Project Simplify, Cont.

So as I was saying...

This was my first time using a light board, so I wasn't expecting to make anything you could consider "long". I only animated half of what I'd storyboarded, in fact.

I hadn't used After Effects in almost a year, so I got some help from my teacher. (You know, I hope there are programs out there that aren't as confusing to budding animators - it would suck if not being computer-savvy was keeping people from getting their stuff out there.)

Oh, that video? It's... it's nothing important to me at all. I'm totally not saving up for a new bike for it, nope.

And now, without further ado: my very first traditionally-drawn animation!

It's funny - when I saw the finished product, I swelled up with joy. I know it's not even three seconds long, but I just wasn't expecting it to come out so smoothly.

I'm probably just being emotional. Welp, on to the next project!

Project Simplify

Long time no post! I'm pretty tired, so I'll make this one short and sweet.

Before I get to the good news, have some concept art. I'd been mulling over ideas for my first project of the year for a week, but I couldn't think of anything I could actually see myself completing. Then one day, I drew two circles and a line connecting them on a whim. A pair of rectangles for legs, and I was in love.

I was thinking of abandoning the tablet and making something the traditional way - you know, paper and a backlight. To make sure I didn't take up the whole first semester, I wanted the simplest muse possible, so this little circle-ostrich thing was a godsend.

My time's almost up. I'll post more tomorrow!

Walk Cycles and Dinos

So it looks like this'll be my first post in a while and my last post for a while. Let me start with that walk cycle I mentioned last time.

I think it took so long because I felt the need to overcomplicate it. I started with the legs' "bones" in black, then covered them in "red" muscles, and then drew the final "skin" in purple.

After finishing this, I started thinking about starting one last project for the year. This is the last day of school and it's still in the storyboard stage, but I'm glad to have worked with an idea I was confident about.

You might recognize this little guy if you're into a certain Japan-only video game. Yeah, I'm that kind of nerd. Don't worry, I was gonna give credit had I finished. Anyway, I wanted to animate something that took as few strokes of the tablet pen as possible - this egg-shaped baby dino seemed to fit the bill.

The animation was going to consist of him getting bopped on the head with a shoe and proceeding to chew on it. Nothing major, just another test of my skills. Who knows - I might pick it up again next year!

Tablet Practice

    I've been figuring out how to use a tablet in Photoshop. I couldn't draw a straight line when I started, but two months later and I'm working on my first presentable walk cycle!

    This is a little test I finished a few weeks ago - It took a while to make, believe it or not.

Project Curvy pt. 3: References

If you go to my school and you've been snooping around the blogs of your classmates, you might be wondering why I have so little to show after six weeks. I knew what I wanted to do with Curvy (hence the storyboard), but I took a very long time in figuring out how I was going to do it. Thus, I spent a while gathering anatomy references while working on my storyboard.



First I looked for pictures of long-necked animals - everything from deer and giraffes to Apatosaurs. I wanted to get a good idea of how Curvy's neck would look if he was an actual creature (God forbid). I would've animated him based on that mental image when he wasn't dragging his head along the floor. Plausible Impossible and all that.

Then I found and liked some guides to animating equines. I knew from experience how hard it is to draw horse legs in a still image, let alone four dozen frames. Thus, I figured I should expose myself to lots of videos of walking horses long before I would get to animating. The top video is my personal favorite.

Project Curvy, pt. 2: Storyboard

Here's some more concept art for, uh, "Curvy." Yeah, I think I'll just stick to that name. I may not have gotten to animating, but I hope you can get an idea of what I was aiming for.

The animation was pretty much going to be an exercise in making shapes move fluidly, the starring shape being Curvy's curvy neck. I think it would've run for at least thirty seconds.

Project Curvy, pt.1: Concept Art

So I've been working on a hand-drawn thing for Animation class. I was supposed to post about it here a while ago, but I've felt a bit unmotivated so far this year. Here I am, thus, posting my concept art a week before the whole thing is due.

As this was going to be my first hand-drawn animation longer than 10 seconds, I didn't want to make whatever I'd bring to life too hard to draw. Since I still wanted to challenge myself a little, though, I thought I'd try making up something with four legs. Somehow I went from Waddles from Gravity Falls to a sort of long-necked, four-eared equine. If you asked me how I came up with that, I honestly wouldn't have an answer.

His limbs should be less like tentacles in the final animation.