250 Word Reflection

The advanced animation skills workshop was very challenging for me. I really struggled to animate a convincing walk cycle and it took me the entire length of the workshop to create a cycle I'm relatively happy with. With every cycle (walk and run), I got a click but by re-ordering the drawings I managed to smooth that out.

The weight exercises felt easy after the walk cycles although they too were a challenge. Trying to create the illusion of weight and get a good sense of pace to enhance the struggle was tough. By holding certain images within the animation and changing the length of time the others stayed on the screen, I was able to create a sense of struggle although I feel that with more time theses could be vastly improved. I know that my animation timing is an issues but if I continue doing exercises like this then maybe I can stop relying so much on my editing software to smooth out the pace and instead be able to just shoot my animation outright without the need for post-production.

The obstacle course also shows my lack of timing. Some elements work better than others - the monkey bars work well whereas the rope crawl has a lack of anticipation as he slides down the pole without caution; he is crawling above spikes and so the lack of caution detracts from the danger. It also seems like the course is 3 separate obstacles rather than 1 fluid obstacle. If I had drawn all the backgrounds on one sheet of paper I could have tracked my character and by drawing my character running from course to course, I could have made it look like a more polished and complete course.

The push and pulls are my favourite outcomes from this workshop and are the things I am most proud of. I am also very proud at myself for being able to overcome the issues I faced with my walk cycle. Going through my various attempts you can see how I was able to overcomes the problems I had. I never thought I would be able to create a functional cycle and now that I have I feel like I've overcome my biggest challenge in the course so far. I would love to be able to do more exercises like this so that I can iron out the obvious flaws. Only by practicing will I be able to improve my animation skills.

Finished Tasks Combined

Obstacle Course Animation

I have decided that my obstacle course will consist of 3 separate obstacles: a rope crawl, a jump and a cross on the monkey bars. Below are the videos of the initial animation.

 
When the man lifts his legs to the bar at the start it is a bit slow and then as he crawls across the bar he moves far too quickly. I have to sort out these issues before hand-in. I like the element of the spikes. It adds a real sense of danger. I think I'd like to do something similar with the other obstacles so that they too have that element of danger.

I think the jump works pretty well. There is good squash and stretch and he makes great height. I'd like to add in an object for him to jump over though otherwise the action seems a bit pointless.

 
The monkey bar obstacle works well. As he crosses the bars he has a good pace. There is a sense of secondary animation within the obstacle as the legs move separate from the rest of the body - this gives the impression of momentum, propelling the man forward across the obstacle. I'd also want to add in another element to this obstacle. Maybe something below the bars to keep him from wanting to fall - water maybe...

Animated Obstacle Course Plan

Putting everything together about what I have leaned about movement and weight, as well as the 12 principles of animation, I now have to create an animated obstacle course. Using running, jumping, climbing &c I will create a piece of animation about a character negotiating a series of physical obstacles. Before I jump into the animation progress, I first need to plan out my obstacle course; what sort of course will I have? What will the various activities be? Once I've created my course, I can then decide how my character overcome the obstacles put before him and how easily (or not so easily) the he will navigate around the course. To create my course I will look at existing obstacle courses and then use elements of that in my own. I want to make my obstacles course look exciting and not just like the usually genetic courses.  I have used references of army traing obstacle course as well as the TV show Gladiators to help me get a sense of what an obsticle course is.

The point of this exercise to to show off what I have learnt about the world of animation thus far. To do this I want to include as many of the 12 animation principles as possible. I will add in a sense of anticipation when my character is faces with a difficult task. I could add exaggeration when my character faces difficulty to add a sense humour or maybe a secondary character who completes the course with ease to show a comparison between the strong and weak. This would also add sympathy for the character giving him more appeal.I also want to attempt secondary action to add a better sense of realism to the piece. I could do this by giving my character hair.

Weight

After looking at pushes and pulls, I have begun looking at another aspect of weight - the lift. Looking at reference videos of lifting and acting out a heavy lift myself, I been able to create quick sequence sketches on the key movements in a lift.

 

This animation is very rough and the struggle of the weight isn't really there. Because of this, I have gone on to draw another weight - this time using a weightlifter. I have watched reference videos of a weightlifter and then drawn quick sketches.

 
Once animated I can see that it works a lot better but there still isn't much anticipation going on within the action. He seems to pick up the weight with ease and the timing of the animation stay consistent throughout. To help improve it I would make the weightlifter hold the weight for a while at the beginning and then try and vary the speed at certain points (making the action faster as he moves the weight to his chest and then slower when he lifts the weight above his head) to help improve the sense of anticipation.

Push/Pull Revisited

I have taken my previous pull and pushes and improved them. I have added in the objects and horizon lines so that they communicate better. There is abetter sense of anticapation which makes the weight more convincing. I have also sorted out the crazy line in the pull so that the weight remains constant.

 

 

Push/Pull Animation

Using my reference videos and sketches I made, I have animated 2 versions of a push and a pull. Let's start with the pushes. Firstly the object the stickman is pushing is missing from both push attempts. This makes it hard to see the effort the stickman as too but into pushing the invisible object. Also he seems to push the objects with too much ease. He lacks anticipation which would make the push look more like a struggle. The first animation is a bit unclear. It is supposed to look as if he is walking up a hill. However, that is a bit difficult to see without a horizon line. By simply adding in this line I can make my animation a lot clearer and easier to communicate. For my second attempt, I would say that the struggle is a lot more effective although the object is really needed to show the full extent of the weight acting on the stickman.

 

For the pull, I think that the sense of anticipation is a lot more successful. You can clearly see the struggle of the weight even though the weight isn't evident in the actually frame. The tope that the man is pulling goes a bit wild in the last few frames - making it look as if the weight has suddenly become lighter. I need to make sure that the rope line stays consistent throughout to maintain the illusion of weight.