This is a personal journal started from the 14th of November:
Principles of Animation: Mood change walk
Before we begin the exercise, we were told to film ourselves doing the mood change walk to use as a reference.
I then attempted to sketch out the key moments to make sure I know what pose the character need to do during the animating process.
I was reminded half way through the sketching process that I will be doing the I was reminded halfway through the sketching process that I will be doing the exercise in stop-motion, so I quickly made sure I got the contact moment of the height and feet right and head straight to the stop-motion room as soon as possible.
The puppet that I got has somewhat loose hip and knee joints so I needed to use strong magnets, including white cardboard as a platform for the puppet to stand on without falling during the ‘pass pose’ and ‘up’ pace.
Reflection from class:
Although it was really hard to move the puppet I was really happy with the final result. The only regret I had is that the platforms I used to support the puppet are visible throughout the video.
However, I am delighted to say that I was able to capture the mood walk as I had hoped.
I have used Dragonframe before but have never been too familiar with it but after doing this exercise, I found it easier to navigate the software.
Stop motion TECHNICAL WORKSHOP (15th Nov):
During the weekend, we were asked to design a character for the upcoming class where we’ll be building puppets from recycled objects.
I wanted to explore the topic of Monsters or any character that seems disturbing. However, after looking at the rough sketches and considering the time I would spend making the character in the class, I decided to go with the first one just because it doesn’t look too complicated and was most interesting.
To prepare for the class, I searched for small empty boxes in my house and wrapped the outer layer with recycled paper just so I can hide the brand and logo of the box.
Password: ilikeicecream
During the making process, I had problems sticking clay onto the boxes because of the paper so I needed to coat the paper with a layer of clay that I bought years ago.
My art teacher taught me back in high school how to make tiny fish scales using sculpturing tools, so I decided to put the knowledge into use with this puppet.
I stuck the scale onto the box one by one making sure that each overlap the other by a little for better texture and visuals. After I’m satisfied with it, I then began to stick my eyes on them.
The puppet took me longer than I thought so I didn’t have enough time to finish it in class. Hence, I took it home to work on it even more during the weekend.
I used thick wires to make the puppet’s legs and attached them to the box. I covered the inside with a piece of thin cardboard I found and used it as a platform for the character to stand inside.
I then used the milk carton’s cap to hold the metal handle in place and protect the top of the handle from hitting the character inside.
Password: ilikeicecream
I used leftover clay to make the pink character inside along with plastic forks to make its’ antlers and toothpicks to make its’ whiskers.
Reflection from class:
I really enjoyed the making process of the puppet and feel like I can make a career out of it although the characters’ legs are a little bit uneven.
I have never really used clay in any of my animation work so it felt nice to learn how to navigate through it and make something I can be proud of.
Character Design WORKSHOP (16th Nov):
During the class, we were asked to design a character expression pose for our character from last week.
I genuinely didn’t want Le Witch to have any kind of readable expression so I thought about her taking off her head to reveal centipedes climbing out from inside of her body when she is mad.
I also play with the idea of her having mouths on both sides of her ear holes where she would enjoy her victims’ meat.
Reflection from class:
The time given for us to do all the poses was really short so I felt like I could’ve done better with the poses but I’m still happy that I still had a short time to think about the story behind Le Witch character and how I can develop her further in the future if I ever come back to the design again.
I also know more about the importance of posture, shapes and colour in designing characters on the audience’s expectations and perceptions as well.
Life drawing (17th Nov): Gestures drawing
Reflection from class:
The model of this week’s life drawing is muscular and has a narrow hip compared to other models that I have drawn so I had a really hard time in class overall because I couldn’t pinpoint how to connect the circles to make the ‘bean’.
However, after consulting my teacher, it became clear that the reason why the drawing looks so weird is that I haven’t connected the skin on the body, I have only connected the ‘bean’. Hence, I spent the rest of the class trying to follow her instruction and somewhat got better.
Overall reflection week 8:
This week has been one of the busiest weeks out of all the weeks. I have learnt about so many techniques for drawing postures and making puppets with limited time.
I felt like my time management skills have improved a lot because I needed to make sure I finish everything on time while also keeping my design not too complicated to avoid wasting more time.