Animation Showreel 2016

I compiled all of my best completed animation tests into a showreel that I'm proud to present.

3D Animation Test - Constraints

The purpose of this exercise was to gain an understanding of constraints and how they work. It was a very difficult concept for me to grasp, but that made it all the more satisfying when I was successful in starting and ending a constraint. This was then applied to a pre-rigged model, which I was to animate picking up and placing down a box. This was tough because I couldn't wrap my head around the right constraints to use to translate and rotate the box. In the end I was unable to, but regardless I still feel that this test was successful as I animated the body language of the model in a fluid, realistic way.

Cinematography - The Creeper In Me

For this project I formed a group with Gabby, Louise and Nico. The purpose of our film was to create a film without any text or dialogue, and using camera angles and atmosphere to tell a narrative. We chose to do a chase scene, where the main character grows more paranoid as they are followed by a mysterious hooded figure. Acting was a lot of fun and I helped shoot some POV shots running around Penryn. Finding locations was challenging but we worked hard and our efforts paid off with a strange film with a weird little twist at the end.

Storyboard + Animatic - Zoo Troop And The Lost Pirate Treasure

For this project the objective was to create a storyboard and animatic from a script. It was my first time producing an animatic and it was a fun and challenging process. My time management was far from perfect though, and I didn't complete my storyboard to my own satisfaction. If I were to redo this project again I would definitely make a much tighter schedule in order to complete my work on time and to a high standard. This was a good learning experience for me, however, as I enjoy storyboarding and pre-production.

The animatic was fun to create, even though my voice acting could have been better. I would definitely be interested in creating animatics again in the future, and I think mine turned out pretty well for a first attempt.

2D Animation Test - Exaggeration

This exercise was to practice exaggerated in-betweens in animation, and I looked at The Dover Boys (1942) for reference, as this animated short film was well known for its exaggerated movement and in-betweens. I revisited the idea of a head turn, but this time made it a much faster, sharp movement, hence the exaggerated in-betweens and speed lines.

2D Animation Test - Water Splash

This exercise required following a guide from famous animator Joseph Gilland, on how to create movement and energy in a water splash. I followed this tutorial but no matter how I executed it, the water felt chaotic and irregular. I am not proud of my animation test for this exercise, and it has yet to be completed to my satisfaction, but here are a few screenshots of my work in progress.

Stop Motion Animation Test - Character Walk

This exercise was challenging - the aim was to create a character walk, a walk sequence that created a unique tone to the puppet, and added personality and feeling. My walk wasn't intentionally as creepy as it turned out, but it's a nice touch. I was aiming for quite a shy or moody character, with their head down and their shoulders hunched, but it turned out as more of an eerie drunken walk. Regardless, I quite like it, though it looks a bit clumsy.

2D Animation Test - Walk Cycle

For this exercise I practiced a walk cycle - a sequence of steps that emulate a walk on the spot. I found this quite easy as I had created walk cycles in the past, albeit for a literal stick figure as opposed to a more fleshed out figure for this exercise. This was fun and I completed it fairly easily. To differentiate the arms and legs I used a shading tool in TV Paint that represented the front-facing arms and legs from the back. This was both to make it easier for me to see what I was doing, and also to make it easier for a viewer to tell the sides apart.

Stop Motion Animation Test - The Ball Throw

The aim of this exercise was to practice the principles of anticipation, action and follow through. To do this, I had my puppet imitate a ball through. I acted out the actions myself, drew stick figure diagrams to work out the movements, and tried out the action a few times. My first test went badly because I couldn't properly capture the momentum, which ended up looking very strange.

The next time I recreated the ball throw, I acted out the motions myself and created a more convincing throw.

3D Animation Test - MERY

This task was to practice modelling and posing pre-rigged models, in order to create expression and feeling. I had a lot of fun with this task, and it was fascinating exploring all of the different rigs created in the model, from the basic limb movements to the eyeball rigs to the different available clothing options. I ended up using some online posing studies in order to create interesting poses and positions for the model to be in.

2D Animation Test - Head Turn

This exercise was to use timing charts to create a head turn. I enjoyed this process, although I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt and ended up adding several in betweens in order to create a smoother finish. This task took me longer than it should have because I ended up changing the way the figure moved several times before feeling satisfied with my end product.

Storyboard - Deep

The purpose of storyboarding Deep was to take a scene from the script and translate it into a storyboard that captured the tone and atmosphere of the piece. Because it was a historical setting, I researched historical fashion and furniture for the scene. Additionally, I was given diagrams of the layout of the room to incorporate backgrounds. I am pleased with the staging of the characters, however I feel that this would have worked better if I'd exaggerated gestures and added more backgrounds to the scene.

