My first attempt at quickly roughing out a 2D walk cycle.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
one-legged jumps
The fifth Animation Mentor assignment was do three jumps with a one-legged ball. For this 2D revisit of the task I drew a one-legged torso somewhat like the "Norman" character in Eric Goldberg's recent book "Character Animation Crash Course".
The legs were the hardest part of this one. I redid many of the drawings several times to try to get them to maintain approximately the same proportions from frame to frame.
I also did a brief CG test of jumping motion to quickly experiment with timing and posing. I regret there's nothing quite as convenient as IK legs in hand drawn animation.
When I compare my hand-drawn animation to my original 3D version of the school assignment...
... I miss all the little jiggles and squetches I was able to add to the CG character.
In CG (Animation:Master in this case) if you want to adjust your squetch you just have to move one slider or shift a few bones. Try to adjust your squetch in 2D and you have to redraw the whole character, not just once but on many frames. Some of the CG squetches are so small i don't think they could be done in drawings.
That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
The legs were the hardest part of this one. I redid many of the drawings several times to try to get them to maintain approximately the same proportions from frame to frame.
I also did a brief CG test of jumping motion to quickly experiment with timing and posing. I regret there's nothing quite as convenient as IK legs in hand drawn animation.
When I compare my hand-drawn animation to my original 3D version of the school assignment...
... I miss all the little jiggles and squetches I was able to add to the CG character.
In CG (Animation:Master in this case) if you want to adjust your squetch you just have to move one slider or shift a few bones. Try to adjust your squetch in 2D and you have to redraw the whole character, not just once but on many frames. Some of the CG squetches are so small i don't think they could be done in drawings.
That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Drawing Day 2009
A time-lapse drawing for Drawing Day 2009
It's like watching Polaroids develop!
I now return to animation...
It's like watching Polaroids develop!
I now return to animation...
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
jumping ball with overlapping tail motion
My hand-drawn 2D interpretation of the fourth Animation Mentor assignment.
I've committed a classic art school student mistake here... making the assignment more complicated than it needed to be. The actual assigned task was just to animate the ball doing three jumps with overlapping motion on the trailing tail, all from a straight side view.
Trying to draw this from an angle made this mega harder. In CG the computer handles perspective and character size and volume for you automatically. In 2D that's a battle you fight on every frame.
The falling block was an off-topic addition too. If you watch it it does a nice little bounce as it hits the ground, but if you're watching the block you're not watching the ball and tail, which was the real object of the assignment.
Drawing that solid block in perspective as it tips over was a time-eating challenge, and I could have gotten a better result, faster by animating it in 3D (with Animation:Master, of course) and rotoscoping that into my drawings. Which I will do in the future if I need any tumbling solids.
I'll give myself a passing grade on this. I don't think this would be "A" work but I think it shows successful overlapping motion.
I've committed a classic art school student mistake here... making the assignment more complicated than it needed to be. The actual assigned task was just to animate the ball doing three jumps with overlapping motion on the trailing tail, all from a straight side view.
Trying to draw this from an angle made this mega harder. In CG the computer handles perspective and character size and volume for you automatically. In 2D that's a battle you fight on every frame.
The falling block was an off-topic addition too. If you watch it it does a nice little bounce as it hits the ground, but if you're watching the block you're not watching the ball and tail, which was the real object of the assignment.
Drawing that solid block in perspective as it tips over was a time-eating challenge, and I could have gotten a better result, faster by animating it in 3D (with Animation:Master, of course) and rotoscoping that into my drawings. Which I will do in the future if I need any tumbling solids.
I'll give myself a passing grade on this. I don't think this would be "A" work but I think it shows successful overlapping motion.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
why mickey wears shorts
As I was trying to draw some legs on a simple character it occurred to me that putting Mickey mouse in shorts wasn't just for modesty's sake.
If you look at a typical flat-colored rubber-hose style appendage as in "a" it's rather ambiguous as to which way it is really bending.
But if you add that pant cuff just a little bit down the leg as in "b" or "c" you get a clue as to the intended direction of the knee.
Of course, there are lots of times that Mickey doesn't wear shorts, but then they have to work harder at drawing him with real articulated knees.
If you look at a typical flat-colored rubber-hose style appendage as in "a" it's rather ambiguous as to which way it is really bending.
But if you add that pant cuff just a little bit down the leg as in "b" or "c" you get a clue as to the intended direction of the knee.
Of course, there are lots of times that Mickey doesn't wear shorts, but then they have to work harder at drawing him with real articulated knees.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
vertical jump test
This is really just a preparatory study for a more complicated exercise I'm working on, so I didn't spend any time doing cleanup on it. I'm working on a character jumping forward and I did this to simplify it down to just the up and down motion.
Monday, February 16, 2009
obstacle course with anticipation
A squetchy ball jumping (with anticipation) thru an irregular obstacle course. My 2D re-make of the third AnimationMentor assignment.
Includes a brief bit of "drybrush" motion blur drawn onto the frames with ArtRage Studio's "crayon" brush.
Rigorous physics simulation has taken a back seat here to trying to get the overall flow right. Some these bounces are weightier than others.
This is mostly two's with some brief one's. Not all of the bounces are full Preston Blair-style bounces; they seemed to be killing the momentum of the ball in spots.
Includes a brief bit of "drybrush" motion blur drawn onto the frames with ArtRage Studio's "crayon" brush.
Rigorous physics simulation has taken a back seat here to trying to get the overall flow right. Some these bounces are weightier than others.
This is mostly two's with some brief one's. Not all of the bounces are full Preston Blair-style bounces; they seemed to be killing the momentum of the ball in spots.
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