💧 Exercises

31/03/21 - 28/04/21 (Week 1 - Week 5)
Ng Mei Ying (0340563)
Animation Fundamentals
Exercise 1: Character Gestures & Poses

Exercise 2: Bouncing Ball Animation

Exercise 3: Character Turnaround 

(20% Individual)

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INSTRUCTION

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LECTURE NOTES

(Week 1) 31/03/21: Briefing 

On the first day of the class, our new lecturer Mrs Jen who was coming from the 2D animation industry brief us about the module outline for the animation fundamentals class. Different animation genres in the current animation industry was introduced to us as well. 

(Week 2) 07/04/21: Animation Principles (part 1)

Today, Mrs Jen showed us the 4 out of 12 basic animation principles as well as the application on the actual exercise of a bouncing ball. The first 4  animation principles are as shown below:

1. Squash & Stretch
2. Timing/ Spacing
3. Arcs of Motion
4. Slow In & Slow Out

• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 2 Lecture
• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 2 Tutorial (Bouncing Ball)

(Week 3) 14/04/21: Animation Principles (part 2)

Today, Mrs Jen continued to show us another 4 basic animation principles as well as the application on the actual exercise of a character design. The 4  animation principles are as shown below:

1. Staging
2. Appeal
3. Exaggeration
4. Solid Drawing

• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 3 Lecture
• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 3 Tutorial (Character Drawing in PS & AN)

(Week 4) 21/04/21: Animation Principles (part 3)

Today, Mrs Jen continued to show us the next basic animation principle as well as the application on the actual exercise of a character design. The animation principles are as shown below:

1. Straight Ahead / Pose to Pose

• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 4 Tutorial (Character Walk Cycle)
  

(Week 5) 28/04/21: Animation Principles (part 4)

Today, Mrs Jen continued to show us another 2 basic animation principles as well as the application on the actual exercise of a character design. The 2  animation principles are as shown below:

1. Anticipation
2. Secondary Action

• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 5 Lecture
• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 5 Tutorial (Character Turnaround Drawing)
  

(Week 6) 05/05/21: Animation Principles (part 5)

Today, Mrs Jen continued to show us the last basic animation principles as well as the application on the actual exercise of a character design. The  animation principle is as shown below:

1. Follow Through & Overlapping Action

• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 6 Lecture
• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 6 Tutorial (Character Turnaround Animation)

(Week 7) 12/05/21: Character Acting & Lip Sync

• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 7 Lecture
• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 7 Tutorial (Character Acting & Lipsync)

(Week 8) 19/05/21: No Class (Independent Learning Week)

(Week 9) 26/05/21: Environment Design

• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 8 Lecture
  
• Animation Fundamentals 0321 - Week 8 Tutorial (Lipsync & Background Art) 
  

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📌EXERCISE 1: Character Gestures & Poses

(Week 1) 31/03/21

During the first class, students were assigned to their first warm-up exercise which was to do character posture drawing based on the 5 simple shapes are given. Looking up for the images of famous celebrities, movie characters, musicians, or even animated characters (those have very strong character poses) as a drawing reference to create appealing characters was the tip given by the lecturer. 

Fig 1.0   Basic Shapes Outline.

(Fig 1.1) To begin with this exercise, several reference images were found upon the searching of KDA game music video, animation movies such as Boss Baby, Spiderman into the Spider-verse, Demon Slayer, and so on. (Fig 1.2) I did some rough sketches in Photoshop with a sketchy brush stroke. (Fig 1.3) I proceed to further refine the sketches after the basic shapes and the postures were confirmed.

Fig 1.1   Posture reference images.

Fig 1.2   Rough Sketch of characters based on shapes given.

Fig 1.3   Refined Line Sketch

Feedback: (Fig 1.2   Refined Line Sketch) Revision should be done upon the circular sphere character as the shapes were not strongly emphasized. The body of the character should be smaller, and the head proportion of the character should be drawn in a bigger size. There is nothing much that needs to change for the other character drawing. Overall the sketching is fine. 

Below is the revised version for final submission. I did some small amendments to the other character drawings to ensure they are highly recognizable. The outfit for the pentagon character has removed to increase the posture visibility. Hair is added as well.

Fig 1.4   Final Sketch with Silhouette.

Reflection: The way how our new lecturer executed the lecture was interesting and fun. The lecturer was very dedicative and proactive towards student's learning experience and progress. On the other hand, I had misunderstood the first exercise as I did not follow the instructions well. In the beginning,  I thought we need to do the "character design based on shapes", however, what we needed to do was to identify the poses and gestures from the reference images and apply them to the shapes.

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📌EXERCISE 2: Bouncing Ball Animation 

(Week 2) 07/04/21

Students need to perform a task which is to create a bouncing ball by utilising adobe animate software with the 4 main animation principles applying to the animation motion of the bouncing ball. Our lecturer reminds us of the key ingredient to being a successful animator not solely rely on a good grasp on the traditional animation principle, practising passion and patience towards the project on hand is crucial as well.

