BDM126, Character Walk Cycles, 24 June

first shot, Mad Mozart side walk

      

second shot, Mad Mozart side walk

I went back and added another panel between each movement.  Is he smoother, funkier?  He looks better when he moves faster, for sure.  It really depends on what part of his body I look at.  He's got a little funky foot drag that disappears when I look at his arms.  Then I see him nearly smack himself in the face.

BDM 125, BDM126 Animation reviews 21 June

Pixar's Up



I saw Inside Out on Friday, which made me want to revist Pixar's Up, another movie that never fails to make me cry.  In this case, it was only 5-8 minutes long.  Once Ellie's gone, the emotion goes, too.  It's a fun adventure for the now Elderly Carl, helpful Kenny the Wilderness Explorer, and the animals they meet on their way to Paradise Falls.  The animal characters, Dug and Kevin the rare bird, were well animated.  Kevin just squawks, but they get a lot of acting out of her, nonetheless, and Dug is a great dog.  It just isn't consistently gripping like Inside Out, but that felt like a more personally relevant story to me, the viewer.  I wondered what my dad thinks about Up.  He has a lifetime of experience behind him and 3 active grandchildren always grabbing at him.  He might find Inside Out ok but Up speaking to him.  That's the beauty of Pixar's body of work: something for everyone.  And as they keep going, they'll keep fleshing it out in a way that Disney never has, and probably never will.  Disney makes princess stories and Pixar makes everybody's story as worthy of telling as a princess'.

Psycho-Pass, episode 1
exciting shots, changed frequently so excitement level was kept up, standard high pitched girl/woman character who goes weak at the knees.  poker faced men.  Halfway through, I thought, "If this was really Japan, we'd have a mascot." And boom!  We've got mascots interacting with the public on the behalf of the police department.  Classic!  What's also classic, but not in a fun way, is  Inspector Akane Tsunemori's constant meltdowns.  She actually fires a gun from a knock-kneed position.  Get a hold of yourself, Inspector!  You went through the Academy, right?  You were trained for this, right?  I don't think I'll go back to find out. I guess every culture has trouble showing strong, realistic female characters who don't give in to cultural gender stereotypes.      


Sometimes I feel bad because everybody around me is drawing manga and cool-looking sword fighting stuff and I'm drawing cute little people.  Then I think, stick it!  Because Japan is also home to My Neighbour Totoro and more cute Kawaii mascots than you handle.  Yin and Yang, living side by side.  There's a place for everybody.

Puss in Boots
Very inspiring in terms of shots, camera angles and putting together an exciting sequence.  The Tuesday night Dance Fight that Puss gets into with Kitty Soft Paws is worth watching again and again.  The Shrek movies, of which this is a spin-off, have really "ugly" humans.  They're getting better and better, but I've never liked the look of them as much as Pixar's people.  I give them credit, though, Dreamworks has really improved the movement of the people characters.  They can be subtle and show thought in slight movements and facial expressions.  This is really evident anytime Jack and Jill are on screen discussing Jack's plans for starting a family.  Funny stuff.








Watching this gave me an idea:  Puss sweeps his hat off to the camera, we cut to black and then the next scene.  It made me think about doing some hat work in Monkey Saves the Daypaint.  Can my Monkey be as cool as Puss in Boots?

BDM125, BDM126 Animation Reviews 3 June

Requiem for Romance

We watched this in class.  It was a really interesting short.  The action male ninja v. female ninja, fighting across rooftops. But the audio is an Asian Canadian woman trying to break up with her Asian Canadian boyfriend.  (I say Canadian based on the funding from sources in Quebec)  And this "disjointed" pairing of audio and visual really works.  The timing was expertly matched up so as the boyfriend goes on the verbal attack, so does his animated counterpart, and vice versa until the two end up quietly sitting at the end of a dock, just talking to each other.  Will they be able to get past parental prejudices and stay together?

The backgrounds look like watercolor being dripped onto the camera.  I wondered if this was stop motion, or live with black figures animated in a new layer.  It's making me think about the stop motion project next semester.

Mood is driven by pacing but also by the change of colour as the argument heats up, then cools down, and the changing weapons as the breakup conversation grows more pleading in tone.  

