Friday 21 December 2012

Drawing the Animation - things to bare in mind.

First of all I want to make sure I will get the proportions of the characters right compared to the backgrounds. So it would be a good idea to use the background design I made earlier as a guide line to I can map out how high Nigel will get when he stands up straight to walk out of the room. I need to map out how far he will lean forward when he is standing up as well as if I make him lean forward too much then it will look as if Nigel will be leaning forward and then fall over. I also want to make sure as much as I can that Nigel will be walking in a straight line across the page because if he travels towards and away from the camera too much it may look as if he is under the influence of alcohol or he is walking wide legged.

It may also be a good idea to actually animate the characters on top of the background, as we all with the guidelines as this will also make sure that I do not morph the characters. Also having the guide line for the walk cycle means that I can get a good indicator of whether I am making the head bob enough to make the walk look realistic.


Saturday 8 December 2012

Story boarding.


Story Boarding:

I have decided that my character walk cycle will probably be around 20 seconds long. So at a 25fsp rate I will need to aim for 500 frames. I have started sorting out the story board idea, and I have been trying to imagine it and act it in my head so I get a realistic time frame, as when I did the last walk cycle, the timing was off and the same with the speaking task, the characters eyes were all over the place.

I have decided it would be a good idea to do two storyboards, one for the man, and one for the cat, as both characters will be of equal importance in the animation. I will start by writing out the cat’s story and break it down into seconds. :

Insert story board below:

I am really looking forward to start to animate the cat because I love hand drawing animal movement; it’s probably harder to capture then a human. You have to get into the frame of mind of a cat to try and get something realistic. I will have to start looking at the way that cats move their legs and how their shoulder blades move in comparison to their torso.

Also it was asked that we introduce the technique we learnt when we were doing the flag cycle, I was thinking I could easily to that with the cats tail as any cat waves its tail in a rather elegant way.

After deliberation, I have decided that I was making too much work for myself with the short amount of time we have to create the animation. I have decided instead I am going to animate the cat staring up at its owner (Nigel).

The cat will:
·      Stare up at owner for 2 seconds (50 frames)
·      Meow and looks up at owner 3 seconds (75 frames)
·      Sits staring at owner for 4 seconds. (100 frames)
·      Meow’s again for 2 seconds (50 frames)
·      Looks up at owner for 3 seconds (75 frames)
·      Meow’s really loud and starts needing the floor with paws for 5 seconds (125 frames)
·      Stares at owner and turns around with sticks its bottom in the air towards the audience for the rest of the film – almost in a sulk. 






Tuesday 4 December 2012

Designing Character Walk Cycle


We were given on a sheet a description of different character and a reason for their action. From this information we have to develop Character Design sheets for our model and the setting. This means designing a character that fits the description and designing a setting for the character. The setting needs to have a chair and a door in it.

The animation takes place in one setting and we have to have a fixed viewpoint (theatrical staging).
1.     A character is sitting on a chair.
2.     The character stands up.
3.     The character walks towards a door in the room and goes out.

The first thing i need to do is choose one story line from the 7 we were given:

  1.      A six year old girl going out to play with her friends.
  2.      An old man going to buy his cat some food.
  3.      A laid back man going out to the pub.
  4.      A girl going out on a date
  5.      A sulky teenager leaving after a row with parents.
  6.      A woman suddenly remembering an important appointment
  7.      A boy reluctantly leaving his computer game to go to bed.
i decided i would go for one which would challenge me, something that i cant personally relate to. So i scrapped all of the female story lines, and i went for a male story line. I have decided to go for the old man going to by his cat some food. I think out of all of them it is probably harder to animate an old male walking, especially if he is holding a walking stick and is hunched over. But now i know what story i am doing i will brain storm about my character. Who is he? Nigel, 76 year old, retired man. What is he like? Nigel is a happy go lucky man, relatively healthy, although he it getting a little slower with age. Who does he live with? He lives with his wife Miriam. They own a male black cat called Bailey - whom he loves dearly but doesn't like to show it. Now i have built up a vague picture of my character i'm going to start some character designs to see which ones i like best. I feel like Nigel would have a round face, a moustache and glasses. But i would also like to try more rectangular faces with strong jaw lines, but i think it would turn the Nigel from looking happy and approachable with a circle face, to a more grumpy, less friendly square or rectangular face.

