Author: Dayna

During this week we have been busy working on our final animations. We were also tasked to present a slideshow including the progress of my groups work, how we feel about our project, what we can work on/do better next time and a preview of our animations so far. We watched each groups presentation together so we were given an overall idea of how everyone was doing and how they progressed to the world they have today.

Me and my group worked hard on making our presentation ready for Thursday afternoon. I provided the slides to put all our information in, we all collectively filled in the slides with information and then we were ready to record ourselves talking about our progress. We all recorded ourselves talking about their own progress overall then information about communication, pre-production and referencing were separated into another recording. I put the presentation and recordings together while Ben put together our animations to showcase to the class.

Overall our group did very well in presenting. I may have thought too much about the presentation and one point and took out two slides that I thought weren’t needed but would have made the presentation stronger. I feel bad for taking it out but the message came across well even without those two slides.

(Video of presentation is too big to be uploaded here)

In week 11 we studied 2D Effects. 2D effects consists of elements like water, rain, fire, smoke and explosion which in animation can be made to enhance a scene and be a form of substance for an action. There are different types of timing cycles for the different elements to create their organic and realistic presence as they are in real life.

Source: Week 11 – One to one feedback tutorials & animating 2D effects, Animating 2D effects.mp4

Burning fire

• • • Not repetitive
    • Can change shape very fluidly – the bigger the fire the longer the flames take to reach top of fire
    • Requires cycle of 1+ seconds
    • Can be arranged in or out of order
    • Result – to look more alive and unpredictable as fire is in real life

Smoke

• • • Smoke can move in waves and circular curves, can be smooth, fluid lines or puffy shaped
    • Drawings become closer together as smoke rises to top
    • Requires cycle of several seconds (3+)
    • action is fast at start then slow as it rises
    • Result – to achieve the presence of smoke dissipating into air

Snow

• • • Requires cycle of several seconds (2+)
    • Drifts in wavy lines, needs longer cycles to reach bottom of surface
    • E.g. if you have animated snow in three positions of a scene, create three long cycles at different lengths – foreground moves faster than ones further away
    • Result – to give the effect of a longer cycle (no noticeable repetition) of falling snow

Flags/Banners

• • • Requires no key frames – All frames stimulate movement
    • Each frame should flow smoothly to the next
    • Can use secondary action / follow-through cycle
    • Result – to give realistic approach to wind catching flag

Water

• • • Smooth movement
    • Requires cycle of 1+ seconds, can be split into two different movements
    • Timing is crucial; too slow – oily, too fast – fizzy
    • Water splashes radiates outwards into sheets, then splits into individual drops – splash depends on weight of object that hits water and/or depth of water surface
    • Result – for a realistic rise/fall/curve movement

Rain

• • • Mechanical movement
    • Can fall in different intensities, directions and slopes
    • Requires fast timing/multiple layering
    • Foreground raindrops tend to be faster than further away raindrops
    • Needs long continuous cycle
    • Result – effective rain fall and splashes

Explosions

• • • Explosions are effective to shock the audience – meant to be staggering and exaggerated
    • Anticipation, then short series of bursts, then dispense of smoke
    • Requires cycle of several seconds (3+)
    • Result – dramatic effect to action

2D effects are important in animation to give life and purpose to animated objects in a sequence. With 2D effects comes lively, realistic and entertaining actions.

Source: Week 11 – One to one feedback tutorials & Animating 2D effects, Animating 2D effects.mp4

In our World project we are looking into creating 2D effects such as explosions and smoke, we will experiment and see how this goes for us.

We took a one-to-one tutorial this week for the tutors to help us out and answer any questions that we had. I talked to Aodhan and he have me some great feedback and advice for the bits of animation I had completed so far. This is the feedback he had sent to me:

Make his stop and turn more panicked and less casual. Fix the perspective on the left hand building, foreshorten the open apartment bit. Push the depth a bit more by making your skyscrapers lighter. Make him a little bit bigger as he comes towards the screen. Line thickness for your BG to help with depth. Thicker lines in FG.