Then we watched Road Runner cartoons.  Meep meep!  I grew up with these and I've never seen them spliced together with 10 minutes of Wil E. Coyote getting his head knocked in when his  harebrained schemes went wrong.  Pacing, matching audio to mood and timing are to be observed and borrowed from.  There's that all-important pause as Wil E. considers what is just about to happen to him...

Road Runner cartoon

BDM125, BDM126, Animation Review: Pixar's Inside Out, 19 June

Inside Out trailer
What a beautiful film!  I went to see it this afternoon when I was feeling low on inspiration or the desire to go on with my projects.  Nobody will be in the computer lab after 6, so why waste the afternoon trying to work on a lap tablet?

Pixar blew me away when they covered Sully with fur  in Monsters Inc.  The Emotions (Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Anger and Fear) are all covered in soft peach fuzz and this gorgeous glistening hair/fur/feather hybrid and they look just as incredible.  It'll be interesting to see if the tie-in toys can live up to the beauty of their animated counterparts.  I also watched the fabric work on the costumes with great interest.  Sadness' sweater has teensy weensy little fibers sticking off in all directions, so you know what she's wearing is soft, maybe cashmere.  And how great is THAT attention to detail?

Two distinct, but equally interesting worlds have been created in the film.  The inside of 11-year-old Riley's mind is filled with the Emotions, their control rooms, the labyrinthine memory centers, the dump where faded memories go, Imagination Land (complete with a Dream Productions studio), memories... Outside in the real world, the locations and people were so REAL.  I kept being surprised by how lifelike the human's looked and moved.  And they're just as interesting as the interior workings of her mind.  There was never a drag when the movie showed what was happening in Riley's life that made me wish they'd hurry up and get back to the real story.  Inside and Out worked together.

Because I'm working on an animatic, I tried to pay attention to how long each shot lasted, how much movement there was, but I couldn't keep it up.  I think the lesson is 3 seconds, no more, then move on.  I watched for chase scenes and I think that mine will need more movement and changes in camera angle before I'm done.

There were two children under 5 in the audience, and I wonder if they enjoyed the movie.  This may be the first kid's movie that should be handed out to pre-teens and teens.  Or to adults.  I CRIED and CRIED and CRIED, the whole way through.  It was an incredibly moving script.  Good for you, Pixar.  Let's see more animation that tackles hard topics.  

BDM126: Mad Mozart walk cycle, front, 18 June

Working from the "strut" reference guide I found yesterday, I've given Mad Mozart a walk with some personality.  It's choppy, though.  I think I need to go back in and add a new frame between the 7 frames I have now.  Then I should get smoother movement and I'll be able to speed him up without it looking like he's marching.

BDM126, Character Walk Cycles, 17 June

I've finished my basic animation assignments, hooray!  The folder is full and now I have only to finish up my lip syncing head.


walk cycle 1

walk cycle 2

And now that BMA142 Digital Media has ended, three classes early, I now have an extra 9 hours of computer time up my sleeve before my Principles of Animation Mad Mozart character walk cycles are due.  Vaughn says that I can use simple walks, so I may use these:

but that's the cowards way out!  I want a front, side and 3/4 walk for Mad Mozart that fits his personality.  The top walk reference made his body too long and thin, and really boring.  The front cycle is a very cartoony and boyishly aggressive.  I'm looking for an 18th century teenage boy walking in heeled shoes with some swagger and dandyishness.  I may have to get myself filmed acting it out.

BDM126: Side Walk and lifting, Principles of Animation, 17 June

Side walk cycle, woman.

Bunny and carrot lifting.  And dropping.

BDM126, Horse movement studies, 16 June

My sister and her niece have been learning to ride a horse.  I get treated to videos of sedate ladies being led around the paddock so these are by no means based on reality.  I like the movement I'm getting from the girl's upper body, but I think something is a little off... maybe she should be dumping up and down more?

BDM125: adding sound to an animatic

Free music is available on the Y drive in the Fresh Music Library or at freeplaymusic.com
Only music that has been prepaid or with written permission from the band/composer can be used.
any formats that won't take in storyboard pro can be changed.  don't change straight from y drive.  copy over to personal sound library.  the aiff format is generally used on Macs and not by PCS.  OPen the file up in Audition CC program (which can also slow, speed or otherwise manipulate sounds), then export it straight out as an MP3 file or wav file which should both work in ToonBoom.
Don't fiddle with sample type or format settings.  Those will be explained next semester.