The 4 principles needed to apply in bouncing ball exercise:

• Squash & Stretch
• To show elasticity & flexibility (avoid rigidity)
• To helps convey the material of an object
• The volume of an object should be maintained
  
  
• Timing/ Spacing
• To shows the duration/speed of a movement
• To convey weight, gravity, lightness, energy, emotion...etc
• 24/25 frames per second (FPS) is the standard timing
  
  
• Arcs of Motion
• Acts as a projectile of amoving object
• Linear arc for mechanical objects
• Circular arc for organic objects
• Broken arc = erratic/unstable movements
  
  
• Slow In & Slow Out
• slow in = decceleration
• slow out = acceleration
• To avoid drab & linear movement

Fig 2.0   Onion Skin Layers of  Linear Bouncing Ball

Fig 2.1   Linear Bouncing Ball Animation with Motion Arc

Fig 2.2   Linear Bouncing Ball Gif

Fig 2.3   Onion Skin Layers of  Action Bouncing Ball

Fig 2.4   Action Bouncing Ball Animation with Motion Arc

Fig 2.5   Action Bouncing Ball Gif

Feedback: For the linear bouncing ball, the ball should decelerate when it reaches its highest point. For the action bouncing ball, the pressure applied for each of the following squash should decrease. The shape of the ball should remain its original default shape while the moment reaches its highest point. Besides, a suggestion is given to let the bouncing ball roll off the screen instead of letting the ball stops suddenly at the corner of the frame.

Fig 2.6   Linear Bouncing Ball Gif (After Adjustment)

Fig 2.7   Action Bouncing Ball Gif (After Adjustment)

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📌EXERCISE 3: Character Turnaround

(Week 3) 16/04/21: Character Design (Stage 1)

During the Wednesday tutorial lesson, instruction was given for students to start developing their character design with simple sketching and colour applied to show the character design idea based on the story settings. In today's Friday class, students needed to show their first stage of character design. Student needs to come out with alternatives character design, colour design as well as prepare 3 quarter views that including side views of the character design before next week. We have to double confirmed the character design with Mr Martin to ensure that the character design fits well in the story.

My character setting:

• 5 Years Old
• Naive
• Curious
• Explore
• Playful
• Shy

Fig 3.0   Character Ideation Sketches (version 1)

Feedback: Ms Jen mentioned that the character design is adorable. It's creative to try out a blue hair colour instead of the general colour. Those character wearing shorts are much easier to animate as there is not much movement as compare with the loose T-shirt. Moreover, advice is given to catch cartoon animation like Gumball, Ponyo to get more inspiration on the character settings especially in the perspective of motion and walking style. Meanwhile, for storytelling, Mr Martin noted that the upper row first and third character design was adorable, the first design looked more introverted while the third design looked more extroverted.

(Week 4) 21/04/21: Character Design (Stage 2)

I continued work on the character design development by producing several sketches ideas. However, I still could not come out with the right character design that matches the story well and highly effective for animating at the same time. I started to work on the model sheet in photoshop to visualise different perspectives of the character. Once the model sheet sketches were done, Adobe Animate software was the main medium to create the experimental linework and colouring.

Fig 3.1   Character Ideation Sketches (version 2)

Fig 3.2   Character Model Sheet (version 1)

Fig 3.3   Experimental Character Linework & Color Design in Adobe Animate

Reflection: I found the experimental outcome was indeed unsatisfying as the shapes and colour turns out really weird and "fake". They look acceptable in loose sketch but not in clean lines. Besides that, I assumed the design of the ribbon would be adding a burden for me during the animating process. Therefore I was planning to further develop the character design to get the best result.

Feedback: Ms Jen mentioned that I should further develop the colour scheme in photoshop and apply the colour into adobe animate once the good colour design is confirmed. Moreover, Ms Jen also agreed that the outfit design with ribbon will be challenging to animate later hence outfit design adjustment is needed.

(Week 4) 23/04/21: Character Design (Final Stage)

Some ideas showed up in my mind after watching some cartoon animation including Mickey Mouse, Gumball, Adventure Time, The Bare Bear, Teen Titans, Mr Bean and so on. I decided to revise the character design that is highly recognisable rather than just a "common nice-looking someone else". The sketches showed 4 loose sketches ideas options, I decided to combine the design of idea 2, 3 & 4 to proceed to the actual colour design stage.

Fig 3.4   Character Ideation Sketches (version 3)

Fig 3.5   Formal Character Colour Design (version 1)
Colour design from A4, A5, B3 are chosen based on the feedback from lecturers, friends & family.

Fig 3.6   Formal Character Colour Design (version 2)
Prototype 01 are chosen as the final design.

Fig 3.7   Final Character Design (namely April)

Feedback: Ms Jen said that was not much to mention on the design aspect as the design was solid and matching its function. For the consideration of walk cycle animation, the suggestion was given to dissecting the limbs into 3 main parts: the leg should be divided into the upper thigh, lower calf and bottom foot with a shoe.

(Week 5) 28/04/21: Character Modeling Sheet & Turnaround

Fig 3.8   Character Model Sheet Sketches (version 2)

Fig 3.9   Character Model Sheet (Final)

Fig 3.10   Character Turnaround (Final)

Feedback: Ms Jen mentioned the overall moving is consistent and subtle. There are not many issues with the turnaround movement. I shall proceed to further polish the character walk cycle animation.