Now i know how i want to draw Nigel, i need to work out what clothes i want him to wear cause it really affects the way you perceive a character. It would also be interesting to play around with sizing too, making Nigel slim or large etc, this again could affect the way that they audience look at Nigel. Also it may be harder to animate a larger person, or a chap with a large round belly as there is more of a chance that i would distort Nigel and not make him consistent, which has been my problem through out the last couple of tasks. So i think i will make my character of a slender build but one that still had a bit of meat on it.



Above are examples of different designs i made for Nigel, i was not sure how to dress him, i didn't want to make him to look as if he dresses too old as he will be in good shape and in good health. This means that it will be easier to me to animate him walking. I decided to go for the one second from the left, i like the design more, i think its smart and more longer then the rest of the designs. I think it would be easier to animate maybe. However, i would not draw all the lines on the chord trousers - it isn't work the hassle - especially with the amount of time i have.

Above are some brain storms of what i would like to include in the design of Nigel's room.. although i said in the scan above that Nigel is 67 years old, i think i may change it to 80 years old. I think in all fairness that my character looks older then a 67 year old man, and i am sure that now a days 67 year olds look much younger then they would have 100 years ago. It was really important for me to get into the frame of mind to of Nigel's so i could get a feel for what i would want in my room, i also used my grandparents house for inspiration - they have a coal burning fire, photo frames, paintings, arm chairs, and a bit long rug in the middle of the room. I wanted the room to be homely, comfy but also plain as i don't know many elder people who enjoy extravagant decor in their homes.


Above it the mock design of what i can the scene to be for my character walk cycle. The reason why the cat's ben is un-finished it because i a going to animate the cat on top. One thing i think i will have to change is the height of the door. Compared to the chair, and the rest of the room i think it is too large, so i think i will probably drop that down by 1cm.

Monday 3 December 2012

Flag Cycle.

The flag cycle is only a small project, we have a week to do it but really it should only take a day to do the drawings. I think it should be quite a simple task. I actually am not writing this comment after i completed the project - the cycle isn't as good as i hoped and will be doing it again over christmas to get a smoother movement.

First Flag Cycle - INSERT HERE.

After i did my first flag cycle i i decided that i needed to look into it more and research it properly before i started my second series. I didnt fully understand that you have to move the arches along slightly every time and change the length of the flag to make it look realistic. Here are some images i found off of the interenet that have helped me to understand how to draw a flag cycle fully.

Now i have researched into making a flag cycle in more detail, i will definitely be doing it again over christmas as i am really not happy with the outcome i had. If you look at the image above there is a a wave cycle at the end of the flag, its demonstrated quite nicely in the sketches above. I feel really confident to jump back into my flag cycle.

I have made and finished my flag cycle and i am really pleased with it!! The link is below

FLAG CYCLE

Thursday 29 November 2012

Importing the drawings onto Dragon.

I had quite a few problems with importing onto Dragon Software. When i was drawing the frames, (i did not realise at the time) but i drew the frames over two separate occasions, and when i drew the first 16 frames i actually drew the figure walking backwards. It looked like it was doing the moon walk - and that was not the project brief. I exported it anyway to show my mistake and then re-took the frames onto final cut pro with the walk cycle going the correct way.

step back, step forward.

My final walk cycle - i need to loop it in Final Cut Pro, but it is something i will do over christmas when i have more time.

Final Walk Cycle - not looped

Walk Cycle.

Our next task is to create a walk cycle, where a character with simple design walks on the spot, almost like it is on a treadmill. I am nervous about the task as i have never done a walk cycle before but i have animated animals moving. I decided that instead of diving into it i would get a couple of books out of the library as i don't want to jump into the exercise and get it completely wrong.

LIST BOOKS.

The books i got out were extremely helpful, they explain in words and with images how to make walk cycle animations along with all the principles. I want to make sure that i fully understand how to draw the separate frames, i don't want to start drawing it and not have researched into it properly. I have been looking on Youtube as people walking, there is a particular film which really helped, its a really slow walk cycle so its easier for me to see all of the angles that they arms and legs meet when a person is walking.

