Onomatopoeia

This week's micro project was all about sound; more specifically, onomatopoeia. I have to say I wasn't really looking forward to this one, as sound isn't really my forte, but I actually think I enjoyed this the most out of the three! 

We were asked to choose at least 5 onomatopoeia, record them, and then create an animation which used them all together. Mine were Plip, Rustle, Thud, Click, Whoosh and Splosh. I decided to animate a person throwing stones into a pond, who is then met by a big monster, who also throws a stone in the pond, making a big splash. I like how this one turned out, though I hadn't had such bad shoulder pain one day that I had to stop and go home...I think there are definitely areas that I would have wanted to improve upon. 

So, that's the last of the micro projects. I can't say I'm not relieved, but at the same time, I think I learned a great deal from doing them, and I definitely think it's given me a much better idea of the quantity of work expected when working in industry. It's going to be so strange working on the main project now, having a whole eight weeks or so to complete it. I think I need to get back in the habit of drawing rats, too. I had it pretty much down to a tee over the summer, but now because I've been doing other things, I'm finding it harder to get them to look natural.


I've also got to try and remember that I have two other modules to be getting on with, which I'll probably write more about in the next few weeks. Anyway, till next week

Sarah

Quarreling Hippos

So, for this week's micro-project we were each given a proverb from a different part of the world and we had to create a short animation illustrating it. Mine was 'When two hippopotamuses quarrel, don't put your oar in'. I decided to take it quite literally- two hippopotamuses having a girly fight over something, man comes in and tries to separate them with his oar....but then gets sat on!

I'm pleased with how a lot of it came out in the end...in particular the girly fight, the way the characters step back when the human pushes them and the high-5 at the very end. I think I never truly appreciated until now how much you can do with holds and cycles, and still come out with an engaging piece of work!

There are some things that I would like to have changed though- for a start, I orinigally wanted the animation to begin with one of the hippos shoving the other (in an attempt to provide a reason for the fight breaking out in the first place). I think this would have made the whole thing stronger, but decided that it wasn't necessary, especially considering the time constraints. I'm really keen to ink this and scan it and colour it properly to create some showreel-worthy stuff, so I might make some amendments as I do that.

Also, the reason that the video is so blocky and layered, is because I used so many cycles, and animated each character on separate pieces of paper for the most part. I worked out how to cut them all together in Digital Pro without having to vectorise the line, but it wasn't a perfect solution.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the animation, if you've got any feedback I'd love to hear it

Sarah

Starting 3rd Year

Well, I meant to update the blog literally weeks ago, but didn't because I'm now back at Uni! I really want to consistently post here every week, though, so from now on I'm going to schedule in posts alongside my work. From now on, I'm going to officially use Sunday as blog day, because I'll be able to write up what I've been doing over the week, and hopefully I won't be too stressed out about being in the studio and frantically trying to get work done :s 


So then, for the first three weeks of the semester, we're being assigned 3 one week 'mini-briefs' in an attempt to try and get us used to animating constantly and going into the studio all the time. This week's brief was to create 9 short animations depicting various prepositions (e.g. inside, behind, in front of, over, under etc.) using only basic, geometric shapes as characters. Pretty stressful stuff, considering that this was set to us on the Monday and due in of Friday! 
So, we've all been hard at work at that project, and although it's been difficult and exceptionally stressful, I see why we were asked to do it, and feel like I learned quite a few things from the experience. The most significant of thing for me was that it re-emphasised how important it is to plan your scene properly before you start animating. I think I would have really benefitted from allocating a day to planning it out thoroughly, and not just barging my way straight into animating in a desperate attempt to get it done on time.


I'm pleased with some of the animations, especially considering the timeframe that we were given in which to do them, but I think most of them could really stand to be improved. I might post the video here later on in the week (depending on how I think it looks when it's edited together...)


Hopefully I'll keep my resolution for regular updates and post again next Sunday

Sarah