Trying a 3D lift...

So, I've had a go at doing the 3D Dee character lifting a heavy object. Although it did turn out alot better then I thought it would, there are still all the ususal bits n pieces wrong with it.



There are the odd parts where the hands/arms disappear into the box..which just isn't natural...I really should have made the hands stick to the box so that it moved with the arms of the character once he had hold of it as this would have made it easier to combine the two movements, rather then keying them seperately.

The action of the lifting and manouvering the character around the box to be able to lift it I think is ok and it does look as though he is struggling. However, keeping the hands and box together and the timing definately can be improved. Although he picks up the box slowly due to the weight of it, it would be much more effective if he put more effort into picking it up and having parts where he used strength and the movement gets a bit faster, for example when he manages to get the box onto his shoulder. This would probably be done with a lot more aniticipation and the movement would need to be quick to get the weight up there.

but...it's an attempt for the time being...

Experimental animation

Having thought a little more about the experimental project and listened to the music a bit more, there are two pieces that stood out, but one in particular that I'd like to work with which is quite african sounding and fast, with lots of accents that could be used and synchronised with movement.

So far we have looked at quite a lot of pixellated animation, which I think is a really interesting technique and certainly very different to most animation seen.
However, the idea of creating a very expressive piece to music reminds me of the work of Erica Russell. Although her work is planned and probably quite structured, she times everything beautifully and the shapes she uses to create the dancing characters work so smoothly and blend perfectly with the sound. I would love to achieve a piece of animation similar to her work, but in a more experimental way or medium.





I have also looked at work by Caroline Leaf and the idea of sand animation. I have seen quite a lot of this in the past and seen some films of live shows with people creating amazing images changing from one to another in sand. I'd love to know how this can be achieved and look into it a bit more. Maybe it would be possible to combine the two ideas of using images and sequences of changing shapes and dancing movements that Russell creates, however using sand.





Definately need to do more research and some experimenting!!

Advanced Maya project...

If I'm honest I havn't got very far with this project yet. I really wanted to try and get into Maya this year and I'm positive I still will, but as this project is the optional one, I'm finding that I'm pushing it to the back of my 'to do' list and getting the character animation and drawing side of things done first..which I suppose is a good thing..except I'm getting a bit lost with this now!
So far I've taken the photos and managed to line them up in photoshop to use as reference in Maya. I have staretd to model my face, however I have definately made waaaaaay to many polygons when adding all my edge loops. I have the basics of my face, and from the side I can see similarities..its heading in the right direction, however due to all the points I've made, the more i tweak it and pull and push it, the more out of shape it's getting and I'm forever finding bits sticking out in all kind of odd places. SO...the plan is, to remove a fair few of my polygon and loops to make the model much simpler. By doing this I'm hoping it will be much easier to get into the right shape. Having done this I can then duplicate and reverse it and start modelling the other side of my face.



After this I need to try creating the eye. Although this was last week I still need to get it done, and I think working from my notes and what Georg told us in the lesson I should be able to do this a little more successfully! so..lots to do for this one :S

Drawing project cont.....

I have done a range of drawings since I last posted the project on here. Some of them are really rough and quick drawings, mainly from TV programmes and films where people are interacting. I thought this was a really good suggestion as the camera really focuses on the body language of the actors and how they are acting towards each other. I found this really useful, particularly to do some faster drawings to try and get as much information about the characters down quickly as the film continued.















From this I found that without detail, it's quite hard to tell what the characters are doing and I think it is important that in furture I need to concentrate on the shape of the figures and almost exaggerate their movements, emphasising what they are doing, particulalry when thinking about animation.

I have also done some more detailed illustrative type drawings to keep up the character design and because I wanted to try some neater, more finished ideas. I got inspiration for these mainly from photos or just thinking up situations that would create good moments between characters. I was quite pleased with the outcome of these and enjoyed doing them.



I really like the illustrative style characters such as of Joanna Quinn, particulalry becasue of the energy and expression she puts into each of her characters.





I think getting the body language and expression into characters the way she does is definately something to aim for and use as inspiration when designing characters and continuing this project.

weight lifting...

