A Log.
Sep 2014. ~Apr 2 03 Brief of Subject Brief of Subject
Making of Animation Works
06 Cel Animation
Frequently Asked Question -
04 Principle of Animation
19 Stop Motion Sequence 34 Motion Graphic Sequence 44 3D Animation 62 Reference
2015. Brief of Subject
This course lead classmates and I walk through the basic production of different kinds of animation including cel animation, stop motion animation and computer generated animation. This logbook recorded mainly the making of the 4 animation assignment.
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Frequently Asked Question -
Principles of Ani Staging
Anticipation
Stretch & SquashÂ
Follow though & Overlap
Straight ahead & Pose to Pose
Secondary Action
a proper set should indicate what would happen next.
shape distortion
straightly animating a character Vs. plot key frames before drawing in-between them. 6
anticipating helps making the action concise, natural and easy to understand.
overlapping motion of different body parts makes the action smooth and natural.
actions outside of the leading one, these tiny motion make the animation rich and interesting.
imation Exaggeration
exaggerate the shape, motion or timing to create dramatic stories.
Slow in & Slow out
gradual change of speed; similar to easein and ease-out
Arcs
Timing
different timing of the same action might convey two meanings; good timing helps figuring out what action is happening
Solid Drawing effective visualisation.
Appeal
a natural action follows an arc; arcs are ac- characters or motion should carry a special tually present in most of living things and charm that attract their audience. motion. 7
Making of Animation Works
Cel Animation Character Design
early sketches 8
a bold and percise character design
Developing a cartoon duckling from sketches of realistic animal need bold construction by basic shapes. I kept variying the appearance to find an character optimised for animating. This is the biped character I created, is a duckling. Basically I made this character refereing to one of Marvel comics character, Howard the duck.
varying by proportion of body parts
Howard the duck
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consilidating the body by drawing basic shapes
a character sheet 11
Consideration of Motion
locomotion of character 12
action footage
Before drawing, we act what we are going to animate first. I assigned a storyline of Hotspring that invovling jumping motion. Then the action footage was modified into key poses with a skeleton model.
key poses
In the construction of this skeleton model, I make their posture according to “Line of Action�, which is one of the basics of animation, it makes the posture and motion precise.
Line of Action
staging
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Now come to the last step before drawing: setting key poses using the character, and confirm a clearly recognizable action with its silhouettes. 14
silhouettes of key poses 15
Animating
X-sheet and timing calculation
Storyboard is a reference, we use X-sheet to plan the timing of keyframes and frames inbetwens them. 16
Animation Studio
rough layout of cel animation
My working procedure is show below: 1. confirm the 10 key poses which have clear silhouettes.
working on lightbox with pegbar 2. draw the rough background on an independent paper (in my animation, temporary it was just a line showing the edge of hot spring) 3. draw the key poses 4. plan the varied duration of each key poses using simple calculation and the X-sheet. 5. draw the in-between frames (draw by obtaining the intermediate of two distinct poses and the sub-intermediate of the first pose and the intermediate, and so on) (sometimes I will adjust the position of the intermediate from the middle order frame to an earlier or later frame to achieve slow-in slow-out effects) 6. adjust the linkage of key poses while drawing the in-between frames
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The Tragic Trial This is a short animation of Dewey the duckling who got his leg burnt when he tried to test the hot spring temperature, and finally fell into the boiling water. Comments Timing of jumping is good while the action of losing balance and then falling into the water is not precise enough for easy recognition. 19
Making of Animation Works
Stop Motion Seq A Kururu model with slightly movable limbs was chosen to be the leading actor of this animation. His mini model friend Dororo acts as villain .
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Dororo the assasinator
Kururu the visitor
quence
This is a story of Kururu encountered the evil Dororo when he visited capsule station corner at department store at night.