Import sound files, set up where sound files are so they'll go to the same spot.  current sound track, first frame.  go to special sound folder in storyboard pro environment.

to make sound work, turn sound button on at top of toon boom screen (near play button)  in sound menu, hit sound scrubbing button so you can play with sound.

alt and left click creates keyframe on blue line, additional alt and left mouses? will create new keyframe points to bring sound up and down so voices aren't obscured.

make audio layers so music, dialogue, and foley/sound effects are on separate levels that can be manipulated.  import new things to new soundtrack layers.
cut into tracks by hovering at the begining to pull in and out. split at current frame makes two soundtracks and the one I don't want can then be deleted.

BDM126: Dogs and cats, 9 June

Cat and dog motion studies.  Have YOU ever seen a cat run for more than 5 seconds without stopping? Me, either.  Thanks to the magic of gifs, he will run FOREVER.

BDM126: Jumps, Lifts and lip sync, 3 June

In Principles of Animation, we've been on a marathon of movement.  Walk cycles, running, flying and now lifting weight, lip syncing and jumping.  I've been using my Mozart character and using the references Vaughn has provided.  Those movements AREN'T Mad Mozart, though.  He's wearing heeled shoes and should be walking a little more daintily than he does.  I will either have to find references on the internet that move the way I want him to or make something up myself.  I might even have to be filmed so I get it right.  

The Lip Syncing is going to take forever.  I know how to make a puppet lip sync- you hit every other syllable and emphasize the downbeat, basically.  I'm finding animating to be tougher.  Maybe if I had started AFTER adding the soundtrack?  I made all of the mouth movements and am now trying to space things out to fit the words.  It's really fiddly. I added in some blinks and now I'd like to move the jaw and shoulders slightly so the figure has some life to it.  

My Bunny and Carrot series continues.  It's more work to add a second character, but it gives me the opportunity to have characters interact with each other, which is fun.  It creates moments which could become a story someday.  

BDM125, BDM126, Animation Reviews, 17 May

I'm well behind on my animation reviews.  This week, 2D, stop motion and 3D shorts. 


Korgoth of Barbaria 2006
Directors: Aaron Springer, Genndy Tartakovsky, Production Companies: Cartoon Network Studios, William Street

If I liked Conan the Barbarian movies, I'd probably love this more.  As it is, Genndy Tartakovsky worked on the Powerpuff Girls, so this was definitely worth my time.  The jokes are funny and if I'm looking for a variety of ways to strip flesh off the human body, I'll be back.

 Moving On: A Stop-motion Music Video for ‘James’ Made with Yarn by Ainslie Henderson



This was very moving.  The death, or unraveling of the child in the bed and it's subsequent "rebirth" is really touching.  The full range of emotions were on display here without any facial expressions.  I loved the limited colour palette and the use of yarn to create the bodies and sets.  More than just a material, the yarn also acts symbolically to depict death through unraveling and connection through the cords that attach the characters to each other.

 5 Mètres 80: An Absurd Animation Depicting a Herd of Giraffes Leaping Off a High Dive by Nicolas Deveaux

This was gorgeous!  The complementary colours of burnt orange and browns against the aqua blues and greys of the swimming pool.  The line of giraffes patiently waiting for their turn to dive and their inventive acrobatics.  A 2D version of this would be an amusing fantasy, but making it 3D created a world where it could really happen and makes the idea of diving giraffes charming and exciting.

BDM126, Principles of Animation, Run cycles, 20 May

Super heroes, out for a nice jog.  Flash animation software.

BDM126 Principles of Animation: Character run, front and side, 19 May

BDM126 Flying animations, 13 May

Flying griffins.  some work has been done to add movement to the side view, but most movement is down to inconsistent pen strokes and positioning.

BDM126 Walking studies, 13 May

Walking studies: 3/4 Mozart and Carrot and Bunny, Front Mozart, side legs.  After saving in flash, export as movie, save as an animated gif and upload as a picture to blogger.

BDM126 flash animation practice, happy face bouncing ball, 29 April

BDM126 principles of animation the head turn

 as head turns to look at each finger, looking left first, head dips before middle of arc, then dips again before looking right.  and eyes blink.
5 frames to turn the head

BDM126, flash practice, bouncing ball, 29 April

BDM126, flash practice, flying front, 29 April