Just Keep Drawing, Just Keep Drawing (Post 2)

At the beginning of this week I started to do some more extensive research on animation. I went through khanacademy.org, disneyanimation.com, and quite a few TED talks which gave me a lot more information than I actually need. But I did learn a lot about the basics of animation that I probably could not get by without knowing. For example: animators commonly animate in 24 frames per second (fps), but you can also animate in 12fps at the risk of making it look more choppy. 24fps is referred to as "Ones" and 12fps is referred to as "Twos". After doing the math, I decided that I will animate in twos. So now I will have to draw 720 frames if I want to make a minute long animation (that's at least better than 1440 frames...)

I also practiced some animation basics. I drew myself a cheat sheet for a simple walk cycle and created a bouncing ball GIF. And a lot more work went into that GIF than you think, if you aren't impressed with it. I had to make sure the spacing was right between each frame so the ball would move slightly slower at the top of its arch. I had to change the shape of the ball to show its momentum and its elasticity when hitting the invisible ground. I had to figure out... how to make it into a GIF... which was probably the most difficult part for me.

Look at it! It's so cute! I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Can anyone else not stop watching this?

Along with the information I had gathered about digital animation, I learned about two other preliminary stages of creating an animated movie: concept art and story boarding. I have two characters in my short film, and I needed to figure out exactly what they would look like before I drew them into my story. So I filled two pages of my sketchbook (pencil and paper: something I actually know how to do!) with random little girls and teenage boys. I am not going to lie I came up with some pretty awesome characters that I wish I could have used. But I picked my favorite drawing for each character and began to figure out the details. I changed the heights, the hair, the facial structures, the clothing, the hands... almost everything until I found the perfect fit. 

Once my characters were complete I started to create a story board (once again in my sketchbook. Yay!). I made a grid sort of like a comic book and started figure out each scene. I sketched each phrase of the film. One block would take up anywhere from 1 to 7 seconds. It would represent the angle of the "camera" and what would go on in the scene. I wrote little notes underneath each block in order to remember what would happen, approximately how many seconds it would take up, and how many frames that would need to be. Here's an example of what story boarding should look like: (this is not the video I am going to be making... just for clarification)

By this part, I was starting to see my ideas become concrete. It made me realize how hard this really was going to be. Did I want to switch the angle to the back or slightly above? Should I have the girl do this first? Or would it work best if fade out to this scene? I also realized how many different sequences would occur before one minute was up, and what I should actually fill my short film with so it would be watchable...

So now I thought I was on my dandy way to making a short film. I grabbed my computer and my tablet excited to actually start working. But before I could say P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sidney, my first problem slapped me in the face. My digital tablet wasn't working. Every time I put the pen on the surface, a little light turned red and it didn't let me do anything. So I stressed out for a while trying to figure out what the heck was wrong. Finally I went to my graphic design teacher, Dr. McGonigle (sorry, not the professor...), and being the lovely person that she is, she offered to lend me a different drawing tablet. All of my worry went away in the blink of an eye, and I was like WOAHHH and she was like WOAH and then I was like woahhh.

Again, I went on my way to create my short film. This time seemed perfect, and everything was working! After one or two hours, I had a perfect sequence of my little girl walking down the sidewalk. But you know what I forgot to do? Save. And you know what my computer decided to do at that same moment? Freak out and crash. When my computer turned on again, there was nothing. "No Nemo! I will find youuuu!" I searched my computer in and out for any auto saved files or anything I could recover, but there was nothing. I lost all of my work. 

So I decided to make the best of my misfortune and start over. I simplified my characters and made them easier to draw. The next day I caught up to where I was, and for some reason, I felt better than I did before I lost all of my work. Sure I don't trust my computer any more and am going to save a backup file onto a flash drive (ooh remember those things!), but now I have hope that I might actually be able to finish this.

Have a great week guys, and come back next time to see an update on my progress! I plan to finish outlining my film in the software and start filling in scenes! And I will end with a joke that a poor little clown fish worked so hard on, because why not?

...A sea cucumber turns to the mollusk and says, "With fronds like these, who needs anemones?"

Weekly comments:
Jess
Allison
Liliana

Lines, and Squiggles, and Layers, oh my! (Post 1)

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. It looks like we're in Danimation Station!" Why, yes. Yes you are. Welcome to Danimation Station, a place that has little to do with trains, sorry. In all seriousness, I have decided to introduce myself to the world of animation, and you (and Toto) can come along for the ride! Over the past few years, I have started to think about what I will do for the rest of my life. I still haven't figured that out (and probably won't for another 3 or 4 years...), but I have recognized some of my interests, animation included. For some reason, every time I go to the movies and watch the credits, I kind of want to have my name on that list of people who helped make the movie possible. I know it sounds kind of stupid that I would want to be one of the thousands of people that create one product that lasts only a few hours. Technically I would be responsible for approximately 3.6 seconds of the movie... But it still sounds cool to me.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to (or attempt to) create a short animated film. But before I can do anything, I have to learn HOW to animate. I watched a youtube video (linked here) that pretty much crash courses through the basics of Adobe Flash animation, the software I already have on my computer and seems to be pretty user friendly. I learned how to draw basic lines and squiggles, played around with all the controls and figured out how to layer an image so I can move separate objects around on different paths. Pretty neat! But I also realized how hard this process is actually going to be. I practiced simple motions with my drawing tablet and pen in the picture below, and that's about the most I can do. Its going to be pretty difficult to draw characters over and over...

Through the next two months, I want to experience everything that a professional goes through in order to create a movie. I'm going to continue watching videos and reading to help make sure I am actually doing the right thing, technologically or artistically. Once I start actually animating (which will be at the end of next week) is when the problems are going to start. I am planning on finishing an average of 20 seconds every week, which will be difficult since that would actually add up to 480 frames. Next week I will finish my concept art, and my story boarding to get my short film on the road (back to Kansas, Toto?)

Weekly Comments: 
Nicole
Catelyn
Jason