animation techniques

As you can see from this video, made on Toon Boom V.3, that the balls squash and stretch are rather exaggerated. In real life a ball would not quite bounce like that or squash like that, its exaggerated for comic effect.
You will find this technique is proven quite popular amongst animators, its helps make an object seem 'alive'. Though for rigid objects like chairs and tables this rule does not apply, unless it is the wish of the animator to make them 'alive' in such a way that it requires a squash and stretch.

Disney, though a fan of realism, tended to make use of squash and stretch techniques to make objects, characters and cartoons have a more comic effect that the audience would like. He started this trend with the seven dwarfs, giving their movements are more comic feel.

Arcs:
But another aspect of this animation is the curve or arc that it is following. Object dont move in straight lines. For example, if you move your arms from your head to you side its an arc movement you make. So by giving your objects an arc to follow its make more realistic. For comic effect the arc may be discarded, but it has to be done very well otherwise the audiences wont like it.

One thing to remember whilst animating is that whatever you animate will keep the same volume as when you started. It doesn't change, if it does halfway through your animation your audience will notice and it will be taken as a mistake.

Exaggeration:

Exaggeration is used to express a characters range of emotions and characteristics. But as the rule for stage goes;
'exaggerate you actions and re-actions by 10'
The same rule applies for animations. The reason we do this is simple, its makes it easier and clearer for an audience to understand that a character is expressing an emotion. Like anger, if they a really angry they will tend shrink into themselves, shaking and their entire face going red, or the ever so popular steam coming out of the ears, like we do this in reality-no, but it does get across the point of anger as well as adding a comic effect to it all.
But then again this element has got to have a balance, although it is good to exaggerate certain scenes or emotions, take care not to do it too much as important scenes that require little actions and more sympathy will be drowned and wont make any impact at all.
So balance is also a required element.

Anticipation:

Anticipation, a technique used to prepare the audience for what is about to happen next. There are 3 stages:

-before
-the action
-the end

As stated before it usually used to prepare an audience for what is about to happen, usually before an important event. For example, when someone is about to throw a ball there goes back in arc, then forward again, then at the peak of the throw/arc they let go.
How do we know what action they are doing, through anticipation. By watching where his arm is going we assume the next course action, which be throwing.
But not only do we anticipate from these actions what will happen, we anticipate how it will happen. If the throw is done with sheer force (for example in a game of baseball) you see the body curl into itself then let go with amazing speed hurling the ball forward. We anticipate from the persons body action the speed and strength of the throw.

This applies for all actions, whether they be big or small in animation. Anticipation is an important technique that allows the viewer to get more involved with the animation itself.

Eva character design

Its again a rough sketching of Eva, she does need work but for now this is how she appears in my head. Well maybe not exactly but very close. The book i notice is very tiny! Maybe she's a fantastic reader XD oh well.

Finished script

Yey my script of No Way is finaly finished.
It feels a tad rushed, but its done. The ending is slightly different from what we had discussed and i had problems with what to fill the middle of our script with.

You see when we talked about it in class, we came up with the idea-
-dark comedy

Who about?
-originaly about us, soon changed to 3 students

Who are the character based on and what is the one thing that makes them, them?
-They are based on us
-My character Amy (me) is completely obssesed with the 360
-Lynnes character Eva, not sure if it was pc or an ipod she was obssesed about
-Maui character Kai, obsessed with Manga

What about?
-Living together

What was the main factor that pulled the story together?
-Haunted home

Ok so how will it end?
-each student will die

How will they die?
-Stupid and completely unrelated to a haunting

So as you can see we worked backward a little and made it difficult to fill in the middle. I hope the script it to the groups liking and reads well.

Lip Synching and walk cycle.

