ANNALUCILIA

Pati's Walking!

2012-01-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

Walking progress

2012-01-31T08:02:00.001-08:00

So, as you can see in the video, theres still plenty that I need to finish with patis walk. I've been making sure to take note of EVERYTHING while animating this so that I am creating my own timeline for a creature walk cycle. Hopefully now I've managed to figure out a lot more of what is meant to move and when, this will help me so much more to understand a creatures shift in weight and movements for animating. From posing Pati and making these walk cycles I am also starting to learn the flexibility of this rig. Someone asked me if it possible to make it do back flips... it's quite a good thought, I might test that out one day but before that, I think I need to start animating with emotion!

Starting Pati's walk

2012-01-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

Sooooo, a new term begins!

2012-01-31T07:27:00.000-08:00

New apartment, finally internet and New term has started so I got loads to be getting on with. MY plans this term are to get some animation work going. I would like to create at least 1 artefact a week if not more. Plan is that once I feel like I've done enough, I can do a couple shorts. So, this also leaves me to decide if I want to create my own rig or not for these wee animations... I'm thinking it's a possibility but since I want to focus on my animation skills I shouldn't use up too much time if I do decide to create my own. I'm going to use Pati the Lynx again this term for while before I switch just because I'm finally starting to get used to using this rig.

So... first artefact? I want to make pati walk much better, just one more go at a normal walk cycle before I move onto adding emotions.

Going to be uploading quite a bit of work that I havent managed to upload yet so loads of posts coming up this week!

Posing Pati

2011-12-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

Character Animation in 3D

2011-12-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

So, after I showed my tutor group my animation of Pati's walk cycle, my tutor lent me another book that he thought could help. It's called Character Animation in 3D by Steve Roberts. It has many exercises in it for animating human characters and also creatures. The section on creatures walk cycles is particularly good for my direction. Not only does he explain the basic movements of a creature, but also the how the movements differ for different creatures and varying on the creatures course of action, how that creature should be moving for example, a just walking along or stalking something. He identifies specific differences to keep in mind and even talks about animals with different types of feet! eg, hooves or no hooves??? fun book

Animators Survival Kit

2011-12-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

So, The Animators Survival Kit. As the name suggests, it's a book pretty much every animator should have! Its full of useful ways to help you draw, key frame, how when and why the characters move the way they do. The methods Williams uses in this book makes it so much easier and clearer to understand what you are trying to do. I thought I would post this because it has been so useful to me over the last 2 years and I used it just recently to help me animate a walk cycle of Pati the Lynx. The main pages I use to help for Pati were pages 327 - 331. There are more pages on creatures walk and run cycles in the second half of the book that will also be useful for future animations!

Pati Walk Cycle

2011-12-10T04:16:00.000-08:00

So here it is! my very first go at animating a four legged creature! I realise the quality of the video isnt great and I have realised that he walks in a jerky way, and that is to do with my bad timing - I think. I used the Animators Survival Kit to help me with the key frames. So I've learnt a lot and theres plenty to think about now for my next attempt (which hopefully should be much better).

Creature Animations

2011-12-09T13:03:00.001-08:00

http://atvault.ign.com/features/movies/

Pati the Lynx

2011-12-06T02:25:00.000-08:00

I downloaded a rig from creative crash called Pati the Lynx. I have been looking forward to trying out this rig because its the first time I will be animating a four legged rig. This week I have worked on a walk cycle, and I've been using The Animators Survival Kit to help me. I'm doing a walk cycle first because I think this will be best place to start to animate using this new rig as I have no experience in animating creatures. I have to admit that it doesnt really look quite right, so before I post it here I'm going to ask my tutors and fellow students at Uni today in our meeting. I will probably post this first video anyway just to compare the differences between this one and any changes I might make after talking to everyone!

Animation tips and Tricks

2011-12-06T02:17:00.000-08:00

So, I ended up printing out both volumes of Animation Tips and Tricks. It's easier for me to read that way and then easier to then go back and find the page that I need. I have been finding really good to read and full of helpful things to keep in mind for animating. I havent finished it quiet yet but once I have I will then post about all of my favourite parts. I have to admit, I like the part about the 'randomblinkitis' at the start of the first volume, thats definately something I have never really thought about, including 'twinning' since I havent really thought about that much either and then had to clear it up with my tutor just to make sure I understood exactly what it was I was meant to try and avoid!

