Timing for Animation Assignment 1: Weekly Exercises

Week 1: Bouncing Ball

First time using Krita and Wacom Cintiq 13 Pro tablet
Helpful to revisit the basic principles of animation after having done BDes Hons Animation for the last three years
It was tricky to work out how fast the ball should be travelling at certain points, especially as the arcs got smaller
I also added some follow-through motion to turn the bouncing ball into a hopping frog

Week 2: Pose to Pose

First time using ToonBoom and puppet rigs (Jammy)
I found it really difficult to make sense of all the nodes and the master control system
If I were to do this exercise again I’d work on making the movement more snappy

Week 3: Walk and Run Cycles (Krita and Procreate)

Really helpful to go back to these principles as it helped me not only to understand the importance of the keyframes in a cycle to act as a guide for the in-betweens, but it also helped me to add more dynamic poses to my own illustrations, rather than drawing people standing still.
Sometimes it was hard to keep track of how much the arms should move back or forward during the run cycle
Some issues mixing up the back leg/arm but I used shading to help with that
Tried a basic cycle to help understand the key poses as I wanted to make sure I retained a good understanding of the basic principles of a walk cycle

Week 4: Flour Sack

First hand-drawn animation on ToonBoom
Difficult to draw something so simple, it was hard to know where to distribute the weight of the flour sack and where the creases should be
It helped to draw a seam down the side of the flour sack to help keep track of the way it was moving
If I were to do this again I’d not only focus on how the flour sack moves but also adding more emotion and acting to it’s movements, which was something I found a little difficult while trying to focus on actually making it move
I’d also focus on building up more anticipation before the jump itself

Week 5: Box Push

Hand-drawn on Toon-Boom
Difficult at first to incorporate the legs moving as if they were in a slow walk cycle while the character’s body was already at a different angle than I was used to working from
Important to be mindful of the anticipation of the push being faster than the actual push itself

Week 6: Basketball Throw

Hand-drawn on Krita
Extremely difficult to figure out how the legs should move heading downwards from an exaggerated jump, despite the fact that I used a reference video (the jump there felt too simple and I wanted to exaggerate it more)
Tried to add comedy as I thought the strong throwing pose could be funnier if afterwards the character fell flat on his face

For reference during these exercises: