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.