Walk/Run Cycles

Contrasting Characters - Walk/Run Cycles

 



 

An extension of the previous Contrasting Characters design assignment was to take the two characters and create walk/run cycles out of them. At least one of each, with an interaction between the characters before/between/after the cycles to establish a bit of a scene. The walks, moreso than previous attempts, were supposed to show personality and mood in relation to the situation. Rough as it is, I like how mine turned out.

Character Design

Character Design - Contrasting Characters

 

 

For this assignment, we had to design two characters of similar style (meaning that they could both believably inhabit the same universe) but of contrasting character types, in personality, appearance, etc. I chose to design a pair of vegas magicians; a bumbling, well-meaning, portly magician, and his superior-skilled, reluctant, 'well-endowed' assistant.

 

 

 

 

Layout

Layouts - Street Scenes and Interiors

 

 

The next two layout assignments were the Street Scenes (despite one option being on the sea) and large versus small interiors. Here are the four I chose to do. Once again, we were provided with thumbnails to work up into full layouts. I did this for the two street scenes, but for the interiors we had the option of creating our own this time, so I did.

 

 

 

 

 



Storyboard

Storyboard - After A Bath

 

 

This year I really got into storyboarding. As a kid, I drew comics all the time, but I always seemed to approach them as if you could actually see the movement from frame to frame, and shots were inspired by television shots. I realize now I had been doing my own version of storyboarding!

 

Anyway, for this assignment, we were given a choice between two vague poems that served as inspiration for a short film. It was our job to create the character lineup, beat boards, and final storyboards ourselves, with help from class pitches and turnover sessions. See the full project after the break.

 

Weight Lift & Toss

Weight Lift & Toss Animation

 

 

This is the final animation for the weight lift and toss assignment. I am not entirely happy with this one. I think the weight was handled well enough, but I should have worked more with the rough animation before cleaning it up. Last year I tried to clean up most, if not all, of my animations because I thought it made them look better, even though it wasn't required. But this assignment showed me how important it is not to rush into the cleanup stage. Later animation assignments from this semester have not been cleaned up and I think they work better for it.

Character Design

Character Design - Weight Lift Toss

 



 

This character was specifically designed for a following animation assignment, the weight lift toss. It had to be a human (or humanoid), and it had to struggle to lift, struggle to hold, and struggle to toss some sort of weighted object. In my case I chose to do a baker character and have him toss the familiar flour sack.

 

 

These are the possible poses for the later animation. In fact I stayed pretty close to this, with some minor alterations.



Old Hands/Feet Studies

Also found while sorting through stacks of paper were studies of hands and feet done for first year life drawing. Searching through the abandoned folders on my computer, I found the orignal scans. They were later assembled four or five to a page before handing in, but those files are lost and I don't think it's necessary for posting them here.

 

 

 

See all studies after the break.

 

Old Character Designs

The first few days of any vacation are alway when I take the time to do some neglected housework - including sorting out all my old projects. In doing so, I found some assignments that I never posted; mostly character design, because those weren't handed in digitally and I didn't have the files on my computer.

 

 

My first character rotation from first year, a dragon character.

 

 

My first character design pack from first year, a cowboy. I intended this one to be more of a flatter design, but I don't think it worked very well.

 

 

My first expression sheet from first year, an anthropomorphic cat. Aside from a few problems of staying on-model, I liked this one.

 

It's nice to see how I've improved even since last year.



3D Walks

3D Maya Walk Cycles

 

 

This is the first walk cycle I made in Maya, using the provided Rosco character. It's a simple rig and a simple walk, but it was good to refresh on the basics of a cycle and apply that to 3D.

 

 

This is the second walk cycle, done with the provided Phil character. It had a lot more controls than Rosco, and so could produce a more complex, believable walk with more personality. For whatever reason, Maya didn't want to export the smooth rig, but this gets it across.

 

 

Just to punch it up a bit, I tried sticking Phil into a background. Using AfterEffects to place it properly, making sure the size and acceleration stayed appropriate, was tricky, especially on an incline in perspective, but it turned out alright.

