Puppet Acting: Finished

Though I enjoyed this assignment, it was probably the most difficult one of the semester. The medium makes it hard to make a convincing motion. If I were to do it again, I'd make more puppet pieces to help make the transition between poses more convincing and I'd consider changing the puppet's style. I think it'd be easier without the outline.

I liked going through the process for this. More than any other assignments, I felt like the storyboarding and the animatic-ish planning with the sound clip was a really helpful and necessary part of the animation process. With frame-by-frame and other assignments, I made a lot of it spontaneously, but I think the extra planning for this made the work go by faster.

I've animated my character Aine before, but never to sound. It was really cool to see this side of her and
trying to think of what my character's voice sounded like.

Puppet Acting: Audio Clip

The dialogue used in my animation (the clip is from the movie Kiki's Delivery Service): 

Puppet Acting: Storyboard

My initial storyboard:

And the revised version:

Puppet Walk: Finished

Completed demo of my character Aine's puppet-animated walk. Though not as fun as frame-by-frame animation but more fun than kinetic typography, I enjoyed creating and animating a puppet for the first time in Flash. There's a lot of frustration to be had from trying to avoid breaking the seams of the characters limbs that I know could have been avoided with a character without the typical cartoon outline, but I like outlines too much to spare myself the hassle (and you don't learn from avoiding challenges!)

I've tried animating puppets in the past on After Effects, so I was glad for the chance to learn it in Flash. Naturally, I have to compare the two. The parenting and organization of AE was sorely missed. However, Flash's ability to alter drawn pieces and simultaneously create frame by frame animation alongside it is a fair trade off. I'm leaning towards Flash now but, for the moment, I can't really say if I have a preference. Guess it all depends on the project.

And as for the character herself, Aine's not terribly well-developed within her story, but I knew her personality and motivations going into the assignment. I wanted to create an eager and enthusiastic walk for her and, technically, combine puppeting and frame by frame, for me. There's something that seems too bouncy to me in her walk, but I forgive her shortcomings because of how cool tweening makes animating look.

Kinetic Typography: Finished

Final version of of my kinetic typography assignment. It is not as long as I would have liked, so I'm a little disappointed with it. Somehow animating text is a lot more challenging than animating shapes; it's not as fun, but I am decently satisfied with the result.

Puppet Walk: Character Design

Character design for my puppet project. I plan on animating my character, Aine, in Flash and using frame by frame animation on her hair ribbon (and possibly other place, if needed.)

This is a cutesier (or "chibi"-esque) style than how she is normally drawn because I'm interested in creating puppet animations in this style for my own entertainment and I'm kind of using her as a test run.

Kinetic Typography: Animatic

Animatic for "Helter Skelter." I've gone past the required time for the assignment, but I'm having a hard time letting go of any of the lyrics...

Kinetic Typography: Storyboard

Storyboard for new assignment: kinetic typography of a song or poem in after effects. I chose the Beatles' "Helter Skelter."

Frame by Frame: Finished Rough

The final rough version of my frame by frame animation project (inking and coloring is not required.) The assignment was to animate a character showing an emotion. I drew one of my characters, Robin, with a sort of smug amusement, trying and failing not to laugh. She means well, though.

I had a little trouble with the character's consistency that probably could have been mostly avoided with a rough animation for the anatomy after my initial gesture animation but before this crude lineart version (but as I spent a good deal of time drawing this one, I don't regret moving to this stage.)

I really like exaggerated arc movements in character animation, so I tried to give Robin that kind of flowiness in her arms flopping and in the tilt of her head, but still trying to maintain animation that is "snappy" and easing in-and-out.

Very much enjoyed this assignment! Frame by frame is my preferred form of animation, so I hope to get more opportunities in class to create and learn better techniques for it. 

Frame by Frame: Storyboard

Storyboard and character sheet for my frame by frame animation assignment: animate a character emoting.

12 Principles: Finished

The finished version of my 12 Principles of Animation assignment.

12 Principle: Unfinished Animation

My original animation before I changed the overall style.

12 Principles: Animatic

My animatic for my 12 Principles of Animation assignment. It's sort of underwhelming as far as animatics go; the finished piece should be around ten seconds, so I didn't make the staging very dynamic. However, the characters movement will be dynamic, which will be the focus. Now that I've started the animation aspect, I realize it would have been more helpful if I added more movement in the animatic to go off of.

I'm going frame-by-frame (because it's my favorite form of animation) and then printing out the frames and taking photos of those frames.

12 Principles: Storyboard

Storyboard for the 12 principles of animation assignment. Went with the fourth idea, by popular demand, of a person being slapped. Again, my principle is timing. The slap itself and the slower head turn that precedes it are the prime example of timing in my animation.

12 Priciples: 5 Ideas

My assignment is to create a stop motion video based on one of the 12 principles of animation. My principle is timing.

1. Hammer and nail:

This was my initial image given to me to illustrate timing. The hammer would swing back and forth subtly before descending onto the nail.

2. Tortoise vs. hare:

The rabbit and turtle would have different spacing, but the same timing and would reach the goal at the same time.

3. Boat vs. shark:

Essentially the same concept as #2.

4. Head turns:

The figure would do a slow head turn, then while slapped their head would turn quickly.

 

5. Ant vs. shoe:

The shoe appears slow, while the ant is frantic and fast.

After Effects Bouncing Ball

Second assignment in my animation class.

For the most part I prefer working in after effects to stop motion, but I ran into similar problems trying to make my ball bounce seem more natural. I made less "frames" after the arc and added more before it, but it still looks like a happy sentient ball jumping around.

I wanted to make the video look real cartoon-ish by drawing the ball and making it shiny, but I think it messed me up a bit because I couldn't find a way to make the ball spin without moving the anchor point, but moving the anchor point ruined the squash and stretch. So I left that alone and it makes the ending roll look especially static. I suspect there's some kind of mask that would help me spin a shiny ball, but I don't know it. Yet.

Also worth mentioning: I don't have any grudge against babies. Just so that's clear.

Stop Motion Bouncing Ball

This is my first animation assignment: stop motion bouncing ball.

Stop motion can be fun, but I have clumsy hands. I ran into the background a couple of times. I used paper weights (didn't have tape), but I still managed to knock it off center.

I somewhat planned out the animation but I didn't take into account the length of my backdrop and that resulted in a much more enthusiastic ball bounce than what's realistic.

Intro

Hello, all. My name is Stephanie and I am an art student at USF with an interest in animation. I have created this blog for an animation class of mine and will be posting my work on here.

However!

I just may continue using this blog after the course has run its course.

It remains to be seen.