Slow Female Walk Cycle - www.youtube.com

I found this one really helpful, the grids on the screen show just how much the body bobs up and down when you walk, it demonstrates how you are not at a constant height when you are walking, also its really interesting to see (in this particular clip) that the arms do not move quickly, or even far. I guess if i animated someone with quick swinging arms it would make the character look as if they were in a rush,  or even speed walking if the legs were moving quickly as well (it would probably look really naff). If i was to animate fast arms and legs it would not look like the character was running because when you run, both of your feet are off the floor at the same time on certain points, where as when you are walking, you always have one foot on the floor, so it would look like i had made a walk cycle and pressed fastforward  on the player.

In the brief, we were told to create a basic figure, the task was not to create a character walk cycle, it was so create a walk cycle, so i decided that i would go for a basic human frame, nothing too complicated, but not as simple as a stick man. The walk cycle has to walk on place, it can not move across the screen.


*Why animate in place? There is one main advantage:
You only have to draw a single stepping cycle, then you can reposition it across the screen, saving time and paper.
The main disadvantages of animating in place:
1.It can be confusing.2.The "arcs" on the character can look weird when the character is moved across the screen.3.It can be difficult to match the character properly to the background, if he has to register to something on it. * http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml



I wanted to add the circles on the character where the main joint are to act as anchor points would do on After Effects. There are the main points that the limps will move most dramatically. Obviously, they will move from the shoulders and hips, but the movements will be much more subtle and perhaps smoother then they would be at  the joints. Also from the film i linked to this post above helps to demonstrate the movement. The hip moves, the top of the leg moves, and then the bottom of the leg extends, and then the heel goes down first. It also helped me break down the basic main movements for my walk cycle. I worked it all out in my book but my scanner is currently broken, so i found a image that demonstrates the main sequence of a walk cycle.

























After designing the movements in my book i did a similar thing to the image above by adding striped to the legs and arms that are at the back of the animation, so in this image above, the characters left leg and left arm are striped to add depth.

Thursday 15 November 2012

Importing onto Dragon Software and Exporting

I had a few minor problems when capturing my images on dragon software e.g. light bulbs blew, computers overheated, the lighting we blue and other problems which are easily solved. I managed to get the frames onto dragon and exported it to a quick time movie with all the normal settings.

However, when i played back the film i was not happy with the outcome. I have over animated the eyes to an extent that the character is looking around the room constantly, the eyes look like a yo-yo constantly looking around squinting, blinking, frowning. I made the rocky error of not going back to my notes and looking at how i designed the characters movements and where. The most frustrating thing is that i had done the work, I just got so into the drawing i forgot to refer back to my notes.

Here is the original animation:

Lip Synch - no sound. Origional.


Due to the frantic movement of the eyes, i really could to have it as my final project so i decided that i would use After effects to make some masks and slow down the eyes to try and improve the animation. However after doing that the eyes did not then have a strong relationship with what the character was saying so again it looks disjointed. Here is the basic masked animation:

IMPORT MASKED FILM FROM VIMEO.

Again, it needs tidying up and due to the weak relation between the eye expression and the rest of the animation i will need to draw the eyes again as i am really not happy with it. Also i think i will make the eyes slightly mobile across the face as the eyes stay at a fixed point for the whole animation. After speaking to my lecturer we decided that i should tidy up the animation with the masks (which i will upload at a later date) and then re draw the eyes in the Christmas break so i do not get behind on the walk cycle.


Mouth Movements

I forgot to make a post about the mouth movements that i worked out for the lip synch. I haven't don't a lip synch animation before so i feel a bit of pressure to get it done right. I have borrowed some books out of the library to make me feel a little more confident about the task. I read online that one of the ways to get accurate mouth movements is to look at yourself in the mirror and word out each letter of the alphabet and draw the mouth shapes at the widest point of each pronunciation. Once i had done this i could ban the letters into groups. I spent a good while doing this, all of my sketches are below to demonstrate how I worked it all out.


The Groups:

A and I
E
U
O
C, D, G, K, N, R, S, Y, Z
F and V
L and Th
M, B, P
W, Q
H, J, T, X.

UPLOAD IMAGES OF MOUTH MOVEMENTS


Once i worked out all of the mouth shapes for each letter and sound i decided to work out the main mouth movements for the speech. I want to be organised so i can see how the mouth moves should look, once i have done that i can manipulate the drawings to fit in with the doping sheet. So even though the word 'That's' is 5 letters long, it takes up 7 frames on the doping sheet.

