ba1animationdynamics

[ba1animationdynamics]

Reflection

The video above is the first walk cycle I animated in flash, it was for an animation unit on a media course a while back now, and looking back at it I can really see the ways I've improved and the learnt the fundamentals of making believable, dynamic animation. 

The big bad wolf in the video moves with a kind of static motion, with little to no secondary movement to accompany the sway of the walk and arc movement of the legs, I’ve come to grips with software like flash since this first animation, and of course have learnt the correct ways to professionally format an animation, particularly in Adobe Premiere - my preferred editing software.(which this video does not, hence the resolution not being appropriate for modern screening and the low quality frames and assets).

Feedback this unit, from tutors like Robin Fuller, has been especially useful, but seminars and constant practice from a variety of sources (like the animator’s survival kit of course) have helped me tremendously in this project, and thus, overall, I think I am happy with my first dynamic outcome for this project, and feel like I've gained more of an understanding of the fundamental principles within animation.

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FINAL FINISHED Dynamic Animation

This is my final, finished, coloured dynamic animation now featuring sound effects and a short introductory close up of Mr.Moon. I had stated before that I wanted to add a preliminary scene where Mr.Moon (up close and personal) gives a quick cheeky wink. 

This is to really give you a sense of his personality as well as extend the timing to the appropriate amount set in the brief (without having to loop actions more than once). It’s also quite satisfying to watch with the added sound effects, which I feel work really well with the narrative and the seraphic nature of my character’s design and story. The wink gives Mr.Moon a sort of cool, witty, cheeky attitude before his transformation into his more wild persona.

I think that the sound effects also help give a sense of bursting movement (rapid, light but powerful), through audio that is progressive (it builds up) and explosive (the reflected light of the full moon shines as we hear the power in Mr.Moon’s godlike transformation). 

All Sound Effects Featured are Courtesy of: http://www.freesound.org/

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Mr.Moon Transformation Sequence

This is the near completed transformation sequence I worked on today, in which I tidied up some of the details (such as Mr.Moon’s guitar strap so that it appears in every frame) and flipped the moon cycle so it appears to wane in the opposite direction rather than simply reverse (like it did before).

I hope to add a preliminary scene where a close up Mr.Moon gives a wink in order to extend the timing, break the repetition of the movement and give the camera some action to perform during the dynamic sequence. Overall I’m much happier with the outlook of the animation since my first test, which felt slow and lacking the weight and effort I want to represent.

I feel as though this sequence is a big improvement and has a good deal of secondary movement to really enhance that sense of weight (such as the moon locket and guitar strap moving loosely during the looped transformation to indicate that they are light weight objects).

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Dynamic Animation Progress and Feedback

After spending another day in the media lab working on my dynamic flash animation for Mr.Moon, I finished the details and made the animation effectively loop. Although I did have trouble managing a suitable codec in post-production, as H264 and Animation rendered in QuickTime both produced fuzzy quality between frames, where the mp4 format that I edited in Premiere (not looped) worked fine, this is the video shown above.

Additionally, I gave a short talk on my progress so far in my pre-production, character design and dynamics work to Robin and some other first year students who also presented. There wasn’t much response but I feel as though the general feedback on my work was positive. Robin suggested that I make the sequence where Mr.Moon bursts open with the Full Moon more powerful and captivating by making it simultaneous with a wing movement, such as by completing his transformation as the wings spread out gloriously perhaps.

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Testing the wing’s secondary motion effect on Mr.Moon’s body as the wings flap in resistance to forces. Of course every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I recognize the fact that my character is depicted in space with earthly forces like gravity apparent in the scene…But in response to that I would say that my character is basically a god, so yeah.

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Dynamic Animation Feedback

Today I received some feedback from Robin Fuller on the progress of my current dynamic animation. I’ve made good time and progress in the project but many of the applicable constructive criticisms were shared by my tutor and I. I recognize mistakes and necessary tweaks in the animation, and will attempt to fix these as well as give the whole animation more of a sense of weight and movement. Here are some of the main points picked up:

My character appears to hover rather than stay in idle flight, as there is little sense of the wing movement carrying the weight of it’s host. I will attempt to tweak this by making my character shift up and down with the tension and relaxation of the wing’s motion (make him bob up and down as the wings flap).

My character appears to shrink during the first stage of transformation, I was told this was because of the “straight-ahead” animation method I’ve been using, whereby I draw over an onion skin on every individual frame rather than key-framing. If I used a key-frame at the extreme points of the animated sequence It would be much easier to maintain a scale. Nevertheless, I will tweak my character but playing around with scale to try and get a sense of constant scale even when he curls up.

I intend for my character to, in the second half of the animated sequence, bust open as he is fully transformed and the full moon reaches it’s full glory. Robin suggested that I exaggerate this motion to give a sense of weight to the character.

The whole sequence so far seems fairly slow. I’ve been filming at 30fps using doubles, I may consider using single frames, to make it more exiting, as the animation needs to be 25fps for submission anyway.

For future reference, Robin suggested that I not be so finished with my drawings at this stage, as I have used colour and a fully rendered background (with secondary animation) before getting the motion to a stage I am happy with. I couldn't agree more, I finished the half-sequence to this extent for review, which may not have been needed! I will complete the animation loosely, making sure the motion is at a point I am happy with before finishing the details.

^ These two screenshots are taken from the same clip in the same screen size, notice how my character does not appear to naturally curl up, he appears to shrink to such a significantly smaller size in the second image that the wings layered behind my character don’t even appear to reach his shoulder blades. My aim this week is to finish the sequence and edit the sizes to make his scale consistent throughout the animation.

Overall, Robin thought that I had to some extent “made the brief my own”, as I knew exactly what sequence I wanted to animate before thinking about how this could relate precisely to the objectives laid out by the project brief. My suggestion is that the sequence captures a sort of instance of “weight and effort”, as we see it everywhere, but I hope to tweak my animation to really fit the protocol laid out by these dynamic nouns.

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Dynamic Animation Progress 

After 4 hours of non-stop animating I animated half of the sequence for my character’s dynamic motion. I also coloured and edited it for review tomorrow, overall I’m quite happy with the result, as you do get a sense of movement, but I feel as though this could be made more extreme by increasing the intensity of the eases and making the whole scene slightly faster (even though at the moment it is at 30 fps!). As I worked in twos, I may consider sorting the frames into singles at certain times to get a sense of speed and acceleration. 

Most importantly though, I feel like a sense of weight and effort is distinguishable, but not ideal just yet. In the animation I think my character looks as if he shrinks when he transforms, which I must fix, and I’m also considering looping the motion in reverse (with the moon cycle going the other way) so the character transforms back to his original ‘crescent moon’ personality.

PS: this is unfinished, notice how in the first frame we can see his guitar strap but we can’t in the others just yet! I’m going to do more work on it and hopefully get it to a good, near completed stage this Wednesday 28/10/15.

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Wings Test for Dynamics Animation

I began animating the wings and developed a background for my dynamic animation in the Media Lab today. The animation of the wings (shown in a gif below) was completed in Flash CC, and the background was painted and exported through Photoshop CC. The animation is called dynamic because it will be a short (around 10 second) clip demonstrating elements of weight and effort. The effect I wanted was large, powerful, glorious motion in the wings, to give it a seraphic, spiritual, even godlike aesthetic.

I hope to layer my animated character in the foreground over the top of the wings, in a sequence where he transforms in relation to the moon cycle. The moon cycle will be rendered in flash and will appear in the background, traversing its various phases as Mr.Moon shape-shifts in response. Overall I'm very happy with the outcome today, as I feel you really get a sense of the phases where the wings ease in/out, as well as a sense that they are large, powerful components of a character rather than small and dainty (an effect I wanted to portray). I was also pleased to be able to work in flash, which I find myself much more familiar and confident with as a software.

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Test Flying Cycle Exercise

Using References I had gathered and taken influence from, I began to develop a flying cycle which would be accurate for my character. Using the same method as the walk cycle I began to hand draw a twos animation which would demonstrate the basic flight of my character in his crescent stage. 

A few frames have been cut out and timings have been changed to make it loop more effectively, but overall I am relatively happy with the result. I feel that the movement of the wings looks adequate, but not as smooth and precise as I would hope, it may be a lack of frames but the character seems to jitter and jump with the motion of the wings. I wanted Mr.Moon to bob up and down in relation to the wings as a kind of secondary movement, but it may have been more effective to move this a few frames ahead of the wings, as at the moment it looks less like a reaction to the wing’s motion, and more like a small hop that happens simultaneously. 

