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For this unit I will be exploring an area that hasntregularly been my field of choice or experience

compared to the others. Usually, I have been the team-

mate focused on pre production and pre design.Although I will be that person once again (because itsmy idea being developed for the animation) I will be

diving more into the waters of Animation and in somecases I suppose Technical operations.

Field of an ArtistExamples:

Pre production Character design Environment design

Field of an AnimatorExamples:

Character animation Timings Camera animation

Field of a TechnicianExamples:

Use of the program Dynamics and effects Timings

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Reasons for my ChoiceExamples of my exploration in the animation fieldinclude mostly just doing a lot more animation than I

usually have within a group. For the parts where this tiesin with technical work it will be the programs I will beexperimenting with like Photoshop (more experimental,due to less animating experience) and after effects(more experience compared to Photoshop but still someto explore).

I feel that the two are closely related, but I will stay withanimation over technical because the end products

will be more that I have just been trying to makesomething move, instead of more mathematical

animation like 3D effects, texturing, rigging etc whichwould drop it more into the Technical category.

Techniques and ToolsI had come to realize that many cartoons are (or can)being animated in Photoshop. Many Anime cartoons aregood examples. Here is an example of a fan madeanimation based on a popular anime, which resembleswork of the professionals, and was completely made in

Photoshop.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRYQGlp_HuU&feature=related

And here is a showreel style example of Photoshopanimation work from the same artist.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqy_DkrhbJs&featu

re=related

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These examples just tell me that it can be done, andPhotoshop has many tools that make animating things

like shading a whole lot easier, tools such as the freetransform tool and the wand tool, which animationprograms such as toon boom dont have

Example TutorialsHere are some examples of Brilliantly extensive andprecise tutorials about animating in Photoshop with thisparticular artist.

Colour grading and lens visualshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ETNRODbr5U

Photoshop animation navigationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-nUEOt2hg

Though he has several examples, water, electricity etc. Iwill be using his example of animating fire.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjbb_nINNXI

This is the single best example of Photoshop animation

as a whole.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQd4M8qlmFY

A quick trip down memory lane actually. In thebeginning I considered achieving all this throughtraditional light box, hand drawn animation. That ideal

was short lived because of time and material

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constraints. But here is an example of some animationtesting for this at the point of inspiration.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YA-sEIRDyg

I had a piece of work that I had made in toon boombefore, and it was very smooth. The difference this timeI guess would be that I wouldnt be using simple shapes.Last time I used simple shapes (Circles and ovals) toanimate fast and easily.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I2q0dBiXKA

The main part of this animation am happy with andwant to focus on is the smoothness of the angled run,when the robot dashes towards and out of screen aftergetting caught. Watching a successful example of myOWN work shows me I can do it again.

So I have my point, I have my example and myexplanation.

My point is demonstration animation mechanics.My example is work I have previously made.My explanation is that I will likely achieve this using

Photoshop.

But before even get ready enough to go from here, Illdo a spot of training, to prove something to you andmyself, that I understand my character 100%. That Icould draw it from any angle effortlessly, that I can drawit making any expression and gesture, that I actually

know the character personally and used to go to school

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with it. BEFORE I even do that, Ill show ONE of theMANY examples I had looked at for the sake of thisexercise.

This was a very smallpercentage of thekey posing andconcept materialgiven to us since ourfirst year ofeducation atRavensbourne.

This is here to prove I have looked, thought, and re-thought, even though I already feel character design issecond nature to me. But it is good to compare work.

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This section I will be going over my choices for the lines of action and key poses.I have found that I have used lots of Xs and ys for the key poses.

(See figs 1,2,5,6,7,8,11 and 12, which will be the majority).

1. For the first key pose I wanted to exaggerate the extremities of hisanatomy that would be closer to the camera for foreshortening. This

would emphasise his desperation to get to his destination. Its acommonly used technique for dashing characters.

2. This key pose does the same. However this was more difficult to forgecompared to the last because of the angle, it took me two attempts to

work out the sizing of each section of his body. The foreshortening of thebackground is what made this difficult.

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3. This key pose is an example of what I call a Negative Y. The two armsfrom the sides of the Y have been broken downwards giving him a more

domineering appearance with help of the help of the amount offoreshortening used.

4. This key pose just promotes the themes of Fear and Defence. I have foundthat regardless of the facial expression I may have given him at the time it

would still have an essence of these expressionisms. I havent tried torelate this pose to a letter (S) haha that might be too much.