1xTh  +  2xA  +  2xT  +  2xS  =  7 frames.








Lip Synch - Drawing Frames

I have started drawing the frames for the Lip Synch project. It been very quick to begin with as the first 20 frames do not have any speech to it will just be my character looking around the room.

The speech of the clip is:
"That's it, I've had enough. If it meant my film career was over, I didn't care. The bullying had to stop."

Frame 1-20 = BLANK

Frame 21-30 = That's It.

Frame 31-40 = BLANK

Frame 41-52 = I've had enough

Frame 53-67 = BLANK

Frame 68-104 = If it meant my film career was over

Frame 105-115= BLANK

Frame 116-134=I didn't care

Frame 135-145 = BLANK

Frame 146-157 = The bullying

Frame 158- 161= BLANK

Frame 162-176= Had to stop

Frame 177-200= BLANK.

Unfortunately... annoyingly, since looking back through the frames there is a big change from the design of the character from frame 1 to frame 20. I can demonstrate the change by scanning in frame 1 and frame 22.





Ideally, if i had time i would go back and change the first 20 frames to make the design consistent the whole of the duration. However, due to the tight time frame it will have to wait until i have finished and completed the animation. Only then will i go back and redraw the beginning drawings. Now i have been drawing the character for a while i have got into a routine and have got a feel for the character and therefore the character design is not changing too much. This could mean that i did not develop my design enough and i should have spent more time changing and tweaking the design.  

Designing for Lip Synch

After working out the doping sheet i decided that it would be a good idea to design the character. I have listened to the audio many times now and have build an image of the character in my head. For me the character needs to include:

  1. Female
  2. Age = 40-60
  3. Hair = curly bob, short cropped curly hair
  4. Slim, not well built.
  5. Pursed lips
  6. Large eyes.
The list above are aspects  that are important for me for the design of my character as i imagine this features to go with the voice. obviously everyone has different ideas, so everyones will be completely individual, but this is how i feel the character should look.


lip sync project 23/10/12

We have been set a lip synch exercise. We have been given a piece of audio and we have to animate a character speaking to. The audio clip is 8 seconds long and playing at 25 frames a second means that i will have to complete 200 frames. The first thing i decided to do was to complete a dope sheet. A dope sheet allows me to play through the audio, and work out which frames include the speach and work out the sounds that are on each frame.

The image on the right shows is a photo copy of the dope sheet that i was given in class. After researching into it i found out what all of the columns meant.

      1. SC. = scene number. On a series you would want far more information such as production title,                         episode  number, sequence number and so on.
2.       FTG. = footage, or total length. 
3.       SOUND  the breakdown of the soundtrack will be written here for lip-sync.
4.       ACTION  can be used to indicate key events in the scene, e.g. “balloon bursts”
5.       frm. = frame number. Some productions may well use timecode as well to place the scene’s position within a production precisely.
6.       the separate levels of animation; usually the column to the extreme right will contain the background
7.       CAMERA  this is the column in which opticals and moves are indicated
8.       SHEET this is of course the page number. When there is more than one sheet in a scene, I recommend indicating the number thus: 1/3 – this would mean that this is page 1 of a total of 3, (so the last sheet would be marked 3/3).

There are parts in the audio where there isnt any speech, on these parts you are either meant to cross the box with a wide cross however some animators prefer to write 'BLNK'. I went through the whole audio and worked out all the stuff on the doping sheet. 

IMAGE OF DOPING SHEET

Sunday 21 October 2012

Analysed Script.

This is how i changed and amended the script to try and give it more life then just some words on a page. I changed some of the vocabulary and some of the spacing and pauses to make it feel more natural, and it was easier to read this way.

The ending is a little naff but we thought that our script lacked anything interesting so we thought we would add a odd twist at the end. Although it would have sounded more professional if we said something like a 'heart attach' but it's a fun task so we just had a play.

Friday 19 October 2012

Acting in Animation 16/10/12

During the afternoon, the whole class were told that we were going to be concentrating on Voice overs for animation, which i was really excited about. You can create the most amazing character animation wise, and create a really intriguing personality but if the voice over isn't great it can really take away from all of the hard work that the animators have put in.