Lastly, I feel the overall movement in this practice is much faster and more intense than I anticipated. The next time I come to animate the character’s wings I hope to give them a much greater, more slow but powerful effect that still keeps a smooth and precise movement.

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The Transformation put into Dragon-frame

Today the rough transformation sequence I sketched into my sketchbook was put into dragon-frame to get a timeline that could effectively show the character’s motion. The result looks fairly crowded as I did not crop each separate panel from the page of my book, but this is because I only wanted to get a sense of timing. 

Overall I feel as though it moves a bit fast, and could be enhanced by making Mr.Moon hover in the air mid-transformation for sustained effect and anticipation. It could also be enhanced by, as I said before, reversing or redrawing the frames so that he transforms back again; this would make the movement loop neatly and will allow me to create more finished animation and progress toward a final outcome. On the other hand, what I do like is how the horns grow, as it has a very smooth and well timed motion to it, I also like the wing flap for the same reason.

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Experimenting with and Testing Wing style & Movement

Using my various references, and what I learnt during my sessions on walk cycles and hand-drawn animation with Robin, I started to experiment and test wing movement for a potential flying cycle and a design for a dynamic scenario in which my character could appear.

Update: I spoke to Robin today during a review and got some feedback on my work and ideas. Overall he feels it works well, perhaps in relation to weight and effort, he feels the scenario I have begun to develop (in which Mr.Moon transforms) is fairly complicated but could be effective if pulled off correctly. I decided to put the separate panels into dragon-frame to test the lines on a timeline. The completed dynamic animation should make use of looping to add up to 10 seconds, so it is suggested he transform back to his original state to maintain a consistent cycle. Weight and Effort will hopefully be captured through the motion of the wings and the way in which Mr.Moon curls up.

Alternatively I had the idea that I could make a second walk cycle to go along with the one I have completed already, but this time demonstrating Mr.Moon’s personality after he shape-shifts, which is more confident and upright. Doing this will allow me to capture more of an essence of dynamic character and personality that I feel my original walk cycle only slightly achieves. I have, however, decided to perhaps do this as an exercise practice (to experiment with different walks) instead of the fully developed animation we are required to submit (which will be my transformation sequence).

References:

https://askabiologist.asu.edu/human-bird-and-bat-bone-comparison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZidl8niBdg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/553239135445868596/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/280560251762817682/

I noticed representations of angel wings tend to move in a very idealised, spiritual fashion that is scientifically speaking, unnatural, but aesthetically I feel as though it looks gentle and powerful. I want to capture essences of this in my own character’s wing movements:

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References I've been using

To get a feel for how the wings work I've been looking into wing anatomy, both Robin and Helen suggested I do this. Helen thought that my original character sheet drawing of Mr.Moon from a back view did not accurately represent a pair of wings, because wings (as we can see from the anatomy reference) have a humerus bone which curves the remiges securely into the host:

Notice how I changed this in the final design to look more realistic, but of course with some stylistic elements incorporated from more comic representations of wings in animation and video games such as pokemon, specifically the pokemon pidgeotto (shown above), pidgeot, braviary (shown below), fearow and sigilyph.

Fully evolved bird pokemon, like Braviary & Pidgeot especially (shown below), use large heavy flaps of the wings to really give a sense of weight and power:                                                               http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/pokemon/braviary/    http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/pokemon/pidgeot/

Incorporating this into a bipedal spirit character with a very much human form required me to also look at references of angels and seraphs portrayed in both classical and modern art:

 Image 1:   Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation, 1472-1475, Uffizi gallery Image 2: William Adolph  Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Song of the Angels (1881) Image 3: “Tempest Seraph” digital illustration by DeviantArt user    NateHallinanArt, posted 2015

Notice the transition of the figure’s wing span/scale, I purposely chose these images as they accurately demonstrate not only a time period span, but also differences in wing scale and the effects of this. I believe that the smaller wings on Gabriel in Da Vinci’s interpretation of an angel cause Gabriel to appear non-threatening and gentle, whereas the Fantasy Seraph illustration depicted above actually demonstrates far more glory and overwhelming power in the wings than Da Vinci’s portrayal (notice the use of low perspective to emphasise this). This is what I want to embody in my own character, a real sense of spiritual grandeur but whilst still keeping his personality witty and his style comic.

