So our assignment is to try to find the key poses or the storytelling poses if you like, of a short clip from a gif animation of Three Little Wolves.

Here is my answer:

·         Key pose 1 – You can see he is about to swing the axe.

·         Key pose 2 – He hits hard.

·         Key pose 3 – He uses all of his strength and tries to get the axe up.

·         Key pose 4 – The axe finally comes lose.

·         Key pose 5 – He got the axe, and spots something.

·         Key pose 6 – He jumps in the air.
 
Hello again:)

We have now started with digital acting, and our first assignment is to document the way we animate. So we had to animate a simple rig lifting a heavy object and then document everything from our research to our finished animation.

The first thing I do when I animate is to find some reference videos, usually from youtube. I just watch a bunch of them and try to see how the body works. For this task, Einar (my classmate) reminded me of the book called the animators survival kit, so looked up at page 256 where the main heavy lift is shown in the main poses.  I also tried to lift a heavy object and tried to see how I was doing it.

First video I took a good look at. An old-style drawing animation.
A very funny and good animation. Studied this for a while:)
A real video of some crazy guy doing some stone lifting.
So after some research, I opened 3ds max and started with a biped. Doh! After some small crashes I gave up the biped for this time. I really didn’t want to work my way today. The LowMax rig was the solution. I haven’t used it before, but it was a dream working with, and quite easy to get to work.

I am guy who pretty much starts with the key poses and don’t care how it looks at start of the animation process. It’s the finished result that matters.  After the key poses are finished, I see through the animation and see how the time between each pose is and move some frames around so get the right timing. After that I fix everything between the main poses. Then I often ask people around me how it looks and make some changes from the tips I get. That’s how I do it:)
Here is the 6 key poses I used for this short animation.
Here is the finished animation of a basic lift. *Edit: seems like youtube dont play the whole ting. I have animated that he takes 2 steps back so it seems like the ball has some more weight.
 
2 posts in one day. WOW!

Some of you know that we are going to make a short animation movie in the 2. semester. So had to find some short animation movies todaythat show what you aim to do on the 3DFP course”.

I took a look at youtube and found some pretty interesting things and I also made a list of what my goal for my style is.

·         Simple and good looking characters

·         Really powerful colors

·         A bit cartoonish

·         Contrasts

·         Playing with lights

I am going to start with explaining about the last point first. When I say playing with the light, I mean that I want the light to play a role in the film. You can take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVyDao6XISo . Here do the light have a big role in the movie, but I am not sure I want it to play that big role. Another example is http://vimeo.com/4354110 . I love the way how the light in the background behaves.

For the colors and he characters, I was think of something similar to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km8MozN36Vc or the balloons in Pixar’s new movie “Up” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USpI6Jzl3No . The colors and the light should set the mood of the movie, and really give a “happy” look. It’s a bit hard to explain, but I will try to give some examples and try things out when I got my computer, or we got 3ds max at school.

Well, this was just some thoughts about where I want to go, but I am sure that this might change later on. All I know that I want to experiment a lot. If some of you out there have any movies or pictures that might point me in any directions, please contact me and point them out for me. Thanks.

Have a good night. Cya.
 
Hello again, third day at school now.

We got an assignment where we had to look at six specific short movies and write some words about them. Well here is my work. Enjoy!

Norman Mclaren – Dots (1940)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-vsKwQ0Cg

I like that the video is so simple, but it still gets your full attention. The music is like someone doing a “beat box” with his mouth and the music is a bit catchy. I love the way the sound is being used in this movie. It’s hard to try to follow all the dots at the end because the speed goes up.

I really can’t imagine where I would see this kind of movies. It’s like a short movie you could show to children just to keep them busy.

 

Pocoyo – Something among friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl-jYsMCDFE

The first and main thing I notice with this video is the animation. It’s fast and funny and makes the video fun to watch. This is clearly a children’s program, and I think the modeling is done when they have that I their mind. The models are simple but nice looking.

As I mentioned, I think this is a movie or series that will be shown at TV for the children.

 

Café serré

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km8MozN36Vc

I just love the look of the movie. Brilliant! It’s a bit real looking, but still a very cartoonish look. The animation is really good too. It fits the look and makes the movie very cool to watch and the story was funny and makes you laugh a bit.

 

Ryan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvfgLBMmtVs&feature=fvst

At the start I didn’t get the point, but when you watch I over again, you understand more and more. But it is a bit too long for my taste. What I like about this movie is the start when he looks back and when we take a dive into his head, at 00:47. It’s like a shocking effect and you really start pay attention.  I don’t know why, but I like when it’s black and white and the colorful things comes around his head. Maybe it’s the contrasts.

 

Cyber evolution – fantasy animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbwR9xFymi0

I think the start is a mess. It goes so fast and I quite can’t see what I am looking at. But the music matches very well. I like when it stops up and everything is a new style and the animation is slow. Really good looking.

 

Toyota – Branding/Prius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PL0RuNgjoY

I like that the tree has so clear colors, while everything around is a bit blurry. And while the tree grows big, the environment around it gets some color too. Cool concept! The camera movement is cool as it rotates around the tree the whole time and you never take the eye of it. Our teacher pointed out that he liked the aerial view in the last shot, and I share that opinion.