Project 2_Tillman

Project 2

October 6

To begin the project, I made a list of ideas that would interest me. I wanted to base my animations off works created by Glean Keane and Willian Salazar. The main elements I will focus on in my animation are character movement and emotion. I want to use traditional hand-drawn techniques using stop-motion. 

October 8

I created a rough storyboard of a concept where characters are seen at the beach. I most likely will not continue with this idea since these scenes aren't reflective of what I want to accomplish in the project. However, they were a good start.

October 11-13

I made a rough character design for my current idea. In this concept, I want to combine both 2D and 3D animation. Primarily, I want to animate a cartoonish cat who reacts to his surroundings. There will be a slight story but it mostly involves the character's movement. 

Mainly, I want the animation to be very expressive and focus on the fluidity of lines to create motion. I want this project to be similar to Disney's "Lorenzo" or DreamWorks "Bird Karma."

Inspirations 

Disney's Lorenzo

Dreamwork's Bird Karma

October 18-20

I transferred the first part of a new storyboard to an online format. The plan for the  beginning is to create the scene and characters using stop-motion. I'm going to use props from home and clay for the figures.

October 22-24

I created a base puppet for my animation. The character looks a little different than the concept art but I I was mostly successful in creating a stylistic character. It was very different from molding a realistic cat (something I have practice with from ceramics). I started by making the base model.

Then, added the eyes and other colors. The figure is difficult to move and the head of the cat tears off easily. I will have to make a second puppet using wire for my next "standing" model of this character.

I do think I like the figure a little less after adding the eyes and mouth. Maybe if I include other objects (like whiskers) it'll look slightly more finished. I also believe it needs more objects like stripes to offset how much orange appears on it. 

November 1

I completed Part 1 of the storyboard.

This is the first 20 scenes of the storyboard which includes my first submission. The later half will be completed by Wednesday and over the weekend. That way, I can begin animating the work with a solid understanding of how to continue. 

November 3

I completed the remainder of my storyboard on sketchbook paper since I had a few computer issues. Though I want to transfer the scenes to Clip Studio and give them more depth, doing so would take away from animating time. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the movement and expressions of the characters in these scenes. I feel like a little more could have been done but that might be due to my limited experience with storyboards. 

Each frame corresponds to about a second in real time. The animation should be around 60-65 seconds when completed. This is the most "in-detail" storyboard I created. They are still mostly rough sketches (in which some frames don't even look like the cat) but will be a useful start for the final draft.

November 8

I completed a rough video of my storyboard that has the timing of my frames. 

The link is found here: Animation II - Project II Storyboard

November 10

I created another standing model of my cat character. I also made a three-dimensional ball of yarn that would be moved as well. The walking cycle was difficult for this character. I used paperclips to make the frame for the legs and body. While they worked somewhat well, they were hard to move in a realistic way without ruining the frame and clay. 

Below are the main props I used for the stop-motion portion of the animation. I would move the lighting around the set to give the impression that the ball and character were moving in different directions. 

I made some interesting set ups at home to help create the animation. I regretted not borrowing some of the tripods in class to help make smoother scene transitions. Basically, I rigged up my phone to several objects using tape and other tools. I also found the music I'd like to use in the video and edited it to fit the length of the project

November 15

I completed most of the filming for the stop-motion portion of the animation. Unfortunately, I left some of the tools I used in the frames are visible for short periods of time... but this is my first ever attempt at stop motion so I suppose mistakes like these are inevitable. I would like to reanimate the scenes but it would take too much time to recreate. My shadow is also visibly moving in some frames as well. 

November 22

The final piece is complete and submitted to YouTube. In total, it took about 400 pictures and 650 individual drawings. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this animation turned out. The link is found here: Animation II - Project II