WEEK 1-15
As someone who has a very keen interest in 2D animation, I was very excited to do this project as I could practice my practical animation skills through this and had the option to do whatever form of animation I wanted.
I needed to do a lot of research though before I felt comfortable starting my animations. I paid close attention to the extra research and learning materials we were given, as well as the 2D lectures given by Sarah.
I started by researching walk cycles other animators had done and animation references online. I was looking at walk cycles in 2D and 3D as I believed looking at many different walk cycles will only help me understand how to do it better. This was true, and feeling better about my own understanding on where to start, I started looking at references I could use for my animation.
After searching for a while, I found this video on Pinterest showing a reference for a walk cycle I thought would be good for me to attempt. So, having my video, I opened up Krita and started animating.
I’d used Krita before, last year with the Create A World project – so I was familiar with the program for animation, now becoming quite proficient with the animation tools I was going to use. I started by creating a very loose idea of what it would look like, using basic circles to show where the head, shoulder and torso would go, and what their high-point and low-point would be in the stride. I also made arcs to show myself the full motion of the arm and legs.
I fiddled with this animation for quite a while, but as I continued with it, I decided against going with this type of walk cycle specifically. It’s not that I didn’t think I could do such an upbeat walk and show emotion through the movement, it’s just that I wasn’t quite happy with how it was going and would’ve rather used a better-quality video at the expense of the upbeat nature of this one.
Having previously looked at a lot of references, I had these different walk cycles bookmarked from when I was doing my research. They don’t showcase a lot of emotion, but I believed I’d be able to convey a little bit of emotion through expression and timing. I wanted to draw my OC’s in place for these animations, and after choosing which OC I was going to use for my walk cycle, I used the reference that suited their body type the best.
Before I started, I went back to look at the 2D lecture Sarah gave us for our walk cycles, and refresh my memory, as I was worried about the timing of my walk cycle and whether it would end up coming out strange.
I also went and watched some of the LinkedIn lecture videos with tips and tricks for 2D animation.
Using similar techniques to the first test animation, I created shapes for the head, chest and torso, and laid out their low-point and high-point. I also created arcs for the arms and legs, and created simple armatures of motion for the walk cycle I wanted to put my characters backpack on them to add some secondary motion and a bit of interest, so I set that up too, and set to detailing.
This one was much smoother than the first one, and I thought I got the timing much better too.
I was excited for this; I could have fun with the secondary actions of the hair! I wanted to create a leisurely, almost bored walk. I achieved this by sticking to the reference but timing it a little bit slower than it would naturally go, I also conveyed it through the expression of my characters face — eye’s half closed, with a lazy blink. After some work as well, I created it as a loop so it looks like a pretty seamless, continuous walk. I added secondary motion to the backpack, hair and a tiny bit to the hat on top of their head, I also added the outfit and shoes and got rid of the sketch-lines that were previously the arms and legs.
I got help with the animation at this stage through peer advice from Una. I had been struggling with the face for what felt like ages, something wasn’t quite right but despite my fiddling I just couldn’t figure it out. I sent over my animation for my friends to have a look at and then Una gave me advice on the facial anatomy, in the file I sent over, the eye was just a fraction too high on the face, making it look out of proportion. It was strange for me to see that such a small thing could have such an effect on the overall look of the face, and it looked much better after I took their advice.
I took a break from the walk cycle animation at this point to start working a little on the run cycle.
I was using this as my reference:
I wanted to put my character sardine into my second animation, I thought it would be very fun to animate him running as he had a tail that I think would be good practice for me.
I looked at this animation of a different character with a tail running and took inspiration from that motion to inform how I animated mine.
On top of the reference, I also looked at a reference blocking out the movement that takes place when running. I took this into account because while I had the reference of someone running on a treadmill, I wanted a more solid look at the movements than having to sporadically pause the video to look at how the legs were moving.
Starting again with my circles for the head, torso, hips and shoulders, I blocked out the legs, arms and tail.
The timing is going to be different in the final outcome than this clip, it’s going to be a little bit faster. I used advice I got from my peers looking at my walk cycle animation for this one by adding movement to the shoulders. I didn’t have the swivel of the shoulders in my walk cycle and it makes the run look a lot more natural. I’m worried, however, that the run cycle is a bit too stiff right now, I hope it looks more natural in the final outcome when I add the clothes and the other secondary motion.
At this point in my project, something terrible happened. I had my animation files on a USB because I was unable to be at my PC where they usually were as I was staying for an extended period of time away from my flat. I didn’t have my animation files uploaded onto my OneDrive, as I was going to do it as soon as I got back. I was lining and colouring my walk cycle because I wanted to finish up my animations, when suddenly my USB stopped working. My drive was corrupted along with my animation files on it. After my initial freakout, I started troubleshooting the issue and couldn’t find a way to fix it on my own, so I sent it over to a family friend who had experience in extracting files from corrupted flash drives and hoped for the best. I then told Alec the situation and prayed I didn’t need an extension, as it was only about a week at this point til the day the assignment was due.
