Advanced animation skills final project!!

With this project I learned that no matter what situation we are given to animate we always have to go back to the  12 principles of animation and that without them our animation would be lacking of weight,gravity, balance, and it simply wouldn't look real or convincing. I can not describe the importance of nailing the 12 basic steps to ensure the success of the animation.

I am pleased with the final result, and after a number of exercises with detailed characters and exciting camera movements I finally learned to tone down on the design and focus only on the movement and working on it's fluidity. To do so, I had to finally surrender myself and use a simple stick figure to achieve a successful movement, which I have to admit that it saved a large amount of patience and it wasn't so time consuming. From now on I will always bear in mind to start simple and then allow it to build itself after achieving a successful strong foundation.

Back to the basics!!!

A few weeks ago we were given a project about the animation fundamentals where we had to go back to the very basics. The 12 principles of animation...1 Squash and stretch, 2 anticipation, 3 staging, 4 straight ahead or pose to pose, 5 Follow through and overlapping action, 6 slow-out and slow-in, 7 arcs, 8 secondary action, 9 timing, 10 exaggeration, 11 solid drawing, 12 appeal.

Here are some of my videos that I did when researching about the animation fundamentals...

Rocket exercise

Going up the stairs

movement exercises

standing up

 After all the research, we were given a brief where we were suppose to do a major video with a series of exercises in which we could show off our skills about walk/running cycle, weight, and finally an obstacle course. We were told to keep the design minimalistic and just focus on the movement, so as you will see I tried to keep simple but fluid lines. Here is the outcome (still in progress) 

Sketchbook work about quadruped anatomy 

Im just crackers about animation!

Let's get cracking with the animation!!!

First of all, as an animation student I decided to create a blog to talk about all the topics that we talk in classes and to publish all the little exercises that we have to do.

Second, I am also going to post my own research and sketchbook work to support my research material.


The Importance of drawing!!!

Since the first year that our tutors always highlighted the importance of carrying a sketchbook with us all the time. DRAW DRAW DRAW!!! that's the rule….. As an animator you are expected to draw all the time…when your bored…when feeling creative…when taking the tube…or at the coffee place..it doesn't matter really just as long as you keep practicing your hand, you'll see that after a while you will be able to draw really fast just from your head. It's just as if your hand has a mind of it's own and remembers the movements..

Here are some of my sketches…

I am just crackers about animation!!!

Let's get cracking with the Animation

As an animation student, I decided to create a blog to support my research material and to keep track of all the exercises and projects that we are given at university.

First of all, I am going to talk about the importance of drawing… Since year 1 that our tutors always highlighted the importance of drawing constantly and carrying a sketchbook with us wherever we go.
DRAW DRAW DRAW….thats the rule…

Here is some of my sketchbook work