OUAN403-Animation skill : week 3

The first sets of tasks that we’ve received through out the week introduced me to the basics of animations, all the while jumping straight to point, already having us start making actual animations through the use of flip books and regular paper, with help from the tools and software provided in the studio , most notably “Dragonframe”.In my view, the most important knowledge that was gained was Disney’s 12 principles of animation, 3 of which that up being a major help for me through most of my tasks ,since these tasks were set up specifically for them: Squash and stretch, Pose to pose and  Slow out/slow in . Having never make “proper” animation before, these basics rules really shed light the tiny details that I usually take for granted, such as in order to make an object or character move slower, more frames are required to be drawn, or how everything squash and stretch under different kind of pressure (which was really interesting seeing how real-life physics affect the production of  character/animation, albeit it was exaggerated). 

Talking about the task themselves, for my first time animating, I think I did a pretty decent job , working through all the problems that was presented. The “bouncing ball” was an absolute classic, which focused mainly on “squashing and stretching” ,with a bit of slow-in and out. The end product looked really good, with nice amount of timing , squashing and stretching. Keeping with that idea, I did a cannon firing for the “free-form” flip book, having the cannon cartoon-ishly squashing in just before firing, and then stretching to ridiculous degree as the cannonball was exiting. These actions indeed really help  to  give a feeling of “power” for the shot, which really open my eyes to how other actions can also be improved with this, from other forms of firearms to jumping or slamming a hammer down, which undoubtedly will change my approach on how character moves in future works. 

As for task 2 with the pendulum, which focused on spacing and timing, having the knowledge from task 1 of slow in/out , and a basic knowledge of how a pendulum really saves a lot of time creating the frames. Working in a set frame number was interesting though, learning how to divide of the frames to create good timing and spacing , again, a basic but important skill that would definitely help me a lot in future projects. However there was one thing that I’d criticized myself , was that I was still stuck on “straight ahead animation” for the first 2 tasks. 

Key frames are undoubtedly a major part of animating, and having task 3 pushing me to use it was definitely helpful in the end, although , if  I’m honest, the use was still very limited in my mind, but I’m sure I’d get more in tune with it as the time goes on and I have to deal with more complex movements. Overall it was a very exciting and practical introduction to animation, and I definitely learn more from the rules just by using it in practice, truly exemplify the idea of  “actions speak louder than words”