Animation Fundamentals - Project 2

4.5.2024 -  / Week 7 - Week 
Chan Wan Qing / 0350928 / BA of Design (HONS) in Creative Media
Animation Fundamentals
Project 2

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INDEX:

1. Lectures
2. Project 2
    2A: Walk Cycle
    2B: Jump Animation
3. Feedbacks
4. Reflection

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LECTURES

Week 7 / 4.6.2024

This week, we will learn about the topics of anticipation, drag, follow through and overlapping for jumping action. 

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVK_g5PYQ=/ 

Anticipation, Drag, Follow Through and Overlapping (Miro Notes)

Anticipation, Drag, Follow Through and Overlapping (Slides Notes)

Anticipation - prepare the audiences about the next action

Stretch > Normal > Anticipation > Action
Stretch > Follow Through > Settle Down (Normal)

Drag: Start an action
Follow Through + Overlapping: Stop an action 
*Both improve flexibility

We then started to animate jumping action in Adobe Animate. We followed the reference and animation survival kit to draw the key poses. Then, we added in between of anticipation, drag, follow through and overlapping between the key poses. We refer to survival kit to observe the frames.

Reference

Key Poses

In between

Jumping Animation (Onion Skin)

Rough Jumping Animation (Week 7 Tutorial)

Week 10 / 25.6.2024

This week will be our last lesson for lecture, we are going to learn secondary action. 

Clarity

- Planning an Animation > References > Existing video / Acting 

*Secondary Action + Exaggeration 

*Identify the key pose, breakdown and in between from the reference video 
 - download the video
 - (from the video - time) standard change to frame number

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INSTRUCTIONS

Project 2A: Walk Cycle

In this project, we are to use the same character that we did in Project 1, animate the rough animation of that character, walking in the same spot at the side view. The rough animation process should be using basic form and sketchy stroke. We should study the vanilla walk cycle that includes poses and timing from the book of Animator’s Survival Kit as a reference. The animation should show the quality of being appealing, fluid and flexible.

Requirements:

• Rough + Tie down animation
• .mp4 or .mov
• 24fps, 16:9 aspect ratio 
• 1280 x 720 (HD720p) 

References

*From Animator's Survival Kit 

References (Animator's Survival Kit)

*Online References

Online References 

Rough Animation

Attempt 1

At first, I searched for the reference from Animator's Survival Kit and study the poses and timeframes. Then, I started to draw the rough poses of walking animation starting with the key poses like what we did in week 6's class. 

Rough (Key Poses)

Rough (In between)

Rough (Onion Skin)

I drew the arms after drawing the legs, body and head. After looking at the animation, I feel like the head is too bouncy. 

Rough - Attempt 1

Attempt 2

After that, I made a 2nd attempt on the rough animation of walk cycle. Similarly, I drew the key poses first, followed by the in between poses. 

Rough - Attempt 2

After drawing the rough, I inserted the side profile of the character into Adobe Animate as guide to draw the walk cycle of the character following the rough drawing. 

Tracing Character

Character Rough (Onion Skin)

Rough-Character Rough (Walk Cycle)

Tie-up Animation

After completing the character rough using brush tool in Adobe Animate, I used pen tool to draw the tie up version of the walk cycle of the character following the character rough. 

Character Tie-up

Character Tie-up (Onion Skin)

Rough-Character Rough-Character Tie-up (Walk Cycle)

Final Project 2A: Walk Cycle

Rough

Tie-up

Walk Cycle

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FEEDBACKS

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REFLECTION

Project 2A: Walk Cycle

In this project, we needed to animate a walk cycle for our character from the previous project by pose to pose method. The first step in the project was to thoroughly study the walk cycle principles laid out in "The Animator's Survival Kit." This has allowed me to understand the importance of the key positions, including the contact, down, passing, and up positions, which gave me a solid foundation to start with. Initially, my animation looked a little stiff, so I kept amending and refining them. One of the primary challenges was ensuring the walk cycle looped seamlessly by achieving a smooth transition between the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next, which are between the rough and tie up version. The final walk cycle animation, although not perfect, showed some improvement from my initial attempts. It was satisfying to see how applying the principles and techniques.