This is actually a link to my first year animation. It demonstrates my attempt at a walk cycle and lip synching. It's not particularly great but does what it says on the tin.
This was was done on Toon Boom V.3:


About lip synching:
Lip synching on toon boom was fairly easily done. It was a case of uploading the sound onto the software and drawing the letter recommended for each vowel/sound. Lip synching is done on the theory that each word you speak has many different shapes and sounds. So to break it down for animators they broke the shapes down into letter like; A,E,O,V and so on, these are common shapes the mouth uses when speaking and so the basics are covered.
But there is more to lip synching than just shapes. There is also expression, emotion and atmosphere and characteristics. Such as anger, when something is said in anger that sentence tend to get more tense and aggressive and is very different from a happy one. If a character has a stutter or a lisp it makes it more difficult to animate as you have to animate both the stutter/lips as well as the sentence.
So you can see that it perhaps isn't the easier job to do but toon boom helps in making the process easier.

Walking:
Walk cycles, tedious and annoying at times but still has to be done in order to create a realistic walk. There are several frames in a walk cycle and to miss even on makes the walk unrealistic and jumpy. You can tell from a few scenes in my own animation how it looks when even one is missed out. Another point is that you dont move the figure across the screen, in fact you keep it still, moving on the spot. But what you do move is in fact the back ground, this gives the impression of a moving figure.

Kai sketch

as you can guess this is my sketch of Kai.
Very rough and basic, needs a bit more work.

Flash vs Toon boom

Well what can i say, I only really used flash once or twice in first year. I was then introduced to Toon boom. I have used Toon boom ever since. My simple reason being that i found it much easier to navigate than flash.

Why?
-Firstly Toon booms interface is a lot more user friendly. Its clearly labelled where everything is.
-The interface itself is much easier to use simply because its outlined for you. You have your layers (reminds me photoshop), exposure sheet, onion skin, lip synching tool, camera tool and the painting tools, all there for you.

Whereas with flash i found it much harder to navigate. Instead of an exposure sheet you have a timline, this i couldn't get my head round. Its clearly labeled where everything is and does not have the lip synching tool. This is more time consuming.

Though flash does have its pros:
It seems to respond better to my graphics tablet
-the drawing come out better
-The colouring looks better
and is faster to use, even though it doesn't have a lip synching tool.
-and it can be used for a web design module as it allow for that as well.

So although flash seems more complex its actualy just down to preference and ease of use.
I still prefer toon boom, its easier to use i understand what i am doing and i dont get confused with which layer or slot i am in as it has the onion skin an layers, that as said before is klike using photoshop. The lip synching tool also help to speed up the process.

Some prefer flash and will swear by it, i will use toon boom.

Suprise suprise

Tonight i decided to look for some downloadable sound effects for the final animation. I went to search for thing i was sure of that would be used. Like walking and the fire.
I thought it would take me ages but it really didn't.

I came across a gem of a site to download everything you could ever possibly need for animations.

http://www.sounddogs.com/catsearch.asp?Type=1

This website is free to use, plus it provides EVERYTHING!
when i say everything i mean everything! from babies crying to atmosphere and ambience. Every effect you could ever possibly need is here and free for you to use.

I highly recomend this website to anyone who wishes to continue in animation and finds it difficult to acquire certain sounds. I have a already downloaded quite a few that i think i will be needed in our final animatic.

Creative animation - final stop motion idea

As you can probably tell from the title this post is about my final animation idea for creative animation.

I originaly had three idea:
- Opera done i plasticine
- Sand on glass about the exotic
- Ninjas and a warrior monk done with Stikfas.

I went for the stikfa idea. Seems more interesting and within my abilities to do.
Sand glass, though was a nice idea seemed a bit too adventurous, if it went wrong i wouldn't have enough time to correct it.
My plasticine idea well just lacked any interest at all.

But with the stikfa idea i plan do it on my computer desk, to emphasise how small they are, and it will be called 'The tiny ninjas!'.

I dont have a script right now, but i will laydown the basics of idea here. You know o organise it.

It starts of two ninjas in a stare out. Both have weapons and both are fighting for their territory. One ninja (we shall call him 'whitey') starts to make his fighting stance, preparing for battle.
The other (we shall call him darkness) watches whitey as he prepare. Darkness pulls back his throwing weapon and hurls towards whitey. Quickly Whitey deflects that attack and rushes in with a barrage of attack combos. Kicks, punches you name it.

An epic battle ensues as run across the desk, jumping obstacles, trying to gain higher ground and destroy each other. Eventualy they begin to tire and take a quick breather, though never once removing their eyes from the other, for fear of foul play.

