Testing..

I've been practicing a few walk cycles the past couple of weeks to get my head round how im going to go about this animation.

I sketched a simple one to begin with of a plain human figure. This was just to get my head around the different stages - ups, downs, contacts etc. I didn't have my light box so this was the result..

This gave me a basic understanding of how it should 'work' I then attempted to give it some character...

This works relatively well yet its hard to visualise any movement and how fluid it'll be as I didnt have my lightbox to ensure all's working ok.

From here I began to worry how I could apply this to my character - the rabbit. Therefore I sketched a couple of stills to see how it would work

I now have a much better understanding of perspective and form, and how it can apply to the walk cycles.

From this, on arrival back home and to my lightbox, I combined the two and came up with a (very short) walk cycle! I'm quite pleased with it, but I recognise it needs a lot of work. Not bad for a first attempt though!

Dont blink you will miss it!

http://youtu.be/zcFBwQF3m8E

I also need to get my tripod from home!

Next i'm going to sketch some story outline storyboard and then much more detailed change of action ones. Wish me luck!

Quick Update!

I've been a bit swamped with Uni work atm (Last deadline!), so i've had very little time to work on this project.

I have however realised how difficult it's going to be!

I've been reading a frame by frame animation book, and it's dawned on me what a complex process it is and just how long it takes. This is something that I really want to do though, so although it may take some (alot) of time to complete, I will get there!!

Reading it has made me realised though how in CGI you lose creativity. When animating on software I dont think immediately think, 'now how can i give this walk character, individuality and a personality' I just make it walk to facilitate it moving. Therefore, I really think this project is really going to aid my creativity a great deal.

I already have thoughts around how I want the one who gets run over to walk. To walk out into a busy road without looking you must be pretty stupid, therefore I'm going to give him a really goofy, stupid walk and actions. And the other, I want to be over acted and excited.

I have a hell of a lot of development to do!!

Tasks for the next week or two are to continue reading the book, and if i get time sketch up some storyboards and redesign my characters :)

WATCH THIS SPACE

Preliminary Sketches

Ok, so these aren't the best but it has outlined a few things I wouldn't have realised having not done them.

1) I desire the character to stand on its hind legs, not all fours

2) drawing in a very sketched style, as seen below, would create great difficulties in terms of continuity

3) therefore I am going to sketch each frame, as seen with the first picture, and then outline them in black felt, as seen, and use photoshop to colour each one. This will be the most efficient in terms of time and maintaining continuity.

4) I am going to draw 2/3 main backgrounds for all the scenes

I'm also going to animate in a layered style, keeping the characters and organic assets separate to the non-organic.

Here's my first sketch, not too pleased with this, not my best, yet it helped my process.

From this I realised I didn't like the character being on all fours. This would restrict alot of movement, and just generally wasn't the style I desired.

I then went on to sketch and colour another copy

And outline it to colour using digital ink

and the final outcome...

Im not displeased with these. They're a great basis, but it needs alot of work, and they need clothes!! :)

Catching Ideas

So, this animation in development is based on road kill.

Blood, Gore and dead rabbits won't be in short supply.

My most recent purchase has been a lightbox, and I am keen to go back to the archaic form of hand-drawn animation.

Now I have worked out for a 30 second animation (this may end up shorter!) at 12fps (I refuse to do a solo project at any more than that) i'll need to draw 360 frames. Now that's quite alot for such a little project. Not only that but this is my first frame-by-frame project that hasn't been through CGI. I've been reading a book upon frame-by-frame animation, and I think for this one I am going to have to outline every frame, even if it is a quick sketch and a few notes scribbled down to illustrate slow/fast ins or outs.

Despite this I am keen to get going!!

Now my idea as I said before is based on road kill. Here's a few pics to get your creative minds flowing..

So now it's seen that road kill can be a little funny, i'm going to toy on this with my narrative.

The idea came about whilst out in the car, on a day where the roads where littered with dead animals. It got me thinking, I wonder if animals miss and grieve for their passed beings as we would. I then got to thinking about how it could provide the basis to an animation. I arrived at this:

(A very brief outline)

- scene of 4 rabbits on the side of the road. 2 are playing throw and catch with a small birds egg they have found in the grass. The other two are laid on their backs sunbathing, overlooking the other two playing. We get the sense that these are the parents, and the active ones are the children.

- one of the two gets a little excited in their activity and throws the egg a little too far and into the road.

- slow mo of the egg flying through the air, cut in with a rabbit running onto the road his hands in the air ready to catch the falling egg

- quick cut of a pov shot of a speeding car, horn and headlights towards the rabbit

- another fast cut of the rabbit squashed against the grill

- shot of the back end of the car passing by, horn becoming more distant. revealing the comically dead, imprinted grill rabbit on the floor.

- cut to siblings face shocked and clearly distraught

- parents quickly rise to fetch the dead rabbit and haul him off the road, scene of the empty road

- upon dragging him back into the grassy verge, the rabbit places his paw onto the rabbits nose, twitches his own three times, thumps his foot four, and spins around twice.

- the sibling is looking onto his father dumbfounded, intrigued as to what he is doing

- upon resting from the last spin a bright soul like light leaves the dad's nose and arrives into the child's nose as he takes a deep breath in and suddenly jumps to his feet

- closing scene of the siblings face looking shocked and overjoyed, the mothers looking content and proud, and the father smirking, the previous dead rabbit is jumping around full of life as though nothing had happened.

As the main characters give much to this scene - there is little on offer other than that, i have had a look into some rabbits for reference. There are the obvious ones such as bugs bunny, however I differ from the highly cartooned style that they depict. So far I have looked into these:

Watership down (1978)

Winnie the pooh

Peter Rabbit (1902) I like the use of clothing to personify him. Makes it a bit more emotional!

As you can see im going for a sketched style, more realistic looking rabbit. This is my natural drawing style, I tend to differ from bold sharp edges of comic book cartoons.

I'm now going to get sketching so watch this space!! :)