Luna - Animation Short

2011-11-21T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well, Ive been on Animation Brew again, that site is just a little too addictive, in fact I've been on it all day before realising I need to actually post what I've been looking at. Problem is I've looked through so much my brains turned to mush SO Im going to share this link to a wee animation that I loved and then went through all of the videos on Rainmaker's website. As you'll notice this animation has no words in it, but you can clearly understand the feelings of the characters. Since my own project is on non verbal animation, finding shorts like this is great for me! so check it out!

http://www.rainmaker.com/luna/

Animation Tips and tricks

2011-11-21T15:38:00.000-08:00

After checking out a fellow classmates blog, I realised there were a few ebooks that I really should have found and read a pretty long time ago. Animation Tips and Tricks. There's two volumes to get through, so I'd better get going.

hmmm...

2011-11-21T15:29:00.001-08:00

So as you can understand from one of my previous posts, I will not be using the squirrely Rig anymore, just until I get used to Maya in class. So Ive downloaded a few for 3Ds max to practice with including the MAX rig that I downloaded from 11 second club last year aswell and basically got me through the year.

I CAN'T wait!

2011-11-21T15:18:00.000-08:00

I've just been checking out Cartoon Brew online and all the trailers for the upcoming movies next year! There's, Brave, The Lorax, The Secret World of Arriety, and so many more! The wait is just going to be too long! So I'm just going to have to watch one of my favourites to keep me happy!

AHHHHHH

2011-11-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

I think I might throw my computer through the window and let it smash because that would probably make me feel a little better! Finding it a little tough getting used to maya and I'm not really producing ANYTHING out of it! so new plan - going to learn Maya in class, whilst still using 3Ds Max to actually produce SOMETHING! I don't understand WHY Im finding it so tough but I will get there soon, especially since the recent classes on Maya have been so good. SO thats that.

24 Hour Comic

2011-11-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

Sooo, I bought the 24 hour comic book, and the reviews were right, some really weird and twisted stories! but I have liked reading it! I also suggested to my classmates that we have a go at this, everyone seems up for it, now we just have to find a 24hour slot that suits us all!

The Squirrely Rig

2011-10-24T14:20:00.001-07:00

Soooo, what am i doing now??

2011-10-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

Getting on with my first wee animation is what I'm doing. I downloaded the Squirrely Rig from creative crash to have a go with. Why a squirrel? well, it was just a creature I realised I could animate after watching them around the garden and park where I'm living. I saw one the other day running around and going in and out of this big plastic red box outside my neighbours door and it just looked so funny that I thought I could start by doing a short animation on a curious squirrel and the big red box.

Learning Maya ???

2011-10-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sooooo, I've been trying to learn Maya over the last couple of weeks, I'm starting to get a little better at remembering where things are and feel like I've only just scraped the surface! Im finding it quite confusing after I only really just got the hang of 3Ds Max before. The endless tutorials will work out soon though (I hope) - I have to get on with animating now without this learning curve getting in the way!

The 24 hour comic

2011-10-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well after looking at that last link from my tutor, I explored a little to see what I would find from there. I discovered this 24 hour comic, where you have to create a 24 page comic in 24 hours continuously! Sounds like so much fun! Thought I might buy a book of it on amazon - it contains about 9 24 page comics that have all been done by many different people in 24 hours.

A little something to look at...

2011-10-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

My tutor sent me this link to have a look at. It's about a book called 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan and an English teacher toying with the idea of teaching with comic books, and how the children learn and react from reading a story with no words. He also talks briefly about cartoonists techniques, how they zoom in and out, change perspective and arrange the panels for impact. This is useful to me because reading this book would make you produce your own dialogue to it in your mind, which is similar to how someone will have to interpret my non-verbal animations.

Rustboy!

2011-10-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

A friend mentioned this website to me and I found it pretty good! It's all about the creation of Rustboy. It goes through the designs, models and test shots for a movie one guy was creating. Sadly nothing new has been put up since 2006 and the only other thing I could find that relates to it is the book 'Rustboy' on amazon to do with the development of the project.

New course!

2011-10-03T04:06:00.000-07:00

Started my new course! Puppetry and digital animation MA! Pretty exciting so I'm starting this blog fresh! I'm interested and looking into character and creature animation. I will be looking into the characters state of mind and animating this through non-verbal animation! (Would like to get better at the body language and thought process before adding speech into the animations.) So, making the switch from 3Ds Max to Maya over the next few weeks and see how it all goes!