sdmilnesjournalba1b

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Weekly Summary: 19/02/18 - 23/02/18

I’ve spent reading week with the narrative project completing my essay. Initially it was a struggle to find sources on ‘Loving Vincent’ because it’s such a recent film, although there were a decent amount of reviews there wasn’t anything academic written about it or around it, in fact I’ve come to realise in general how little academic study there is surrounding animation. As the writing progressed it was easier as I could look for sources specific to my needs and although I had a little issue structuring it, after a little bit of playing around and reordering paragraphs I was able to order it in the optimum way.

I’ve also spent the time completing my panoramic drawing for the animated sketchbook project. I’d completed some tests and knew what I was aiming for but had to actually action it. The outcome is a little les abstract than I’d have desired and in hindsight I maybe should have worked more with lines as I had earlier in my sketchbook than switching to the blocks of colour I’d developed later.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

finsihed panorma images

Over reading week I’ve been working on the final panorama for the animated sketchbook project. I’m largely pleased with the result though feel I’ve perhaps diverged from what I wanted to achieve in the first place. In the end I worked from images taken in supermarkets, a setting that features lots of people doing very mundane, everyday things but also tells a small bit of a narrative. Largely in the interactions between people and their surroundings (another reason for choosing supermarkets as the subject, the people are inseperably linked to where they are, I considered the marketplace or streets but it felt as if people were merely passing through these places rather than connecting with the context in which they were situated) there’s a small sense of people’s lives suggested by what they’re doing at the supermarket. It was this interaction between people and location that I tried to reduce down to its purest form and capture in the panorama.

The technique using coloured pencils in rough, abstract blocks works well, capturing the setting of the supermarket as well as providing and abstract distance from the visuals of the people. However, I think it may have lent itself too well to the setting, placing the focus on the supermarkets themselves rather than the people and how they are interacting with it. In retrospect I could have worked a little more, perhaps with the abstract linework I’d done in my sketchbook to develop into a style for the panorama, in a way that would place emphasis on the people and how they were linked to their surroundings. This could be achieved perhaps by only drawing the scenery directly surrounding the figures of the drawing, or perhaps only adding to colour to the figures that seeps out into the surroundings that are essential to what they’re doing. Additionally abstract representation of their interactions: motion lines, lines of sight, enlarged body parts, could be used to place emphasis. All these would need some trials in a sketchbook first to work out the specifics and applications.

Although I’m satisfied with the outcome, and given the amount of work I put in to its creation before our midterm submission it would be difficult to produce another before then, I may consider in the next section of our project working towards another outcome that achieves what I wanted it to better utilising some of the alternative ideas I came up with above.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Weekly Summary: 12/02/18 - 16/02/18

In stop motion this week we did another iteration of one of the previous tasks we’d completed, I opted to recreate the change of expression walk as this was the outcome I felt was weakest. This reproduction was much better, there is a change from nonchalance to fear and this is much more obvious as well as better timed than the previous one. The key here was constantly playing back the movement to check it was what we wanted and knowing when to hold the movement and move the armature minimally, as well as knowing where to move it to.

We had tutorials for our research sessions which helped me to focus my ideas and decide on what to write my essay on. I settled on looking at recent film ‘Loving Vincent’ with regards to the question concerning Paul Well’s quote about how some things are “only available in animation”. This will allow me to address the unique way in which it’s been made and all of the development that went into its production.

In life drawing we took the whole session to produce one drawing of a seated model. I really enjoyed this session as it allowed time to really observe the model and take time over the drawing. The outcome’s one of my strongest drawings so far and I’m looking forward to the longer life drawing sessions we have scheduled next term.

In CG we used a pre-made model of a person to produce reaction and double take animations. It was good to be able to work with a much more detailed model, though this took some time to work out how it was constructed and how this affected the best ways to move it. Again the key was to work with less rather than more keyframes and often the solution to an odd movement was to cut a keyframe out rather than try and fix it frame by frame. I’ve enjoyed learning how Maya works and feel like over the course of the introduction I’ve gained a pretty good grasp of how to use it.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

In these tests I was trying out a method of using colour for figures that I can utilise in my final panorama. It is largely in keeping with the abstract nature of the other work I’ve done but suits the more colourful setting of the final product.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

After a technical issue yesterday we had to postpone our next bit of CG induction until today. The task was to work with a pre-made model of a person and produce two animations: one reaction emotion and another as a double-take to the camera.

