Wednesday 14 October 2009

Of Jumping Cubey's, and other things

More animation for ye, and me. The light-box is proving to outshine my expectations, and is producing some very good results. The latest 2D assignment was to make a bouncing ball, and then to make a little 'Cubey' character jump up and down. Both of which are shown here;

The 'BB' Project:

The Jumping Cubey:

Now I need to try out Maya 3D software, for the 3D assigment. Once again the subject matter is B-Bs, and hopefully the process won't be quite as complex as it looked in the lecture. Mostly it will just be a case of getting to grips with the software and interface. After that the principles are identical.

-RW

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Begin the Begin




Finished the first project with no problems. After drawing out the starting frame (a basic circle), I actually went to the end and drew the final frame (The snow-star, a symbol I use a lot). I then worked from the #12 frame all the way back to the first frame. This ensured that the morph remained smooth throughout.


The actual technique of lightbox-animation, drawing a drawing effectively on top of the last one using the lightboxes, is much easier than it sounds. Although it would definitely take longer to actually move than 3D animation (Once you have the rigs, scene etc.) it is surprisingly fluid. Although that does depend on how many inbetween stages you want to do. I think I'll definitely be looking at this more when I drop into the studio.


Currently working on digitising a picture of Optimus Prime, designed for my UK Transformers story line. More of a personal project, but it's a good example of how Uni is helping to improve the way I work.


Tuesday 6 October 2009

And So it Begins

6/10/09

So. How do you begin on something like this?

University proper began today. First lectures in 2D and 3D principles, along with the first assignment from Andy in 2D. A simple circle morph animation. I already have a fairly good idea of what I might do, the question is wether the morph is feasible in 11/12 frames. If not, then I can always simplify the idea somewhat. Given tommorow is our studio day, I would hazard a guess at being able to get on with it fairly fast.

Art History and Theory was the second part. Some interesting and downright useful points from that, a couple of which I need to have a look at when I start working into my stories again. Also a few examples of animation, and other useful bits and pieces.

That about wraps up the first post, at any rate. Winterwolf Arts is officially open.
More likely to have a fuller post tommorow.

-R.W