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5. Fore this shot where both characters take up almost equal amounts ofspace, they both have key poses however one more of movement and onemore of stationary placement. After looking over it again I have found that

the Mailman has more of an X key pose. The other arm of the X wouldhave reached his right elbow. For the Dog he has an obvious Y key pose,

allowing for his leg to stretch off screen for his escape.

6. This is an example of a key pose that I want to spell psycho and danger.With the X frame I have had each of his limbs at their opposites. This is

what gives the impressions of danger/defence and rotation.

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7. With this, it is similar to the previous in the letter, however the placementof the limbs are normalised. This gives the impression of more stability,and focus into the main attacking limb compared to the previous key

pose.

8. Here the dog is almost sprawled (apart from his arms). He ispanicking/surprised.

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9. For this I have kept the backbones of both characters arced. The dogsposture being more submissive, and the pit bulls posture being more

dominant and defensive.

10. In this shot the dog in front of the cue has a more dominant/defensiveposture and body language towards our dog on the floor, even though hepays him no attention, this isnt even deliberate. Odiegwu on the floor has

a reclusive and defensive pose, being aided by the birds eyeangle.

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11. Here is another example of a Y pose. With the longest of the arms beinghis left arm which he is about to put force into slamming the fridge door.This relates to the longest arm being the one where Odis leg extends out

of the screen (See Fig .5)

12. This key pose once again being submissive and relaxed. The dog is arelaxed character until he has a reason not to be. He lies on his back a lot

of the time, as people do when they areslacking off work or simplylounging about . He does this at the beginning when in the control room,

and once again here in the waiting room.

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I have put together some character sheets showingexpressions and key poses, angles and body languagedynamics. Expressing my familiarity with my characters.

Mad Bladdersfacial concepts.I want these toreflect the fullrange of jolts inhis personalityandunpredictablyviolent nature.

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Here is an example of

mad bladder in his morethan docile state. He hasa split personalityhowever this is the lessdominant of the twosides. I want toemphasize this throughthe difference in detail.

Though the mailman is still just a side character withlittle input, I have still taken pride and joy into theconstruction of his visual information. Although he is

perceived as a coward, he is a confidently soundindividual.

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This is the fistconcept that I

ever drew forGuard Pooch. Asyou can see nota great deal haschanged in hisdesign, I knewwhat I was afterfrom thebeginning afterhaving thoughtabout it.

This is a simpledynamic drawingpiece. I just wanted toflex the muscles of myforeshorteningknowledge with thecharacter.

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These are some moreforeshortening examples

as well as charactersheets (underneath).Getting to grips with thecurves and edges thatgive my character hisvisual identity, even if hewere a silhouette.

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Here is a concept of Odiegwu competing with MadBladder in thumb war, and a final colour concept. I usedthe natural colours of a german shepherd, so I never had

to beat around the bush with decisions here.

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For the Security guard (Chuck), I wanted him to have acool/dorky persona. Though he doesnt have much of abig part to play in the video, I can express a bit more

about his personality through some of these concepts.

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Now that I have these its finally time to start tryingsome animation tests. I have started with a testanimation run cycle. I started by blocking out the key

poses within the cycle.First a quick example of the processhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zD054S7-0UAnd second an example of some result.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2b9fgrn41I

To help me remember the key points of the arms, legsand height I put a walk cycle guide as my desktopbackground to make for easy reference with the Macs4finger expose haha. It did help ok

After knowing that I hit all of the key walk cyclecheckpoint poses, it was time to clean it up so itactually

ran smoother. (eg the toes would have been toes

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instead of trapeziums one second and squares the next,I would be able to see the fluidity better). I added abackground, a very basic Frisbee and some blurs here

and there to aid its visual excitement.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ZomrVyrSA

Now to be honest I am happy with the results here, butif anything I would want it to look evenmore organicthan what can be achieved with few frames. In otherwords, like traditionally, exceptionally smooth Disneyanimation, billions of frames

But I dont have thetime or theworkforce for that.Instead I am considering several methods, which ishelping me explore this Animation Techniquesubcategory. I have decided that I will try and cheat thisissue with occasional use of puppet pins, motiontweening and blurs.

I recently dedicated a week and a half to creating thisvideo for a separate platform. It was a Red Bullanimation competition. Within this time I practiced allthese techniques I have been talking about. I have

included a few videos of the animation process andfinally the actual video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqoLXTurHBs

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For this section of technical animation study, I guess allthat is left is for me to set up a final animatic, and createa pipline (to do list) of animation for myself and cycle

through them. Ive enjoyed learning some of thesetechniques, finding ways of effectively and smoothlyspeeding up the animation workflow and discoveringnew styles for myself.