WEEK 10 – REFLECTIVE BLOG & PEER REVIEW & ANIMATING ANIMALS
During Week 10, our lecture was on Animating Animals in which we had a talk from Sarah on how to animate quadrupeds and bird wings. We looked at the book, The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams for guidance and reference.
She told us how they were similar to biped walk cycles, yet the weight transferral and timing were slightly different. The best way to capture the realistic motion in animals is by using reference from nature documentaries, pets, online videos, etc. We also looked at the work of Milt Kahl, who was a Disney animator and studied the movements of horses, using Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs for reference.
We also looked at birds, and how they are adapted to have fast and changeable movements through the air. They begin with a powerful downward stroke that lifts them and their wings follow a circular motion. Dragon flight cycles can be animated in a very similar way, also.
This week I also completed the Booyah’s final character turnaround and finalised the colours that me and my group will use for him throughout the final animation.
For our animation project, this week I wanted to focus and work on the backgrounds that would set the scene of my part. I had a lot of ideas for the colours of the city background, and was torn between a vibrant neon landscape, or a grimy, forgotten alleyway. I initially thought that my part would be set at night and so I used a lot of darker colours inspired by animated films such as Akira, with its Neo-Tokyo setting.
ABOVE: Akira Background displaying the Neo-Tokyo landscape
I really like the colours in the first piece of my background concepts; however, I think the group wants to make the scene set during the day so I must change aspect of it. The second piece’s colours also match up better with Jamie’s part, that also takes place in the city so I think we will focus on using warmer, rust tones than neon, electric tones.
For composition and contents of the background, I looked at alleyways and streets in cities such as New York and Tokyo for reference, using the dumpsters, pipes and buildings in my background.
To colour these in a lighter, more pastel way for daytime, I decided to look at animation backgrounds from Steven Universe and Gravity Falls as well as the environmental work of illustrators such as Varguy.
In class we also had a peer review session, and I was grouped with Tori Gray, Samantha Savage, Chloe Bowman and Nicole.
We all looked through each other’s blogs and suggested what we could include and improve upon for them. The critiques I received were very helpful as they allowed me to see from another’s point of view what I could do better, as well as seeing the other’s blogs which inspired me to layout and include the same things as they did. I can go back and fix anything that isn’t right and make my blog as good as possible for the deadline.