For this piece I also created concept artwork so that I could draw the characters consistently.

Stop Motion Animation Test - The Toe Touch

For this exercise I was able to use the puppets for the first time. They needed to be handled with caution, and I found it tricky loosening the joints and getting them to stand upright. I actually ended up shooting my first test on single frames, which I only realised afterwards, and then went back and created it correctly.

3D Animation Test - The Walk

For this exercise, I created a walk for a rigged model. I had practiced creating a walk in Maya back in January, but I found it confusing working around the controls and I kept getting confused with which body parts I had keyframed, which made it a much more grueling process. Additionally, I had trouble grasping the concept of how the feet moved, and ended up creating a moonwalk during pretty much every step, which then had to be corrected. Despite this, I am quite happy with how this turned out and this exercise gave me a better understanding of how rigged models work.

Storyboard - Speed And Movement

The purpose of this storyboard was to experiment with speed and movement. The brief was that any two characters should meet while approaching at different speeds, so I created a storyline of two girls, one a runner and one playing on their phone, bumping into each other one day.

I also included some concept art when coming up with character designs for Jenna and Liu.

2D Animation Test - Jumping Box Man

For this exercise, I created a jumping figure using basic shapes - a circle and a box. I actually found this more challenging than using an ordinary human shape, surprisingly. I had attempted a jumping figure in early March and while I have improved greatly since then, I found it difficult creating the illusion of a box man jumping. However, I decided to overcome my initial confusion by giving more of a build up - the box man stretches out like a sprinter getting into their start position, and then that gave the momentum my figure needed for a successful jump.

Stop Motion Animation Test - Balloons And Bowling Balls

This next stop motion exercise was all about weight and how movement is affected by it. The task was to create the illusion of a balloon and a bowling ball falling to the ground. The balloon was created by watching reference of a balloon falling. It does small arcs in the air as it descends slowly, twirling in the wind, until it hits the floor - it then bounces quickly upwards and changes direction entirely as its momentum changes. In order to create this effect, I had the frame move sharply, to make it look as though it was quickly hitting the ground. I am proud of this test but wish I could have made my pencil markings more obvious, as they were difficult to see and therefore harder to follow exactly.

For the second test, I created the illusion of a bowling ball hitting the ground. Since bowling balls are heavy, they hardly bounce, so I incorporated this by having it drop from a greater height to see how it would react. There was a small bounce, but I feel that it could have been smaller to further create the illusion of it being a heavy ball.

3D Animation Test - Bouncing Ball With Squash And Stretch

For this test I had to animate a ball bouncing off multiple surfaces, and incorporate the principle of squash and stretch. I used motion paths to create the movement and had great difficulty at first, as Maya isn't a program I'm very strong in using currently. My first test looked more like the ball was made of pudding or jelly.
I later went back and corrected this when I had a better understanding of squash and stretch and motion trails, giving a much nicer finish.

2D Animation Test - Bouncing Ball in 3D Room

This test was working in Tv Paint to create the effect of a ball bouncing across surfaces in a box room to create a 3D effect. It was more difficult to recreate this as I tried to create the animation without the use of squash and stretch.

Stop Motion Animation Test - Pendulums

For this exercise I practiced recreating the pattern of a pendulum in stop motion using coins. These tests were created in DragonFrame. The first test was a standard pendulum.

The second test was a pendulum in the style of a grandfather clock, meaning I had to study how grandfather clock pendulums move in time to the ticking of the clock.

Animation Test - A Bouncing Ball

I studied a video clip of a ball bouncing and decided to recreate it to understand the uses of anticipation, acceleration and squash and stretch.

Sketchbook Brief #1 - A Toy Story

For this brief we each selected a toy of ours and took them around Falmouth, drawing them to create a narrative behind each image. I used photography to digitally recreate the images I wanted to use. I used a bear from my childhood, showing her adapting to university life with me.

Introducing...

Greetings, and welcome to my student blog!

I'm Hannah Nutting, a first year Animation and Visual Effects student at Falmouth University. My purpose in creating this blog is to showcase my personal growth throughout the next three years studying the art and technology of animation, including university set tasks, project work, portfolio pieces and my own personal projects. I may even look into further exploring my passion for animation in the form of animation reviews and critiques.

My current passion is the pre-production side of animation - storyboarding, scripting, character design and concept art are things that I am excited to learn more about, and as I have previous experience as a project manager, I would like to learn more about how a project manager position differs between television/film and animation, to explore whether or not this is something I would be good at and passionate about. More than anything though, I'm looking to discover the areas of animation that speak to me.

If you wish to join my journey in self-discovery in the field of animation, by all means track my progress by following this blog!