LAUAN403 - Easing

The work I did during the pose-to-pose task prepared me for this somewhat as key frames were a big element. I enjoyed this task as it was purely traditional and allowed me to practise an important principle of animation. I think however that I could have pushed myself to animate at 24fps instead of 12 as that was an option, I think it would benefit the film more. I also once again neglected to make my line work darker, resulting in the finished product somewhat tricky to see fully (I typically avoid doing this because I fear messing up and having to start over again).

However, I think that the motion was fluid enough and that the ball had believable weight. I'm also satisfied with the implementation of "personality" to the short film as it makes it more entertaining than just a bland featureless ball rolling down a slope.

LAUAN403 - Appeal

I was happy to be doing character model sheets this week. I enjoy drawing dynamic poses and I even had some model sheets in my portfolio when I got interviewed earlier this year. However, I did struggle greatly when it came to actually coming up with a character - I wouldn't say I have no imagination, but it's very rare for me to come up with something on the fly.

Regardless, I came up with a little alien character named Clonk.
His personality resulted in a character design that was fun to draw; he has lots of straight lines and narrow edges which, along with his dark colour pallet, indicate that he's not a friendly guy. He has a lot of good facial expressions, although I fear that I may have gone off-model in a few places. I also think I could have maybe added more poses to the model sheet, but overall, I am satisfied with how this came out.

Character Development Sheet

Model Sheet

Turnaround Sheet

LAUAN403 - Straight Ahead and Pose-to-Pose

- Straight Ahead Animation -

This short clip was done off the cuff with little planning before hand.
I think this came out well for what it is; there's a good morph transition from the ball to the character, which is all that it needed to "work", really. My only real regret is not drawing the backdrop smaller because you can only see the bottom half, but it doesn't matter. I also could have had the ball morph into a more complex figure but I think it works well enough as is.

- Pose-to-Pose Animation -

Before creating any of the frames you see on screen, I started this task by roughly sketching the key frames. Then, I drew the key frames properly and then drew the in-betweens so that the motion would be more fluid. I then cut them out and took pictures of each frame with Dragon Fire.

I also like how this one turned out. The big trip the character does especially was quite good as there's a noticeable acceleration and deceleration due to the implementation of additional frames. There's a real sense of weight and gravity in that moment. The morph was also something I think turned out pretty well. However, when the man is running at the beginning could have been executed a lot better as it looks sloppy and jittery.

LAUAN403 - Pixelation

- Timing -

My first pixelation didn't turn out as bad as I was expecting, but it was still pretty sub-par and could use a lot of work. However, I think the basic concept is delivered understandably, it's just that it could have done with more planning and preparation.

A problem I encountered was that the tripod we were using did not allow us to tilt the camera in the way I wanted, so I had to do most of the camera work by hand, which resulted in the framing being unstable. On the flip-side, this gave the film a chaotic feel to it, which matched the "narrative" of the sequence.

I learned during this task how important it is to carefully plan the amount of frames each action takes. The difficulty I found whilst making this also caught me off guard but it has prepared me for any future pixelation tasks and I will be prepare for the aforementioned problems better. That being said, the main thing I took from this task is that pixelation is not for me.