For me, to be a good voice over you need to be diverse with a range of accents, noises, and animal impressions, you need to be able to think on your feet, whilst also conveying intense emotions with out actually being on camera. Also its also helpful to be able to improvise, some scripts may not feel right or read right, so you need to be able to change things to the character you are playing. I imagine that most voice over actors would have to be interesting individuals as you are limited to your knowledge and imagination. I see voice overs as the most purest form of acting as you have to perform with everything inside.

We were given scripts that we had to do voice overs for. I have to say, the script wasn't particularly interesting, we broke it down to be two young adults talking about certain individuals who owned particular Theatre's. It was a bit of a who is who game, with a little added comic frustration as the two characters couldn't agree. We practiced the script a couple many times so we could get to grips with the fluidity of the script and the way that the script should be performed. It was really interesting to see how the script changed every time we rehearsed it, we laughed in different places, used different pitches at different parts to make it sound as natural as possible. At certain parts we actually interrupt each other when the two characters are disagreeing, and we also improvise as some of the wording didn't feel right.

My colleague has the sound on her phone so i cant put it on here yet, but when i do i will upload if and then upload the edited version. I will also upload the analysed version of the script so show how i broke it all down.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Stagger test.

Last tuesday we were given a task to create a stagger sequence. A stagger sequence is a series of animation drawings and instead of importing them in order, you import them in stagger so for instance the way i shot the frames were 1,3,2,4,3,5,4,6,5,7,6,8,7,9,8,10,9 etc. It took me a while to get the hang of the sequence but after a while i got it.

We were given a sheet of paper explaining what we had to do and some examples of good staggering topics like a man pulling on a rope or trying to lift a heavy object. Staggering frames creates the illusion of restraint or force against a character or a object, it makes it look like the animation had some weight and ultimately makes it look more real. Ron stated that we could do any of the examples on the street or something that we would like to do as long as we checked with Ron first. I thought that maybe a good idea would be to do a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. obviously the staggers only last a short period of time and a butterfly emerging from a cocoon takes weeks, but you can imagine it is on a quick play back - the technical word has left my head but i have seen many nature documentaries where they film over twenty four hours or weeks and they then fasten up the footage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIAGRAM OF TIMING.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I must admit whilst drawing the frames, i was become less and less confident with how it would turn up. the cocoon changing colour would work and also the butterfly wiggling out of the cocoon, but i am not too sure about flight. When i finished the drawings i put them onto dragon at a frame rate of 25fps. I kept playing it back to try and get a vague idea of how it would play. I don't like it at all. I do not mind it at the beginning as the cocoon changed but i think its too staggered for such a delicate movement. At least now i have learnt that if you are going to stagger anything it needs to be a dynamic movement and also quite a fast movement.


I decided to do a version of the animation with no stagger just to see if the actual animation would be smooth and just to see if i am on the right tracks.


Purely out of frustration if i have time over the weekend i will make another short stagger animation as this one did not work to its full potential.

Friday 12 October 2012

Morphing 9/10/12

In our third animation Principles class we were split into two groups. group one we with Ron and group two with Andy. I was with Ron all day. We were concentrating on stagger animations which i will explain in another post. In this post i will write about the morphing task.

Group one were told we had to draw a random drawing, nothing too complicated, something that can easily be replicated and easy to animate. Once we had designed out drawing, we had to made a duplicate copy. Once the whole class had two drawings of their own we gave them to Ron, who then mixed them out and handed everyone out two random drawings. We were then told that we had to do a small animation of the drawings morphing into each other, they only have to be 17 frames long - but for the purpose of my blog i have captured the 17 frames and then carried on with the reverse order to create something longer.

Here is a link to my first draft on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/51283310

I want to add maybe 2 more frames of the dog so it is visible for slightly longer on the screen. I will also use Final Cut Pro to add more of copy the sequence and add it to the end to make it seem longer, just so it loops. Otherwise i am actually quite pleased with the result after i initially was a little baffled with how to tackle it. The fluidity of the animation is pretty smooth.

