets...

The characters within my animation vary in sizes this can give you a clear indication of which one is which also there characteristics are the same and serve the same purpose which is to be picked by humans.


traditional animation














































Add Image
lip sinking

I began looking at walk cycle in the early weeks and now have the opportunity to venture into it with more depth, in order to understand the walk cycle process I'll need to gather information bout it first, this will in turn help me with the design and constructions of it.

my three character walk cycles...


side view





front view



back view



making of the light box/table


in today's world there are many ways in which to create a 2d style of animation programs such as flash can speed the process up however going back and using the traditional method of light can really show you the toughness of drawing.


i felt that when animating i will need a suitable area on which to work on ,i created a light table other than a light box which all my drawings can be done, i didn't have a box neither have prospects to combine with and so i had the opportunity to craft one which an old television stand shelf it was perfect for wot i was doing as it wasn't completely transparent effecting my eye sight.

Monday 9 March 2009

week 22

Started this week watching some clips on animation which range from the earlier period in time between the 1900s to around about the 1970s, going back to the history of animation is always a good place to start with the most simple animation can be very hard , during the 1900s animation started out without sounds and then gradually thought out the years the sounds element brought animation to a new level enhanced the entertainment for all to see.
  • The Enchanted drawing

  • Humorous Phases of Human Faces

  • He resolves not to Smoke

  • Humpty Dumpty

The first few clips black and white and then as time progressed we began watching more up to date short clips in colour expanding the details and movements also.

  • Summer Time

  • Aladdin and the magic lamp

  • Tom and Jerry Mid night Snack and The night before Christmas

  • Loney Tunes Road runner

  • Bill Plymonth

Very useful website showing when wild mushrooms are in season also showing the months of the year, i can also benefit from the list of mushrooms as references.This allows me to put a sense of logic in my animation making it believable in a way as it is set in real time.
http://www.buymushrooms.co.uk/acatalog/More_Info.html

As the time within my project progresses i pick up small ideas which just pops into my head gradually as i think about it more and more, looking into to the whole animation world these can be used to help me with perhaps the design of the storyboard to the background and so forth.


Animator Research
It was time for me to begin my research into the animator which i will be writing about in my essay, we have seen various artist already in such a small period of time and so there are many choices to pick from, exploring the brief the located the sites in which contained more artists, these are some of my favorites.

Bruno Bozzetto - great cartoon animation giving a sightly old fashion feel to it however has reason behind it also taking on political views and so on in his animation.

http://www.bozzetto.com/homepage2.html

Akira 2019 (Katsuhiro Otomo) - taking on the a modern art form of the Japanese comic style katsushiro 2d work relates to manga and anime.He attended Sanuma High School where he developed a keen interest in film - in particular the American 'new-wave' cinema of the late sixties and early seventies. Otomo's filmic obsessions would heavily influence his later work.

http://akira2019.com/katsuhiro_otomo.html

Matt Groening - very famous for creating the popular family within the cartoon genre, Simpson's and others such as futurama producing fantastic 2d animation from a highly skilled background being a writer, cartoonist, producer, animator, television show creator, director, and business executive.


http://www.mattgroening.com/

Joanna Quinn - the style in which she creates her animation drew me into her work as the are highly detailed hand-drawn artworks with a strong sense of visual rhythm and movement.

http://www.berylproductions.co.uk/

J.J.Sedlmaire - known for working on various sides of the commercial industry containing a huge portfolio of animation work which range from more than 400 productions some of which tend to be based around TV and broadcasting/ Commercial.

http://www.jjsedelmaier.com/


Chuck Jones - In a career spanning over 60 years, Jones made more than 300 animated films, winning three Oscars as director and in 1996 an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. Among the many awards and recognitions, one of those most valued was the honorary life membership from the Directors Guild of America.

During the Golden Age of animation Jones helped bring to life many of Warner Bros. most famous characters—Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. The list of characters he created himself includes Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe le Pew, Michigan J. Frog and many others.

http://www.chuckjones.com/



Just from reading into Charles Martin Jones (Chuck Jones) biography you can clearly see the achievements he has created and won though-out his career this is the reason for my choice, he famous for creating memorable characters giving him an edge over animators during the 2d animation era.

inspiring quote
"The whole essence of good drawing—and of good thinking, perhaps—is to work a subject down to the simplest form possible and still have it believable for what it is meant to be."











story board...



Narative..

Characters design


I have found a great tutorial of classical animation by Doug Compton, a cartoonist and animator from karmatoons, he had worked in projects like "Bugs Bunny's 50Th Birthday Special" and many other. Using this will improve my characters design when animating.
http://www.karmatoons.com/drawing/drawing.htm








The series of images shown above are a few pages from the tutorial they are very useful and will come in handy, these can also be used as guidelines for my 2d animation remembering some of the techniques used with information about principles will in turn help me to create certain effects giving me an overall improvement.



I am already familiar with the squash and stretch principles as my toadstool will be fixable I'll need to master the method for the animation here are some of my example walk cycles.





As i will not be incorporating eyes onto my toadstool i will need to figure out movement with my character, the movement will determine the type of sequence you Will be showing the audience and so getting this right is key, perhaps in a sense if the back is curved forward on a human being then you would start to see sadness as he is walking and so the back has become arched shown above in my own toadstool diagram one of which is a lively bounce (2) and the 2ND a more depressed bounce (3).