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Preparation of Shooting Basically we need these tools for shooting a stop motion video:
1. laptop 2. camera and tripod 3. camera cable* 4. light sources (lamp, LED torch etc.) 22
5. colour gels 6. blue-tack and masking tapes 7. acting model, props and set
*It is not necessary to shoot the image with a cable enabling real time viewing on computer.
camera connected with laptop, transferring and keeping images by stop motion shooting software, Dragon Frame
working corner of the first trial
table top model, props and set
camera cable 23
the 1st lighting test
Camera, tripod, red cap light, 4 colour gels (purple, orange, green and yellow), and camera cable were borrowed to explore the lighting of this animation. 24
light source: tungsten lamp
colour gel
camera with tripod 25
From lighting test to rough layout of sequence
Rought layout of stop motion sequence A colour of magenta was chosen to be the dominant colour of light, hopefully it could create a creepy and unsettled mood when combined with minor green light.
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Comments The magenta colour was too intense for the whole sequence. The story of encountering evil Dororo is not clear
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the 2nd lighting test This small LED torch was a new light source that provie less internse light to fill and complete the illuminasion of objects. A new set of colour gel were used, here I have magenta, orange and green gels.
Making a green light beam by fastening green gel on the LED torch. 28
light source: fluorescent lamp blue-tack
constructed set: background, floor, capsule station , notice, advertising board 29
the 2nd lighting test
original fluorescent light
magenta gel
green gel dim green = solitude
orange gel pale orange = indoor night time; orange = sunset
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+ Fill light of another colour
magenta + green = creepy
green + magenta
orange + green 31
Shooting stop motion image Use of iron wires
Iron wires were used in holding object supposed to be suspended in the video. They were removed by editing on Photoshop afterward.
Clay as stablizer
In some angles and shot sizes, it is impossible to stablize camera (unless having a mini/ table top tripod ). Use clay instead. I used clay for both stablizing the camera and the LED torch. 32
It is nevessary to stay alert if my hand holding the wires and is blocking the light source. If yes, the image will become distracted by shadow of my hand.
After shooting, all frames were batchly touched up and become a moving animation on After Effects. 33
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The Visitor Kururu visited SOGO department store’s capsule station corner, where he was attacked by the evil Dororo. Dororo was actually acting for defence. Comments Improvement is needed for the motion of fighting scene. while the intended blurred frames were slickly animated. 35
Making of Animation Works
Motion Graphic S
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Sequence
Motion Graphic Design
A flat stlye motion graphic animation introducing what a “Dinosaur Egg” (fruit) is. Yellow memos are the narrator’s scripts.
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Drawing computer graphics
illustration of real dinosaur egg, and the face, jaw of typical dinosaur Preparing all grpahics needed before loading them into After Effect. 38
plumcots, apricots, apriums, plums and dinosaur eggs (pluots)
The hand was divided into several parts that allow overlap in animating stage, hence to create realistic movement. Solid drawing of fruit is done by making precise details of that object.
bones under X-ray and hand festure of picking
filling colour and layering on Photoshop 39
Animating computer graphics Techniques and Principles applied
Animating by altering position, ratation, scale, opacity, or even paths or anchor points in every key frames.
Straight Ahead animating
This dinosaur tongue was animated frame by frame by moving anchors points of the shape. 40
Masking
X-ray seeing through the egg and hand
Changing name by covering a parallogram shaped mask
Anticipation; Squash & Stretch
Anticipation posture helps people to understand it was a sneeze; the stretched type matches the strength of the sneeze. 41
Ease-in & Ease-out (Slow-in & Slow-out)
the typical form of an ease-in plus ease-out curve
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Music & Sound Design Rhythm: motion matching music
The piece of track “nantonaku” literally means “nothing special”, which fits the relaxing and joyful air of this video. Some motions, like the types appear at the end, were intended to match with the slowly walking beat.
Synchronised sound and motion
P O P
Matching waveform of every sound effects to motion like appearance or disappearance of an object. Sounds are recorded from ready made stuff like a pen case, tapping on books and my voice.
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What is Dinosaur Egg? This motion graphic video briefly introduced the nature of pluot the fruit in a humorous way.
