Video footage of character interaction exercises, mostly performing tasks that require at least 2 characters.
Saturday 5 May 2012
Wednesday 2 May 2012
Cat and Dog videos
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Gif animation - Bird flight cycle
Using the prior bird flight cycle drawings as reference, I composed my own quick flight cycle as a looped GIF animation. I wanted the bird to follow the flight patterns aswell, despite it being jerky, I'm happy with the wing movement - with refinement and better software I could create a smoother cycle.
Museum
At the Museum I observed a range of creatures - I could observe how birds and animals from all over the world vary vastly in size and anatomy in order to be suited to their environments - even animals that are closely related had slight differences due to their different habitats. No quadruped or bird is likely to move in the same fashion - I.e sloth compared to a cat. I also explored animals that fly other than birds, such as insects and bats. I looked at animal skeletons to better understand their anatomy.
Thursday 26 April 2012
Bird flight patterns
Looking at general flight patterns of birds and then observing how the type of bird will effect it's methods of flight and how it's wing span and shape is designed for certain effects. E.g. Seagulls have a wide wing span to allow them to glide long distances with minimal wing movement, whereas the Robin flies short distances but has to take off and land quickly as to avoid being preyed upon.
Wednesday 11 April 2012
Research videos
Silly music aside, I found these videos useful for my research into animal walk cycles and wing motion.
Tuesday 10 April 2012
Web reference
I found an excellent website with video footage of various actions for animators to refer to - most importantly I found an entire section devoted to the motion of animals. http://www.referencereference.com/
Wednesday 28 March 2012
Basic animal walk cycle - quadruped
Sketches of various animals in motion and how they differ, followed by an example of animal walk cycles from "The animators survival kit".
Slow Motion Magpie
As it was fairly difficult to observe actions in real time, I slowed down a video I took of a magpie taking off, so that I could observe key points more easily.
motion studies - Flight video 1
I filmed various birds during take off, landing and flight - although this proved difficult it allowed me to see the differences in flight style depending on wing span, size and breed.
Take off, short flight and landing of a pigeon.
Take off, short flight and landing of a pigeon.
Monday 19 March 2012
Thursday 15 March 2012
Maya - Push 1st attempt
My first attempt at Maya - I was quite happy with the posing, but some of the movements and angles looked quite unnatural - as well as the character floating/sliding at some stages.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Monday 12 March 2012
Film reference
I decided that I needed to film the action to accurately animate it - film allows me to see the the movement and strain between poses.
Second test - Pull
After using reference I attempted the stop-motion exercise again - I'm happier with the composition (though the lighting is off in some frames and the camera moves slightly) and character performance in this effort, however, the rock appears to wobble too much when the character is pulling, ruining the illusion of inertia. Also, I found the leg work particularly difficult at the end of the piece and could refine it more - I think it's apparent that I became inpatient at the end at rushed the rock out of frame, which ruined the illisuion of inertia.
Sunday 11 March 2012
Reference photos
Some photos of me and Alice pulling a scarf to use as reference - I tried to make sure the poses were quite strong and exaggerated so I could easily translate them into my animations.
First test- Pull stopmotion
Initial drawings - Pull
Here are some initial quick drawings of a character pulling - I wanted to depict strong poses which portrayed the weight within the rock as well as the effort from the character. I then created a rough story board.
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