What I have been learning....

You never really know how much work is involved in something until you do it yourself. Most individuals are aware that animation is no easy undertaking, but do you really know how challenging it is? After reading The Animator’s Survival Kit, I now know.

To break down what I have come to learn and understand, here is a simplistic explanation:

1)      There are teams for every area:

a.       Every single character has a separate team

b.      The background

c.       Lighting/shadowing

d.      Details

e.      Coloring

f.        Special effects

1)      You work in steps to create actions:

a.       Do one thing at a time

b.      Plan out

c.       Lay out the big drawings- the storytelling drawings- these are called the keys.

d.      Put in any other important drawings that have to be there- these are known as the extremes.

e.      Use the keys and extremes as guides for things and places we want to aim at.

f.        Play out the moves to check for accuracy.

g.       Add in breakdown positions

h.      Add/remove/change and play out again- repeat as needed.

i.         Details come last- hair, clothes, quirks of the character, etc.

Visually these steps are broken down to look like this:

Sketch Run trial

For this attempt, I used the timeline animation sequence that Photoshop offers. I spent some time, with the aid of a Youtube video and googling tutorials, on figuring out how to make this happen. At first I was overwhelmed, but once I starting my trial it all started to make sense. Once I became comfortable with what I had established, I played around a little bit between the frame and timeline animation. Of coarse I started my endeavors off with the more difficult of the two. Frame animation is much easier to manage and place the pose. I don't regret starting with timeline animation because I proved to myself that I can do the challenge and eventually go into 3D animation.  

While I was playing around with the timeline animation, I accidentally made the background I picked appear to have the sun go down. I have been trying to render it into a video to post, but I think the thing I enabled does not cross over into a video render. I will work on figuring out how to share with you this cool affect.

   *The background I will be using for the animations here on out are not a creation of my own. I googled and found an appropriate setting for my character. I do not have the time to render up one of my own for this. 

Trial

With the help of many Youtube videos, and the Adobe website, I was able to figure out how to put together a minor animation sequence. Using images I found off of Google helped achieve this animation. To understand what I was doing, I only used 3 images. The first video I found showed me how to use timeline animation in Photoshop. I created separate layers/frames for each individual run stance. I spent a few hours playing around with the spacing, delay, and timing of each frame in order to achieve a some-what smooth transition from one pose to another. If you keep hitting your space bar you can play the video more than once.

I did this trial to become familiar with Photoshop's animation. This is the first time I have ever attempted to make any sort of animation. I still want to play around and become better versed in timing before I move on to using my sketches. 

The life of my character

Please refer to this story, http://brittanyvisualmedia.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html, for the back story behind the character I created.

Elements of project

Elements to carry out Animation Project:

• 1.       Settle on an idea and create a script.
• 2.       Create storyboards based off of script. Will use story boards from Visual Media project.
• 3.       I won’t be executing a whole scene into an animation. I am creating a basic animation of my main character running. I will plan the look of the run sequence- developing the style, tone, color and overall artistic approach to each and every sequence. 
• 4.       If I were adding a minor dialog, I would cast the voice for my character.
• 5.       Import the running sequence hand drawing flow chart onto the computer. I will rig and render the drawing in Photoshop CS6.
• 6.       Pre-production phase: I will start putting the run sequences into separate frames.
• 7.       Production: This is where I will play with the timing of the frames and placement of the frames to make the animation run smoothly.
• 8.       Post-production: Add sound of running/heavy breathing
• 9.       Present to instructor & peers
• 10.   Make an edits
• 11.   Final submission

Flow Chart

In-order to be organized and understand what I need to do to make a successful 2D animation, I have been spending a lot of time reading and researching. Below are the sites I have been referencing and going back to.

I find doing a traditional drawing, then importing into Photoshop, the quickest way for me to achieve any results. In a blog later on, I will post the sketches I have done from the- from the basic pose sketch (see below)to turning those poses into my character.

Used as reference and aid in drawing: http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/wiki/SpriteAnimation

                http://www.ehow.com/how_4464127_draw-character-running.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_6702056_running-animation-tutorial.html

I watched on how to execute in Photoshop. I will be using Photoshop CS6:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAR7xL239Qs

                http://www.ozanimate.com/2d/photoshop-animation-techniques-a-character-animation-tutorial/

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAb-URz6qvA

Character Design

Ta-Da! Meet Nakita.

I have finalized my character design.

I first made a traditional drawing of how I wanted her to look. I uploaded it into Photoshop CS6, and for 2 painstaking days worked on the coloring and background. As I was working on this and researching, I decided that making an animation of her swinging from one vine to another is not suitable for my first ever animation. I will present her running. I found references that will aid me in drawing out the motion of running.