It will be really interesting to see how everyone had animated their given drawings, and especially when it is put into a long animation.

https://vimeo.com/51284701

Sunday 7 October 2012

Working out for ball bounce

This is a diagram that demonstrated the amount of frames i took of each individual drawing. I decided that it would be a lot of trial, play back and delete or add when necessary. Only until i had captured and couple play back the sequence from the moment the ball hit the floor for the second time could i really tell the difference between the first ball bounce i made. This ball bounce has a much heavier feel then the other bounce, which was so energetic and frantic is could have really bounced off of the page. This ball bounce how ever, is much more heavier, slower, and over all more realistic. I showed my animation to my dad and my dad mentioned that i should add it more frames at the end, it maybe comes to a stop a fraction to early, and funnily enough my tutor said the same thing by email.

So therefore my plan for Monday afternoon after life drawing is to add in more frames into the end of the ball bounce and amend some other things to, so i can really be happy with my ball bounce. Also i have been working on a ball bounce which is much heavier then the one i am working on at the moment. i have done a brief drawing of the arches and the spacing of the balls. I will need to work it all out in more detail. But i think it would be good to see if i can estimate how many frames of each drawing i will need to take to make the drawing look smooth, as it will demonstrate how much i have learnt.

This is a basic diagram of what i predict:

Thursday 4 October 2012

Final ball bounce

This morning i have been re-doing my new bouncing ball animation. I redrew the whole animation yesterday on a smaller scale and i think it works a lot better. I also played around with taking double frames and also some of the drawings i took three frames to make the animation smoother and slower. I am really pleased with the outcome and i am really pleased that i put in the effort to play each frame as i took it to see if i needed to add duplicate frames or move onto the next drawing.

I have had to upload it onto Vimeo because this blog could not hold all of the data, so i will have to insert the hyperlink onto this post.

I had to add another small arch at the end of the sequence because i felt that the bounce ended to abruptly and it needed to fizz out a little. I also found that i made a pattern in my ball bounce. On the first drop i had one frame per drawing, after the ball hit the floor for its first bounce i did 2 frames per drawings and so on. The further the animation went on i found that i needed to take more frames of the drawings to make it seem like the ball was easing up. If i had taken the same amount of frames for every drawing the ball could be going at the same rate as the previous ball drawing i made, and i felt that the stop was way too sudden. 

Also i changed the structure of the original drawing, i added in some frames and amended others, i was worried that the little mistakes could be seen when the animation played and though that there is not any point in doing something that is not quite right and hope for the best when i can quickly change it now.

I also added a couple of frames of the balls journey so i could show the arch's and the spaceing that i used to create my ball bounce. For some reason, unknown to me, right at the end of the animation i when i put my name, the animation flickers. So ignore that.

Click on the link below to see the animation.



Tuesday 2 October 2012

First ball bounce.

This is the ball bounce that i made. I coloured the ball brown because when i put it onto dragon with it being a line drawing, the whole screen was yellow and you could not see any animation. I had to switch the lights off and and then take the sequence again to make it watchable. I still need to neaten the animation up and sort out the rough edges but on the whole i am really pleased with the out come. it is the first ball bounce i have made so i was not sure what to expect. I have completed the task that was given, i have made my ball bounce, i have put it through at all of the settings that was asked of me. From studying my ball bounce i think that is maybe too quick. It would benefit from me taking double images on some of the frames, especially to the left of the top of each ball bounce. It is quite a energetic ball bounce, it stops too early so i need to add more frames at the end of the sequence to make to look smoother. Think that  i need to redraw my ball bounce and create a smaller ball bounce where the bounce takes up half the page and then the rest of the roll takes up the rest of the page and stops smoothly.

The benefit of starting all over again now is that i have the actual ball bounce sequence, i just need to make it on a smaller scale, even if i had to start it all over again i would feel much more confident with the timings etc. I am planning on getting all of the drawing of the new ball bounce done tomorrow on my self manage study day so i can come in on Thursday and hopefully finish it!

Tonight i will be a making the diagrams for the new ball bounce and then drawing it out tomorrow. If i get on well i will also experiment with making a heavy ball bounce for a snooker ball or something simular.

Sunday 30 September 2012

Bouncing Ball - Diagrams.

Since i wrote up my last post i have been working on the spacing for my ball bounce. When i timed it the ball bounce was around 1.6 seconds long. I have been working out how to draw the ball bounce, when and where i should draw the individual frames etc. I know that to make a second of footage you need 25 individual frames, and to make 2 seconds worth of footage you need to have 50 individual frames.