Comments Timing of animation had achieved a joyful rhythm.
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Making of Animation Works
3D Animation Character Design
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dividing human body parts into simple shapes
a character having body parts ectremely contrasts in sizes.
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Character Modeling
Append Polygon Tool
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Mirror Geometry
finished lower body parts
Bridge Tool
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Character Modeling
Insert Edge Loop Tool
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Parent all body parts to the centre: chest
Smooth mode
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Planar Projection & UV Texture
drawing the patterns of the giant hamster on Illustrator.
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further edit on Photoshop.
Planar Projection projecting a linked image on surface of polygon, adjust by UV texture editor
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Planar Projection & UV Texture
orange part not big enough to cover the mesh of head.
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solved by drawing a larger orange region.
image of arm did not fit shape of the mesh.
solved by adding white area around it.
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Interior Modeling
japanese interior design 58
tatami
wooden deck ceiling
Importing character
import and adjust the posture of character.
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Setting Light and Cameras
a dark blue to purple colour was used to create a night time and cool atmosphere.
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5 cameras waere set
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Tea Break This is a short video showing a giant hamster peacefully sitting in a tea house, and having his quiet moment. What a good night to have some tea. Comments The lighting was a bit gloomy but clearly it could be understood as night time; Hamster’s anchors of limbs need amendment where the turning points are not intact. 63
Reference Cel Animation Character Design http://www.watchcartoononline.com/courage-the-cowardly-dog-season-2-episode-13-the-tower-of-dr-zalost http://luigil.deviantart.com/art/Themius-Character-Sheet-131547021 http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/humans/comic-book-characters/38501/view/howard_the_duck/ http://zorgia.deviantart.com/art/Howard-the-Duck-30176215 http://www.thoughtyoumayask.com/picsbtqq/howard-the-duck-marvel http://dizzyclown.deviantart.com/art/Character-Design-Jay-Rios-153990747 Consideration of Motion http://atingey.blogspot.hk/2010/04/animation-one.html http://bestanimationbooks.com/general/secrets-of-drawing http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/newsletter/2002-08-01.shtml http://www.kashiwaya.org/e/magazine/onsen/rules2.html 64
Stop Motion Sequence Preparation of Shooting http://www.dragonframe.com the 2nd lightning test https://vimeo.com/110065913 https://vimeo.com/101300231 https://vimeo.com/59421746 https://vimeo.com/22420328
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Reference Motion Graphic Sequence Drawing Computer Graphics dinosaur egg and dinosaurs http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/See-fossilized-dinosaur-eggs-babies-5211329.php http://www.critterwalls.com/dinoegg.htm http://tinyartdirector.blogspot.hk/2007/04/ch-and-dinosaur-mouth.html http://www.culture24.org.uk/places-to-go/london/art38411 stone fruits http://familytreefarms.com/pos-materials.php http://healthmeup.com/news-healthy-living/health-benefits-of-using-the-apricot-kernel/28117 http://www.americanathleticinstitute.org/tag/natural http://plumcots.com http://www.dino101.com/Education/edu/educate.html hand and bones of hand http://depositphotos.com/18213699/stock-illustration-x-ray-of-both-human-hand.html http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-74670106/stock-photo-one-woman-s-hand-picking.html Music & Sound Design http://www.hurtrecord.com 66
3D Animation Character Design https://www.pinterest.com/pin/481463016390629997/ http://t-wei.deviantart.com/art/Red-Monkey-O-O-62876996 Character Modeling http://www.autodesk.com/store/desktop-subscription Interior Modeling https://www.pinterest.com/pin/504614333221405680/ http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/collections/122362021?view_mode=2 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/290200769715332805/ http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-tatami-shoji-old-japanese-room-image6099005 http://www.glogster.com/juankarjk7/-aprendo-a-ser-judoca-by-juankarjk7/g-6kqh0qiv1s15mprv2tnloa0
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A Tam Hiu Yuen Duey 14078578D SD2302 Animation PolyU HDMDT Programme Code: 73326 May. 2015