Conventions of animation Week 9 _ Straight ahead action & Poses to Pose.

  The objective for this week was to understand & explain the differences between straight ahead action / pose to pose action. The writer of this blog has found out that the concept of straight ahead action can be perceived as a constant movement through the entire animation in other words stop motion animation.Where as pose to pose animations would have key frames with no frames in between & this would weaken any animation  as they would appear to be rather jumpy , unprofessional.

In order to understand the difference between the two conventions you will have to observe them from a visual perspective .When we look at the first animation we get a basic understanding of the story portrayed to us which is a lamp attempting to sneak up to a wall as it is curious to see what is on the other side. In order to achieve an accurate picture of the overall animation the animator is using the same principles used in Adobe Flash where onion skinning is present . This method allows the animator to see the last movement in order to create the next movement for the primary action/ secondary action of the animation for an example walk cycle.

This exercise was a treat as it allowed the animator to use their creativity & imagination . The object resembled the lamp from Disney's PIXAR studio . The brief was to come up with a funny idea the object could do as it meets the wall which is the second most important element in this animation.
The hardest part of the animation was creating the sneaky walk as the animator had to mimc the movements of a person who is sneaking up to see what is going on behind those closed doors. The other difficult part was to figure out how to the next movement using the straight ahead action which is similar to stop motion animation. Stop motion animation is when you key one movement then use it as a reference point for the next key frame.

The next animation had the same concept but the only aspect that changed was the fact that they focus on key poses . This animator decided to plan out every single stage for the character this way if his animation appears to be odd then he can go through his key frames to see where he went wrong . The first animation used Pose to Pose techniques in the first animation walk cycles as they enabled the animator to plot the key parts of the story down then focus on the in betweens later.

The second animation was a very unique experiment as it was time consuming making little adjustment to the objects in every single frame during the animation process. After the animator finished this method of animating he found some advantages / dis advantages with the straight ahead actions. The main disadvantages has been mentioned already however the advantage is that if you were to make a very detailed animation for a client. Then you would be able to exaggerate certain elements with creative licenses.


When we look at Professional examples of straight ahead action / pose to pose action then the first animation that would automatically come to our minds would be the dreams works animation introduction scene.

There many classic examples which display this convention but the animator chose to mention one of the scenes from the classic animation known a Pinky & The Brain. In this scene Pose to pose would be Pinky standing clueless which is evident in his body language, shrugged shoulders, lost expression in his eyes. Brain always has a strong dominate pose where ever he is within the environment giving pinky orders. Once the animator knows the nature of the character as well as their roles in the story it is easier for them to create the straight ahead actions for the rest of the animations.

Conventions of animation - The Beginning

For the first part of the conventions of animation blog post this student wanted to start by creating a contract for the duration of his time at the University of Bradford. The contract states the following:

1) The student promised that he would  try his best to get the work done on time .

2) The student also promised that he would ask for help if he ever get stuck on any particular task .

3) The student is going to make sure that he attends all of the lectures .

4) The student also promised that he would try to get as much research done as he possibly can to the best of his abilities.

5) The student also promised that he would remain patient with the lecturer when they get back to him with his feedback . 

After this student made these promises he focused on the next task which was to look at the theory behind the Flick book. To put the theory into practise this student was given the opportunity to either make a flick using sticky notes or the online version on the internet.

You can find the online version of the flick book where this student made two versions of bouncing balls .

The first version of the bouncing ball was the exaggerated version which would belong to a cartoon whereas the second would belong to a 3D animation as it requires more physics based simulation. 

When the animation student mentioned physics based simulation he was talking about two or three elements which he learnt assisted the movements of the two bouncing ( balls weight , balance , gravity ).

Here is the hyperlink which allows you to observe the animation student's previous attempts of making a flick book online. If you wanted to check out this animation basic flick book animation then please follow this hyper link below .

http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/player.php?id=497076

For the final part of the introduction to the Conventions of Animation blog post the student managed to find a video tutorial of a graph editor. He hoped that it would prove to be useful to you when it comes to your animation projects. 