Even at the current situation, after wallowing for a while I started on the one animation I hadn’t started yet, anyway, so I at least have something final at the end of this if it doesn’t go well with my USB.
With this animation, I wanted to try straight ahead animation for the first time, I have usually always done pose-by-pose animation by default, and wanted to experiment this time. I started by researching pose-to-pose.
After researching, I found a reference of a man lifting a heavy box I wanted to animate – I didn’t want to animate the whole thing exactly, only about 5 seconds in all, but I wanted to do it well.
I also went with a different style when animating than I usually do, I usually do sketch, lineart, and colour when animating, but decided to work from the sketch and refine the sketch into the lineart layer, since this is how I tend to work in my own personal drawings. I think it ended up looking obviously a little messier, but far more organic both in line and movement, and that adds appeal to me.
The pose-to-pose animation also made the motions I used look more organic. One of the downsides of pose-to-pose animation is that it can leave room for warping of shape and proportion when you reach the end of the animation, but I think I had very little of that in my attempt. The only instance of that happening in my animation I only see at the end in the foot closest to the front, and not that badly. I also believe I could’ve exaggerated the weight of the box more if I wanted to, but I think I did a great job with showing the centre of gravity in the stumble back and them catching themselves.
Despite the fact this animation has thicker lineart and less neat linework than my other animations, I’m very happy with it! I think the movement looks very natural, I have the pose-to-pose to thank for that, it adds more personality to my animation that it would’ve been hard to add otherwise at my experience level. I feel like I’m still very new at animation in 2D, even though it’s what I’m most interested in. I’m still creating my own personal style and technique, and have a lot to improve on.
4 days after I sent the USB to a family friend in hopes of recovering the files, I got the great news that most of the content of the USB was able to be recovered, and luckily the animation files I had for my walk and run animations we’re of those recovered. I was cutting a fine line at this point and had about 4 full days to get these two done now, so I immediately got to work in hopes of getting the assignment submitted on the official day, even though I was allowed an extension until the 10th because of these circumstances.
Since I had the sketch of my walk cycle done and had just started the lineart before all the trouble that happened, I picked up where I left off with that. I don’t particularly like doing lineart and prefer much more to create lineart from my sketch, so this wasn’t my favourite part. Looking back in retrospect for doing lineart, it made it look neater but I don’t think it made it look nicer, to me. I would’ve rather just made the sketch the lineart, and I think I might’ve wasted my time doing this. It’s all up to perspective, I guess.
Adding colour and shading, what do I think of the final thing? I think the lineart looks less bad now that I’ve added colour and shadows, and I think the overall animation is smooth. I think it’s good! I like the end result. I see some mistakes, obviously – and there are things I wish I could’ve done differently, but this is the best I can do at my skill level right now, and I’m excited to see what I can create in the future. Thanks to feedback from peers I believe it ended up better than it would’ve been otherwise, because their advice helped me far more than I expected, both with the timing and the general look of it.
Moving on swiftly after I finished the walk, I immediately started on the run. I had previously been doing more work on the sketch so I had more done than I thought I initially did, so this was VERY helpful since the hand in date was fast approaching. I wanted to turn the sketch lines into the actual lineart this time, as I didn’t like how thin and stiff the lineart was during my walk cycle, and would rather have had more organic and fun lines. This also saved me time in the long run as I didn’t need to spend the time to go over lines I had already made, just had to refine the sketch. It ended up looking far better than I think it would’ve been if I had have went over it, as I like the line weight and variation that happens when I refine from my sketch. When this was done, I could add the colours.
The colours and shadows were quite simple, and followed the same way that I did my previous animations. Through working on these though, I’ve also learnt new tools I can use in Krita, so I appreciate the fact this assignment gave me the opportunity to get better at using it.
With the final outcome, I do like it better than the walk cycle, despite the fact it also has pretty much the same amount of mistakes and things I could improve on – I think it all comes down to the lines, as I’ve talked about previously. I wish I would’ve pushed the motion of the tail more, as I believe I could’ve added a longer arch to it, but I’m pretty satisfied with how it came out anyway. There’s also a few anatomy mistakes I would’ve fixed if I had the chance to redo this. I like the arch of the legs I did in this animation, and the motion of the ears and the blink. I think this one is my favourite of the three.
Overall, this project was very challenging for me – not skill wise, as I know how to animate on Krita, and not at the beginning, just very, very stressful towards the end. Over this semester, I focused heavily on the Unreal assignment as I didn’t know anything about Unreal Engine and wanted to create a good outcome for that, and felt I needed to devote most of my project work time to that to create my final. It turned out I made the right decision in that regard, as I did need to allocate most of my time to that project to learn it well, and I did create an outcome I was insanely happy with – but I feel this was to the detriment of this project. It wouldn’t have been too bad if I didn’t run into the technical issue with losing my animation files and being unable to access them. My USB corrupted with my animation files on them and I couldn’t get to my PC because I was visiting my parents for Christmas and couldn’t make the trip back. If I hadn’t had hit that speedbump I would’ve had far more time to focus on my animations and I feel the end results could’ve been better, but I do like what I’ve made regardless, and I know I can only make better in the future.