Just as they are about to launch into another epic battle, a warrior monk appears standing ontop of the montior. HIs arms folded majesticaly as he looks down at the young ninja and shakes his head.

"Stupid ninja, if you are going to destroy you enemy do it, stop wasting time with fancy martial arts!"

As he is speaking he leaps of the monitor and inbetween the ninja where he pulls out his sword and with an almighty swing in a circular motion goes to kill both ninja. There is a dramatic pause, he has won, the monk, wise beyoned his years has won...

Whitey: Dude, if you're going to pull of stunts like learn to aim!

He missed completely! As Whitey is speaking Darkness takes rushes forward and boots the warrior monk out of the way.

Darkness: Dont interfere!

The two ninja are now facing one another, the warrior fallen of his ass and staring up at them.

Warrior: you are good, but i am afraid i cannot let you leave...this pc is mine!!

The two ninja stare at him in disbelief, all the time they thought it was just an empty pc desk, but here all this time was this warrior monk. Grinning both ninja turn to each other as the warrior gets to his feet.

Darkness: Guess we have to beat him first!

Whitey: Guess so

Pulling together they charge at teh warrior...end?!

Will we ever know what happens..maybe we will if it turns out to be too short!

Eva (lynne) Profile and rules

Name: Eva

Age: 23

Job: IT Technician

Personality:
Eva is a smart individual, cold at times and often kind of stand offish. Though she does a fun streak, but its not as loud nor as obvious as Amy's or Kai's. But still its there.
She loves to read and is always seen reading something. BUt she alos loves her ipod and never leaves home without it. Eva is very down to earth and has a lot of patience, she deals with Amy most of the time.

Appearance:
Eva has purple hair, a deep shade but you can still see it. She has tied up at the back with two stray hairs at the side of her face. She has sharp grey eyes that are behin a pair of thin purple glasses. Eva wears a plain strippey t-shirt with pale blue denim jeans that have tears at the knees. She wears a set of black heeled boots and has pale skin like Amys.

History:
Eva has lived her parents, but never really paid any attention to them. She lived up in her room with electronics. Her ipod that has 50gb, her pc and just all the things she loved. She worked to get into university and worked hard to graduate.
Through uni she met Kai and Amy and becamse quite close. When the time came, when she got her job she moved in with Amy and Kai.

Rules:
-Always reading
-Always carrying her ipod
-Walks rather staright or 'tall'...with pride

Character Profile and rules for Kai

Name: Kai

Age:24

Job: artist, specialising in digtial art.

Personality:
Cool calm and collected. Thats Kai down to a Tee. He is stylish, stylish in his work, dress and in himself. He is just a stylish person. Though, somtimes he can be a little...'blonde' at times. But despite his blonde moments he is still popular with his friends, even though he is bit arrogant at times. He is quite playful.
He is also in love with Manga, he does have a cupboard full plus shelving.

Appearance:
As stated before he is rather stylish, he has light brown hair that falls just above his green eyes. He has few red tinges in the ends of his hair and wears a set of rather expensive headphones. He wears a white shirt with a small ying/yang symbol on the pocket of the shirt. he wears black jean with a set converse trainers and chain that hangs from the belt loops.

Bio:
Kai came from a popular family, not so much rich but just a family that was well known and well liked. Due to his family being continously liked and being very well known they had a lot of favours done for them. So they never really had to struggle. Kai lived at home with his parents during highschool but the moment he was able to live his own he did. During university he met Amy and Lynne
and decided that once they finished uni they would move in together once they got jobs, seeing as they all get on well.

Rules:
-Kai always wears his headphones
-always seen with his art book
-Walks in slinky cool guy walk
-Likes to pick on amy

(Hopefully a picture will come here soon)

House design

Originaly i was going to design the house on the sims 2 pc game, simply because i felt you would get better understanding of how the house looked in my head through the use of the simulator, and not through my crappy drawing. I may still do this idea!

1st Floor - upon entering - sorry you cant see the keys i have drawn to show what everything is.

2nd Floor

Balcony and bar