The graph editor will prove to be a great asset when you reach the pre production / post production stages of your animation as timing will be the key element.

For your benefit here is a You tube video tutorial which goes through the basics of the graph editor in Autodesk Maya.

Conventions of Animation _ Arcs

This week's session was based on the principle of arcs within animation. In order to understand the theory side of the principle the writer of this blog animated two simple exercises using the 3D software known as Autodesk Maya which proved this theory to be very useful in all animations.

The writer of this blog concluded that the reason behind this statement is due to the fact that arcs allowed animation to have more time for production as well as creativity.After reading two pages from a book on the animation principles the animator found one statement to back up the advantages of arcs within animation .

This statement went on to say " The introduction of arcs were meant to give the objects , characters within animation life instead of unappealing rigid characters. This allowed more freedom for the animators to use their creativity to construct an exciting storyline for their animations". After analysing this statement the animator began to wonder as to why the animation would appear to be mechanical .Only with the skill of observations would allow the animator to create a reasonable animation.
                                     


One example of a professional animation that uses arcs in a very clever way is the animation called Dragon Ball Z. The reason that the animator chose this animation as a professional example was because arcs are used all the time when a battle occurs between two  supernatural beings. As everyone knows the most famous form of attack in Dragon Ball Z is the energy ball which is channelled from the upper body to the arms then a arcs is formed to release the energy ball.

Now moving onto real life the best way to witness arcs being used more obviously is by going to a sport where there is continuous movement displaying a number of arcs at key points.In Badminton the arc is formed throughout the match in order to gain more impact , power , thrust this way the player is guaranteed to win the match.           

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The first animation was a basic exercise which was engineered by the lecturer in order to make everyone understand the uses of arcs within animation as well as the benefit working in arcs instead of other less effective methods. The less effective methods tend to make animation seem more static where arcs give animation more freedom in terms of movement & expression.

The animation may benefit from the ball having more impact at the starting point & the ending point. The way that this aim could be improved is by maybe giving the sphere primitive more squash & stretch attributes . If the animator recognises these contributing factors then he will be able to create a better computer animation.

The second  animation was a creative task which involved a robot kicking a ball away into the distance.The animator felt that this particular task proved to be a challenge as he had to replicated the impact a person would have when they use an object hitting a smaller object. 

This is the major reason why the animator feels that there are a couple of flaws within the animation in regards to the weight of the golf stick as it moves to the ball at the beginning of the cycle. At the first few frames of the animation it appears as though the ball was being given a push in stead of being hit with a certain amount of force.

 But overall this animation turned out to be successful as it did have some form of anticipation at the start of the game. The second aspect of the animation that was executed in a good way was the head nodding which was meant to give am indication that the robot was simply having a good time. In the animator's point of view it was the head nodding which may have save his animation as it was a comedy element which was used to grab the target audience's undivided attention.

                                          

Here is a professional animation which was created by by a person called Ryan Woodward and this animation demonstrates arcs brilliantly. The reason behind this outcome was down to the way that the arcs were formed at every single stage of the performance. Every single action told one part of the story which had a deep connection with anyone who has lost their loved one or never found love.

Every single time the figure appeared it was nerve wreaking because every single time it appeared the posture of the character was going down further each time as if it had lost all hope in life. After this short analysis the animator concludes that a brilliant animation can give you some feelings if the story line is good enough & if you have some relation in your personal life. 

Conventions of Animation - Secondary Action

This week's session is regarding the subject of secondary action in animation . This principle may be regarding any extra movements that may contribute to the main action without taking the focus away from the main animation. So the animator has to be very careful that they do not over animate one action than the other action otherwise they will be overwhelmed by what they are viewing.

The writer of this blog post has read a book by the name of The Illusion of Life Disney animation which was written by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston , Pages 63/64 , ISBN number  978-078686070-89 7870786 860708 to gain further insight into the principle of animation known as secondary action. 

