ANIMATION FUNDAMENTALS - EXERCISES

31/03/21 - 28/04/21 (Week 1 - Week 5)

Animation Fundamentals

Exercise 1: Character Gestures & Poses

Exercise 2: Bouncing Ball Animation

Exercise 3: Character Turnaround

                                                                                                                                                                  

INSTRUCTIONS

LECTURE NOTES

Week 1 (31/03/2021)

For our first class, we had a short introduction session with our lovely new lecturer, Ms Jennifer. Afterwards, we were given a brief regarding the module and what to expect for our projects for this semester. Ms Jennifer also managed to ask us what type of animation we're interested in. 

During the first week of our class, we learned about the history of animation and various types of animation that exist today. Here's the lecture slides for week 1:

 

Week 2 (07/04/2021)

For week 2 of this module, we touched on the topic "the 12 principles of animation". Since this was our first class of the week, Ms Jennifer gave us a lecture on 4 out of 12 principles and also showed us how to animate a bouncing ball on Adobe Animate. It was our first introduction class to Adobe Animate. These are the 4 principles we covered this week as well as the lecture slides:

• Squash & Stretch
• Timing/ Spacing
• Arcs of Motion
• Slow In & Slow Out

  

Week 3 (14/04/2021)

This week we continued on last class's lecture which was about "the 12 principles of animation". During this class, we learned 4 new principles which are Staging, Appeal, Exaggeration and Solid Drawing. Ms Jennifer showed us some examples as well on how to incorporate those principles in our animation. Here are the slides for this week's lecture:

Week 4 (21/04/2021)

For week 4, we learned about the principle "pose-to-pose" or also known as "straight-ahead". Ms Jennifer showed us some visual examples on how to draw the key poses as well. Here are the slides for this week's lecture:

 

Week 5 (28/04/2021)

During this week, Ms Jennifer showed us a tutorial on how to design a character in Adobe Animate. She also showed us how to use the pen tool to create the character as most of us are quite unfamiliar with it. She managed to show us how to group the body parts and create a symbol for it so it'd be easier for us to work with the character. We also continued the lecture on the principles of animation. 

 

Week 6 (05/05/2021)

We completed the lecture for "the 12 principles of animation" this week. Ms Jennifer showed us the judging criteria for exercise 3 which is the character turnaround. 

  

Week 7 (12/05/2021)

In week 7, we learned about "character acting", "character lip sync" and "character expression". This would be used for our project 2. 

Week 8 (19/05/2021)

-INDEPENDENT LEARNING WEEK. 

Week 9 (26/05/2021)

For this week, Ms Jennifer gave us a lecture on environment design in animation. She showed us some examples and the work process of designing an environment. 

 

EXERCISES

Exercise 1 - Character gestures and poses  

Week 1 (31/03/21)

For our first exercise we were told to draw character gestures and poses using FIVE basic shapes such as a square, circle, rectangle etc. Ms Jennifer provided us with an image with the basic shapes. She also advised us to refer to real life poses from images of celebrities/artists or anyone at all with an obvious pose/gesture. 

Fig 1.1 Five basic shapes

To start off with the exercise, I sketched my character's poses and gestures first on Photoshop. 

Fig 1.2 Sketch

After completing my sketches, I moved on to outlining the characters based on the sketch (Fig 1.2). 

Fig 1.3 Exercise 1 (Draft)

 

After submitting this, Ms Jennifer told me to make some minor adjustments on the character's consistency such as the placement of the hands, legs etc. From the feedback given, I made some changes on it.

Fig 1.4 Exercise 1 (Final)

Exercise 2 - Bouncing Ball (Linear & Action)

Week 2 (07/04/21)

For our second exercise, we were told to animate a bouncing ball using Adobe Animate. We were also told to apply the principles of animation in this exercise. The principles we used for this exercise are:

• Squash & Stretch

Elasticity & flexibility (avoid rigidity)

Convey the material of an object

Volume of an object should be maintained

• Timing/ Spacing

The duration/speed of a movement

• Arcs of Motion

Linear arc for mechanical objects

Circular arc for organic objects

Broken arc = erratic/unstable movements

• Slow In & Slow Out

slow in = deacceleration

slow out = acceleration

Fig 2.0 Onion skin layers of bouncing ball (Action)

Fig 2.1 Squash and Stretch principle applied

Exercise 2 - Final Action Bouncing Ball (GIF) 

After completing the action bouncing ball, I proceeded to animate the Linear bouncing ball. 

Fig 2.2 Onion skin layers of linear bouncing ball

Exercise 2 - Final Linear Bouncing Ball (GIF)

Exercise 3 - Character Turnaround

Week 3 (16/04/21)

For our third exercise, we were required to animate a character turnaround. We need to use Adobe Animate for this exercise. We were told to design our own characters and we could use this character for our Film Studies & Cinematography project as well. For our ideation stage, we needed to design the character with a front, side, back and 3/4 view. 

For the character, my idea was to create an adorable little girl with big eyes and bad teeth to match my story for FSC's project. Ideation and references for the character: 

Fig 3.0 Reference 1 -  Vanellope von Schweetz

Fig 3.1 Reference 2 - Hilda

To start off with this exercise, I drew my characters' outline first in Photoshop to get the right poses.

Fig 3.2 Sketch of character turnaround (black and white)

After completing the sketches, I applied colours to my character. 

Fig 3.3 Adding colours to the character (process)

After consulting with Mr Martin (FSC lecturer), I decided to change the colour of my character's hair to black as the brown colour did not seem quite right. I also chose to remove the heart shape on the shirt. After finalizing my character design, I proceeded to animate the turnaround on Adobe Animate. At first it was quite difficult to get used to using the pen tool but after using it for awhile I managed to get the hang of it.  

Exercise 3 - Character Turnaround (GIF)

Reflection: After completing all the exercises, I felt like producing an animation is tougher and more challenging than I thought it would be because I am still learning how to use Adobe Animate. Getting used to all the principles that have been taught might take a lot more practice for me. I truly had fun doing all the exercises though because our new lecturer, Ms Jennifer makes it bearable and easier to understand certain issues. Since this is my first time touching adobe animate, I felt like I did an okay job on the animations. I would like to learn more and can't wait to start animating the final project.