Painting

Painting - Interior/Exterior

 

 

The assignments for these paintings were simple; an exterior, and an interior. I approached each of them a little differently; the exterior was meant to be more realistic, while the interior is meant to be flatter, slightly graphic, almost cartoony. I didn't realize that I'd used the same purple/green/yellow pallette for both of them until I'd uploaded them here; they were done weeks apart and it was purely coincidence. I should also note that both of these look unfinished, compositionally; that was intentional, as if these were to be used as backgrounds, the animated characters would be the focal point (for the exterior, in the spotlight; for the interior, at the console and in the back of the tunnel).

In other news, now that the semester is pretty much wrapped up, I've got quite a lot of backlogged assignments ready to be posted, so I'll be updating the blog twice a week from now on, probably Sundays and Wednesdays.





Layout - Castles

Layout - Castles

 

 

Our first big layout assignment this semester focused on compositions which include castles. Thumbnails images were provided and we had to work them up into a full layout, at least three. I did all four; see the rest after the break.

 

Wave Boat Sack

Flour Sack Animation - Wave/Boat

 

 

 

Our first traditional animation of Year Two was our last one with the flour sack. This time the assignment was to create a cycle of the sack, in a boat (or on/in some other object) on waves. It was supposed to stress the interactivity of the objects: the rigid boat, the fluid water, and the sack, as well as the momentum (especially up/down) and movement of weight, especially in the sack. I think mine turned out fairly well. It was our first touch with effects work in the splashes, which was fun.

3D - Jump

Maya 3D Animation - Mushroom Jump

 

 

 

This is the first work from Year Two, and we've now been introduced to Maya. The first assignment was simply to make the mushroom jump (yes, it is the Mario 1-Up mushroom). The background wasn't a requirement but I composited them together in After Effects.

Cut-Out Animation

Digital Tools Final Animation - Sheep

 (Sound essential)
 

 

 

This was the final assignment in Year One Digital Tools (a 30+ second animation done in Flash or Harmony), and I believe the last thing I have to post from Year One in general. It's a simple gag, and no great feat of animation, but it was still fun. All done in ToonBoom Harmony. It was also nice to be able to animate it to music. A few previous animations I've done I've added in some sound effects after it was animated, but for this one the sound was the whole focus of the joke. Technically, 'Sheep' is my first short film.

 

Next week, I'll start posting work from Year Two, still in progress!

Layout

Layout - Semester 2

 

 

 

Again, more layouts, this time from the second semester. It was the same process - we were given the assignment each week to create a layout including a certain element. See my full second semester layotu portfolio after the break.

 

Layout

Layout - Semester 1

 

 

Throughout the first year Layout course, we were assigned a different layout each week, incorporating some specific element. While layout is certainly not my area of expertise at the moment, I feel I am improving and I'm uploading these to document my progress. See more after the break.

Textures

Texture Experimentation

 

The purpose of this assignment was to start to study textures, both realistic and stylized, using the same layout. Pictured above is the normal scene with a realistic texture applied.

 

 

This is the same scene, but obviously with a much more stylized texture. I may have taken it a bit far, but it was fun to experiment with it.

 

 

Speaking of having fun with it... The third component of the assignment was to do the same scene with completely wrong textures, but still have the objects and textures read. Fuzzy snails, sponge trees, paper grass, and cardboard clouds were all fun to play around with.

Skeletal Studies

Skeletal Studies

 

This assignment was to research the various bones of the body (Skull, ribs, scapulae, vertebrae, arms, legs, and pelvis) and present that information in some creative format. I decided to present each part of the body as if it were listing itself on a dating profile, complete with 'recent photographs' - renderings of each bone, in the required three views. It was a fun assignment, informative, and definitely helped me cement the structures of the skeleton in my mind. See all the pages after the break.

 

Cut Out Animation

Cut Out Animation - Cowboy

 

 

 

This was just a test animation for ToonBoom Harmony, in which we had to design a character and have it walk or jump. I did both, and played a little bit with the cutout format for the gag. Just a quick bit of fun.

