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.