Here are the two results of the reaction animation on with the tweened motion by Maya in between keyframes and the other without. It was good fun playing around with how the model could be posed especially the face and positions of the eyes and eyebrows, and just seeing what could be done with more complex and detailed model. The process of the reaction was fairly simple, merely picking a finishing pose to end in and allowing Maya to do the inbetween frames. Although there’s also the addition of the bent down position the key was again keeping keyframes to a minimum and working mainly with the graph editor when manipulating the pacing and easing of the movements.

This is the result of the double-take animation, where the character had to react in sit-com style to the preset camera. Again the process was working through the keyframes, of which there were more this time, and checking the movement in between for inconsistencies. In this instance everything worked well part from the hand moving up to the final pose which, because of Maya’s straightforward animation, looked like this:

As such, because it was a slightly more complex movement than anything in the reaction animation an additional keyframe was required to make the movement look right, even though it can barely be seen.

This less contorted pose keeps the movement believable and in line with the capabilities of a real human.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with both animations, once I’d got the hang of how to use the controllers it was very logical to follow how to move things to the right place. It was good to be able to work with a fully movable face compared to any of the other animations we’ve done though I feel I could have done more with the posing of the whole body as well as just the head, face and arms, especially in the finished pose of the double-take animation, where a more dramatic pose could be pulled with the character leaning back and twisting for example.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

In this week’s life drawing we spent the entire session on one drawing of a seated model. We worked on a mid-toned paper which meant we could use darker pencils and white chalk to depict the contrasting shades of the side-lit model. The prolonged time period we had to complete this in was a really good chance to produce a detailed and precise drawing, and although I don’t often work in pencil it was nice to have the precision that it brings. I am particularly pleased with the face, an area that I’m willing to tackle but not especially confident in working on. Often I can produce an alright ‘realistic’ looking face but can struggle to make it actually look like the model, in this outcome, however, I managed to get the likeness of the model right. I’m also pleased with the general shape of the body and the areas of contrast and shade I’ve managed to build across the form.

Areas that could be better is the box is perhaps at the wrong angle compared to the floor and body, and I’m not quite sure the perspective is right. Additionally the shoulders are perhaps a little too straight on and might have been at more of an angle, it’s hard to tell in reflection without the model as a reference but they appear a little blocky.

Overall it was good to spend a lot of time on one image and have a result that is such a detailed and complete drawing.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Today we had our tutorials to discuss our research essays. I’ve settled on the recent film ‘Loving Vincent’ with regards to the question  “Only Available in Animation.” To what extent does this Paul Wells quote apply to your chosen film? Explain how the medium and materials, enter, shape and define the narrative.”

Because of the unique nature of the film’s production it lends itself well to this question and will allow me to discuss how this impacts the messages and themes of the film.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

A look at the process behind stop motion animation and the other processes involved at LAIKA studios.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

In today’s session we had the time to produce another iteration of one of the exercises we’d produced so far. As one of the weaker ones I’d produced and given that it leads towards the mystery box project next term I repeated the change of expression animation. With a little inspiration from a broken mannequin already there, the change was from casual nonchalance to worry and panic. I think the initial walk works well and conveys a good uncaring attitude, and the slow down as the figure notices the body is also dynamic and believable. Similarly the backing out and looking around is probably the strongest bit of the animation and conveys a really nice sense of caution and panic in the character’s actions.

The weaker part is the transition between the two, although there’s a better break and change in dynamism than in the last iteration there’s something about the pacing that doesn’t quite work. I think possibly the solution would be to make the jump into a panicked position faster and maybe following a longer pause. As it is, the slower movement into the pose, perhaps reduces the impact of it meaning it doesn’t act as quite as much of a changing point as it should.

