Incomplete but for my presentation

Animating the turtle

I'm now starting to animate the turtle which means my animation will soon be coming to an end- finally!

When it comes to drawing a character (fishes and the turtle) or a setting (the corals) I would draw the whole thing out on a layer and then copy and paste adjusting it to the frames I want it in. So for instance, for the corals I separated them into two drawings as I wanted to track the scene, and then I would gradually move the drawing until it's either on or off the screen. The more there is the longer it takes to draw, so the corals and the turtle took a while to do, whereas the fishes took seconds.

There are a few flaws that I've purposely made due to the lack of time I have left, such as the bubbles are repeated over and over even when the screen is tracking right, whereas in reality there would be new bubbles instead of ones that follow the screen.

My next steps are now to make the turtle swim up and over so we look at its belly - just like the video I took at the aquarium.

Now at 102 Frames!

Still haven't started the turtle yet but I'm almost there. However I have no noticed that the file is starting to get a lot bigger and is struggling to save and export without freezing, so I'm hoping that it'll still work when I animate the turtle. I might however not be able to animate the whole thing because of how it's struggling to save but I'm hoping to get at least three seconds of it swimming over. I also might try and make a transition back to the start if I have time so it would have a clean loop.

Shark

Because I'm incredibly happy with my shark I've decided to make a gif of just it on repeat to see how it would look by its self. From all the fish I've animated so far the shark is the only one which looks rather natural. This would be because I managed to film plenty of footage of the shark swimming around at the aquarium. How I could of done better however would of been to make more frames to make it move slower as I feel like it's moving a bit too quickly. Also making more frames would of made it swim smoother. I'm hoping that when it comes to animating the turtle that it would be just as successful as this and not as rubbish as the green fish.

Finally at the bottom of the sea

I've now reached the bottom of the sea for my animation, meaning that I'll be soon animating the turtle and so I'm almost finished ready for Thursday for my presentation. I've also managed to make a few more adjustments such as changing the speed of the sea again and also the green fishes tail. I also adjusted the blue fish's fins to make them move and appear a bit more natural.

I am struggling with the beach scene as I don't think I've done enough frames to make it run smoothly - I won't have enough time to go back to it and make more frames.

Practising Stop-Motion

Because I was so inspired from reading the chapter on stop motion in 'The Alchemy of Animation' by Don Hahn, I decided to give it a go. I found it very challenging to make it run smoothly as my figure isn't very steady, so it easy wobbled when I went to adjust it. Also I didn't have enough time to take loads of frames so it's a bit jumpy. Ideally, I would love to make a flawless stop-motion but the lack of time and equipment is stopping me. If I have any more time after I try and complete my main animation I'll try and do some more small stop-motions.

Animating Shark

From my dodgy animation so far I am very happy with my shark. I thought it would be one of the hardest to draw but I was wrong. I'm actually finding drawing the fish to swim and look natural very difficult instead. This could be because they move their fins and tails quite delicately. I'm now at 77 frames and I still have plenty to do such as the corals and the turtle.

Grouping Fish

Having a big group of fishes swimming was challenging to do as I did forget fishes some of the times. I'm happy that I'm now at 10 seconds but I still have loads to do as I next have to draw a shark, the corals and a turtle.

Making Fish Swim

It took me quite a few attempts to get the swimming right, as I couldn't get the shape right.

I tried it first with a back fin like this but it just looked as though it was waving up and down.

I then redrew the fin again so it was thinner and it works a lot better than the first attempt. It's still not perfect however and doesn't look too natural.

From looking at the videos I took I did realise that most of the fish barely move their tails but I wanted my fish to swim quickly so I added more force.

Trying to Make a Transition!

I found it so hard making a smooth transition: I believe that it'll require a bit more practise to perfect. This is because I had to make layered frames where I would gradually change to opacity of the image until it became a new image. I decided to make this faded in transition rather than the straight cut as I felt that going from one scene to another like that felt very out of place, despite the fact that they relate. I shouldn't need any more transitions in my animation thank goodness but I still need to make it flow throughout. 

Start of Main Animation

To save time from taking my frames to an IT room I've decided to test out Gimp's animation. It's rather different to photoshop as I couldn't have the timeline feature, so whenever I wanted to watch the animation I had to go through different tabs.

For help on animating using Gimp I watched this video. It's a bit long but was useful.

Visiting the Aquarium

I changed my mind about going to the zoo because I felt that I can do much more with sea life. From going to the aquarium, I've managed to come up with loads of ideas with how I'm going to animate my main animation. I found the way the sea life acts with each other and have very different appearances very inspiring. It was interesting how some species would keep in groups and others would swim alone. 

I took many videos which I can refer to when I start animating to understand how they move. I've also managed to take a few pictures (I couldn't really take any of the moving fish as my camera isn't very good) and I've done a couple of sketches from life to help me observe them.

Some of the creatures are very slow movers like this lobster, but I liked how it would just move it's antennae carefully.

These fish were about 10 inches long and swam in groups very quickly. I was unsuccessful taking a picture of them but I managed to get a drawing.

These fish would have their mouth open a lot. I also attempted to draw them.

Also the rays were interesting to see. A lot easier to draw as well because it kept still the longest.

They have such a strange belly as well: it looks like it has a face.

I really liked these piranhas shiny scales. 

I have taken a huge interest in the turtles I saw in the aquarium as I like watching them swim. Also because they stand out amongst the fish due to being a reptile.

The upside down jelly fish were enchanting to watch as they looked so delicate in the way they moved.

The sea horses were hard to record as they were hiding behind the tall plants. However in the video I liked how the sea horse would float up slightly and then move its mouth.