Animal Walk Cycle

Animal Walk Cycle - Black Bear

 

 

 

For this assignment, we were to create a walk cycle for a four-legged creature, skeleton up. I came out with the black bear. I'm told it looks a bit like he's trudging through mud, and that may be because in my reference videos the bears were walking through tall grass (which made foot placements tricky too). Overall I think it functions well.

The 'Winnie the Pooh' gag at the beginning was meant as a joke for my classmates. Knowing it would be shown in a presention of everyone's assignments, I wanted to fake people out into thinking I'd done a very stupid, poorly done cycle. After that I just decided to do a fun, super loose morph into the actual black bear cycle.

Master Copy Painting

Master Copy Painting - Tarzan

 

This assignment was to try to copy a master background painting used in a short or film. I chose one from Tarzan, and I think it turned out pretty close. Biggest problem is that the ropes are a bit too thick and bold, but that was difficult to rectify after they were already put down. Overall I was happy with it.

Bird Walk

Multi-plane Bird Walk Cycle

 

 

Here's the bird walk cycle again, this time digitally coloured and placed into a multi-plane pan. One of the first digitally coloured animations I did, traced over the pencil test in ToonBoom Harmony. Bonus walk after the jump.

Walk Cycle

Walk Cycle - Bird

 

 

This was our first walk cycle using an original character. To keep things familiar, it had to keep similar dimensions to that of the Pink Panther, and so I came up with this bird design. It took a few tries to get a natural lunging motion and the proper bobs in the head and tail, but I think it turned out nicely. The extra animation at the end, specifically when the bird un-pretzels himself, definitely took the most effort.

Walk Cycle

Walk Cycle - Pink Panther

 

 

My first walk cycle. To ease us into it, the keyframes for the Pink Panther were provided and we worked on the in-betweens. The horizon line was required. It makes the entire upper body look stiff as a board, but those were the frames we were given. In retrospect, maybe having it intersect the body at leg-level would have helped to avoid the problem.

Toronto Zoo

Toronto Zoo - Animal Life Drawing

Our other animal life drawing trip was to the Toronto Zoo, and though I'm still no expert at life drawing, I think I improved by this point. Full collection of gestures and studies after the break.

Shere Khan

Established Character - Head Turn & Lip Sync

 

 

 

For this assignment we had to choose an established character, then animate that character's head doing a 360 rotation into a lip sync of the word 'Meow,' and ending with an expression change. The audio file was provided, and it was our first animation with lip sync (or any sound, for that matter).

 

Shere Khan was a difficult little bugger to get right, because you very rarely see him from behind in the Jungle Book. Also, his model changes as the viewing angle changes. So I had to piece together from certain points in the movie what worked as a single model that I could animate from all angles, then stick to that.

Flour Sack

Flour Sack with Prop - Sound

 

 

 

Some more character animation, this time the Flour Sack. Once more, the sack had to make a minimum number of jumps and recoveries in perspective, then interact with a prop. I managed to choose a prop not on the selection list - Valve's Portal Gun. This was definitely one of the most complicated animations I had to do all year, because of all the simultaneous action going on, but it was really fun getting to 'work with' a prop I was so familiar with already. Also, this animation is one of the first with sound.

Painting with Character Layer

Painting with Character on Cell Overlay

For this assignment we had to paint a setting, as always in guache, then produce a cell overlay of a character. The overlay could be done on paper stuck to the cell, but I wanted to actually paint a cell, so I sketched out the character on paper, photocopied it onto the cell, then painted on the reverse. Painting opaquely on a cell: harder than you'd think. Not perfectly happy with the finished product for a few reasons, but I think it turned out reasonably well.



Interior Painting

Interior Painting from a Novel's Description

 

This assignment was for a painting to be completed of an interior space (a room), based on a written description. I based mine on Deep Thought's control room from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Probably one of the most tame interiors described in that series, but I liked the feel of it. Tried to play about with textures in this one, to some success.



