2D Animation

 Finished Bird Flight 

like I said in my previous post I wanted to add some clouds to my bird flight and I think it gives it a really nice effect of movement. I have also linked it a few times so it is easier to watch and I think it looks really good.

3D Animation

if you look at my past posts in my blog you can see that there is massive lack of 3D Animation this is because in the past couple of weeks I have often debated whether or not to post any. The reason I have been questioning this is because I believe that my 3D Animation is definitely the one I'm weakest at and I have felt that none of it (except some of my Mery poses) has been any good to post, however, I for the past week I have been making my showreel ready for our deadline this Friday and I have realised that if I don't compare my work to other peoples (which I usually do)  I have made great improvements in my 3D and even if it is not the best in the class it is something I should show off so here is a range of my 3D animations that I have been doing over the past couple of weeks (not all of them)

Excited ball bounce

One of our very first tasks in 3D ( before the Mery poses) was for us to take this ball rig that they gave us and create at least 2 balls with different 'emotions' on them. my favourite one was this 'excited' ball as I think it just looks really good and at it was really working out how to do the squash and stretch on each bounce as this is something I have never done before.

Monty Walk

Later on in 3D we were able to use this Monty rig to create a walk cycle. I found this really interesting and very difficult as I struggled with working out how and where to put the key frames to make it look like he was walking normally. As you can see from the video above the walk is still very fast and awkward and if I was to do this again I would definitely slow it down a bit.

Yawn

For this Animation we used the bodymechs rich which I found very easy to use because it was made by someone to specifically teach beginners. for this task we had to make the character yawn using a video of ourselves for reference. I found this very difficult as I sometimes struggled to get the arm to move right to make it look right and ended up getting the right arm stuck in a fist at the end. however I think that overall the actual animation of the yawn looks good.

Push

For our next task I actually completed two finished pieces as I did one when we were set the task and I recently redid it as I didn't really that the character had to give up at the end. as you can see my first try is very simple of a character called jack trying to push the box and sliding back. I also decided to redo this task as I felt that the animation in my first try didn't look right and him sliding back made him look like he was floating. in my second try I used a character called Tina and decided this time I wasn't going to make her feet move just so it looked less like she was sliding. I definitely like my second try more however I still feel like it could be improved slightly by holding the pushing frame for a bit longer. I also tried to make the push look more feminine because I chose a female character however I think I have maybe made the push a bit to feminine and it make its look a little comedic but overall I am happy with the outcome.

2D Animation

Bird flight

For our next task in 2D animation we were asked to create that could fly in a cycle as you can see this video is very short however I would like to add clouds to the background so this video is not finished. I will make sure to loop the final video so you can see the animation more clearly. I found it very difficult trying to work out how the wings of the birds would flap and as you can see this bird looks more like its dancing than flying however I think its gives it a bit of a comical effect as I was trying to make it look like a rubber duck and make it funny anyway.

Stop motion Animation

Character walk child being told off

For our next task in Stop motion Animation we were asked to do a 'character' walk which means to create a walk in a certain style. I decided to do a child being told off by someone as I thought it would be good to convey how a child quickly moves across the floor however in a very sad way when they are being told off. I conducted this Animation at the same time as the normal walk so again the feet have been cut off, I also don't like how it wobbles a lot towards the end of the animation and if I get chance I will be redoing this task.

Stop Motion Animation

Normal walk

For our next stop motion animation task we were asked to make the character walk atleast 3 steps across the screening doing a 'normal' walk. this was my second attempt at this walk and even though I like the way the puppet moves I think it is slightly to fast and the head does wobble a lot in the middle of the walk. I also didn't realise that the feet are not fully in screen and so if I get chance I will definitely redo this walk 

2D Animation

Character head turn - coloured

I decided that before i would add any more frames i wanted to see what my head turn looks like coloured as i didn't know if this would have a substantial effect on the way the overall piece looked. however, after colouring my animation i now realise that it definitely does need a few more frames right before the take just to give the take a bigger and better effect.

2d Animation

character head turn

For our next task in 2D Animation we were asked to created a character that turns his head and does a take. we also had to make sure to show some sort of follow through I already had a character in mind and so I decided to do this dog character as I thought it had a nice look andi could make the shaggy hair and tongue do the follow through. as you can see I have not finished this task yet as I have not coloured however I wanted to show the develop of the character and after showing it to a few people including our lecturer I have decided that I need to make the character look more shocked during his take. To do this I am going to add a few more frames so that his face goes down more right before doing the take, this will give it a better effect.  

2d animation

Disney Hand turn 

For our next task we were asked to replicate a hand like mickey mouses turning. we were asked to do this because in the industry we might have to replicate other peoples work and we need to be able to do this easily. I think that my work looks good and moves nicely and I enjoyed looking at others work and trying to replicate it.

2D Animation

2D rough hand turn sketch

For our next 2D task we were ask to create a cartoon hand (whichever one you don't write with in my case the right) that turns from the back of its hand to its palm, however we had to first create a very rough animation of a normal hand turning and then turn it into a cartoon hand. This is my attempt at creating the rough,sketched out hand turning and in my opinion it looks really good. obviously it is missing a few inbetweens but i wanted to make sure that i didn't spend to much time on this one and not enough on the actual cartoon hand.

3D Animation

Emotions

3D animation is definitely the one that i lack the most confidence in and i struggle to understand however as the weeks go by i'm starting to gain more confidence and understanding in the way maya works.

In this weeks task instead of being asked to create another small animation we were asked to use the (already created) character MERY to show some basic emotions using her whole rigging system (her whole body). These are some of the emotions I decided to create. the first emotion I looked at was anger as I thought it would be the easiest to convey on this rigging system however I then realized that trying to make the character hold her hips was very difficult and it took me a while to get it right. I then decided to make a mischievous, thinker pose and I found this one to be the easiest of all except I think I could improve it by moving her hand into a better position. The last emotion i looked at was shocked but instead of looking at scared,shocked I decided to look at excited,shocked like she has just received a surprise present, I think I did this emotion really well as I believe it looks really realistic. I am hoping to make two more of these by our next session on Thursday.

2D Animation

Picking up heavy item

This week in 2D we were asked to create a flour sack that picks up a heavy item and throws it somewhere on the screen. I have found the latest task that we have been given in 2D Animation to be the most difficult so far as I have really struggled to show how the item the sack is holding is heavy.This is my final attempt at this task (so far) however i'm hoping to get some feedback from our lecturer on how I could make the rock look heavier when the sack is picking it up so I will hopefully be able to show some improvement next week.

Stop Motion Animation

Ball Throw

For our next stop motion task we were asked to make our puppet look like its throwing a ball across the screen (without using an actual ball) this has definitely been the most difficult task yet as trying to make the puppet look like its getting ready to throw the ball was really tough. this was my second attempt at this task and I think it looks good, however to improve I think I will make sure that the puppet leans back more when it is getting ready to throw the ball. I will definitely be repeating this task to get a better outcome.

stop motion animation

Toe Touch

For our next stop motion animation we were asked to make our puppet touch its toes. after viewing a demonstration I thought that creating this would be a lot easier than it was as I struggled at making sure I didn't make each movement in each frame to big and I also realized how difficult it is to move in the puppets in a way that makes them flow. however after a few attempts this was my final try and I believe that it is a good result. I think that the puppets movement flows nicely, however if i was going to repeat this task again I would concentrate more on giving the arms more of a swing.