The clown fish were interesting to watch and it reminded me of a scene from Finding Nemo with how they were swimming or brushing in the anemone.

I loved this set up of corals and I'll definitely be creating a back drop of something like this from my animation.

These Lion fish were beautiful to watch and I would love to make an animation of them but I can imagine it taking ages as it is full of detail, especially with its many dorsal spines.

This small strange fish is oddly adorable.

The sharks have their own way of moving which is very recognisable: large flicks with tail and moves in a zig zag. Their body shape is also very different to the other fishes.

Watching this turtle swim over was an incredible moment to experience. I'm completely gutted that the video doesn't give it justice. I think that I'll be focusing on the turtle video a lot for my main animation as I loved how slowly and delicately it swam over me. This has also inspired me to use different view angles in my animation. I could also maybe take screen shots of the video and draw over it on Gimp.

The Sea

If been visiting the beach recently and have taken an interest in how it would move. I'm thinking on focusing my main animation on the sea and sea life. By animating waves I can easily repeat frames, like what I did with my quick animation of a boat. The waves also react differently when they hit objects such as rocks: they crash and splash back quickly.

Walking

I'm still struggling to animate and draw the stages of walking, so I was told maybe I should look at the walking cycle which will show me each stage of the walk.

 This was incredibly useful so I'll definitely be referring to this when I animate the rest of my animation.

I did a practise animation so I can understand it better and it worked a bit but the figure ended up shrinking. This is because I was drawing with a mouse and was rushing so it was gradually shrinking without me noticing.

Gait Cycle from: webneel.com

Quick Practise Animations

From doing this quick animations it's helped me a lot with how things would move and how objects would react with other objects and their surroundings. For instance, how the boat would rock in the light waves and then the heavy waves, how the string of the fishing rod would create rings when it goes in the water, and how the ball would twist when bouncing and flatten when hits a surface.

I've also decided to try out repeating frames to see if it's successful (boat animation) and I feel like it really worked out well - runs smoothly.

Animation so far...

After stressing out on how to make my animation on photoshop, I finally got there!!
It only short and incomplete but I'm glad that what I've done so far works.

Inspiration for Main Animation

I'm thinking of many ideas for my main animation such as including moving water, fans and animals (I'll be visiting the zoo soon). This is all because these are my favourite things to observe for movement. Water and fans for fast repetitive movement, and animals for how they would walk, jump, run and play,

Another type of movement I would love to animate would be moving crowds of people or birds, but I feel like that will be way too much for the little time I have on this project as there would be a lot to draw and redraw over and over.

Progress of First Animation

I've spent three days on just drawing this animation so far and it's taking forever. I need to have it done by tomorrow but I can't see it happening, so I might just animate what I have already on photoshop and upload it tomorrow. I can always try and complete it this weekend.

Here is what some of my drawings look like when I overlapped them. You can see my process of trying to make the figure stand up as natural as possible. I had to work from memory figuring out how a baby would move: stiffly and trying to balance with their arms out.

I'm finding making my character walk rather difficult but from observing people walk yesterday it helped hugely for me to understand it, whereas before I would of struggled.

Animations

There are so many different styles of animation, and over the years they have gotten more and more realistic or/and smoother. From looking at these range of videos I have come to terms that I won't be able to get any better (quality wise) than the old version of The Simpsons as I am limited on time, skill and programmes.




Both Roobarb and Custard and Mr Messy have a similar quality in it being hand drawn and simple. However, they still have different styles of animating: Roobarb and Custard is shaky and never still, where's with the Mr Men cartoons are usually static but would have the mouths move when talking.



Wallace and Gromit is a stop-motion animation and would take a lot of time and carefulness in adjusting each frame. I was particularly impressed with the cogs in the background not failing once.
The more frames it has, the smoother it is



From watching the two Simpsons openings side by side you can really see the improvement of the quality over the years. The characters and setting are much more defined now and won't keep changing shape. Also how the characters have developed with the time: The twins playing on their phones and the Simpson family playing on their Wii.



South Park to begin with didn't have much money so to animate they just used craft paper to move the characters. This means it was kept very simple and very 2 dimensional. This became their style, so when they were able to use computers to animate they made sure they kept to the same quality of stiffness, but changed the quality of image: colour and definition.



Even games have became better with their animation. It is constantly improving and becoming more and more life like over the years. I also find moments in this video where I question if it's all CGI or not. They even managed to get the fine detail in the fabric.

Dane Watkins

Empty Days

Today Dane Watkins showed us his work he has been doing over the years as an animator. He has a linear style and works by mix matching objects that you wouldn't expect together: human torsos with basketball hoops for arms.

Many of his animations are on a continuous loop which smoothly link together playing over and over. Some are short animations, but ones like Empty Days would last quite a while. From watching this animation I've gathered that if I want a successful animation I'll have to think carefully how objects and people work together and how they move: like how the mannequin would go over the fences, how the blow dryer creates heat waves over the mannequin, and how the water being pumped into the mannequin would make it bigger. The objects are interacting with each other.

Another type of work Watkins has done is creating personal questionnaires where people can interact with and have their own outcome, which is made in a form of a drawing. I had a go at the 'arnolfini family audience' one and from answering the questions about my family's personality it generated this drawing. It suggests a visual language as you can roughly understand the links to the answers I gave: five people = five heads, aged between 16-25 = telephone with twisted cord, family interests = tv, outdoor hoobies = walking, what do I use for information = website, what creative thing do I like to do = painting/drawing.



From looking at his work it shows that in animation you can create anything, unlike film which you are limited unless you include animation.




http://www.danewatkins.com/
http://eatmydata.co.uk/