The second week of Paperwork rotation. The main principles of focus this week: Arc of motion, Timing and Spacing, Squash and stretch.
First thing first, to understand how these principles work, we were instructed to use basic shape – a ball. It is a very basic object, but it provides great means to understand more complicated principles easier.
PRACTISE EXERCISE: BOUNCING CHARACTER
On the separate piece of paper, I made my motion arc. And then, by using provided examples of timing and spacing in the workshop brief, I made my frame guide, to know approximately the location of each frame and number of frames needed.
Arc of motion
And then time came to use stright ahead animation to complete the bounce and line test it.
When the bouncing ball line test came out satisfactory, i moved on to adding characterisitcs to the ball and molding it into a character, a simple one-eyed owl-like creature.
While working on it, I also had to think about secondary action because of the added features such as flippers and tail. The reaction and emotional response of the character was on my mind as well. My idea was to make character express his emotions through his eye.
PRACTISE EXCERCISE: DEBATING CHARACTER
The second exercise of this week was debating character. It is a great way to familiarise myself more with animation chart and learn how to ease in and ease out works and looks.
First step – simple character design.
I focused on the idea of political figure time of a person, maybe rebel leader type of deal. He covers his face with a face mask and his eyes are usually covered by his hair. I fancied the idea of him having some sort of headpiece for design purposes but also symbolising his role. I gave him a small crown type headpiece, more similar to the paper crown from the Christmas cracker than the real crown. In his sort of way to symbolise his position, not that of monarch or dictator.
Character and pose sketches
It is time to more on to key frames and breakdowns for the character animation
And then it’s time for in-betweens and some added shadow details.
Character animation was a tad more challenging than facial expressions morphing or bouncing ball. It made me pay more focus to the natural movement of a person while working out the breakdowns, to give it a logical flow. I enjoyed the opportunity to design more characters this week. And learn principles while using it practically from the start really puts its usefulness in perspective.