Therefore (25 F = 1 second)+ (12.5 F= 0.5 seconds) = 37.5 F = 1.5 seconds. I needed another 0.1 seconds so i rounded the number of frames up to 40 F, in which i thought would add the extra 0.1 second and it also makes it an even number.

I then 'tried' to work out how much time each individual frame would represent so i did 1.6 seconds / 40 frames = 0.04 seconds, so each individual frame should be 0.04 seconds. (Since looking at my workings out on the image below i can now see where i did the sums wrong, i double counted some of the frames where the ball hit the ground and also where the ball reaches its highest height at the top of each bounce. I started adding up wrong after the ball bounced for its second time - so ignore the sums after that, they should be:

  • first drop down = 9 frames = 0.36 seconds
  • first bounce up= 7 frames = 0.28 seconds.
  • falls back to the floor for second bounce = 6 frames = 0.24 seconds
  • second bounce up = 5 frames = 0.20 seconds
  • fall to third bounce = 5 frames = 0.20 seconds
  • bounce up = 3 frames = 0.12 seconds
  • fall back down = 3 frames = 0.12 seconds.
  • last bounce = 1 frame = 0.04 seconds
  • last touch = 1 frame= 0.04 seconds.
0verall = 1.6 seconds in length






















I am hoping that this will work when i put it into dragon software. The things i am concerned about are, if the animation is too quick - it should not be as i have worked it out and the animation should work out to be exactly 1.6 seconds long which is what my actual ball bounce was. I am concerned that the bounce it self will not be fluid and smooth, i will NOT work if it is jerky and abrupt, however, i wont be able to do anything about it until i put all of my work into Dragon and see how it runs. I would also like to add a roll at the end however, i did not have enough room on the page, and it would have added unnecessary effort as i was told to concentrate on the ball bounce and nothing else... i am also concerned about the third ball bounce so frame 32 as i think maybe i should have done the frame less squished and more of circular shape because the ball looses momentum and energy and the shape of the ball manipulates less. I did try to make each bounce less semicircular and more 'circular' but i think i should have made it more obvious on the third bounce.
The diagram to the left i was just playing around with what i was talking about on my previous post - the heavier ball, snooker ball. I know our brief was to animate ball bounce of the ball we were given in class but to also test and experiment with adding in frames to the top and bottom of the bounces to see how it changed the bounce. But i thought it would be interesting (for me) to look into heavier balls and how they bounce as i have not done something like this before, so i am rather excited about it. The diagram is not a mathematical diagram, it had not been worked out to the T, but it for me is an estimate of how it should look bounce. Although i think i have been rather generous with the height of its bounce, but it does have a deceptively large bounce for its one and only bounce. Maybe what looks wrong is the angle that the ball is coming in from, i think i will have the ball drop at more of a vertical angle, its maybe too curved. I am really looking forward to getting back into University tomorrow morning and putting all of my drawings onto Dragon and see how they animate! If all goes well i will be experimenting loads which the change in character of the ball bounce etc!

Bouncing Ball - Preparation


Over the weekend i have been concentrating on getting my ball bounce right. As i haven't made a ball bounce before it is a bit of trial and change and using your imagination to draw what you think it should be ( obviously using the maths to make it look realistic.) I have done a fair amount of research to help me create something that will be realistic, and i'm feeling quietly confident about the task. I will be going into University early Tomorrow morning to put my ball sequence into Dragon software to see what i have come up with.

At the moment i have drawn what is to be my main ball bounce, however, i would like to create a few different sequence by adding manipulating the original sequence. For example, i will add frames in and move frames around to see how it will effect the way the ball bounce, and then look at how it changed the character of the ball. From watching hundred of films, and short animations on Vimeo and YouTube, i'm confident you can create a huge diversity of emotions, and characters by changing tiny aspects of the way a character/something moves - and i just need to learn how to do this with a ball. My ball was a foam tennis ball, which had quite a generous bounce, nothing like a real tennis ball which would have a much higher second bounce with a more lively route, and different also to dropping a snooker ball, hardly any bounce with a roll at the end. So its important for me to get the bounce to look like the ball could be a foam tennis ball...