The writer's finding stated that any secondary action must not conflict with the primary action as it could cause the viewer to lose interest in the animation. The other element that could save the secondary animation from domination that animation is the timing between the key frames of the animation itself. A secondary action must be something the would benefit the animation & ultimately connect the viewer with the characters on an emotional level.

As you can see the writer has tried his best to find some examples where good / bad secondary action could occur. The first animation that will be analysed is the cartoon known as biker mice from Mars as there is a fair amount of secondary action being used during the animation. For an example the secondary action could be the beginning where they are at battle with the other side .The secondary movement could occur when  one of the biker mice are under attack & their hat result in a bouncing movement.

 

The second animation from Disney's Mickey mouse Fantasia has been identified as one of the most useful videos by the writer as he felt that there is a more stronger sense of secondary action occurring in the movements of the Thauns , Cupids tails etc..

The secondary action in this scene of Basil the great mouse detective is the eye brows & the moustache of the side kick which constantly move all around in terror as if they are trying to get the undivided attention of Basil who is in a sense of denial . 

This exercise proved to be quite difficult as it was a challenge to capture the real life movements of a dog walking & waving it's tail as it hit the wall. The impact of the blow that the dog faced was a challenge as the animator struggled to figure out how much movement the tail would have as a result of the blow to the face. 

However the animator hopes to improve this by maybe adding some extra key frames for the tail to give it some life . This will enable the animator to create more of an uncanny animation. Moving onto the next animation which is a squirrel jumping up on a tree. 

The second animation proved to be the better animation to watch as it has a fair amount of flow as the first phase begins . In particular the tail has a great amount of flow as the squirrel begins it jump from the ground to the base. The part of this animation that proved to e difficult was the tail to look right at every single key frame of the animation .

The main action in this animation is the movement of the dog as it moves from one point of the room to the next room. The secondary action is the element which supports the main actions it gives an element of surprise , excitement . The secondary action is the movement of the tail as it moves quite abruptly due to the frustration which came from losing it's bone under the table. due to this event occurring it gives the animaion a nice comedy feeling as the dog is feeling very eager to obtain it's bone no matter what happens to the other items around him. 

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Conventions of animation - Follow through & overlapping action.

 The task for this week in the conventions of animation module the objective was to gain a better understanding of the animation mechanic known as follow through & overlapping action. Looking through the book "The Alchemy of Animation making an animated film in the modern age by Don Han on pages 100/101". 

It was a quote from Tim Burton " Stop Motion is such a powerful tool you would be lost without it . The reason that I say this is because it enable me to bring my ideas to life, & this is the reason behind my reason for getting into animation in the first place.

From this statement we can determine that without knowing the original methods we cannot hope to create such fabulous animations. Without this knowledge we can not understand how the follow through & overlapping methods occur in animation.

                                          

If we were to analyse the first animation which is a hammer swinging from side to side then what would you say would be the follow through action & what would be the overlapping action?.Some might say that the follow through action in this case scenario is the antenna on the head of the hammer as it swings from side to side continuously.

The follow through action would be the hammer as it moves from one key pose to the next key pose.Once the key poses have been put into place you will notice an overlapping action as the key poses are close to each other in order to replicate the movements of an actual hammer in real life.

                                                

The second animation is essentially the same animation as the animation of the hammer swinging from side to side . However the only difference is that the object has been duplicated over a number of times at each key frame .The hard part was to adjust the key poses each time to create an overall effect of a follow through & overlapping effect. A classic animation example that come to mind is the  scene from the Beauty & the Beast where Belle is invited to the dinner hall & all of the enchanted servants put on a performance to welcome belle.

                                            

         

The last animation is a demonstration of the two principles put into one animation. This animation demonstrates the follow through action at the beginning as it is launched from the diving board to the ground .However the descent from the diving board appears to be without gravity & this may be due to the fact that the animator has failed to research by looking at some video references

Video references give animators a better idea of the weight of a swimmer displays at each stage of their run up to the diving board , jumping to the swimming pool . This may have been the major downfall of this particular task however the animation would appear to be okay as an exaggerated version of a swimming animation as it appears to be over exaggerated at key points.

