Animation Research

http://www.zippy-health.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/monkey_vault.jpg

http://www.eorthopod.com/sites/default/files/images/knee_tendonitis_patella_intro01.jpg

http://newsitemstoday.today.com/files/2009/12/parkour_wall_jump.jpg

OK, I've looked and I can't seem to find the same pics I had used when I was researching landing and impact sequences for my animation sequence, but the above are fairly close to what I had found. Though internet research was only a small part of the resources I used. I was more interested in watching video one frame at a time.

Here's the dilemma... I want the sequence and action to be somewhat stylized and a little more balletic, yet natural enough to be believable. I'm not sure that's possible with the drawing style I have chosen. I am afraid I am going to have to be something of a slave to reality. This will require some rethinking, redrawing, and restoryboarding... but only AFTER I create a few demo animations to see what looks right and what doesn't.

I have become obsessed with the final product as an artist, creating ONLY images that will be in print or showable. Unfortunately a lot of learning to animate is going to require a ton of behind the scenes work and redrawing that will be "thankless." Perhaps this is an impatience on my part.

Another issue is my expectations, I expect my freshman effort as an animator to be as strong as the best of Disney... you know, that company that at one time had hundreds of the best artists in the world who had devoted their lives to mastering the art of animation, a company that had unlimited resources, live-action studies, and unlimited budget. Yeah, I expect the first animation sequence I ever created... all by myself... to be that good.

That's not healthy.

Semester Progress

So far this semester the real progress has happened in the animation process. Learning to animate has been something of a life-dream. I am hoping that within my animation demo to hit upon all 12 of the principles of animation.

So far I have learned that, perhaps, the most important principle is "Anticipation." I had originally had the anticipation cell wrong. Of course, I was able to use the "cell," but what we discovered was that it was not the right cell to really deliver the proper anticipation, the pose was not extreme enough to be the critical anticipation cell. The solution was to create a new anticipation cell that was far more extreme than what I had initially imagined. The other key element was not only the pose itself, but timing.

The relation between the anticipation cell and the action itself is also important. Big actions require big anticipations, at least, to my knowledge so far.

Timing has also been of critical importance. Timing alone can also make or break the believability of an action... even if the drawings are all spot-on.

Research as also been terribly important. Making shit up just doesn't work. It never has and never will, and when trying to create believable motion, it is of major importance. Research should be the 13th principle.

The research I have used so far has been:

1) Viewing all the falling, jumping, and landing sequences I could in normal and slow motion speed, in live-action films as well as animated movies of various qualities.

2) Practicing the action itself in the physical world.

3) Looking for still images of the motion I am trying to recreate.

4) Creating test-loops to study my animation.

5) Getting a second opinion.

Web-Design Schmeb-Design

Originally this blog was supposed to be about web-design, but thus far it has been a meditation on how boring the web has become. So, let's talk about things that actually are interesting, for a start, Flash and/or animation.

The West Virginia Flash Animation Festival is coming. Google that if you want to see the crummy entries from last year. I had considered entering, the problem is they want "original music" or music to which I can get permission from the copyright holder. Well... I don't have that, but I did notice that one of the winners from last year used a friggin' Monkee's song--besides the fact that the piece was not terribly strong in my opinion.

So, yes, it would be possible for me to clean up in Flash festivals, but I suspect they will all be looking for music that I own or can get permission to use.

Jackass Of All Trades

The last semesters have taught me that it is impossible, even for an older student with a good work-ethic and the proper attitude, to be enthusiastic and hard-working in every class and program. Frankly, the whole world of web design, Css, and Dreamweaver leaves me not only baffled but utterly disinterested. Web-design is algebra... I hated algebra. It's all rules, formulas, and not a damn one of them makes sense. We're talking RANDOM! Memorization, chaos, misery. Frankly, web-design is everything I hated (all along) about computers wrapped up in one big shit-stinky package.

I want to know enough about Dreamweaver to put it on my resume, get a job, and then like learning Karate, I hope I never have to use it.

On a personal note, I think juggling 3 jobs and taking classes (and looking into a 4th job) has probably worn me out more than I would like.