Styles of animation
Paper cutout



Here is an example of the paper cutout method of 2d animation although it is very simple, the technique demonstrates how easy and effective it can be, like the 'Aladdin and the magic lamp' a huge amount of thought went into the designs such as the backgrounds the way the characters and scenery moved which become successful.




















Stop motion

Minilogue/hitchhikers choice - short version




















http://www.ljudbilden.com/

http://blog.ljudbilden.com/

There are many different types of animation that are used in our present day world. The three main ones are clay animation, computer animation, and "plain" animation. All of them have their own distinct uniqueness.

Monday 2 March 2009

Animation week 21

Animation

I'm really enjoying how our projects every time bring something new and exciting to deal with,the work and the whole animation scene becomes more complex as we develop a better understanding of what animation really consists of in the work. when working and creating the knowledge within cg arts is expanding giving us a huge new overlook onto the world of animation.

The next project consists of hand drawn animation and the history behind this also we was giving the Chance at the briefing to watch some clips of the early days of animation and how it was done, one caught my eye in particular 'Gertie the dinosaur' it was funny full of humour experimenting with thoughtful jokes it really gave me a sense of what was achieved at such a late time in history.


In term of the work load i already known everything needs to be planned out before i start, aspect such as research and building a basic narrative will become the main priority of the first week or so, i can then start to building a foundation in which i can work upon, things such as the character design will come after this process as will development of the initial sketches, i can then progress onto the animation itself using a method to produce the hand drawn animation into a final render.

Once again we received words in which we can start working on:

The Melancholy

Toadstool


'An inedible or poisonous fungus with an umbrella-shaped fruiting body.'


I am not familiar with the word melancholy and so research was done into the word, some of the aspects i picked up on described what melancholy was and also what they are associated with in the real world.

Useful quote
by Henri Frederic Amiel

"Melancholy is at the bottom of everything, just as at the end of all rivers is the sea. Can it be otherwise in a world where nothing lasts, where all that we have loved or shall love must die? Is death, then, the secret of life? The gloom of an eternal mourning enwraps, more or less closely, every serious and thoughtful soul, as night enwraps the universe."

Melancholy definition

http://www.answers.com/melancholy

Sadness or depression of the spirits; gloom: “There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass” (Charles Kuralt).
Pensive reflection or contemplation.
Archaic.
Black bile.
An emotional state characterized by sullenness and outbreaks of violent anger, believed to arise from black bile.


Artist research



Domenico Feti


captures depression
http://www.oceansbridge.com/oil-paintings/product/76426/melancholy1620/f6434e58f8b5202404a680ffb10bdf07



Edvard Munch

http://www.edvard-munch.com/gallery/wood/melancoly_wood.htm


Throughtout the course so far the work has involved huge amounts of of 3 dimentional work for example modelling sets in maya ect, coming from the realms of 3d this project has given us a chance to understand the histroy of 2d animation and some of the techniques used which will improve in areas of our 3d work as animation was 1st creatived in 2d.

The Enchanted Drawing



















these clips show the huge tranformation in animation that has taken place within the last hundred years or so, the complete transformation between the two clips come from the 1900s to the present time.Although i use the word transformation there are also some elment which are still in place which creating theses.



Colours sound was a big step enchaning the entertainment experpince for the view as sounds was being realised and introduced into animtion the animation started to become more complex in terms of the details and so on.



CG Facial Animation





















Toadstool animation




















youtube is a great source when looking for some visual reserch and refrences of a giving topic and so this is where my findings of walks cycles began.



How to Film Walk Cycle Reference Footage -- powered by eHow.com


How to Film Walk Cycle Reference Footage


How to Design a Walk Cycle Character -- powered by eHow.com

How to Design a Walk Cycle Character

Keeping your character to be animated as simple as possible for efficiency in walk cycle animation; learn this and more in this free online art video about animation taught by an expert animator.

Walk cycles
running cheetah




















http://www.animationarena.com/principles-of-animation.html


28 Principles of Animation


I have located a site in which indicates that there are 28 princples of animation its a great example for begginer such as myself to understand the wide range of techiniques and processes that are involed within animation.

-Pose and Mood
-Shape and Form
-Anatomy
-Model or Character
-Weight
-Line and Silhouette
-Action and Reaction
-Perspective
-Direction
-Tension
-Planes
-Solidity
-Arcs
-Squash and Stretch
-Beat and Rythem
-Depth and Volume
-Overlap and followthru
-Timing
-Working from extreme to extreme
-Straights and Curves
-Primary and secondary action
-Staging and composition
-Anticipation
-Caricature
-Details
-Texture
-Simplification
-Positive and negative shapes

'There are some principles of animation that can be consciously used in any scene. We should familiarize ourselves with them for both animation and animation-cleanup.'


More artist research

Norman Mclauren...

Norman Mclauren is a huge influence to my work i would like to incorporate the style in my own way as the effect that he gives in his animations is appealing, the variation in types of lines and colours gives a illusion of emotion which works well with my melancholy state.



Fantasia...

There is a relationship between fantasia and the work that i want to produce, as fantasia entertains through the use of sounds and imagery which is very bold and strong, the link between nature and my toadstool has inspired me to use it as a reference to my work at much as possible.