The First Step

I've been reading through Ed Hooks' Acting for Animators and think it will be a good start to form mini animation projects on. The book mostly focuses around the performance aspect of animation, applying theatrical acting techniques and adapting them for the animation context.

In the book a number of topics are covered, often in small and to-the-point sections. There are a number of techniques, principles and concepts that I may want to research into and animate in response to. This includes animating dialogue, power centres, status transactions, movement and body language. There is also a set of seven essential acting principles which are a bit like Disney's 12 principles of animation but instead focused around performance acting.

In the coming weeks I'll identify which techniques I'd like to talk about, research further into and create work based on the concepts discussed.

Starting Point

Creative Research is a module that allows a lot of freedom in choosing what you want to do in order to better yourself in a chosen field or to explore and find the field you want to work in. With such an open brief, its hard to decide where to take the first step. I want to do something along the lines of animation. This semester has allowed me to try 3D animation through the Advanced Animation module and in Technical Arts Application I have been able to learn about the character rigging process.

I've traditionally been a stop-motion animator and have been doing 2D animation during previous years at university. While I enjoyed 2D animation I don't think drawing or character design is my strong point so I'd like to move on from 2D and try my hand at 3D.

I would like to learn how to 3D animate then improve as much as I can with it over the next year. I have a couple of animation books: "The Animator's Survival Kit" and "Acting for Animators" which I may try to use to improve my animations.

In order to work out what Creative Research will be to me, I made this document of notes following our first lecture. It may be completely different by the end of this module or it could turn out to be close to my end goal. Either way, the progress of researching and experimenting will ultimately be the goal itself.

Starting Point

• My field of interest: 3D / stop-motion animation
• Animation in games/film
• Technical art
• currently attending Advanced Animation and Technical Art Applications, siding more with Advanced Animation but enjoy the technical side of animating, such as the principles of animation.

End Goal / “Vision”: To hopefully get a better idea of the field I want to work in. To improve upon things I can do better in, and to develop skills I already have. Hopefully to collate a folio of animation clips that enforces the research I do on other artists in this field.

Create a showreel demonstrating the animation techniques I have learned or improved upon. To back this up with a portfolio of contextual and visual research.

Research:

• To explore acting through animation (poses, actions)
• Life drawing - same pose from multiple angles to help determine volume, shape.
• Film and use reference footage to study weight/volume shifts.
• Use and research principles of animation to make actions seem more fluid/life-like.
• Pacing - how to plan ahead for an action, develop techniques for where to place an object in relation to its motion (i.e. its speed, acceleration).
• Look at other animators and their processes.

What I feel I can do well:

• Use a 3D computer model, or stop-motion model to animate with.
• The facility of having a model which you can ‘reset’ its volume or shape is for me, easier to work with than 2D animation
• Analyse 2D animation and how principles are used.

What I want to learn:

• Scripting, in order to speed up laborious tasks, increase realism and fluidity, or to exaggerate a more “cartoony” character.

What I feel I don’t do well on and could improve upon:

• Drawing 2D characters
• Techniques in Flash in order to animate efficiently

This document along with this blog will be used as a reference to the direction I am currently heading. I will update this document through Google Docs.