With a little extra time at the end we attempted to produce an animation of a cartwheel just to see how it would turn out. Disregarding the disembodied (yet surprisingly unnerving and believable-moving) torso in the background the actual cartwheel motion turned out way better than expected, given how quickly we produced it (in a couple of minutes or so). I think what works well is the setup created by the lifting of the leg first to prepare for the movement, giving the cartwheel itself a real dynamic feel.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Weekly Summary: 05/02/18 - 09/02/18

This week in CG induction we animated a premade character to jump, first up and down, and then from one podium to another. It was good to be able to get to work more with Maya, and think about a more complex model to animate compared to the balls. Afterwards I also had a little play around, getting the model to fall flat, perform a flip, and jump and skid across the ground. Although these aren’t as polished as the first set of jumps, I tried to make sure the timing was right and to produce believable movements. I’m pretty pleased with all of the outcomes and feel like I’m really getting a grasp on how Maya works.

In stop motion we practiced a walk cycle, with a change of expression in the middle. We started off with a sad, slow trudge forwards and managed to get the movement pretty well. As the character changes though we realised we were running a little short on time so had rushed through the second, more complex movement which gives it a bit of a stilted look. Next week we’ll get chance to produce another iteration of one of the stop motion exercises we’ve done and I’ll probably take the opportunity to redo this one, as it’s the stop motion outcome that I’m least happy with.

In life drawing we did more drawings of a clothed model, starting off with a set of sixteen quick drawings and then one larger at the end. I found again that because of the amount of detail the clothes have I got caught up even more than usual and really struggled to finish a drawing. Having the longer one was a nice change as it allowed me to take a little longer with the drawing and still finish it in time.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

This week in life drawing we drew a clothed model again, making sixteen smaller studies and then one longer one at the end. This was a good way to work because I again struggled with my usual problem of getting the whole figure in the time available. The quick drawings are a good opportunity for me to practice this; 10, 13 and 16 are examples where I’ve overcome the issue and achieved a good level of detail as well as finishing the drawings, 1, 4 and 9 however, are particularly good examples of where I’ve got caught up in small details (interestingly all round the arm and shoulder area) and not managed to finish the drawings. The clothing again, made it even harder not to get lost in details because of the amount of texture they create.

The longer drawing at the end was a good time for me to worry less about getting it all done and have chance to work on details. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the result, the drawings good, though I maybe could have paid more attention to distinctions between light and shadow as I’ve begun to do round the foreleg, arm and crotch area.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Between the morning stop motion and afternoon life drawing session I had a little while to spare so spent the time playing around with the jumping preset in Maya.

This was just playing around with how far I could play with the graph editor and make something accelerate. Something went wrong with the keyframing so there’s a little jump at the start, and it was harder to get an arcing motion from start to finish, I had to add keyframes at various stages throughout though it’s now occurred to me that there may well be a function in Maya that allows you to make the movement arc rather than go straight.

This was just playing around with the forwards jumping motion and tried adding a flip in. I’m happy with the speed of ascent and descent as well as the speed of the flip, though the follow through after the character lands looks a little eased into which makes the landing look a little floaty.

This was again just trying out ideas as they came up, for this I wanted the landing to be quite harsh to lead into the slow grind across the other platform. I’m pleased largely with how it turned out thought the legs falling down should happen quicker, and I possibly could have made the gap between the platforms a little bigger so the jump was overall more forwards than upwards.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Today we practised our stop motion with a walk cycle that changed mood halfway through.

The idea with this one was to start of sad and slow then get to the middle, look up and become more energetic and happy. It begins a little jumpy but as we settled into working, the sad walking gets smoother, the key here was holding back the moving leg till the last minute before slipping it forwards to give the effect of them dragging behind. Between the position of the head and tail as well as the character's posture I think there is a good sense of the emotion conveyed through the walk, though I think there’s a lack of consistency in the arm movement that isn’t overtly noticeable unless you look for it, due to the minimal movement anyway.

