[ p l a c i d c h a o s / A M ]

This week our lesson was on the principle of "anticipation," with an introduction to "squash and stretch."

Our assignment for the week was to animate a squishy ball that begins to bounce from a resting position, which means that we had to have the ball anticipate/squash before its leap to build up inertia to carry it upwards. The other obstacle is that while the ball has to have some personality to begin its jump, after it begins to move it had to retain the realistic presence of a rubber ball; in other words, it wasn't allowed to come alive and dance a little jig.

My first attempt

On this first revision I adjusted the spacing of the frames on the initial leap to make the ball look like it was shooting up with a lot of self propelled energy.

Here's the final.

In prior versions I had made a point to have the ball squash some at the apex of every bounce; thinking that momentum would continue to propel the bottom of the ball up even as the ball itself started to fall again. Jason said that while that was a correct way of thinking, the amount of squash I had at the top made the ball appear too malleable; more like a water balloon then a rubber ball. So I heeded his adivce and got rid of the squash at the top of the bounces and "poof" I had a rubber ball.

Along with animating the ball, we were also assigned a single pose of Stu appearing devastated. This was my initial attempt; looks more like a pose of subservience...

And here is the revised pose, much clearer, I think.

Doesn't he just break your heart?

The overachiever assignment for week 4 was to animate a heavy ball coming to rest next to the ball with s&s. I took it a step further and added the basketball as well. Does that make me an over-overachiever...?

Note the affect the heavy ball has on the other two balls when it hits the ground... Subtle, yet needed. I rock.

We received an introduction on the principle of "timing" during our lecture this week. Timing is easily one of the most important of the 12 principles, as it's responsible for giving movement both meaning and emotion.

The assignment for this week was to animate another ball, (orthographic side view again), but this time with squash & stretch applied to it.

Here is my first attempt

The ball is looking good, but is missing an extra hop at the end. Here is the first revision.

I've added the extra bounce that was needed, but now it stops rolling too soon. Here is the final.

Much better, wouldn't you say?!

As I stated earlier, I screwed up and animated a heavy ball this week, when in fact I was supposed to animate a ball with the properties of a basketball or soccer ball, without s&s.

Here is my version of the "basketball."

Not bad, minus the fact that it rolls a bit too far and needs a bit more of a slow out at the end...

This week our lesson was on, "planning and blocking methods," which are some of the most crucial elements to becoming a great animator.

There are six main concepts behind planning a shot:
1) gut reaction
2) observation
3) thumbnailing
4) video referencing
5) feedback
6) what the director wants

Our assignment this week was to download the bouncing ball character and animate a ball bouncing from an orthographic side view. What I didn't notice, is that the fine print says to animate the ball as if it were a basketball/soccer ball. Ok, the print wasn't that fine, but somehow I never saw it and decided to animate a heavy ball, like a bowling ball.

Here is a playblast of my first attempt

And a revision

We were also supposed to create an excitement pose using Stu

Just like the fine print in reference to the bouncing ball, I didn't see that we were supposed to do this pose, so I turned it in late and didn't receive any feedback on it. I guess it's an okay pose, but feels a bit cliche.

Say hi to my mentor for the first "quarter" of AM, Jason Ryan.

I'm pretty sure he's bigger than he looks here, but he's Irish, so who knows. Maybe he has leprechaun blood in him, and therefore is small and cartoony looking...

Jason is currently an animator at Disney Feature Animation, working on Chicken Little, and let me tell you, he can animate like no one's business, (not that it's any business of yours anyway). He drinks red wine during our Q&A's and likes taking long walks on the beach with his metal detector, looking for buried treasure. Ok, I made that last part up.

So yeah, this is Jason and he's swell.

Here they are, all together

Here is another pose that I worked on just to get used to Stu's controls.

Refinement progression for another pose...

The balance pose was popular with a lot of people and I received a lot of feedback on it. Poor Stu; everyone wanted to see him bite it.

Class this week was on the "Principles of Animation," which were conceived by the original Disney animators during the Golden Age of animation. It was mainly an overview so that as we progress in the following weeks everyone will be on the same page as far as terminology.

The 12 Principles of Animation:
1) Squash and Stretch
2) Anticipation
3) Staging
4) Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose
5) Follow Through and Overlapping Action
6) Slow In and Slow Out (ease in/ease out)
7) Arcs
8) Secondary Action
9) Timing
10) Exaggeration
11) Solid Drawing
12) Appeal

These are all elaborated on in chapter 3 of the "Illusion of Life," which was part of our assignment for this week. We were also to create a single pose with Stu, based off of one of our weekly sketchbook drawings. Here is my first attempt.

Here is a revision after receiving some feedback.

As you can see, I fixed his spine, adjusted his arm placement to create a better silhouette, and arched his body and turned his head more to create a sense of curiosity. This was our first week to receive video critiques from our mentors and Bobby gave me my critique this week due to Jason's critiquing tool not working. Bobby said that he liked how even though this is a still image, it felt like it had real movement to it. I agreed, but had others say that they didn't like the pose for that very reason; it's supposed to be and "feel" like a single pose. Oh well, either way it's still not perfect.

This first week was like any other first "day" of class. It was mainly a time to get comfortable with the site, acquainted with one another as students, and also to learn more about the staff of Animation Mentor; specifically Bobby, Carlos, and Shawn, (the three Great White Animation Ninjas). It's totally inspiring to see how passionate these guys are when it comes to talking about animation. They exude a constant aura of bubbly goo that's both funny and amazing to watch. Rest assured, these guys do have lives outside of animation, Carlos even has his own skate video, (you know, fingerboarding, that fad that died about three years ago). Got to give credit to him though, my fingers are way too uncoordinated to go from an ollie into a cabbalerial...

The assignment this week was to read chapters 1-3 in the "Illusion of Life," a truly great read that is definitely worth picking up if you are even the least bit interested in animation. Along with the video intro and chapters to read, we also had the chance to download and play with our first rig, Stu, not to be confused with NinjiStu as see at the top of this page. Get it? Ninjitsu + ninja Stu = NinjiStu... I am funny, I swear. Say hi to Stu...

Check these out when you have time to kill.
http://www.bobbyboombeck.com/
http://www.carlosbaena.com/

Peace!