My edits to my animation are shown in blog post Cyberpunk World – Week 11.

In week 10, we studied Animating Animals. Animal Animating requires you to think about the animal and their quadruped walking cycle. This cycle can also be interpreted as two biped walk cycles with offset timing. (one pair of legs moving ahead and another moving behind) The main positions of an animal cycle is Contact, Up, Down and Passing. Contact is when a limb is making contact with the surface the animal is walking on, Up is where the pelvis or chest rises when taking a step, Down is when the pelvis or chest lowers when taking a step, and Passing is the moment when limbs cross each other or are located in the same position.

Animal cycles also depend of timing, weight transferral, animal mass, age, speed of action etc. that can make them differ from other animal cycles. For example, a walking dog has each leg moving in different positions, has at least two limbs in contact and either the pelvis and chest is up or down. A running cat pushes themselves from the back legs meaning they pass through the front legs in the middle, while also using the technique of squash and stretch as they leap from the ground, making both the pelvis and chest rise, then contact the ground with their front legs first.

Knowing how to animate animals is important in animation to find realism in creatures we know unless we may not recognise them.

Source: Week 10 – Reflective blog & peer review & animating animals,  animating animals.mp4

  Prior to last week where we studied animatics, I made use of my time to update my animatic based on the feedback I was given by my tutors. This time I focused a lot more on the background setting, making sure that it felt natural and it connects with Ben’s animatic part before me. It now looks much stronger and can fit the three main focuses of the scene in good space.

Updated Animatic:

In week 9 we studied Animatics. Animatics are essentially moving storyboards, but hold much more purpose in calculating the timing, fixing up essential scenes and deciding what pace the sequence will go depending on the mood of the scene. An animatic is quite rough and simplistic but should include enough detail to determine what something is and what is going on. All that should be focused on is camera angles, simple lighting, shapes and forms and timing/pacing. Animatics is important in animation as it helps to understand from your storyboard if you have added too much or too little to the idea that can cost or leave out many seconds. Animatics help to grasp the overall idea of how the final animation could look like.

Source: Week 9 – Lecture videos, Animatics and secondary actions, Animatic lecture.mp4, Secondary actions – principle of animation lecture.mp4

For homework we were asked to make an animatic for our part/scene in our animation idea, based on our storyboards. I am working on the second scene of the animation and had designed it myself. I followed Alec’s lecture on how to use after effects to make an animatic. Source: Create a shot for an animatic using after effects – tutorial.mp4

First of all, I drew my scene on photoshop. I made grouped layers for each frame/movement of the characters or objects I included. When I finished this I made a new composition in After Effects and added the photoshop file. The software organised the layers into easy spots so I could navigate my frames easily. I worked on After Effects and using layers as frames once before so this was familiar to me. I resized the layers into how long they would play for – I do this to sort the timing of the movements. I also had to test the pacing of the sequence as the guy in the video is running, so it would have to be fast, but not too fast so we can capture the presence of the side character. Next I added flashing lights to resemble what the guy is running from, the police. I organised this so it would all play together in seven seconds.

Of course I needed some reference to help me out with the running sequence, the background setting etc. I made two attempts at the animation. The first one is using reference for the background, and the character designs. I realised after I made the first attempt that the running sequence was not the best. In my second try I had a video of a running sequence with me as I drew out the running frames again.

References: Running sequence – https://youtu.be/lCpotGr0TB4

Chase scene example – https://youtu.be/5qSgoZPnTuw

Try 1:

Try 2:

I see for myself there is a lot I can improve on in this animatic, such as the perspective of the scene – its hard to tell if where the girl is standing is a corner, or if she’s in the middle of the street,, the background could look a lot better etc. However, when I bring this animatic into a full animation, i’ll recognise the problems and work hard to make it great!