Process and Production: Study Task 10

Process and Production 1
Study Task 10 Process: Run and Walk Cycles

After going through the animatic and adding in keyframes, I found the walk and run cycle animations the most difficult to time and space correctly, as they were at angles I had not used before. Using my side walk cycles as a reference on timing, I was able to recreate Meara's long stride, however I found the angle difficult. 

In order to improve on the movement from the specific angle, I used my MooM animation, to reference how the walk cycle looks from specific angles, as in Maya, I am able to move around the character. When animating this, I had Maya open at the same time, and then moved around the character when I needed the specific angle.

I hadn't previously made a run cycle, however I attempted this, using The Animators Survival Kit, by Richard Williams and The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas. Despite this, a lot of my run cycle was trial and error and using a reference. I found that there should be one frame where both feet are off the ground, to produce an effective run.

Process and Production: Study Task 10

Process and Production 1

Study Task 10 Process: Adding Weight

One of the shots wasn't going how I wanted it to, in terms of the animation. I was struggling to get the timing right in order to add more weight to the character and it was a complicated movement, which required using real-life referencing. I wanted it to appear that Meara found it easy to lift her body up onto the window-sill, whilst still containing some weight on her right arm. When I first did this, there seemed to be too much of a pause or stutter in the movement.

In order to improve, I asked someone else to look at the animation and help give pointers in how I could change it. They suggested possibly removing one of the frames where she is in the air, so it appears less that she almost "floats". After doing so, I had to adjust the timing, but this appeared to fix the issue I originally had.

Process and Production: After Effects Inductions

Process and Production

After Effects Induction Notes

I feel that After Effects would be a useful tool, alongside Adobe Premiere, for editing my final animation. It allows for post-production tools, which will make the animation process quicker and easier and therefore I think I will use this software when combining my character animation with my backgrounds.

I made a short document of notes, however a lot of the process was learning by doing, therefore I created the boat animation, with a spotlight on the boat, adding more dimension and depth to the 2D shapes.

Process and Production: Maya Walk Cycle

Process and Production

Maya Walk Cycle

For the Maya walk cycle, I felt that I was able to quickly understand how the MooM controls worked. I found that I had learnt to use the stepped keyframes well to just see the key poses and was able to use the graph editor without assistance to make the actions smooth. 

I thought that the leg and foot poses were accurate, along with the hip turning and shoulder turns for the arms, however I felt that I could improve more on the arm movement, to keep it more consistent. I think that next time I do this walk cycle, I will try more styles of walking and fix the arm movements.

I will also use this walk cycle to help me with my Study Task 9, where I need to look at the cycle from different angles. It will help get my key poses accurate.

Process and Production: Modelling in Maya

Process and Production

Modelling in Maya

To further improve my modelling skills in Maya, I decided to produce a model of Sumac, as his body shape was much simpler than that of Meara. I needed to follow tutorials in order to import the reference images and understand how to model. 

I followed this YouTube tutorial:

I found that as I continued practising, I started to get the idea of extruding parts to create limbs and body parts. However, I could further improve this by trying to add more detail in the future, and adding colour, despite the fact it was one of the first modelling attempts on a complex character.

Process and Production: Extremes and Inbetweens

Process and Production

Study Task 10 Process: Extremes and Inbetweens

Once I had completed the improved animatic, I imported each individual shot into TV Paint, as a separate clip. I learn to do this using the TV Paint manual guide. It made it easier to begin animating over the animatic, as I had done most of the keyframes.

I had used extremes and inbetweens before, however I still looked in The Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams, where he explores inbetweens. On page 96, he looks at elongated inbetween, which is stretching the drawing, to use less frames but give a similar motion. I use this idea in one of my shots, where Meara is jumping down from a ledge.

To improve the motion of the characters, and to further anticipate an action, I used a motion anticipation, for example, the character going down to come up and vice versa. An example of this is is when Sumac folds his wings. I added an additional two frames where his body leans up, before coming down to fold the wings.

I did this motion also for when she puts the scroll in her satchel. Originally, her hand just moves back to the satchel.

When I added the beginning few frames it anticipates the motion, before its followed by the inbetweens and keyframe. I will continue to implicate this idea throughout the process of the animation. I think I need to improve on my exaggeration more and the solid drawing and will further explore this when I continue working.

