Second evening dedicated to the bouncing ball with multiple drops, waiting to be inherent rolling ... I looked and concern the WIP-1 trying to grasp all the things that were not working well ... flaws more obvious, in my opinion, were:
1 - Timing wrong: too fast at times and the speed is too uneven from one point to another.
2 - Trajectories wrong: some were too long or too short, others too "angular".
I started to correct the timing. But this time I could not work on paper, because the only way I've found to understand where and how to fix the animation was "in play", piece by piece, looking at her on screen I could say "ok ... here are 2 more frames ...
The trajectories have been a lot of changes: among other things, as they make the speed less discontinuous, even the various trajectories had to be heavily adjusted. the end I completely redesigned the part of the inclined plane on, in addition to correcting the first bounce and the second great fall. Basically it is almost nothing left of the previous version!
:-) So here is the result of the work today
are more satisfied with the outcome this time, but I'm sure that watching it again and again something pops up that needs a touch up. As always, I ask anyone who wants pleasure and an opinion in order to adjust more and more shooting! ;-)
I went back to ' animation! :-) At this point I decided to start working on rolling the ball, putting up a scene slightly more complex .
The ball starts to move up one level and then falls a few times: I originally designed the usual diagram on paper already there trying to decide timing and spacing.
I met immediately 2 problems, I carry forward from the start:
1 - Decide on the timing : does not seem conceptually difficult (boing. .. .. boing ... boing boing, boing, boingboing: -)) but imagine the real time, or at least credible, it is more complicated than I thought.
2 - Divide decent space at the points where the ball rolls accelerating or decelerating (eg top) decided that it takes 20 frames to reach the edge of the table, mark the intermediate effect giving a smooth and pleasant easing out is not immediate: sometimes they move away too much and I have only space for the last ... sometimes I keep them too close to the top and then added with the number 19 too far ... In short, there is a general rule that helps in this case?
After a while 'I put together the first draft of the animation, which you can see below: there is no slowdown in the final round and appear where you see the red X not move me at all.
The problem I faced on the timing already on paper, here we have grown stronger ... I realized (and it is not the first time) that I tend to speed up time ... seeing the ball in motion I understand it takes a lot longer than planned because the movement looks natural. inbetweens fact I had to add here and there. There is still
lot of work to do on this animation, when the falls it seems okay to add a line pass "diameter" to perceive the ball rolling ...
Another evening spent away (so far!) From the monitor and not dedicated to animation in the strict sense ... through the book "Rough Justice " or collection of pencil sketches of Alex Ross (American illustrator mainly dedicated to the DC superheroes), I felt like a copy.
(maybe this was my ... in fact years ago I played with watercolors and now hangs in the room ... maybe one day I'll show it!)
However, while choosing which among the many, I thought I'd use it as a basis to begin to study a bit 'our body structure I have always admired the paintings (because it is simplistic to call them vignettes) by Alex Ross ... is one of my absolute favorite designers, I love the sense of realism and puissance of his characters ... In my library are honored place in several of her graphic novels (including a fantastic edition of absolute American Kingdom Come) and the two volumes dedicated to him (Rough Justice memo and Mythology).
I do not think the designer best suited to be copied to play exaggerated poses, dynamic ... I've always found it very statuesque ... but anatomically flawless (even with reasonable increases muscle typical superhero!). This is why I chose his design for a poster of Flash I copied and not trying to match the design, costume, expression, etc. ... but rather using it as a basis for understanding where and how they are placed form joints and muscles. All using " Atlas of Human Anatomy for the artist " as a guide for the shape of the muscles.
Without claiming to have fallen into too much detail or to have made a great drawing, this is the fruit of my work ...
As always criticism and suggestions are welcome :-) soon!
persevering in my idea of \u200b\u200b start with the basics, I'm trying strutturami a path of effective learning ... a program of my self-being in order not to make the classic mistake: to get caught by the enthusiasm and jumping too quickly to the more complex aspects of the animation. comparing the various books, various online courses (including Animation Mentor) and blogs scattered all over the web, I thought of a lineup of topics and exercises, at least for this initial phase.
I think the entire course is divided into three areas that I can pursue simultaneously, depending on the mood and desires of the moment: some "theoretical" general knowledge on the subject (including pure and simple personal interest and curiosity), a part of free-hand drawing (also useful for those who do 3D, I learned at my expense doing modeling ...) and the proportion of actual animation. Maybe I'm exaggerating ... maybe I'm giving this a too strict or pompous ... but I think it's worth a try!
So here is "tried and tested" program Path Animation! :-)
THEORY
- animation History: Through readings, videos, DVD ... to learn more about the greats of the past, what they did and why even today many things are done a certain way - TTT (Technical and traditional terminology) :-): Although my personal taste directs me to the animation 3D, I think it's useful to know the traditional systems, procedures, techniques ...