Character Animation

Character Animation - Ball & Tail

(rough test version, final version without flashes of my hand unavailable)

Our first 'original character' animation was the Ball & Tail assignment. We had to design a character of the obvious nature, then employ principles of weight and S&C Curve into the animation. The ball had to perform a certain number of jumps and pauses, in perspective. Everyone's animation had its own quirk; I chose to make the environment interactive (which also gave me a first heavy test of multi-level animation). It was also my first use of smears (atop the elevating block).

This animation was also my first real opportunity to 'go wild' with it. The animation is much longer than required, simply because I didn't want to stop. Free time wasn't exactly abundant, and my other subjects probably suffered for it, but it was my first rush of simply enjoying animating, which is by far my favourite part of the program.

 

 

The rotating panel with my name on it was a a bit of a joke; my animation instructor insisted on each student's name being in the background, due to some students' poor file naming habits causing confusion about whose file was whose.


In-Betweens

In-Betweening Bugs Bunny and the Pink Panther

This was our first real in-betweening assignment. Frames 1 and 3 were provided (on photocopy; the drawings above are traced - note the +'s for alignment) and I filled in the blank. Basic stuff, though as my first 'character animation,' it was exciting stuff! Particularly frustrating (and I was certainly not alone in this) was the problem of Bugs' hands, which rotate 180, making their in-between placement tricky.

Royal Winter Fair

Royal Winter Fair Animal Life Drawing, pencil crayon
 

The first big animal life drawing expedition was to the Royal Winter Fair, which meant a delightful assortment of cows, more cows, and cow's butts. Gestures and Studies after the jump.

Still Life

Still Life - Materials

The goal for this painting was to accurately describe three differnt materials: metal, cloth, and glass. I think this one turned out all right, but if I were to do it again and I'd work in more highlighting on the metal and less on the cloth.



Landscape Paintings

Landscape Painting - Warm Palette

Landscape Painting - Cool Palette

Not 100% happy with these, but I think they're decent. The goal was to use different temperature palettes to achieve different times of day. I think I achieved that, but it feels too much like a literal description of a physical scene; it lacks painterly style (no vignetting, etc).





S&C Curve Applied

S&C Curve applied to a marine animal (octopus)

This one took a long time and a lot of work. I had to study videos of how octopuses propel themselves, unfortunately not from this profile. Piecing that information together with S&C Curve gave me this result. Thankfully, the skeletal movement tests never had to be adjusted, so it was completed as-is on the first attempt. This was also my first animation with a panning background.

This was also, if I recall correctly, our first animation requiring an X-sheet, which took some getting used to. Better at this point, though, than some of the more complicated animations down the road.

S&C Curve

S&C Curve Principle applied to a book page turn.

 

Took a few tries to get this one just right. Each had the S&C Curve applied fine, but didn't quite have that feel of a real page turning until this one.

Character Timeline

Character Timeline: Fenton Frog

A character projected forward and backward through his lifespan. I like how it turned out, but I agree with the major criticism it was given. The character changes too much. It's true to life, but in a cartoon I should have kept more instantly recognizeable consistant features.

Bonus: Cleaned up Fenton

Character Design Pack

Character Design Pack: Reg Rat

Enzo really helped me push this one. I was being overly structural, and he encouraged me to just get some loose, wild gesture into my poses. It's extreme, but I like it.

Character Poses

Character gag pose to pose sequence

I think this one ended up being three times as long as necessary, but that was fine. I say the gag works best after a buildup, especially with the 'three times' rule. See the entire sequence after the jump.

Balloon Weight Test

Falling balloon weight test.

This one took a few tries. I initially had it blow through the side window, but the force of the balloon's movement was just too unbelievable. Retried as a straight drop.

Bowling Ball

Digitally coloured bowling ball weight test.

Tested by hand, coloured in Toonboom Harmony.

Rubber Ball

Digitally coloured rubber ball bounce animation.
Tested by hand, coloured in Toonboom Harmony.

 

My Blog

This space is to be dedicated to chronicling my artistic progression through my animation education at Sheridan College. I'll be entering second year in the fall, and until then I'll be periodically posting some of my first year work.