Study Task 8 - 3D WALK CYCLE

WALK CYCLE

-arm swinging too fast
-head movement too jerky
-good leg movement
-armature had minimal movement
-tearing plasticine
-rig didn't work properly )too much bandage in the way of the screw

One of the issues I faced while working on animating my 3D walk cycle was essentially the degradation of materials while trying to pose the armature. Using plasticine as the outer material for the puppet was aesthetically effective for making the puppet look like my designs but when it came to animating, the plasticine would often tear, revealing the bandages underneath. While it was possible to repair the damaged material, much of the texture was lost while trying to fix it. Another issue I encountered was that the inner mechanism for attaching my puppet to its rig was that the bandage I used to bulk up my armature got in the way of the screw, which meant my puppet did not attach to the rig properly. This was not helpful in the process of animation because it would often not stay in place while I tried to pose my puppet. A solution for these issues in the future would be using materials different to plasticine for the outer layer of my puppet such as silicone, which is used for many stop motion pictures nowadays for its flexibility. I could also consider the rigging more and place less bandages underneath around where the rig would attach. This would assure that no problems would be encountered while trying to animate my character.

As a reference for my walk cycle, I also looked at a frame by frame analysis of the movements of a typical walk cycle. I may want to consider using my own reference videos in the future so I can put more characterisation into my animation.

Study Task 6 - ARMATURE BUILDING/PUPPET MAKING

ARMATURE BUILDING/PUPPET MAKING

By mapping out the sizes of each part of the puppet and considering which parts I would want to have more movability allowed me to make an aesthetically pleasing character. A part I would have changed is making the puppet bigger. As the skeleton was relatively small, it meant that when I built up more parts on the armature, its movement became more restricted. Using bandage wraps and blue foam as a layer underneath the plasticine was effective because I could build up the shapes needed to bulk up my character without adding too much weight. Finally the plasticine outer layer was effective to manipulate into the shapes needed, but I worry from past experience that it tears when trying to pose the puppet, making animating difficult. However, using plasticine also allowed me to incorporate texture into the puppet, such as using the side of one of the modelling tools to put a fabric-like texture into his clothes. It also meant that I could mix colours and create my own tones for different parts of the puppet. Overall, the techniques used made for an aesthetically pleasing puppet, but I think I will encounter issues when it comes to animating the puppet.

2D WALK CYCLE

2D WALK CYCLE

On TV Paint, I worked on some simple 2D walk cycles to help me understand the movement and key frames used when animating a walk. What I came to realise was that the walk will very rarely be in the generic style I used for these because a walk is a way to incorporate personality into your character, which is why it works for the initial one I worked on, essentially depicting a genderless stick-figure, but it looks slightly more unusual when I applied it to my character for the second walk cycle. Despite this, I learned the applications of TV Paint for 2D animation, such as how in the future I can apply my own reference videos with ease so I can add more life into the movement of my characters.

Study Task 7 - PITCH BIBLE

PITCH BIBLE

The Pitch Bible presentation proved an effective way of narrowing down my ideas to create a concise  breakdown of my film. A few of the things I learned from this process was using my imagination to essentially create a story for each of my key characters and an entire world for them to live in by mapping out the various angles and environments an audience would expect to see in my film. Furthermore, through presenting my ideas to an audience, I was able to see how I may. pitch an idea to a board in the future and what I might want to include to capture my target audience. Although I have created this world, I also learned the importance of setting limitations within the film. For example, as I am yet to learn how to professionally lip sync characters to make them talk, one of the limitations I set was limited dialogue of the characters. By recognising these limitations, An audience can know what to expect from the film.

Study Task 5 - MAYA CREATIONS

Working on 3D rendering on Maya was an interesting process which I found very hard to understand. I see Maya as a tool with endless potential because quickly I could create a basic model of a truck. However. My competence with computers could be worked on Because I was quick to fall behind when it got advanced. I did get an idea of how it makes animation simple and I would like to try using it again because I see how with practice, one could become competent with it and it is a good tool to use.

6 PRACTITIONERS

Alice Bloomfield

This practitioner produces a body of drawn work which she makes short animations from. They are extremely stylised stop-motion pieces which use traditional animation. Each frame is clearly hand drawn which is a style i would like to adopt in my own work

Molly Storey

This stop-motion model maker for Laika studios creates giant mechanical characters much like the one in the picture. Ambitiously, the models are enormous and have mechanical light up eyes. This has reminded me how many resources you can use to create stop-motion sets and characters.

Ian Mcque

This is an illustrator who has a very distinctive style. The linear drawings would be good for many aspects of my own work, whether it is concept art, storyboards or stylised traditional animation. The subjects of his work also interest me. As the film I am working on is sci-fi, the generally futuristic vehicles and environments he draws are inspirational.

Theflippestflipbooks

On the subject of traditional animation, the use of literal flip books is also an idea which interests me. With this instagram page, I found that the drawings were in essence very simplistic. However with these simple lines the idea is communicated very well. This is a technique which would be very helpful and time saving when creating my own traditional animations.

Blamo toys

This high end toy maker creates interesting characters which, with an armature underneath it, would be very aesthetic characters to animate. Using very simple techniques with stuffing and nice materials, the characters look very effective. This has reminded me to consider lots of materials when creating characters for stop-motion.

Joe Pascale

These computer animations play with people in realistic looking backgrounds. When using Maya this sort of animation would look effective. The distortion used would also work well within other animations.