DESIGN
- "Pure" (I do not know what to call it) copy ... copy ... invent ... unlock your hand, remove the rust, dissolve the tract ... - Anatomy : deepening the anatomy ... I never attended art school where I was seriously taught. I do not want to become a teacher, but at least the basics to understand especially as we are divided and how do we move. - Expressive : copy (drawings, photos or live) poses or expressions of interest, try to exaggerate them as if I were to play them in animated cartoons.
ANIMATION (in that order)
- Timing & Spacing: ("It's in the aaaaaal tiiiminnng .... aaaand innn the spaaaaciinnnng!") - Bouncing balls : single, different weights, rolling - Bouncing ball "live" (I do not know how else to call it): exercises on anticipation, squash & stretch. First attempts to give the ball movement and a life of its own, not only then falls by gravity. - Archi : to reproduce natural movement exercises, banked curves. - Overlapping actions: first steps ... add a tail to the ball and move it in a meaningful way.
For the animation will continue to Flipbook exercises in order to understand the principles, but gradually begin to bring it in 3dsmax or Maya 3D (in this regard, if you know some nice rig you're welcome! I'd rather use something ready and tested rather than trying to do something I ... also because the rigging is an area that I find rather confusing and not very pleasing)
I am well aware of the fact that I'm embarking on something crazy maybe ... but no matter: as I said earlier, is worth a try ... and do things right!
I leave you with a video taken from "The Jungle Book": I love the dialogue between Kaa and Shere Khan! :-) the next!
Nic01A RenderGlobal pointed out to me by some and spacing problem in the general form of trajectory of the ball lightly. So this evening I saw a little 'and everything changed several things: 1
- I changed the spacing of the first fall, especially in the final frames
2 - I gave a parabolic trajectory to the ball, this forced me to reconsider the spacing in different parts (mainly frame around the top of each dish) and move, albeit slightly, the point of impact with the ground in a couple of points.
3 - I deleted a sharp acceleration in the initial movement of the heavy ball, when it is still on the floor above. Now it should be more gradual.
4 - I edited the slowdown and stop the ball heavy.
Hence the new version!
Comments welcome! :-)
Now I will complete my evening devoted a bit 'to read the Survival Kit ..
PS I'm waiting for a week "Character Animation Crash Course" ... but not yet shipped ... PRESTOOOOOoooooo FATE! :-)
After a weekend of relaxation, I went back to work at a good pace ... My program for today's exercise was groped last two bouncing balls of different weights: a soft and "bounce" (as the one already made to No. 3) and another very heavy. I thought I'd include them in the same scene rather than on two different floors. Also instead of adding the heavy of light within the soul already made, I redesigned the whole scene over again to be forced to rethink everything from scratch. I studied animation on paper, mark the numbers of frames and a maximum spacing. During production, I realized I was making some mistakes on paper, in particular they reported the first fall too fast. In the picture above the frame numbers are already corrected several times ... initially, the first fall lasted less than 2 frames (the light ball touched the ground and then at No. 16), but it was too abrupt acceleration compared to 10 frames needed to take the small plane to the edge. Indeed in the previous version did touch the ground to 8 frames ... so in this case the number 18 was reasonable from the beginning ... Here is the result of these 2 hours of work ...
I have encountered many difficulties in animating both the rolling balls and they slowed to a halt: I find it very difficult to decide the spacing of a long movement like that. Clearly it is not just a "easing in" to the frame stop, but many frames with slightly different (and more subtle!) NPOC give me no problems. fact are not very happy with the result: I wanted to roll it longer and slow down much more slowly. I'll probably lose his hand ... criticisms and suggestions are welcome of course: I'd like to finish these basics first groped for something more elaborate. As I said at the beginning, I do not want to walk longer leg ...
Oggi niente "compiti" svolti... penso di rimettermi all'opera domani. Tuttavia volevo condividere con voi un mio pensiero. Mi è capitato alcune volte di guardare le e-critique dei video vincitori del contest mesile di 11secondclub.com... e proprio l'altro giorno, in pausa pranzo, ho visto quella al vincitore di ottobre 2010 . Trovo sorprendente la capacità dei mentor e in generale dei professionisti di cogliere i più piccoli particolari di un'animazione che al mio occhio inesperto appare essere eccellente. E' ovvio che una simile capacità è frutto di competenza, esperienza, "allenamento visivo" e quant'altro... tuttavia mi sorprende sempre.