Thank God

Thank god there are still some people out there who are not going with the 3-column same-font-as-everyone-else sites. This has remained a site I find inspiring... and hopeful.

http://www.jonathanyuen.com/main.html

I don't know much about the artist or the work, and while it is beautiful to look at, I don't know how happy I would be if I were an A.D. and wanted to hire this guy. As a commercial venture, whether or not the site is easily navigable or effective is questionable.

Regardless, it is refreshing to see that some people are not letting themselves be castrated by current trends, expectations, and "rules."

What's Up With All This Web Rigidity???

OK, when the whole web-site thing first happened I was pretty excited about the internet and the design opportunities.

Well, that's gone and done, and now we are stuck with all these rules, conventions, and expectations that have, in my opinion, created an environment where every web-site looks like they belong in the same magazine or have been overseen by the same Art Director. Now, I understand the need to create order out of chaos, but I think these conventions have suffocated the flexible design possibilities the web originally offered, creating a homogenized look.

The first sites I saw, way back when, were a little like a treasure hunt, and while that was intolerable so far as usability goes, it was a lot more fun. Clever people with a first-rate design staff were able to play effectively on that playground while still maintaining easy usability and navigation. Unfortunately even those artists and designers eventually submitted and started publishing rigid boring designs. "You will be assimilated!" And, YES, we have all assimilated.

For me this has taken a lot of the thrill out of the internet, and has in many ways burned out my desire to design web pages.

Positively Bubbling With Girlish Enthusiasm!

If you know me at all, you know I never come close to "bubbling," and as for "girlish enthusiasm," that's just pushing the irony beyond good taste.

Speaking of good taste, I hope not to show much of that here. If I do, please, call me on it.

And now, a little about me:

In fourth grade I announced I was either going to be a "dolphin trainer" or a "comic book artist." By seventh grade, I realized that neither of those were really proper job descriptions, at least not ones I could find in the books we looked at on career days. That should have been enough to push me into law or banking.

Life didn't begin for me until I had achieved that dream (not the dolphin trainer bit) and worked for DC Comics, Image, then WOTC on the D & D books, as well as doing some work for Lucasfilm.

I soon realized why I should have gone with "dolphin trainer," there just wasn't much dough in the comic artist gig. So, the logical choice: buy a tent (and a trailer) and become a Rennie. This literally meant living on campgrounds for months... sometimes in elaborate "tarpitechtures" I called home, and other times in a trailer. The highlight: spending 7 weeks in a trailer on a fairground in Connecticut... alone. Amazing. If you get the chance to live alone on a fairground in Connecticut in the fall for 7 weeks, go for it.

And once that little business failed, I was off to South Korea. And, for two years, where I enjoyed chronic sinus infections, cancer, a robbery in the Philippines, and death (though not my own.) Korean food sucked, but it was worth all the kimchi, squid, and red-hot twigs just to get to Thailand and the Philippines. There (in the Philippines) I accomplished 3 life dreams (one unmentionable here), and the other being getting my SCUBA diving license, and the third being swimming with a dolphin.

A little fact: never dive with Germans.

From there we travelled on to South America where we worked as illegal immigrants for the charlatans at the "Thomas Jefferson School" in Concepcion Chile. I won't name any names besides Magda and Gregory Trebz--something long and Polish--ski.

Then, back to America, land of Rye whiskey, boneheads, and far less opportunity than we found in second-world countries... oh, and NO freaking healthcare. I don't get how a person can be "pro-life" and anti national health in the same breath... and don't bother trying to justify it to me, because it's all bullshit. Unless you've had cancer here in the US as well as in a country with national health, I'm not going to have a lot of patience for whatever it is you've read or heard on Fox "News." In other words, if your anti-healthcare... blow me.

To get by, since being home, I have worked as a tutor for a kid with cerebral palsey, a carnie, and a toilet scrubber. Carnie-work being the shortest lived and most incredible of the experiences... and I may end up back out there over the summer.

Now, I am in school at the University of Akron, hoping that in 17 weeks I will no longer be obsolete.

Now that we're all up to date, I can pick things up from here...