Now There's A Face For Radio

I've been having trouble with deciding which poses my main guy is gunna hit during this fateful 11 seconds. I now pretty much know how the story is going and the type of shots I'm gunna use but I wanted help with the expressions and how long he would hold them for.

Here's the part where I realise I blates should of been an actor, prepare to be blown away.

So what i learnt from this, apart from the fact that i need to take the bin out and clean the fridge, is that so many of the actions in this video only last a fraction of a second, it's gunna be tough to fit these in and have it still look good but i think it's do-able. Will have to be very careful with the timing.

Anyways here's number 2, this was to help with the lip syncing and the eye/eyebrow movements. Sorry it's a bit close, you may wanna sit back a little.

What I noticed in this is how much my eyes move around, i was changing what i was looking at every second or so. Must remember to not get lazy on the old peepers, have him keep looking at the object, at Johnny and to the floor if he's thinking for example.

Well that's the fun parts over guys, catch you later when I'm slowly dying inside.

Check My Squirrels

Well seen as though my last project was rabbits I thought I should go in a completely different direction with this one, but then i thought f**k that and did squirrels. I think I've managed to make a relevant idea for the clip but even if not heres my designs for the main character and Johnny.

With this first set i just wanted to get the main characters style close to what i wanted and make sure it could be divided into simple shapes, i really like the design i've come up with so far, it's gunna be hard to animate but i do have a few weeks. Will clean it up and do the other angles when i do the character sheets.

Seen as though this guy ain't gunna be moving i wanted a character that would be funny just by blinking or maybe chewing on nothing. This was easier to think of coz I just used the template of the main character and just made him stupider/cuter/more naive.

Look Guys, Another Project Thing.

Right next mission time, we each took an 11 second audio clip that had been taken from random films and we've gotta do an animation that syncs with it.

This is gunna be freakin' awesome if I get it right, this is exactly the kinda project i wanted and coz we've got a month to do it I wanna do all the planning and prelim work properly for a change. I know the biggest challenge for me is gunna be getting myself to actually do the work on schedule as I'm a lazy bastard and we're being left alone for a fair bit.

Heres the clip I've ran face first into. Quick explanation first though, i don't know how to put just sound clips on here so I've had to put some highly relevant footage with it, hope it ain't too distracting.

I chose this one firstly coz It's pretty funny but It's also quite ambiguous so it was hard coming up with a final idea when so many would of fitted. I like the seriousness in the voice and the fact that there is another character mentioned without a speaking part so i would have complete freedom with him.

I think I've decided on a final idea and I'm just doin' the character designs at the mo, will try an get em' up shortly.

Aaaand Were Back.

And i did'nt even need to turn it off and on again.

So anyway, like i said this is the first jump and the good old backflip, hopefully.

I really liked the squash an strechin' in this one, and the anticipation from the first landing into the flip is good. I really wished i had worked his arms more when i look back at it now though, i tried hard to make the feet move well and not just end up as legs but when he is at his peak and when he's dropping his arms should be way more exaggerated and move higher back.

After this i went back to key frames just to make sure everything after the backflip including the sneeze looked okay, heres till the atchoo.

Gazuntite. Like the big sneeze here, not sure the angles of the character are particularly accurate but it still looks good me thinks.

This is after the inbetweens have attacked.

*Spoiler Alert* He falls on his arse.

The main thing i got from this is that i really need him to hang in the air for longer on his 3rd leap, he's supposed to look all graceful an that. I went back and added two extra inbetweens for that bit, i tried just doubling it up but it looked all choppy and not like a glide. I also had to make him delay for longer before he sneezes.

After this though i realised i had 'F' all time left and i couldn't do any more tests until i finished. This meant i was pretty much animating blind from here to the end, it was like being a maverick renegade. Heres the finished package.

I'm really happy with this, cannot believe it's only ten seconds but i was desperate to use singles. There's definitely a few things i would change like the ground disappearing once he jumps up and if i hadn't run out of time i would make the transformation a bit slower and more grotesque. All in all though i think it's a good display of what i've learnt so far.

Im sure it's only gunna get harder from here but Jesus christ animation is a bastard, a fun bastard mind.

The Name "6 Week Project" Is Highly Misleading

So we had to make a film that was between 10 and 20 seconds (naturally mine leans towards the ten second mark) and it's meant to showcase some if not all of the principles we've learnt so far, for those not paying attention we've got, squash, stretch, timing, spacing, exaggeration and anticipation. After much deliberation I went with a cute wittle bunny, i though it was about time the animation world had one of these.

This is the first test i did which is literally 5 frames doubled up but i wanted to see if the first arc worked also i wanted to make sure i was pushing the exaggeration without it lookin' weird.

It's pretty hard to catch but i like his pose at the top of the jump, in earlier versions in my sketchbook i kept the feet below his body. This looked a lot better later on aswel though coz i gave him some extra hang time in this pose and it worked well for the anticipation.

Ere's the test of the full first jump and the back flip..........

.............. or at least it would be if Blogspot wasn't being a moron and not letting me upload videos, I guess I'll try again later