I have always wanted to get into 2D drawing and animation and can't seem to get the right program to use. Other programs the brushes and frame animation uses I find difficult to get the hang of, but in photoshop I find it much easier. This is just me messing around and trying something different. I found it very fun and plan to look more into 2D drawing and animation. I have actually been working on this sort of stuff for a while now and think maybe I could integrate some 2D and 3D elements into some sort of animation. I enjoy hybrid and I think that could really add more interest and depth to an animation.
I have also tried different styles for 2D drawing. I have tested these over quarantine and want to play around with different brushes and styles more. I still really haven't found a type of art style that speaks to me, as you can see I need to practice more and like I said before find my own style.
I currently have a problem with my one rig. The problem is that the arms don't work but the fingers do. Although this is a human rig and not exactly like my robot, this is as close as I am going to find. To fix the arm I think I am just going to re rig the hand part and if this doesn't work I am just going to give up on the fingers and move on because this is taking too long and I really want to start animating. I also struggle with the deform of the objects when I move the rigs but as long as I don't do anything crazy I think I can deal with it for my animation.
Some other concerns I have right now is animating the lighting and the sky. This will make the animation a lot better but add a lot more time onto it. I am concerned because I need to work much more at home. I want a break or something where I have nothing else to do so I can solely work on my animation. I really want this to be perfect but I keep having to jump corners because of time constraints and how I only like working on this project when I am alone and have a lot of time to only think of this. Once I start doing something I don't stop, so that's why I just want a large amount of time to helot to this project to get my vision in motion.
Next Week:
Like I said before I want to finish the rigs and get the sky ready and start animating. I should be ready real soon and I am very excited. My storyboard is very thorough and I have every action planned out. Hopefully next week I can finally start on creating this story.
One of my biggest focuses this marking period was making the scene perfect. There was a specific way I wanted to make it look and I think I achieved this. My story takes place in a scrap yard and it was very important to express this. I kinda wanted t to look like a post apocalyptic sort of place, filled with trash and contrast this bleak idea with compassion and innocence. Although with this style choice comes some problems. I want my characters to stand out, but also with this theme it is more of a monochromatic color scheme so I will have to use other ways to emphasize them.
I had also had these ideas effect the way I want story-line to progress. I want it to be hopeful story, but not exactly all happy. The post-apocalyptic idea is the meaning of this. Like I had said before the contrast of the bleak and destroyed earth and the innocence of
the robots and their emotions will pair well with this.
Planning:
Most of my planning was last marking period where I made my whole storyboard. With the storyboard I had my scene already planned out. I made sure while I was modeling I took my storyboard into account. I already have all the story in my head but the matter of making everything the way I want to is much more difficult than I perceived. Most of my planning with this marking period goes along with my exploration of ideas. I used the references to make the scene the way I wanted. It was very important. Although, I don't think I am by any means amazing at modeling, but I think I got the idea I had planned.
Some other planning I had to do was delegating my time to what I needed to do. This was a bit a struggle for me. I didn't have must time, but when I did I made sure to finish at least one aspect of the scene. I have gotten all the way up to rigging, but I am not quite finished with rigging yet. There are some problems with the rigs I need to fix that may take a while. Rigging was very difficult for me.
Producing:
For my scene I did produce what I wanted. I used the references as the idea and went off it and I believed it turned out well. Although there were some things I had to skip over because they were not working at the moment, such as the smog/fog. It was a effect I has really wanted to add as that last perfect touch to the scene. I will have to try more later.
With rigging I did rig but, the rigs are not that great. There are some mess ups within the rig and this will effect my animation which I am not happy about. I really did try my best. It was my first time rigging and after following the tutorial there were some things wrong because in the tutorial they sis not add rigging to the hands and now the rigs arms do not move so that is a problem I need to fix.
Evaluating:
I had many different struggles this marking period. I struggled with lighting, rigging and finding the exact objects I wanted. Rigging was probably the biggest problem my one robot's arm does not work and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it. Also because the objects on the robots are hollow inside moving the bones causes some exposing of the insides but I don't think this is something I am able to fix. I really wish I had found models that were rigged, but I have fallen in love with these models, so I wouldn't have it any other way. For I am still a bit unsure with what I am doing and will have to work with is while animating, because there are not good tutorials on day and night cycling in animation. This will all be a very big learning experience and I am excited for that, but I also just want to get things done and have them be the way I want, but that's not going to happen.
Integrating:
Next marking period I will definitely spend more time on the project. I was very lazy this marking period and I did not get all that I wanted to get done. By now I had wished to be animating, but I am a bit behind. Starting next marking period I am fixing my rigs, adjusting some lighting and then I should be ready. I want to devote a lot of time to this, but with my job and school I worry I won't work on it as much as I want to,
I've reached the point where I soon will be animating. Before I start I want to know how to improve the animation. The video above gives me tips for before I start animating and the video below gives me tips for while I'm animating. This weekend I watched some animated movies just for fun. I watched Ratatouille, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wall-E and Zootopia. Like it said in the first video it is good to watch some professional animations before you do one yourself and I feel I took a lot from those movies. I had seen those movies many times before, so this time I was trying to watch them from a technical standpoint. The movies are so amazing I honestly don't know how you get to the point where you are that good.
The second video mostly just goes through him animating this man with the use of a video. I think that technique could be very useful, but for my animation I don't think I can use it. I want to be very careful with me animating. I don't want all my work to be put into it then it to turn out badly animated. The character animation is what I'm worried about most. It is what I am most excited for, but also what I am not the best at. But I feel I can definitely grow from this no matter how I do.
Next Week:
Next week I am going to try to finish off everything I need to start animating and study walk cycles. The way a character moves can mean a lot for its identity and because there is no speaking in my animation body language is the only thing that defines the character. Maybe I should make some sketches for how I want the character to move. Over break I plan to make great progress on this animation and may even have some to show my blog.
