Major update - 24.04.20

So I managed to get around the problem of neglecting to realise its hard to UV map after Rigging a Model. I managed to stick to simple Ai shaders as it fitted in with the art of the characters anyway. however, the eyes turn out to be much more of a problem. as they wouldn't UV I first tried to vertex paint instead but this certainly conflicted with arnold; eventually I decided on creating new eyes, Uving them and snapping them to the original eye locations. then made the old ones invisible and parent constrained the new ones to the old. it works like a dream.

I have Lip Synced the first clip my grandmother says It needs work on one syllable but ill correct that before i render. I installed the pose library to make things easier, hid the joints and put the Geo on a reference layer so I couldn't accidentally interact with it.

A Quick render from that scene below with accompanying playblast.   

Toolkit 2: Animation - Finished Infograohic

Toolkit 2: Animation - Infographic Ideas

1) Friends

- Too Broad

2) The IT Crowd

-  3 people, oppressed working in an office block basement, man-children, weird habits, socially awkward. 

Sound: Tech sounds, 8-bit techno.

3) Evil Dead

- Horror, trapped in a house, fish in a barrel, possession, secrets in the basement, distrust for friends, environment collapses with descent into madness.

Sound: Horror, maddening, spooky, twisted, 

4) Austin Powers

- 70's Quirky English Spy, sexual innuendos,

Sound: something 70's, original Batman kind of sound. 

5) Planet Earth

- Knowledge, documentary, worldwide.

Sound: Also Sprach Zarathustra - Richard Strass

Favourite Ideas:

Evil Dead and Planet Earth

Animation - Full Lip Sync

Fully finished Lip Sync for Animation, the audio is from the film Hot Fuzz (2007) starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Animation - X Sheet Lip Sync

I have produced an X-Sheet in Photoshop to better help myself lip sync when it comes to animating a character.

Adobe Animate - Jump Cycles

We did two jumps which were recorded on film then these are the preliminary drawings which will help me to complete my animation, I tidied them up and resized them in Photoshop to give myself a smoother time animating. 

Adobe Animate - Silly Walk

Silly Walk Animation

Adobe Animate - Run Cycle

A run cycle at 24 fps, each step is a cycle of 12 fps with ground contact at every 7th frame. 

Animation - Silly Walk

In Progress, however I've got my preliminary drawings of my walk which I will use to create my adobe animate animation from as reference.

After Effects - Parallax Test

This is the image i created for the parallax effect in Photoshop today.

Below is the final result.

Adobe Animate - Session 6 - Walk Cycle

My walk cycle animation. 

Adobe Animate - Session 5 - Halloween Animation

This is the finished product of my Halloween animation. I've Successfully demonstrated Secondary Motion after the ghost looks at his watch, a demonstration of the Arc happens with the YoYo and I have demonstrated spacing and timing, and Squash and Squeeze regarding the ball.

Animation - Adobe Animate - Session 4

This is a display of secondary motion in animation, it is important to get this right as a follow up to the primary object to show that not everything is connected and possesses the same momentum and weight, for example:

 Above there is a ball with Primary momentum and weight, it demonstrates this with Squash and Squeeze during its arcs. Attached to the ball is a rope and a small figure being dragged behind, they do not possess the same weight or rigidity as the ball so move independently of the primary object. 

 Above is another example how I have used the idea of creating a rigid flag pole and a loose, cloth flag to show a different variable for secondary movement, it remains stiller but still has its own momentum and weight.

Above there is a simple character with a lolling tongue, he eyes have a separate weight to the body, as well as the tongue which is more like the first example.  

Animator Review - Don Hertzfeldt

Don Hertzfeldt draws stick figures for his animations. Hertzfeldt is different in a very humble way, his drawing skill depicted in his work isn't up to the standard of the CG film found in huge budget films currently in productions, but through composition, narrative good and humourous story unravels. Detail isn't previlent in the Animation so emotion is conveyed in the characters very subtly by small changes to line work which make up parts of the face, or body. Its a very precise art considering Hertzfeldt hasn't left himself much room in which to manoeuver.  "Austin-based stop-motion animator Don Hertzfeldt projects the complex psychologies of his characters through minute enhancements of facial features. Yet he hasn't given himself much creative wriggle room, as the stars of his movies are all near-featureless stickmen with dots for eyes and a single line for a mouth." (Jenkins, 2017)

I find this relevant because its not about the skill of an animator at drawing, its also about the narrative and ways to convey interesting story. 

