Introduction to animation

  For these flip books, i wanted to focus on the way that the balloon moved based on its different actions. For the water filled balloon, i closely observed the abstract shapes that the balloon made as it hit the floor. Some of the drawings look very strange as stand alone images but when in sequence, they work together well to create the desired effect. In this book i wanted to also give the idea of weight behind the balloon, by making it move quickly to the floor.  Looking at the deflated balloon book, i wanted to experiment with depth. I made the balloon come close up to the viewer to give it that sense of being out of control, and as it deflated completely i had it exit the frame to show that it had stopped moving and i felt i executed this well.  The final book was the flicked balloon. I found this one the most difficult to execute just because the change in speed from the initial impact to the balloon settling was so dramatic and hard to illustrate. I do however fee...

Above, is my completed show reel. I put all of my separate elements into adobe premier and added in some fade transitions so that they merged nicely into one another. I popped some music in the background so that it made the reel more enjoyable to watch and i definitely think this made a difference. I think that this showcased my animations nicely as i was able to loop them so that they lasted for a longer amount of time than they would as stand alone animations and overall it was a nice way to show off what i had created. I think if i were to have developed this further, i would have added in some title slides between the animations just to say what they were, perhaps in a similar style to how i made the opening scene look.   

  Above, shows my plan for my final animation sequence. I sketched out the general poses i wanted Florence to be in in each frame, then highlighted in red, the animation that needed to accompany the drawing. Although the least technical, this was probably the most important part of this whole process as it gave me something to refer back to as i made each scene, and it helped to keep me on track.     This red animation above, was the really rough idea that i animated first. Almost like a skeleton for my end piece, this allowed me to see what the final outcome was going to look like before diving head first in with the detail and not liking the outcome. Again, this was really helpful throughout as it made the whole process a lot less daunting and it gave me something to base my refined sketch off as i moved through each frame. The above animation is the very simple finished piece. Although the animation was complete, i felt it was really lacking in detail. My previous...

\ The image above was my first idea for my animation. I wanted to animate Florence walking through the ward with her lamp, with the patients in the back, then having the camera zoom in on the lamp so that we could see the light flickering, then it panning back out to Florence standing there. I decided not to go with this idea, as when i started animating it, i knew that i was out of my depth. I found the walk cycle very difficult to create so having to include this into a scene with a moving background and other complex elements was just too hard for me to do, and would've wasted a lot of my time. I think that it was very wise of me to scrap this idea before i got too deep into it as it made me open my mind up to other possibilities and allowed me to create the outcome that i am now very proud of. Admitting that this idea was unachieveable was a big learning curve for me as it showed me that i wasn't doubting myself, but that my skills would be better used elsewhere and would c...

  To begin my walk cycle, i tried to animate a stick man as i felt that this would give me a good base to go off of for my more detailed animation. As you can see, this was not the most successful outcome- the arms moved strangely and the walk doesn't look fluid, as it should. I took into consideration these errors and rectified them moving forward.   This is the first outcome. I kept the animation to the bare minimum detail wise as i wanted to mainly focus on getting the movement right and im pleased with the animation. I especially like the way that the feet move as its authentic to how a person would walk. Im glad i added in the 'bob' as she walked too as i feel it made it look more real and a lot less rigid.  Developing that, i put in some bits of secondary animation such as the hem of the dress moving, the bow and the hair moving also. I think this really finished off the piece well as it made it look a little more lively and a lot less stiff compared to the fir...

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