Animation: Animation Sketchbook: 10 a day: 16th - 28th .03.2012

The Time Machine: Presentation

Animation: Sequence update

Animation: Opening Sequence

This is the finished title sequence which leads to the first scene. 

(Without Sound)

Animation: Skydiving Toadstool: Cap Test Success

I've photoshopped in some 'handkerchief' stills from my drop test, and I like how it's turned out. I think it's at a stage where I can now draw them in, in pencil :)

Also, now I have this figured out, the rest of the animation has one less section to calculate :)

Animation: Skydiving Toadstool: Body - Update

I've added some more in-betweens, here's a before and after to show some difference.

Before: The test was just 11 frames per second

Now, 24 Frames per second.



There is a version where I added a lot more in betweens but I found it was too slow for this section of the story but it will be the ideal speed and smoothness for the waltz section.

Next I'm going to use photoshop to test the 'handkerchief cap' on top of the hand drawn animation. 

The Time Machine: Research

Figure 01. L'Origine du Monde, Gustave Courbet, 1866

Figure 02. Rose, Lucian Freud, 1978-9

Figure 03. Le Sommeil, Gustave Courbet, 1866

Figure 04. Two Women, Lucian Freud, 1992

Figure 05. Plan, Jenny Saville, 1993

Figure 06. Venus of Lespugue, 23,000 BC

Figure 07. Venus of Moravany

Time Machine Research 01

Animation: More Skydiving Reference Videos

In reality - there is no funky music playing while you dive - Clip 01 shows how it really sounds :)

Clip 01


Clip 02


Clip 03


Clip 04


Clip 05


Clip 06

Animation: Reference

J.J. sent me a link to this video - brilliant footage, also, very useful angles for my animation - Thanks J.J. :P

Animation: Skydiving Toadstool: Body

I wanted to see how my skydive turnaround would look on 24's, so for now I've drawn just the body of my toadstool. From this clip I think there needs to be a few more frames in the section where the feet are closest to the camera, I find this too clunky at the moment. Next I'm going to see how the 'Handkerchief' cap would look on him. 

Animation: Problem Solving Tests: Toadstool Cap

Today's crash tester, I've named him Monty.

I'm having problems figuring out how to make my toadstool's cap look like it's skydiving with him, so I've found some materials laying about the house, attached them to Monty, and filmed them in slow motion as they fall. The quality has not turned out as well as I'd hoped, but it's workable.

Figure 01. Monty

Clip 01. A4 Paper

Figure 02. A Disc of Paper


Clip 02. A Disc of Paper

Figure 03. Black Cloth


Clip 03. Black Cloth

Figure 04. Handkerchief


Clip 04. Handkerchief

Figure 05. Standard thickness Plastic Bag Disc

Clip 05. Standard thickness Plastic Bag Disc

Figure 06. Thin Plastic Bag Disc


Clip 06. Thin Plastic Bag Disc

From these tests, I think the best is the Handkerchief. I think it shows the most flow, question is - would it work as a Toadstool Cap?
I can only test it and see :)

Animation: Animation Classes: Homework: Ebullient Walk Cycle

Animation: Animation Classes: Homework: Normal Walk Cycle

Animation: Timing: Fitting the animation into 1 minute

I used a stopwatch and the reference footage wherever I could to work out how long particular moves in my animation might take, it took 3 attempts to fit the sections.

Figure 01 shows I tried to include the title sequence into the minute but found I still had a chunk of my animation that wouldn't fit.

In Figure 02 I took the title sequence out of the equation and shortened the first section of free fall time but I still didn't have the room for the few end sequences.

Finally in figure 03, I managed to fit the animation into the minute but sacrificed 4 seconds of The Blue Danube, so this will need to be revised incase those 4 seconds of music are needed. Overall, to make this animation work cleanly, I might need to add 4 - 10 seconds to the animation (not including the title sequence and end credits), resulting in slightly over 1 minute of animation.

Figure 01                   Figure 02               Figure 03

This is the particular link I used to select the music, the time written in red corresponds to this video

Animation: Storyboard Plus Sound Info

Animation: Storyboard Variation (@Phil)

I've made an alteration to the section involving the bird - 9 & 10, could I have an opinion please :)

Animation: Life Drawing: Week 23

Figure 01

Figure 02                                               Figure 03

Figure 04                                              Figure 05

Figure 06                                          Figure 07

Animation: Skydiving Toadstool Turnaround Test

Since the last post i've re-drawn the figure as my toadstool. 

Figure 01

From thisI thought there wasn't enough wind movement, so I tried some squash and stretch on the cap.

Figure 02

After watching this test it doesn't quite look right, so I will try another way.

Animation: Skydive Turnaround Test

Here is some of the footage from my skydive. I have taken still frames from this footage and drawn over them to make a simple line test. I didn't draw the arms as they are not needed for my animation, so he's just an armless fellow.

This is the cycle of these traced drawings. I have included the horizon line to see what effect this gave.

Figure 01

Here's how this looks animated:

Then I tried the same images, but without the horizon line.

Figure 02

And the animation:

Next I wanted to see how I could loop this footage, so I mapped where the head moved, as shown in figures 03 & 04.

Figure 03                                                                          Figure 04

From here I decided to try smoothing the map out, I did this by drawing a figure of 8 then re-positioning each layer over the new map. This is shown in figures 05 & 06.

Figure 05                                                                          Figure 06

This is how the looped animation looks:

At the moment I think this is looking too smooth for an adrenaline filled free fall, so next I will try these images re-drawn as my toadstool, and the flapping inverted cap might add some more thrill. 

Animation: OGR

Presentation 01

Presentation 02

There is not an essay introduction yet, but I have decided to write my essay on The Brothers Quay.

 Blog Links

1. Final Animation

2. 'Art Of'

3. Character Design

4. Storyboard

5. Script

6. Draft Scripts / Story Development

7. Supporting Artwork for Character

8. Influence Maps

9. Supporting Research for Story / Character / Animation

10. Supporting Research for Written Assignment

 11. Animator Profiles

12. Life Drawing

13. Creative Partnership Archived

14. Submission Disc Artwork / Branding

15. Animation Exercises 

 + Meg's Homework

16. Maya Exercises

Animation: Script: Draft 01

Animation: The Ebullient Toadstool: Character Design

Figure 01: Silhouette Turnaround                                                 Figure 02: Turnaround

Figure 03: Still Moods                                                        Figure 04: Running

Figure 05: Falling Turnaround                                                 Figure 06: Parachute Opening

Figure 07: Summersault Manoeuvre