Jumping Squirrel

This week our task was to animate a 2D squirrel jumping across the screen. I found this surprisingly easy. I think this was because of all the practice with bouncing balls. So that was worthwhile after all.  The focus of the animation was overlap and follow through of the tail which is something i hadn't done before. After I completed the animation for the first time i closed the programme without saving it and therefore lost all my work. I did it all again and learned to always save my work.  

Dear Julia,

Today I read a book with great illustrations by Brian Biggs called, 'Dear Julia,'. It was about a man who went crazy, was being chased and tried to fly by jumping from the ledge of the 8th floor. I love the style of the writing and drawings and had a go at drawing in a similar style myself.

Luis Cook inspired me to draw

We had a lecture from Aardman's Luis Cook. He presented his sketchbooks from over the years and encouraged us to use our notebooks for various things such as; lists, ideas, collections, doodles, story boards etc. I found it enlightening as he reinforced the idea of play. I'd forgotten about the importance of playing and experimenting, I think I've been spending too much time trying to get things "right" if that exists. He also mentioned the cobra movement and David Shrigley, both of which I like very much.

 

FlyFox in 3D!

I was bored of making the fox jump and bounce so i made it fly.

Weighty Teapot

For this task we had to demonstrate weight through a character lifting something. I had a really good cup of tea today so i chose to use a teapot as my weight. I found it quite hard drawing my character and found that his head started to grow but you could say he was kust puffing out his cheeks in exhaustion. I enjoyed animating the pouring of tea and in a way this showed the weight of the liquid too.

The Peach Kings "Mojo Thunder" by Kris Merc

These are some stills from a music video I recently watched by Kris Merc. I really like the stylistic choices and the chalky aesthetic. It reminds me of a Noir film because of the black and white and the femme fatal character. It's nicely abstract and plays with scale as seen in the first picture of a man floating in a glass. A good metaphor. I also really like VW Golf cars.

Life Drawing

These are some of my recent life drawings. I experimented with chalk, pencil, graphite, charcoal. I enjoyed the exercise where we couldn't look at the paper. Came out with some interesting marks and improved my observation.

Turning hand

My first digitally drawn animation made with Toon Boom. This was also my first time using a tablet to draw with. It was all very different and strange but I tried to be open minded and give it a good go. It was quite hard getting a consistent size of hand.

ReBEARth

Here's a link to my final stop-motion film from my foundation course. It's the story of Miles, a bear who runs away from home and returns having changed a bit. Rebirth.

https://vimeo.com/127404541

3D bouncing ball

For this project I used Maya software to create a bouncing ball using squash and stretch. I didnt really exaggerate the squash which miht have looked better. I thought a subtle squash was more realistic. This took quite a long time to master and I found it challenging. I also added a little roll to the end. This time i only moved it in the X and Y axis but maybe next time i'll venture into the Z axis as well.

Teebs - Overgrown

I found that this music video fitted really well with the theme of "Turning the real to the surreal" I've been looking a lot at hands and i really like the watery reflective effect of this piece. I also really like how it fits wit the minimal music.

https://vimeo.com/121810122

Jumping man

For this exercise we had to make a man from a square and circle jump across the screen using squash and stretch. I made this in flash and found it quite challenging making the timing of the jump look right.