Ad esempio, rightly refers to the video in October, I did not notice the intermingling of the arm with his mouth ... yet it is something rather striking ... or the light in a specific step in the right frame of the elbow ... or even the fact that the hand and say do not move his arm while pushing the chair ... In short, all those fine touches that make the complete animation, clean and credible. Those videos are gold mines! Clearly animations are critical to a level greatly superior to mine and then I have something else to look after! But ... but they are terribly interesting ... bring to your attention the very distinctive features that probably would go unnoticed really. I think they a good way to learn to look to the smallest detail, to train with extreme care in what you do and produce something truly elegant. I strongly recommend to look a bit '... In any case I'd better go back to work on my bouncing ball ... I do it to go before they get to do me an e-critique! :-)
Suppressing the temptation to try bouncing the ball of different weights, I thought I'd correct than yesterday, because as I have said does not convince me ... I have corrected the first run, changing the spacing of the first seven frames, and all part of the frame 24 on, trying to eliminate acceleration. Queued I added 10 frames to create a slowdown and a more natural sleep. I hope it's more enjoyable! :-)
I have also taken a pen and paper ... I was never a great artist but all in all a good thing every now and then I can combine ... So tonight I tried a few pictures on the internet and I tried to sketch some poses (I have done some nice drawings, I did not even try ... in fact I wanted more to rebuild the installation as if I were to play it).
I'll see to put his hand in training and maybe even somes design a bit 'better later! :-)
the next!
PS Dropbox is giving problems ... so I changed the link to mov by pointing their server to another ... I hope everything risistemerò Palace ... when the situation will return to stable
:-) I loved the movement along the X and then doing the most classic of animation ...
I'm back sketched out the sequence on paper to decide how many frames to put where.
I tried to apply the suggestion of R. Williams, or to "stretch" the ball only to squash the previous frame and give her the contact with the ground already, so as to enhance the moment.
Here is the result ...
(Edit: thanks to Magma Dropbox ... I did not know!)
already known some of my things:
1 - I Like the very first fall : I added a frame over the paper pattern to make it smoother, but still does not convince me
2 - to frame 24 and still at 28 frames a well-known 'acceleration
I also doubt has arisen concerning the charts ... I will try to explain it ...
The classic bouncing ball accelerates as it falls, stretch it slightly, then is crushed when it touches the ground.
That is to say, I expect a chart like this:
But in the version of the frame Williams 6 and 7 are much shorter, because the ball touches the ground already in the frame 6 ... then the chart would be like?!? Type this ...?!?
But it suggests to me that the ball slows the end ... which is wrong ... Something I do not go back ...
In the past I have some funny animated "balls" in 3D ... and probably the end result was even better than this ... But one thing is timing and spacing in a regular software, adjusting curves, few moving keyframe ... and one thing to make everything by hand, as it once was. I focused on the example Animator's Survival Kit Good Dick Williams and I tried to pull down a short loop with a few basic frames. Although it is not something I'm used to, I scored a simple (and I do not know if you understand!) Chart ...
writing it I was really surprised at how complicated the bouncing ball animation is probably the most stupid that there is, but imagine where and when to draw without being able to help with an editor, a graph of speeds. .. I found it far from simple. In any case you can find below frame of the 12 sweaty ... :-)
(edit: I uploaded the. Mov on the advice of Monte Cristo ... I hope functions, and moved the hosting with Magma :-))
Hello! It 's a bit strange knowing that healthy at this time no one is reading this blog ... Indeed, no one is aware of its existence! But let us go further and explain what's going on here ...
Gertie ... the beginning of the animation ... as me!
This is a blog about the animation ... but is neither a place to find useful resources, nor a place to receive advice ... for the simple reason that there are quite capable of giving!
handyman job as a graphic designer in the gaming industry ... the company I founded with my partners pull out, the work I like and sometimes even gives me the satisfaction! model, design, interface design, video editing, mind ... Yeah, mind ... and work of the animator is a something that fascinates me ... "Give life" to something I find much more satisfying than making a beautiful illustration or shape a fantastic character. Take a "puppet" still, let it move, give it character ... it be nice or unpleasant, happy or sad, light or heavy ... in short, make it look just a little 'live and give him the chance to tell his story, was also a gag from 10 seconds ... I find it amazing. be why I did not lose an animated film, which are the only DVD that I buy ...
I would love to "be good" ... improve, without claiming to be whomever or end up working in some big studio ... but it is hard ... time is short, the opportunity to attend a school like the famous Animation Mentor is ridiculous ... But I have a nice bit 'of material, paper and ... and on the Internet there are many resources and many capable people. This is why this blog ... is my personal school of animation: I will try to give me a method, read, test, study, learn ... trying to carve out enough time to do so. Surely not reach the level of those who really attends or has attended a school seriously, but for me it may be sufficient. will post the drawings, text, video ... all that might seem useful ... listen criticisms, opinions, suggestions, corrections from those who want to follow me.
If patience and determination not leave me, could be the right time ... to finally see tangible progress.
Follow me then, if you like, along the path of the animation ... mail me if you like, forgive me if now and then, after a day at the computer, it can happen that do not make me live! :-)
