Uber problem

i have finished doing the animating for the animation but i had only managed to put about half the audio i wanted to put into it when the main file i was working from decided to corrupt while i was recording the audio for the hand and the hat-stands chasing the other one round the stage.

So essentially the version i have and am unable to make any alterations to is unfinished but due to time contraints i don't have enough time the remake it.

storyboard

here is the storyboard for the animation please click on it for a larger less blurry image if you would like.

walk cycles

These are the walk cycles for the hat-stand in the following order of right, front then top.

Character drawings

sorry for not updating my blog in a while i have been quite busy with this project.

these next few posts will be in order of completion on each segment of this project.


These next images are of the appearence of the characters.

Hmm? Story?

My story that includes my clumsy hat-stand is that of a stage show.

It starts with a door with a star on it, a floating hand comes up and knocks on the door saying '5 minutes!', we open the door and go in. As we step in we see an empty actor's dressing room with a hat-stand in the corner we look closer at it. The hat that is on it falls off and it moves to grab it and pops it back on. It hops over to the doorway as we view it from the back and reaches for a cane that is leaning by the wall, it knocks the cane over and then ends up having to reach further for it and then leaves the room. We cut to the side of the stage as we see the hat-stand waiting to go on it put its other arm onto some ropes. As it is about to go on the stage it hops towards it and catches and undoes the rope causing a sand bag to fall on its head. The view then cuts to a view of the whole stage and 3 other similar hat-stands looking impatient waiting for it. It comes on and they start dancing a little while in the hat-stand trips up and causes the others to fall like dominos. They get angry at it and chase after it, quite soon after it falls off of the stage and we cut to a top down view of it snapped in halve (fade out). END.

What am i going to do?

Well to answer i'm going to be using the rubber hose style of animation due to limtiations of my given object. As i said the limtations to a hat-stand are that its is neither living nor jointed, it being inanimate would not work with the characteristic i received 'Clumsy'. The other problem of being a solid object does not allow me to move it without outside help. i have decided that the rubber hose style is perfect for what in need due to the fact that i can give the hat-stand life and flexibility.

What is rubber hose?

Rubber hose was developed as the most early form of animation, it was commonly used with music or as a cute cartoon filled with gags. Like most other styles of animation, it depends on what it was used with. Story construction wasn't very focused in the era that the "rubber hose" style dominated, but those cartoons still dealt in gags the way most of the later shorts did.

animation process

The basic animation process is:

1. Create a story with characters thought out.
2. Design a storyboard around the story.
3. Sketch out the frames with apropriate idea of speed.
4. Thicken up the lines that are used.
5. Fill in the lines with colour.
6. Play in sequence.

This video i found shows from stage 3 to 6 of this process, its a fan made anime of doctor who.

Research animation

THE 12 RULES OF ANIMATION

1. SQUASH AND STRETCH

This action gives the weight and volume to a character as it moves. Also squash and stretch is useful in animating dialogue and doing facial expressions. It is used in all forms of character animation from a bouncing ball to the body weight of a person walking.

2. ANTICIPATION

This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as, starting to run, jump or change expression. A backwards motion occurs before the forward action is executed. The backward motion is the anticipation. A comic effect can be done by not using anticipation after a series of gags that used anticipation.

3. STAGING

A pose or action should clearly communicate to the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of the character as it relates to the story and continuity of the story line. The effective use of long, medium, or close up shots, as well as camera angles also helps in telling the story. Staging directs the audience's attention to the story or idea being told. Care must be taken in background design so it isn't obscuring the animation or competing with it due to excess detail behind the animation.

4. STRAIGHT AHEAD AND POSE TO POSE ANIMATION

Straight ahead animation starts at the first drawing and works drawing to drawing to the end of a scene. Fast, wild action scenes are done this way. Pose to Pose is more planned out and charted with key drawings done at intervals throughout the scene. Many scenes use a bit of both methods of animation.

5. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION

When the main body of the character stops all other parts continue to catch up to the main mass of the character, such as arms, long hair, clothing, coat tails or a dress, floppy ears or a long tail (these follow the path of action). Nothing stops all at once. This is follow through. Overlapping action is when the character changes direction while his clothes or hair continues forward. The character is going in a new direction, to be followed, a number of frames later, by his clothes in the new direction.

6. SLOW-OUT AND SLOW-IN

As action starts, we have more drawings near the starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more drawings near the next pose. Fewer drawings make the action faster and more drawings make the action slower. Slow-ins and slow-outs soften the action, making it more life-like. For a gag action, we may omit some slow-out or slow-ins for shock appeal or the surprise element. This will give more snap to the scene.

7. ARCS

All actions, with few exceptions (such as the animation of a mechanical device), follow an arc or slightly circular path. This is especially true of the human figure and the action of animals. Arcs give animation a more natural action and better flow. Think of natural movements in the terms of a pendulum swinging. All arm movement, head turns and even eye movements are executed on an arcs.

8. SECONDARY ACTION

This action adds to and enriches the main action and adds more dimension to the character animation re-enforcing the main action. Think of the walk as the primary action and arm swings, head bounce and all other actions of the body as secondary or supporting action.

9. TIMING

The basics are: more drawings between poses slow and smooth the action. Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper. A variety of slow and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement. Also, there is timing in the acting of a character to establish mood, emotion, and reaction to another character or to a situation.

10. EXAGGERATION

Exaggeration is not extreme distortion of a drawing or extremely broad, violent action all the time. It's like a caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Action traced from live action film can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical.Exaggeration in a walk or an eye movement or even a head turn will give your film more appeal.

11. SOLID DRAWING

The basic principles of drawing form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation as it does to academic drawing. The way you draw cartoons, you draw in the classical sense, using pencil sketches and drawings for reproduction of life. You transform these into color and movement giving the characters the illusion of three-and four-dimensional life. Three dimensional is movement in space. The fourth dimension is movement in time.

12. APPEAL

Appealing animation does not mean just being cute and cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute. Over the years, the artists have learned that to produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development and a higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye.

Research start!

The clumsy hat-stand.

first what i shall do is look at the definition of the words.

clumsy

[kluhm-zee] –adjective, -si⋅er, -si⋅est.

1.	awkward in movement or action; without skill or grace: He is very clumsy and is always breaking things.

2.	awkwardly done or made; unwieldy; ill-contrived: He made a clumsy, embarrassed apology.

Synonyms:
1. ungraceful, ungainly, lumbering, lubberly. 2. unhandy, unskillful, maladroit, inexpert, bungling, bumbling, heavy-handed, inept.

Antonyms:
2. adroit, skillful.

hatstand

Hat"stand", noun. A stand of wood or iron, with hooks or pegs upon which to hang hats, etc.

Project 5: Animation

A new project!

This one I'm enthusiastic about, i started with my hobby at 2d animation and with this project i get to go back to 2d.

The project is to produce a short 2d animation showing understanding of the principles of animation by using them to assist the narrative.

The narrative as like project 4 consists of randomly drawn components, this time they were an inanimate object and a personality. Mine were together 'the clumsy hat-stand'.