Animation Fundamental: Project 1

20.09.2023 - 15.10.2023 / Week 4 - Week 7
Sylvia Lau / 0356130
Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

Animation Fundamental / Project 1

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INSTRUCTION

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LECTURE

Week 4

Animation Principle: Solid Drawing

A line of action is an imaginary line running through a character that describes the direction and motion of the body and it is also the leading force of a character's action.

Figure 1.1 Dynamic Poses

Harsher, Dynamic poses = Angles and straight lines

Relaxed poses = curves and soft lines

Figure 1.2 Animating Contrast

Figure 1.3 Clear Silhouette

Figure 1.4 Negative Space

Having a variety of negative spaces between the arms and legs, as well as a nice contrast of large spaces and small spaces helps to build a dynamic silhouette and keeps the pose interesting.

Figure 1.5 Shape and Joint Overlap

Figure 1.6 Avoid Twinning Pose

Animation Principle: Appeal

An appeal was important from the start. Anything that person like to see such as:

• A quality of charm
• Pleasing design
• Simplicity
• Communication
• Magnetism

A weak drawing lacks appeal such as:

• Complicated 
• Poor design
• Clumsy shape
• Awkward moves

Spectators enjoy watching something that is appealing such as:

• An expression
• A character
• A movement
• Whole story situation

Week 5

Animation Principle: Animation Clarity

Clarity is keeping your shot clean and precise; for instance, it could mean simplifying the movements of your character so it's easier for the audience to keep up.

1. Clarity in Staging: 

The precise meaning is the presentation of any idea so that it is understood and unmistakably clear. An action, a personality, an expression, a mood, each is communicating to the fullest extent with the viewer when it is properly staged.

2. Clarity in Exaggeration

More exaggerated doesn't mean a distorted drawing. If the character is sad, make him sadder, bright makes him brighter. More realism means more convincing, bigger contact with people, and never destroying believability. 

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Project 1A: Character Design

For this work progression, we were required to design a character based on the character description from the Film Studies and Cinematography class. The goal was to create a character design that reflects his or her personality and is visually appealing.

Character Development from Film Studies Class:

To begin, we were suggested to take any references from the existing character that resembles our character. The movie that I picked for my character was Tinkerbell and Maleficent.

References:

I searched for inspiration on Pinterest and these were the images that I found to shape my character.

Progression:

Figure 2.1 Body Sketch

I sketched out the character's shape and drew lines to maintain each part of the body shape.

Figure 2.2 Character Sketch

Then, I drew out the character that I wanted to be according to the film studies class.

Figure 2.3 Refine

I erased the sketchy lines and replaced them with a clean line.

Figure 2.4 Base Color

The color was based on the reference that I found.

Figure 2.5 Highlights and Shadows

I added some shadow parts to the hair, dress, and skin.

Figure 2.6 Adjustment on the skirt

I changed the color of the skirt to a lighter version because the color before was similar to the skin.

Figure 2.7 Face Sketch

The face expressions that I wanted to draw were happy, scared, surprised, sad, and shy.

Figure 2.8 Character Expression

But according to my character story, I changed the sad face to be funnier, scared to be scarier with tears, and the shy expression to an angry expression.

Figure 2.9 Refine

Erasing the sketchy lines and drawing again with cleaner lines.

Figure 2.10 Base Color

Applying the base color following to the character design.

Figure 2.11 Highlights and Shadows

Lastly, applied the shadow parts on the faces and hair.

Figure 2.12 Pose 1

Figure 2.13 Pose 2

Figure 2.14 Pose 3

Figure 2.15 Pose 4

Figure 2.16 Pose 5

Before finding references, I thought of the personality of the character and she was an active and energetic person, so the poses that I needed to find were playful and filled with joy.

Figure 2.17 Sketch

Figure 2.18 Sketch 

Following the poses, I sketched out the character again.

Figure 2.19 Refine

Figure 2.20 Refine

Deleted the sketchy lines and drew with a cleaner line.

Figure 2.21 Base Color

Figure 2.22 Base Color

Applying the base color following to the character design.

Figure 2.23 Shadow and Highlights

Figure 2.24 Shadow and Highlights

Lastly, applied the shadow parts to the character.

Adjustment:

After the feedback was given, I added a third-quarter pose to the character design. Besides, I also adjusted the color of the dress, skin tone, and hair shadow. I chose the skin color which was lighter and the bottom of the dress to whiter because both of the color was quite similar. 

Project 1B: Environment Design

In the next section, we would need to create layout designs for an animated project using perspective. The goal of this task was to create visually interesting and dynamic layouts that enhance the story and the mood of the animation. 

Reference:

Sketch:

Figure 3.1 Rough Sketch

The environment that I wanted to design was the trees and plants that were huge in size because the character was a fairy and everything around her was tall. So, the reference that I found was in a forest with plants and trees, and I sketched out the image following the reference on paper.

Digitalize:

Figure 3.2 Digital Sketch

Figure 3.3 Shading

Figure 3.4 Refine

After finished drawing the environment, I added the character in one of the empty spaces.

Color:

Figure 3.5 Color reference

After drawing out the lines, I also found some images as references to color my drawings since I was not very good at matching colors.

Figure 3.6 Progress

I picked out the base color and applied it to my drawings and I realized that I wasn't satisfied with the work that I had done because the environment didn't show how big they were, so I decided to find another idea.

Second Attempt:

Figure 3.7 Rough Sketch 2

Figure 3.8 Rough Sketch 3

Figure 3.9 Rough Sketch 4

I searched for other images as references and sketched them out on the paper, but the outcome was not very good to me.

Final Attempt:

Figure 3.10 References

Figure 3.11 Rough Sketch

Figure 3.12 Refine

By combining some parts of the references, I managed to sketch out the environment design for this final attempt.

Progression:

Figure 3.13 Leaves

Figure 3.14 Flowers

Figure 3.15 Rock

Figure 3.16 River

Figure 3.17 Tree

Figure 3.18 Grass

Figure 3.19 Background

Figure 3.20 Character

Figure 3.21 Final Outcome

Final Submission:

Figure 4.1 Project 1A

Figure 4.2 Project 1A

Figure 4.3 Project 1A

Figure 4.4 Project 1A

Figure 4.5 Project 1A

Figure 4.6 Project 1B

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FEEDBACK

Week 5

The character looks fine, the color could be taken from the reference.

Week 6 

Overall is okay. The saturation of color needs to be adjusted, the color of the hair was too eye-catching. You also need to add one more third-quarter pose.