Research/references:
I made some initial research on facial expression to explore how much I can push myself for the exercise.
I tried taking selfies of my expression of disgust, anger, tiresome and in awe. I felt like ‘shyness’ and ‘in love’ are something that is quite far from what I usually express. Hence, I wanted to try animating those emotions for this exercise.
First, I tried recording myself acting the emotions out. I then took screenshots of the key moments and made a simple storyboard based on the life acting.
After getting approved by my teachers, I started drawing the main keyframes in TVpaint.
I also tried using time chart to see how long I have to hold the frames and when I want it to slow down.
I have been advised to adjust the length of some frames as they have the same length. This makes the animation looks unnatural.
My teacher also told me to overshoot the part where the character swings its’ head to create greater effect and make it seems not to be abruptly stopped.
I have never heard of the word overshoot before, so watched an online animation class to understand what I have to do better.
During the making of the 3rd version, I added more in-betweens and coloured the mouth as advised by my teachers for the character’s smoother movements and to make the lips easier to follow.
Reflection from class:
I found this exercise relatively easy because of the reference video that I filmed as it allowed me to go back and see what each movement should look like.
I also enjoyed exploring my use of smear frames as I think it makes the animation looks more effective in term of creating the illusion.
Still, I feel like I could have made the facial expression even more extreme by animating nose wrinkling or even shoulder shaking when the character becomes giddy.
Stop motion TECHNICAL WORKSHOP (17th of Jan): Puppet Making week 2
At the end of class last week, my teacher advised me to use foam for the rigging leg parts of Mr Basken the octopus. I was also told that I could use the finished wooden eyes ball that was handed out.
I started off by cutting out the foam and glueing them onto the legs. Making sure that have gaps between them so that I can bend the wire later on.
I didn’t want to use the available wooden eyes since they look way too different from the original design as Mr Basken has a unique pair of eyes. I scraped out the wooden skull to make two huge holes for the different wooden eyes that I crafted and sandpapered myself.
Password: ilikeicecream
Reflection from class:
It was a really messy class due to all the wood powder and because I decided not to use the finished wooden eyeballs, I spent a lot of time sandpapering the eyes while my classmates moved on to making the outfits for the puppet.
However, I felt really satisfied at the end of the class as Mr Basken looks really close to my original design of mine and was glad that I didn’t go with the easy way out since I feel like I’m more experienced with basal wood and sandpaper to get the shape that I want.
Life drawing (19th of Jan):
Research:
Last week was a disaster for me, so I made a research on human anatomy before entering the class to help me locate muscles and bones.
Due to technical issues, please follow the link below to view my life drawing images:
https://at.tumblr.com/bt-noodles-doodles/life-drawing-on-19th-jan-2023/hpuc9oigw4b6
Reflection from class:
I think the research has helped me a lot on how to draw the human body compared to last week. However, it was still hard for me to get a grip on how to draw legs. Still, I am more confident and look forward to next week’s class to polish my skills and increase my understanding.
Overall reflection week 12:
I took this week as a way to fix all the mistakes I made last week due to my lack of research. Hence, I am more prepared for this week and found the exercise and workshops easy to follow. Although I have been challenged many times, I wasn’t too discouraged by them.