flight animations

After the holidays, we're back at it again with Toon Boom

I started off my front flight animations using a bat

Here comes the bat

 

Here comes a slightly slower bat so you can see the frames

For referencing the bat flight mechanics, I used this video from the Smithsonian Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upq7LyhCGXE

I also animated a hummingbird using this video as a reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AJOBQhew

also did some legs

these boots were made for walking

Here's a walk cycle test I did in the holidays using my character. For the assignment, I plan on making the character walk in place and clean up the linework.





 

BSA 106 Surrealism

Surrealism:

Surrealism is an artistic/cultural movement that arose in Europe in the 1920's, primarily involving painting, literature and cinema.

Surrealism evolved out of Dada, a reactionary movement lasting from 1916 to 1922 as a result of the "stupidity" of WW1. Dada was anti-rational, humorous, deliberately shocking and anti-art.












Raoul Hausmann
The Art Critic 1919–20
Tate
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2017











 Surrealism was founded as a movement in 1924 by Andre Breton who was a major member of the Dada group, who drafted the Surrealist Manifesto (1924). Surrealism used shocking, irrational or absurd imagery to challenge the traditional function of art to represent reality.

Andre Breton (Image source: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/andr%C3%A9-breton)

The aims of surrealist films and animations was to reject conventional narrative forms, disrupt narrative conventions of time and space, and mix cinematic elements around until nothing made sense. These techniques were used to derange meaning, to upset, disorient and shock the audience.

 Luis Bunel and Salvador Dali:

Made the film, Un Chien Andalou (an Andalusian Dog), a short film that used a succession of dreamlike sequences that violate conventional narrative schemes.


Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unchienandalouposter.jpg

Jean Cocteau:

In addition to being a director of films such as Blood of a Poet, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer and actor




Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bloodofapoet.jpg

Man Ray:

The only American to p[lay a major role in both Dada and Surrealist movements.Made films such as L'Etoile de Mer (the Starfish) (1928) and Emak Bakia (leave me alone) (1926)


A still from The Starfish. Image source:http://sensesofcinema.com/2007/feature-articles/surrealism-cinema/

Maya Deren:

Made a film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), filmed by her husband

 Destino:

In 1946, Walt Disney and Salvador Dali tried to make a collaboration animated film, titled Destino. The project was abandoned due to financial issues and wasn't completed until 1999 by Disney's nephew Roy E. Disney




A still from the movie Destino. Image source: http://www.fomostream.com/salvador-dali-and-walt-disneys-destino/

Modern examples of surrealism:

In Inception (2010), the film put many elements of surrealist imagery into it's dream sequences to emphasise the impossible and nonsensical nature of dreams



Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inception_%282010%29_theatrical_poster.jpg

Marvels Dr. Strange (2016) also incorporates surrealist elements (most often used in the scenes within the mirror dimension), to convey the impossible, complex and nonsensical elements of magic


Image source: https://www.fxguide.com/featured/dr-stranges-magical-mystery-tour-in-time/

Character turnarounds BSA 126

Made a turnaround using the .jpg file of my character from assignment 1, by tracing the different images, then dragging them into the same place. To free transform copied frames without affecting the frame they're copied from, click the "create duplicate drawing" button above the timeline.

 

My character turnaround.

For giggles I added some motion blur to each frame using Photoshop. Unfortunately this makes the turnaround slower, reducing the effect of the motion blur.

Bonus head turn:

I also did a double-take

BSA 106 German Expressionism

German Expressionism

German expressionism is a film movement that lasted from 1919-1931, and ended with Hitler's rise to power. Expressionism also had a broader influence and was present in German paintings, sculpture, music etc. at the time.


The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an expressionist film

Unlike impressionism, which was concerned with the surface reality, expressionist works were 'warped' by human perception and emotion. This was achieved through stylized set design and shadowy lighting. Stylized set design was achieved through the use of artificial geometries, resulting in distorted and exaggerated buildings and landscapes, elaborate costuming and unnatural makeup.  The cinematography emphasized bold contrasts (dark shadows and bold highlights). Oblique angles and non-parallel lines were also characteristics of expressionism.

Common themes in expressionist films were madness, criminality and the fracturing of identity, where the characters inner turmoil was reflected in the strangeness of their environments.

This movement influenced other film genres such as film noir, due to expressionists fleeing Nazi Germany and plying their trade in Hollywood.

Many film directors were influenced by German expressionism, including Henry Selick.

Selick's work includes The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, both of which has incorporated some expressionist elements.


The Nightmare Before Christmas (although concieved and produced by Tim Burton), was directed by Henry Selick and incorporates expressionist elements such as distorted and impossible landscapes.


Coraline exhibits some expressionist elements as well, largely in the impossible geometries. This is used to contrast the initially ideal (later sinister) "other" world with the more mundane (realistic) one in the movie.

Simple animations 126

Today we learned the basics of ToonBoom Harmony.

I learned that < and > can be used as short cuts to make new key frames, allowing you to animate something frame by frame

My name is done frame by frame, so its really jittery (Photoshop did something weird with this so it flickers too)

To achieve this in ToonBoom, you make the shape on a drawing layer, then add a peg layer on top of it. A peg layer allows you to move the drawing without having to edit the drawing itself. With the peg layer selected, make sure the animate button and the transform button are selected. With both buttons highlighted, select the keyframe 25 frames down and move the drawing peg to the position you want. You can also copy and paste this movement.

You can set the ease type to the S-curve so the peg accelerates and decelerates as you need.

To add a background (and keep it consistent for all the frames) you add the picture in the first frame and then select the last frame and click F5 (extend exposure)

This gif (if it loads) is of a "coin" moving from side to side 

Pendulum animation (Photoshop didn't do something weird with this thank god)

To do the pendulum animation, when you're transforming the shape in the peg layer, put the rotation point at the top of the string and do the same thing as the coin animation, but rotate the image instead.

For my pendulum animation, I added a shadow. I couldn't figure out how to get it to shrink and darken the closer the pendulum gets to the floor without de-syncing it from the pendulum.

I employed squash and stretch to make this ball bounce.

This bouncing ball scene employs both movement and squash and stretch. The ball had to be animated frame by frame

To make the ball "disappear" I added another layer of grass in front of it. I also had to add in another bounce on the left so the ball would enter the scene.