Professional Practise 1: Evaluate and Showreel

Professional Practise

Evaluation Presentation and Showreel

Throughout the year, I have found that I critisize myself a lot and I have improved far mre than I thought I had, when evaluating my progress. This is not just in animation, but I've also become more independent and able to make more friends and interact with people. 

I struggled to compile together a showreel because I felt that I hadn't done enough animation work this year that could be featured in the showreel. I think that I should do more 3D work over the summer and try to add more of that to the showreel next year. I would additionally like to improve my character animation and backgrounds and will do this by doing further practise over the summer, with figure drawing and personal projects.

Context of Practise: Exploring Colour

Context of Practise 1

Exploring Colour - Visual Journal

Within my visual journal and my essay, looking at the visual impact of colour lead me to explore the psychology of colours and the contrast of colour and tone. This was tied to some ideas I touched on in the beginning of my journal, however didn't completely explore up until this point. I looked at this idea in the use of backgrounds and illustrations, such as developing colour schemes which help show the narrative in a stylistic way. 

I'm additionally considering exploring Colour Scripts, which is used by Pixar. I discovered a YouTube video which flicks through, "The Colour of Pixar" book, which demonstrates examples of how Pixar has used colour scripting in their work. It's used as a way to map out the mood of the narrative, with colour.

Process and Production: Further Background Concepts with Maya

Process and Production

Further Background Concepts

To help develop my backgrounds and keep the perspective accurate to the storyboard of the animation, I created the top floor room of the castle in Maya. From what I had learnt from the tutorials, I created polygon cube and adjusted the size, and applied a bend, to form the curve of the walls. 

I could have improved this further with more detail I could reference, however for the sake of time, I was just going to add the detail when I drew the backgrounds. The tutorial I followed to help me create the bend was found on YouTube.

In addition to the YouTube tutorials, I used my own knowledge in-which I had made notes from previously. 

I had created a space, which could be moved and adjusted in Maya to suit my backgrounds.

Process and Production: Narrative Improvements

Process and Production

Narrative Improvements

To make changes to and improve the narrative of my animation, I needed to re-evaluate the storyboard and make some minor changes to make sure the narrative makes sense. So that Sumac doesn't just "appear there", I've added an additional shot, where Sumac appears in a cloud of smoke. This also helps to visualise his powers, rather than have the audience assume them.

Then, Mearas eyes change colour and the animation continues with how it was before. I've decided to add "glitching" effects in post-production, however this is not illustrated in the storyboard. 

I additionally made these changes to the animatic.

Professional Practise 1: World-wide Animation

Professional Practise 1

World Animation

South Africa

• William Kentridge, an artist known in South Africa, gave voice to political themes and oppression through various works. He released an animated short in 1989 named Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris. It is made using charcoal and erasing and re-drawing on the same surface.

Czechoslovakia

• Karel Dodal, a Czech filmmaker, specialising in Animation, studied the Animated Shorts of Felix the Cat to learn animation. He and his wife, Hermina Tyrlova formed a studio together, making advertisements and political animation, such as The Secret of the Lucerna Palace (1936) and Ideas in Search of Light (1938). 
• Unfortunately, I was unable the find both animations, but only screenshots of them.

Israel/Australia

• Yoram Gross worked in live-action in Poland, his home country, before moving to Israel in 1950. He created the first feature-length animated film there, a stop-motion feature, Joseph the Dreamer in 1961.

• In 1968, he moved to Sydney, Australia, where he opened a studio with his wife, Sandra Gross. They produced the feature-length film, Dot and the Kangaroo (1977), which used combined media.

Context of Practise 1: Visual Journal Ideas

Context of Practise

Visual Journal Ideas

I decided to explore the idea of the Uncanny Valley, looking at expressions and stylised characters. I struggled to fully explore the Uncanny Valley, with the format I was using, so this developed into looking at animals, textures, which then developed into exploring colour. I wanted to look at how with stylised media, you are able to create visually impacting scenes, landscapes and backgrounds, which work to convey emotion, rather than a photo-realistic visual does.

This also lead me to explore 'Plein air' landscapes and how these can be adapted from real-life to a interpreted drawing or background, in animation.