References:

http://eskiworks.tumblr.com/post/90704993598

http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15072

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Braviary-171975725

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZidl8niBdg - this video is very useful as it is short, to the point, and covers front and side perspective for animating wings

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_(1825-1905)_-_Song_of_the_Angels_(1881).jpg

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/24/christmas-story-art-annunciation-leonardo

http://natehallinanart.deviantart.com/art/Tempest-Seraph-519715231

References used in my BA1 Animation Character Development such as Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising: http://ba1animationcharacter.tumblr.com/post/130363754227/influences-for-my-mrmoon-putting-separate

http://ba1animationcharacter.tumblr.com/post/130812762237/i-found-this-pretty-swell-emotions-board-of-pit

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Ideas for another Potential Animation exercise

I want to really get a feel for how Mr.Moon would move, beyond the general walk cycle templates, to show more of his individual personality. I consider him in his crescent stage to be loose and relaxed, which I feel I managed to capture in the walk cycle I posted earlier, but I also feel what would make it more effective is showing either a walk cycle of the transformed Mr.Moon in his full moon demeanour, or a flying cycle to really understand how his wings would function, or both! After a talk with Robin about how I would make this work, he suggested looking at bird/angel wing anatomy and representations and form the wings around that.

I want Mr.Moon’s wings to be large and glorious like an angel, with sturdy and magnificent-looking motion that carries his weight effectively. Instead of moving quick and horizontally like a bird for streamline flying, I feel as though Mr.Moon (of course a spirit) should fly in a relatively upright position to portray his spiritual, seraphic conduct, using heavy flaps of the wings that are slow but strong. Even if I do not make a flying cycle, I still feel as though learning how the wings work would be beneficial not only in this project, but throughout the course, and either way I may use the studies I have made for them and the references I used as useful starting points for our next project outcome - a 10 second dynamic animation based on one of the word pairs set in the brief.

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Feedback on First Walk Cycle

Robin took a look at my first Walk Cycle Practice Animation and gave me some feedback, as well as some feedback on my future intentions. Overall, he felt the legs and arms worked well, and demonstrated nice continuous arcs except for one small jitter in the front arm if you look closely. I noticed this after he pointed it out, though it is subtle, as the right arm of my character during the walk cycle has a slight twitch to it as it comes backward. I hope to potentially fix this by adding an extra frame or two, or replacing the frame that I think is causing the issue.

The above picture shows some drawings in my sketchbook that I made a few weeks ago for my original intentions for the cycle (based on the Animator’s Survival Kit). What I hope to do next is make a cycle that demonstrates how Mr.Moon’s wings might move. So far (in my character designs) I feel as though his wings have been relatively inconsistent in style and movement, and as such I hope to use the line testers and references to get a feel for how they might make him fly. Additionally, which Robin thought might be an interesting practice, I may consider making a second looped walk cycle of Mr.Moon in his transformed stage. His current cycle seems relaxed and leisurely, whereas I want the walk cycle for Mr.Moon in his transformed stage to be much more confident, upright and exaggerated.

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First Finished Walk Cycle Practice Animation

Using one of Robin’s Photoshop references during a seminar with him in St.Georges building, Norwich, our class was each provided with a bunch of 12F paper and an animation peg bar to create our own looped walk cycle. The cycle was completed in twos, with around 15-16 separate drawings to indicate the stages of the walk cycle, from the contact (when the first foot touches the ground), to the low (lowest section of the walk cycle), to the high (the highest section of the walk cycle) and repeat to the second contact (the other foot).

I found reversing the cycle to reach to the other foot quite confusing at first, but using reference by watching other people’s walks I understood what was meant. What’s important is that I feel I captured my character in his crescent stage quite effectively, not only because of the wings which bob up and down with the body with a sense of weight on the character’s back, but also because the walk seems quite relaxed and leisurely, and has a slight twist which I feel communicates my character’s personality successfully.

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For my walk cycle and animations, my character “Mr.Moon” will be the subject, I think he will be quite difficult to animate due to the hairstyle and wings, so I will need plenty of references to make effective secondary animation during the animation practices. I already have an idea for my 10 second animated short, where the climatic transformation scene of Mr.Moon will occur as he curls up and bursts open in front of a clear full moon.