(Figure 1)

Bibliography

 Jenkins, D. (2017). Don Hertzfeldt: the best animator you've never heard of. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/may/02/don-hertzfeldt-animator-beautiful-day [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

Illustration: 

Figure 1 - It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Dir. Don Hertzfeldt, 2012)

Animator Review - Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger produced the very first full length animated film to be released in cinema, it was make between 1923 and 1926 in Germany. The technique in which she used was to draw figures and objects onto card, if it is a character or has moving parts then separate parts are drawn and connected later with lead hinges, then she creates silhouettes from the card by using a light box set up, then through the process of stop-motion Animation where you take a picture of small movements and combine them, to create motion. "Even though her work reduces images to their very basics, there's incredible grace, complexity and variety to the "performances" of the paper actors. It's impossible to see exactly how she accomplished it - there must have been some sort of magic involved." (O'Neil,. 2008)

(Figure 1)

This applies to me and animation because when we learn to use Adobe Animate the same principle is occurring but on a digital plane instead of a physical light box. Reiniger creates animations around Fairy tales and was heavily influenced throughout her life which lead to her into this. "Film was Reiniger’s passion: as a child she was delighted by the trick films of Georges Méliès, and later the dreamy horrors of Paul Wegener. She was also an enthusiast for the Chinese art of shadow puppetry, creating her own silhouette spectaculars for a parental audience." (Hutchinson, 2017). 

Bibliography:

Fernando Katz. 2009 The Art of Lotte Reiniger Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvU55CUw5Ck Accessed:09/10/17  

Hutchinson, P. (2017). Lotte Reiniger: animated film pioneer and standard-bearer for women. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/02/lotte-reiniger-the-pioneer-of-silhouette-animation-google-doodle [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

O'Neill, P. (2017). DVD review: Lotte Reiniger - The Fairy Tale Films. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/29/lotte-reiniger-fairy-tale-films [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

Illustrations: 

(Figure 1 - The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 film. Photograph: YouTube)

Animation - Adobe Animate - Session 3

Here we have a Demonstration of a ball with synthetic physics applied regarding weight, you can see we demonstrate this by making sure the object maintains a relative mass throughout its arcs using squash and squeeze to show momentum, the ball is soft and therefore its surface ripples when impacting.  

Next we have a demonstration of three different objects with varying weight and solidarity, from left to right we have a ping-pong ball which is light and hard, it holds its shape well and it bounces multiple times because its mass is low. Then a bowling ball, a very dense, heavy mass means it falls very fast and bounces very little, finally a tennis ball, this is in the middle, a soft, hollow ball demonstrates more squash and bounces less due to momentum being absorbed through surface movement.

Animation - Adobe Animate - Session 2

It is very important in Animation to get timing, spacing, easing in and easing out correct, below you can see animation of examples of these practices I created during today's session. 

Here is a simple example of spacing and timing, both dots start and end at the same time. The upper dot is spaced evenly throughout its movement cycle, the lower dot eases in and out to represent an increase in speed as it moves, this is more accurate because we now perceive the dot to possess weight and momentum.

This is an example of an incorrect arcing pendulum, the dot is on a flat axis which means the string changes length throughout the animating, to correct this we need to produce an arc in the dot.

Now that we have the dot in an arc it fools us into believing the string remains the same length, however the dot possesses no momentum so we will now try to fix it.

Finally we have a finished pendulum, the arc of the dot is believable and the ease in and ease out fools us into believing we have weight and momentum on the dot. It is important to remember that what I animate requires weight to be realistic. 

Animation - Adobe Animate - Session 1

The finished morphing Animation, it consists of my Face turning into a Cornetto, then into a Pig, then back into my face. I used a brush with 75 degrees of smoothing to help keep the lines slick.