The overlapping action in the video reference of the comedian Omid Djalili is the movement of his body as he moves from one point on the stage to the next point. For example when he wants to demonstrate a particular emotion he uses his whole body to show how the emotion is displayed. The follow through would be the gradual change from one subject to the next subject.

When Omid Djalili changes from one subject to the next subject he stops moving then introduces the subject which is soon lead by the same routine which is the body distribution from pose to pose showing the joke in a more visual way.

Conventions of animation- Anticipation.

The objective of today was to be able to recognise the mechanic of animation known as anticipation. The best way to fully understand anticipation is by going through the two main types of anticipation which are (psychological / mechanical anticipation.

An example could be a long distance run in the olympics at the beginning of the run where the runner begin in a crouched position with their backs straight , both feet in position . The final position would be the whole body gets up again ready to thrust itself to run in order to gain more momentum in order to get ahead of the other runners . The writer if this blog has tried to demonstrate this by creating two animation where two balls are bouncing up & down.

This is a 3D animation of a Small & Large ball as they begin their ascent from the ground to the sky then back to the ground. At the beginning of the animation both balls display the correct weight being  encouraged by gravity. As the gravity allows them to go that is where the animation shows it's weak points . The aim of the exercise was to create anticipation the animator felt that the bounce felt too forced & mechanical . This is exactly the error which the animator hopes to avoid making again in the next exercise. But the next exercise might prove to be difficult as there is more characterisation to the story as well ad the main character.

                                              

The second exercise was to create an animation of a ball going up a diving board then bouncing off a diving board into a pool. If someone could replicate the movement of a human being going up the stairs then bouncing off a diving board then that would be considered to be well observed & brilliant. 

As the animator reviews his animation he began by thinking that the start of the animation was fine as he was able to create a number of movements where the ball climbs the stairs .However the aspects that could make the flow of the animation better would be the jump on the diving board , the last moment of the jump into the pool. 

The part of the animation with the jump could have done with one or two more key frames in order to make the jump seem more fluent. The second part of the animation that needed improving was the last moments of the dive which really needed dressing at the start of the jump. Maybe the animator could have made sure that he placed the ball in a reasonable position where the jump would have seemed perfect & not confusing at the end. Unless the animator wanted to make his character create a 360 flip as he dives into the pool. That could be one possibility but you would have to ease the animator of his intentions to understand what he wants to get across to the target audience.

                                     

So to summarise physiological anticipation is when the mind registers the next movement before it occurs . The reason behind this notion is due to the fact that your eye examine movement all the time & is able to register what will next as a result. Mechanical anticipation is when you are able to tell the   difference between unnatural movements from natural movements .An animator will be able to tell when his characters appear to have flaws in an stage of their animations.

Here is a famous animation known as space jam & the reason that it has been included in this blog post was due to the fact that one of the last scenes display anticipation brilliantly. The scene that proved to be most useful was the part where Michael Jordon's arm extended all the way to the basketball net . 

                                                 

Character modelling _ Toy Exercise

This blog post is all about researching pre-school toys then recreating the chosen pre school toy in Autodesk Maya. This test proved to be effective as it allowed the creator to reflect & ponder into the future to have a glimpse of how he would would cope working for a real company such as Team 17 in Leeds , Blue Monkey , Team Lemon etc.

Ali managed to create the wooden box as well as the shapes using the basic primitives in Autodesk Maya. The only difficult part of the task was to come up with an idea of a toy that would prove to be fun yet educational for pre- school children.

But if there was anything else that could be done to improve the 3D toys then the correct approach would be to add some lighting / basic  textures etc. The whole point behind these methods are to bring the objects to life , giving them a certain ambience.

Looking at industry standard the 3D renders of the wooden box , wooden primitives are at an average level . However there is significant improvements that could be incorporated in order to make the objects more appealing to the public eyes in particular the target audience who are Pre school children.