The transition between the two is perhaps a little rushed and could do with being slower to add in more anticipation before rushing into the next section. When we decided on making a skipping movement we knew it would be difficult to try and do but thought we’d challenge ourselves; we could have done with a rig to help hold the model up as it wasn’t that stable anyway. We knew the spin would also be a challenge so we made sure to add in plenty of frames with the aim that we could cut them down for improved timing later. The last section as the model exits the screen is again a little rushed and the movement looks stumbling but this was due to the time limit imposed on the task.

After watching it back we decided to cut a few frames out of the spin to speed it up and back it more dynamic. The result was much better.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with the animation especially the first section but, when we get the opportunity next week to repeat some of the tasks we’ve done I might aim to repeat this one to try and achieve a smoother animation.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Today in our CG induction session we produced some animations of a pre-made character jumping, a stationary one, and then a moving one.

The process for this was much the same as when we were keyframing digitally drawn jumps, it just negates having to draw the inbetweens as Maya creates them for you. This did, however, mean you had to be careful when checking the animation as Maya creates the most straightforward path of movement for each thing to do rather than creating everything for you. In this case it meant monitoring the legs to ensure that they didn’t crumple up or pass through the body as the feet (the control point for the legs in this instance) moved from one keyframe to another via the most direct route. Sometimes this could be adjusted with the graph editor, though other times new keyframes had to be added in to get the proper movement. I think, in general I got a good sense of believability and the character creating the movement themselves, but the twist to the right, although adding dynamism  and asymmetry to the pose in the air, would probably need the character to land at an angle as well to make it look most realistic. This is something I could experiment with and alter in the future to push my skills further.

The second jump was from one podium to another, and the process was much the same as the first jump only including movement on the z axis as well as consideration of how that forwards movement would impact the landing. I am pretty pleased with how this animation turned out, I deliberately made the jump a little higher than perhaps conventionally possible to give the movement an exaggerated cartoonish feel, and the take off from one foot to the other helps to keep the movement still believable.

Overall I’ve been enjoying the animation process in Maya, once you’ve got a grip of how it works, at least for the relatively simple models we’ve been using so far, what we’ve learnt seems versatile and easy to apply to most things, I also like how the graph editor works in a way that’s very applicable to the real world (compared to the process of 2D where everything is a 2D representation of what it happening), and how easy it is to tweak the animation as you work.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Weekly Summary: 29/01/18 - 02/02/18

In our stop motion induction we animated a figure lifting a box. I really wanted to get across the heavy weight of the box and how difficult it was for it to be lifted. It was a good chance to learn more and get more used to the process of stop motion, getting used to physically how much movement is required per frame to create the desired effect. I was pretty happy with the outcome but wish I could have spent a little longer on it, unlike the other work we’ve been doing it’s harder to go back and tweak the file for small changes.

In our CG induction we did some ball bouncing animations to learn how to animate in Maya. I think I got a good sense of how it all worked and look forward to trying out some more, the easiness of editing and tweaking while working makes for a marked contrast in how to work with it compared to stop motion.

In life drawing we looked at clothed figures as well as going over perspective and foreshortening in extreme circumstances. I was pleased with most of the outcomes of the shorter drawings though again, with increased detail in the clothing, found it hard to draw myself away from detail to get the whole figure down.

In our research session we looked at visual storytelling, and how, as animation is predominantly a visual medium, filmmakers often miss explicit things out in order for it to be implicit in the visuals of the film, whether this physically what is created or the editing used to put it together. We also looked at how animation can often be labelled as a genre in itself rather than an art form that can be used to show any genre, just as live action film can do the same.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

This week in life drawing we took a look at clothes and how they can interact with the model and then looked at perspective and how it can be approached.

The first eight drawings were four minutes long each, some of them went better than others but largely I was pretty pleased with what I managed. 7 in particular has a good look to the way the material sits on the model as well as capturing the whole figure. In 2 and 4 the clothing is again well approached but, like many of the others isn’t completed. Once again the most difficult thing for me to do was to get the full figure down in one go, made even worse this week whereby, because of the clothes, there was lots of additional detail, which I found it easy to get drawn into. Overall it was an okay week (I quite like drawing material) though still shows a need for me to speed up, especially when confronted with additional detail.