The images below are the routes of the three different balls i mentioned above:

The foam tennis ball (which was my ball) lost two thirds of its momentum after the first bounce, and then repetitively lost a third of the high after each bounce. If you were to put a personality to the ball i could define it as quite a sad bounce, it is very flat - and my theory is because the foam of the ball absorbs the impact of the bounce, rather then a tennis ball with a harder casing which can counteract stronger with the impact of each bounce. I would be interesting to see how it would change the feel of the bounce if i added more frames into the top of each bounce. I imagine that it would make the ball 
seem like it was made from a more harder substance, but i also think it may look add as if i kept the ball decreasing at the same rate with each bounce, it might look odd (it would not look realistic). If i added more frames to the bottom of each bounce it would make the ball bounce look the actual ball has more control over its own bounce. I think it would maybe make it seem like it is more alive, more like a character, rather then a ball bouncing.



The tennis ball that i bounced seemed to decrease by half of the height of the previous bounce every time. Due to the consistently higher height of the tennis ball bounce, it meant that the duration it took for the ball to bounce was much longer then the bounce of the foam ball which lost its momentum much faster. The bounce of the tennis ball seemed to be longer at the top of the bounce then the foam ball was, e.g. at the top of each bounce the tennis ball would have 7 over lapping frames and the foam ball is 5 frames at the top of each bounce. It would be really
interesting to squash the ball really flat at the bottom of  each bounce, i think that it would change the way you would see the ball. It would maybe seem more like a actual bouncy ball which have a exaggerated bounce, they seem to take much longer to reach the top height of their bounce, and fasten up as it starts its journey back down from the top of the bounce.

A snooker ball, being dense and heavy absorbs the impact of each bounce  and looses more energy then the other two balls which is why they loose their height dramatically. Due to their small size it means that they do get a small bounce. On contrast , a bowling ball which is similar to the foundations of a snooker ball but on a much larger scale, would have no bounce due to its size.... IF you bounced it on a hard surface. 

Now what i do find interesting in Ping Pong balls, its hollow like a tennis ball, its smaller then all the balls above, and its made from plastic, yet its the bounciest ball out of the three i have mentioned. From research i have found that the bounce of a ball depends on what it is made from, the size, and other unique properties. A ping pong ball is made from a special plastic called celluloid, their surface is stiff and springy and there for looses less energy with each bounce then the softer foam ball that i have to do my bounce for. Now if you bounced a ball on a softer surface like a carpet, a blanket, a trampoline the ping pong ball would loose all of its energy as it is absorbed into the softer surface. Where as a snooker ball or a bowling ball on a trampoline would have a much higher FIRST bounce.

 So, from studying the three balls above in detail and briefly looking at a ping pong ball, i can safely say that i think the capability of the bounce completely depends on the material, size and the surface it is dropped on. A hollow light weight ball will bounce much better on a hard surface then a solid ball due to their being less air resistance and in hand conserving their energy. I feel like after this weekend i can confidently imagine the bounce route of various balls, and i would be able to have a idea of how to animate the different balls and their cycle.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Animation Principles L1. 25/9/12

Today i attended a class with Andy where he introduced the 'bouncing ball' project. We have to hand draw a ball bounce. We picked a random ball and had to time how long it took when we dropped the ball from a height of 50cm to stop bouncing. It too 2 seconds. We then had to time the time it took for the ball to..


1) hit the floor for the first bounce.
2)for the ball to bounce back up in the air after it first hit the floor.
3)to hit the floor again..

and so on until it came to a halt. We had to try and measure the amount that the height of the ball dropped with every bounce. From the original height of 50cm after the ball hit the floor on its first bounce it only reached the height of 16cm est. From studying the ball drop the ball seemed to decrease the height of the bounce by around two thirds every time. The ball we used was a foam tennis ball so it had a bit of bounce in it but due to the ball having no hard outer shell (like a tennis ball) the foam absorbs the impact from hitting the  table and looses momentum. Therefore i think that i would need to add more frames to the animation when the ball hits the table rather then when the ball reaches the top of the bounce.

We did some timing in class to try and get a basic understanding of how to work out how to time the frames, in a sense of how many drawings to draw and where. Some of the workings out from class are in the image about and i have done some other workings out and diagrams out side of the class room. I shall start experimenting with the actual drawing of the ball bounce once i feel confident with my workings out. I have a feeling it will be a lot of trial, error and correction. I am really excited to get stuck into it.