First week assignment

This week we started rotation courses ,and begin with traditional animation. Here are the study summaries for October 4 and October 5 respectively.

4/10/2021

We use the light box for hand-drawing ,and learnt two ways to make animation.

Straight ahead :Straight ahead is a method of animation where you draw one frame after the next using the previous frames as your reference. This method is used to show coherent change ,it’s like flipping through a corner of a textbook in primary school and drawing animation page by page. The disadvantage is that it can easily run away from the animator in terms of the continuity. Things tend to grow and shrink as scales and volumes change over time. It is also difficult to pre-plan the specific timing of actions and gestures.

Pose to pose :The “key frame” method. Draw the key pose first, then use dichotomy method to make up the middle frame. The advantage of this method is that you can plan the action upfront so you know exactly what is happening and when. It works a bit like storyboard, which aims to connect the key storyline. The disadvantage is that you lose the creative flow and therefore the action can feel a little choppy and predictable.

For the assignment, we draw separately:

Straight ahead :Take two words from the internet and use them as inspiration and draw a two-second animation. I was given two random words :Anatomy and floral. So I drew an animation of a flower breaking down.

Pose to pose :Draw 3 key facial expressions or poses for one simply drawn character head then create all of the breakdowns and in-betweens in order to move the character’s face from one to the next.(add link)

5/10/2021

The arcs of the motion :Most natural and organic actions follow an arc shape. When we drawing the movement of people or objects ,the arc shapes are often used to assist in making the movement logical and coherent.

Timing and spacing :Timing is where the action is timed out. This ability comes with both experience and through observation. Spacing is how close or far apart the object is from frame to frame. To better understand timing and spacing, We use the movement of the ball to visualize. In the arc shape of the ball’s movement, The faster the bouncing ball, the wider its spacing. And the more sparse the distance between the balls. The spacing means the variation of sparseness and density in ball’s arc shape. In order to understand this better, we practiced the movement of a ball with it’s own designed arcs.

Squash and stretch :The bouncing ball is also a good example to explain the squash and stretch of animation. The ball extend as it falls, flattens on impact with the ground and then returns to its normal shape in the slower part of the arc.

Ease out and ease in :Including the principle of “The more dense the number of frames on the time line ,the slower the animation effect will be expressed.” We can create ease out and ease in to play a buffer role.

For the assignment ,I designed a debating character. I use a girl’s image with a strong character ,and use the following animation chart to work out my in-betweens.

Click the download link below to view the text above.