Applied Animation: Documentary - Minor Animation Additions

Applied Animation

Additional Animations

• This week:
• I worked on a test for Odins' crows animation, a small transition and started the animation for Hel.
• What went well:
• I used a reference of a crow gliding and hovering to help with the animation for the crow gliding over Odins' head. I found that when a crow is adjusting its' position when hovering, they don't perform a full wing flap, to just adjust themselves in the air. I tried to demonstrate this in the animation.
• The line-work and colouring was quite consistent, when I lined it and made improvements.

First test:

Final render:

• Then I worked on Hels' spirits shot. The spirits animation proved the most difficult, as I wasn't initially sure how to key the souls of the dead circling her. I had an idea to use the puppet tools that Toon Boom Harmony has, to keep the movement consistent. This was more successful than my initial attempts at lining it frame by frame. I made a "sprite" for the soul animation and then duplicated it, and key-framed the animation.
• Caitlin animated Hel sitting and the background was made by Joseph, then I contributed to this scene with the movement of the souls. Here is the work in progress of this, so far and a screenshot of the keyframes from Toon Boom.

 How I keyed and timed each spirit in Toon Boom Harmony

Final export

• What could be improved:
• The movements of the crow could be made more consistent. Sometimes the wing movement seems a bit odd, despite using a reference, which could be due to the angle at which the crow is positioned and the reference I used. Next time I use a reference, especially for this kind of movement, I will use a reference from a similar camera angle to what I want the movement to be.
• For Hels' animation, the souls need to be slightly adjusted, as some movements are a bit broken because some errors with the keyframes, in Toon Boom. This is a quick fix, as I can go into the software and make some small changes. They also need to be re-exported on a green background, to be keyed out in Adobe After Effects.
• Next week:
• I will be exporting most scenes ready for post-production work.