animated self

Here is my final animation for the animated self project. It has no sound yet but it doesn't need any for the exhibition so I might just add that on in my own time. I am fairly pleased with the results though if I had more time I would've liked to spend more time on the secondary animation like making her hair move as this would have made it more believable. I also would have liked to spend more time making hands as I think this would have looked better but I just didn't have time to slave away at that, but I may alter it over summer.  

research

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deT_f6vcFfs

I found this video of a toddler running and its done in a way that looks animated. In it you can see how floppy their hands are and how little their legs are and they move their legs a lot for the amount of ground they cover. 
I found another video in which you can see what the toddler looks like running from a side view, I used this as reference for my run cycle but it didn't look quite right so I decided to rotoscope the simple body shape/ bone structure so I can put my character over that and it will look more believable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY3A8nPYL-c

animated self storyboards

Here is my idea for my animation in storyboard format. I wanted something simple as its only a 15-30 second animation. There's not much time for a story really I think my animation is going to be about 20 seconds long at 24 frames per second. 
The idea is that the background is just white but then the girl peers round the edge of something in the middle of the screen. then she runs out and plays then runs towards the camera really cheekily. I'm hoping it will look cute and make people smile and I'm really hoping it moves and looks like a toddler! That's going to be difficult.

And here it is put into an animatic...

animated self

So I started drawing my niece with reference from photos and I think it worked quite well. I really like the first two I think I captured her body and posture and proportions quite well. However the face doesn't look anywhere near young enough. I notice how she has her fingers splayed most of the time.

 So then I tried working on her face. I thought this was a pretty good drawing! Then I put in next to the original photo and just realised how far off I was. 

 She looks to grown up and her eyes are too far apart and her cheeks aren't chubby enough. I put this on instegram to get feedback and what needs to be changed.

 Here is the image after feedback. I think this is so much better! though by no means perfect. But she definitely looks younger and chubbier and her eyes are better and her lips are younger. I am quite pleased with this.

 Next, I started making her into a cartoon. In the image her eyes are too close together but I changed that. I enjoyed doing this as you have to get the detail in the solid lines not using shading.

 This was to get the profile view and also to decide whether she should have her hair up or down. I like it down from the front but up from the sides! I have decided to use it up but put some strands of hair in the front that I missed out.

I also experimented with a skirt that could help get some secondary movements but I think I'm just going to stick with the trousers and a t-shirt.

Then I started drawing on the computer and drew her from 4 views. I really like this! I think her legs may need to be a little shorter though.

animated self

For my final animation for my animated self project I think I would like to work on character design and better movement and make the character move how it should for it's personality as these are all things I would like to work on next year. 
For this I think I am going to animate my niece. I started making her into a character before in my sketchbook and in plaster-cine and clay which was really fun but they never really looked like her so I think this will give me chance to improve my drawing skills and character design skills. I will draw my niece and try and get it to look more like her then I will change her into a character. 
I will use photos and videos of her and of other children around the same age as reference for movement and posture etc. 
I am quite looking forward to this!

Pixillation

I think this pixilation animation music video is really clever, I like the way they have used the paint and made it seem like it just changed like lights being projected but actually it would have taken ages to film. It looks like it would have been a lot of fun! I think they would have had to plan this out very carefully though and had a proper project manager, someone to film it, an artist, not to mention the band themselves, so that this ran smoothly. They would probably also needed to get permission from whoever owns the property they use to paint on it. But I think it gives an awesome effect.

Presentation

This is my finished Animation / presentation. I had to add new parts because I misjudged how little time my story board would take up. Even after adding these new things I still hadn't got close to 5 minutes and was beginning to wonder what an earth I was going to do.Unfortunately it's not 5 minutes long, but I spoke to Mike and he said he would rather it be shorter than be padded out with "fluff and guff".

I enjoyed this project and it was a nice change to be able to do lots of different things and not have a really short time limit. It enabled me to play about a bit more and experiment and I learnt some new things on photoshop like how you make a layer into a smart object which enables you to transform the layer on a keyframe so you can move an object on screen from one position to another or change its size over a set period of time. 

I found it difficult to make each slide long enough because when you make it yourself you know what it says so you read it faster than a normal person would. 

I chose the music because I think its uplifting and catchy and I also think it goes well with work because of the lyrics 'and if you cry out, im gunna push you more' in this instance meaning if you complain about the work you're just going to get more!

Blue zoo job oppertunity

I found out on twitter that Blue zoo are doing internships! They're 6 weeks long and pay £300 a week! I think that's brilliant! The catch is you have to know Maya....and I don't yet :( So I'm hoping they do this again next year and that I am good enough at Maya to get this internship! I would love it! I've wanted to work or have work experience at blue zoo for ages! I'm excited already and I haven't even learnt the software yet! I think its not too far by public transport from my grandparents house so I could always ask to live with them for 6 weeks, would definitely be cheaper board and my Nana is a fab cook!

http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/jobs/#MayaGeneralistInternship

Storyboard for -reflect

For my PPP reflect presentation I want to have a lot of it moving but I understand there is not much time to do this so I have had an idea. At first I wanted everything to be on a sticky note because they are extremely useful to me. So I rotoscoped my hand peeling off a sticky note and it looked great.

 I started adding words and I loved it but then I realised that it took me a whole day to peel off about 4 notes. I have to do a 5-10 minute presentation maybe thats not possible. so here is my new storyboard. It still includes post it notes but not as much as it would have before.