The second part of the session was spent looking at perspective and how we can translate what we see onto paper. In the first session last term we discussed the difference between a still image and a photograph and how when you look at something you can only see that thing, if you look at someone’s eyes, for example, although you’re aware that their mouth is there and you can see it in your peripheral vision, you’re not focused on it (and potentially couldn’t draw it if you had to without directly looking at it?). Conversely when a camera takes an image it focuses on everything in the lens all at once (effectively).

This can then be applied to how we look at rooms, if you stood directly facing a wall and drew everything exactly as you saw it you would end up with something like the fourth image above, with the walls curving ‘inwards’ (or away from you) as they reached the corners, though your view would probably be less drastic. This can be tested by holding a pencil horizontally across the join between the ceiling and wall in the centre and then turning at the waist, without altering the height of the pencil at all. If done correctly you’ll see where the ‘straight; line curves away from you in perspective. The reason it’s impossible to lay everything down flat, achieving gaps as in the fourth image, is that as we look around our viewpoint of each area changes, changing the perspective of the object to us.

With this in mind we applied it to a human body, where if positioned close by this perspective forces the body to contort as you lay it onto paper, just like the work on foreshortening we did in the first week. On the left you can see how the seated position of the artist makes the point nearest to  them, the torso, bulge out towards them, while all other areas recede away.

Therefore the last drawing we did put this into practice, we stood close to the model and drew them with the perspective we had. Because we were so close the foreshortening is quite drastic. The way that I approached this was by taking a measurement of the space between the top of the head and neck of the t-shirt with my outstretched arm, and then used the same space on my hand to fit the other. In an average human body the head fits into the height about eight times, the perspective on this means the head and neck measurement I took fitted into the body almost exactly four times over. You can sort of see where I laid out the rough spaces; just above the waist, halfway down the thigh and then halfway along the feet. It was interesting to take a look at how we perceive what we see and then how we translate that onto paper, normally to fit conventions of what we expect to be there. I’m pretty pleased with the drawing and think I got a good sense of what we were trying to explore.

[sdmilnesjournalba1b]

Today we had a go at animating in Maya with some premade models for us to use. I’ve used Adobe Animate (though with no proper teaching or much knowledge of it) before so the idea of setting positions to be keyframed was fairly familiar to me and helped me grasp how Maya also works pretty quickly.

The first task we did was a ball bounce animation looking at how to make a bouncy ball, football and balloon bounce differently. The bouncy ball starts off strongly and looks good up until the end where it comes to a bit of an abrupt stop. Although I think it can always be hard to make a perfectly vertical bounce look right coming to a natural stop, I could probably do with adding in a couple of extra mini bounces right at the end, just as it settles. The football could do with the same just to help it look more believable as it settles, though I think I managed to show the difference between how bouncy the bouncy ball and football are. The one I’m most happy with is the balloon, the slow descent and little bounces help to give it the lightweight feel it would have in real life and I think the slow twist we could put in really sells it for what it is.

Our second task was to make a ball knock over a wall and then bounce away, including this time some more rotation and some squash and stretch. The squash and stretch helps give an energy to the movement, though I wonder, with reflection, whether the second bounce is a little too squashed for the relatively low force the ball is moving with. The rotation was something that I put in as a rough movement and with just a small bit of tweaking moved just right with the speed the ball was moving coming to a very natural looking halt, however I feel like the fairly slow rate of rotation, the low height of the returning bounces and potentially low speed of the ball in general makes the movement look a little unimpactful and could do with either being sped up or the wall falling over being slower; I’m not sure whether I’m convinced that the ball moving at that pace could knock over the wall. Although I spent a little while tweaking the speed at which the wall fell over and how much easing into the movement it needed, it could still do with a bit more work on the interaction between the ball and it.

Overall I quite enjoyed the process, and it was interesting to see it in contrast to the straight-ahead animation we’ve been using for stop motion, when this method is much more reliant on keyframes and easily tweakable even once finished. I might aim to go over both these animations before submission, to give myself a little more practice in Maya as well as to see what I can change about them and how they could be improved.