So our next assignment for character animation was to animate a figure lifting/pushing an object in order to show weight. When first thinking about it, you wouldn't think it would be hard to make a big block or rock look heavy, but when you're animating it, suddenly you realise it's just a drawing on paper or an object in Maya and doesn't have any weight...it is therefore completely up to the character and the way it reacts to the object to make it appear heavy.

Again I wanted to try it out in a few different mediums and see which one turned out best. So far I have managed to complete it in 2D, which took longer then I thought, and there are still some areas I would change and maybe add a few frames into to get it working a bit better...



For example the first part where the character is sizing up the object..thinking about how to lift it probably needs a bit longer and a few more frames in it to make him move a bit more smoothly. Similarly the step up to the object could have a few extra frames again just to make the walk better and prehaps exaggerate him taking on the challenge.
The lift itself is ok. I could have put a bit more of a struggle into it, such as straining a bit more, or shaking slightly as he tries to lift, but I think the speed change and body shape shows the weight of the object quite well.
I would like to try a similar action in 3d or stop motion to see how different they look, or if I can get it working a little more smoothly.

The walks are back...

For the character animation project we have starting doing walks again..just getting back into the basics before trying to animate them in a more characterised way. I couldn't decide what medium to do it in and thought it was probably best to have a go at both to make sure I could still remember how to do it! I had a couple of attempts in 2D...



Above is the first attempt which I think went ok, there are just a few things such as the head changing shape quite a bit, not squashing and stretching correctly and the arms also look as if they get longer in the inbetween phase when they are to the side of the body. The shoulder movement looks ok but I could have probably put a bit more into the hips. Its also moving quite quickly and is more of a strut then a natural walk. so, attempt 2...



I definately think the second one is an improvement. The walk is more natural, not too exaggerated, the arm swing works better and flows in a smoother way and I think the body movement overall jsut has a better appearance. The head now stays the same size, however it may need a bit of squash and stretch as something about it still doesn't look quite right. I attempted creating a walk in 3D using a new rig. I thought it was working quite well, and I got the legs moving well and the arm swing going smoothly with the body. I think I then tweeked and moved around the rest of the body a bit too much and got to the point that when I played the walk it was a bit jutery and not very natural. The figure's head seems to move around quite a lot which I wasn't too aware of when animating it. The main problem with the walk however is the speed. I managed to play it back in Maya twice the speed and it works quite well as some of the juddery movements aren't as obvious and look smoother. However when creating a playblast the speed goes down and the walk doesn't look good...so this definately needs to be changed...another few attempts at this one maybe...

Beginning of a new year...

Back here again..and straight into a few new projects, all of which seem really interesting and I can't wait to get into them properly.
I'd never heard of the 10/11 second club before last week, but it's such a good idea and something that would be so good to get into doing every month. I think this would improve my character animation greatly and would be really good practise for lip synch. Having looked at quite a few of the examples on the website however, I do find it a bit intimidating as a lot of people posting on it have a lot of experience and are producing really great quality animation in hardly any time at all! Definately something to aim for though!
I'm not completely sure how or what medium I want to use for the character project. I would love to try out 3D as I still havn't used it for any real project yet, however I think I would be a lot more successful and be able to put much more character into a 2D drawn animation as I feel I have much more control over it. I may try and have a tester of both and see which outcome is more sucessful for me.

I've already found the 'conversations' drawing project helpful when thinking about characters and design in terms of postures, movement, the way people sit, stand, express themselves. I have only done a small number of drawings so far, most of which came from photos I already had. To further this I need to go out and draw people in natural situations.








I'm enjoying getting back into drawing after not doing as much as I should have over the summer. I found I was a little rusty when we had a life drawing session, however towards the end I was improving, but I think it will take a few more lessons to get up to where I was at the end of last year.






The experimental project should be quite good fun. I'm looking forward to trying different techniques and playing around to find an interesting way of animating. It could be really expressive and good practise using music to really get the timing right. Again I don't really know what medium I want to use for this, but I'm up for trying out a few different things to see what works and I also need to decide on one of the pieces of music and start to doodle out a few ideas and images.

So...a lot to get on with! bring it on!