Cat Character walk

This is my cat character line test. He has quite a simple walk, he will be interacting with a heavy box, a kite and ice. Hopefully it will all go according to plan!

Lip sync

Just thought i'd post my lip sync in vimeo, it might be better quality.

Character Plasticine Model

After Andys advice I decided to create a plasicine model of my character. I am a very visual person and it could help my when drawing the different angles of my character. I don't think I am great at creating sculptures but I had a go at it. It took a few hours and it came out looking quite like my character although its not perfect. The legs aren't great, but I was woried that if I took anymore plasticine away from the legs, it wouldn't support itself. I'm surprised that I actually got it to stand without any support. It has helped me to draw my character much more easily from diferent angles as it can be really frustrating trying to imagine it and then get it down on paper without any visual aid. As a result, I am quite pleased with my character sculpture.

Character Design

These are my designs for the 20 second animation we have to produce. The character must interact with three of the following:

- Boulder
- Heavy Box
- Ice
- Puddles
- Kite
- Balloon
- Football

It took me quite a while to think of what I wanted my character to interact with, but I think I know what I want to do. It is also important to mention that it is the quality of the animation and how the character interacts with the above that is important.

Here are some illustrations of my character I created in Photoshop:

I wanted to keep my design simple because adding detail would take much longer to complete the animation and it is the personality of the character and the animation that is important, not so much the design and the story.

Alien Walk

Just thought I would put my Alien walk cycle to some music, because although its not necessary - It's a change to silence.

Photoshop Alien Walk

Here is my Alien walk cycle created in Photoshop. It took me hours to complete and I think it has come out alright. I also tried to go one step further and try to make him walk across the page. However, because I have Photoshop elements - there is no animate button. I had to save it to the web for it to animate, which is really annoying. It didn't come out great but it is a start.

Lip Sync 4

 

This is another Lip Sync I have created today, with the quote ' I was just trying to be brave like you' said by Simba from the Lion King. For this animation, I created another cat character inspired by Simba.

I tried to show that he was breathing heavily at the beginning of the animation, by expanding his chest. I think it worked out pretty well. I also wanted to have his eyes darting around because he is in a distressed/upset state - although they might dart around too much. During the end of the animation - as he says 'brave like you', I made his ears go backwards to show his saddness.

I also noticed that after his breathing, he closes his mouth and I think this makes the animation less smooth and is a bit distracting. I created another one, this time leaving his mouth open as he is just about to speak. I think it is an improvement from the first one. Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome.

Improved Alien Walk

Here is my fully improved Alien walk cycle. I created each frame again, this time making sure that the movement of the legs was correct and I also exaggerated the swinging of the arms. I am quite pleased with it, although I still think there are a few adjustments to be made to make it look much smoother. I will try to make the final walk as smooth as possible.

Lip Sync 3

This is another lip sync I have created today. I decided to try creating a different character for the audio clip. So I decided to create a squirrel. I think its ok - though not great. I think I need to work on exaggerating the mouth movements so that the difference between different words is more visible. His eyes are also doing weird things where I have shaded a certain area in for only one frame. I noticed that Daffy's voice sounded angry whilst saying 'I'm an elk' and then sounded much more desperate when saying 'shoot me'. I tried to show this through my characters expression.

Lip Sync 2

Here are some more lip syncs I created today with my cat character. The difference between the two is that the bottom video has the 'a hmm'  that Daffy says at the beginning of the audio clip and the top one does not. I thought that I best put both of them up to show my progress. I think that they came out ok, as I finally feel like I am getting the hang of it. I find lip syncs to be quite difficult, although I am now becoming more familiar through practicing. It also takes quite a long time because once the main mouth movements are created, you have to fill the gaps in and the characters expression has to match the audio clip.

Lip Sync: First Attempt

 

This is my first Lip Sync using the line 'Shoot the duck!'. This was my first attempt and I am quite pleased that it came out ok. I was concentrating on trying to make sure that the mouth movements went in time with the dialogue, so I think I still need to work on the expression. Again, it is very important that all the facial features work together to portray the correct emotion. I think my cat character is simple enough, however, I also think the ears play a large role in portraying emotion. For example, if an animal is angry or sad, its ears will go back; if the animal is happy, shocked or proud, its ears will point forward. I will keep working on the expression.

Facial Expressions

I just wanted to create a facial expression page to show the contrast in facial expressions depending on the emotion being portrayed. All features of the face must work correctly so that the emotion can be read. This is very important for the Lip Sync as the facial expression should relate to the audio/voice. If it does not relate, it will not seem realistic. Therefore, it is important to understand how the facial features move together when expressing different emotions.

Here are some more sketches of my cat character.I have been trying out different expressions as well as trying to get the mouth movement correct for certain words. The most important mouth movements are all of the vowels - A, E, I, O, U and the important consonants include B, M, P, F, T, V. The mouth positions also affect the eyes, eyebrows and cheeks so it is important that the whole face works in correlation so that it translates the emotion.

Lip Sync Character Design

These are some of my character designs for the Lip Sync exercise. The audio clip that I will be using is from 'Looney Tunes' - 'Daffy Ducks' voice. I decided to create a cat character.

Alien Walk Cycle Repeat

After feedback from my walk cycle, I decided to re-do my Alien Walk to clear up a few mistakes. I think i managed to get rid of the weird tick in his back arm as he walks. I also tried to make his legs look more realistic in the way he moves from the passing position into the up position. Hopefully it looks much better and improved compared to my first alien walk cycle.

Ball Bounce Repeat

After feedback on one of my ball bounces, I learned that the ball needed to travel much faster when falling to the ground due to gravity. I made sure that the balls had a greater distance between them and I also had to take out a frame to make sure that it worked appropriately. I also tried to make the ball appear less flat when hitting the ground, so I reduced the amount of squash I used.

Walk Cycle 3

This is my 3rd Walk Cycle. I decided to draw a simple outline of an Alien character. I am becoming more familiar with the walk cycle now as i found it quite difficult when creating the first walk cycle. I think this walk cycle went ok, although there were a few things that could be altered. I noticed that the shaded arm has a weird tick in it when it swings back. During the passing position and into the up position, his leg does not move quite right. It moves upwards instead of forwards. After feedback, it was also clear that the bounce in his step as he walks is not very noticeable, as he has quite long legs. I will make changes and adjustments so that the walk is much more smooth.

Walk Cycle - With Arms

After my first Walk Cycle, i created the arms. I tried to get the arms to move as natural as possible. However, in order to get a ver good walk cycle - i think i will have to practice a lot more. Hopefully i will eventually end up with a good walk cycle with fluid movement.

Walk Cycle

This is my very first Walk Cycle. I found this quite difficult and i wasn't sure that it would come out very well. However, i think it came out ok for my first walk cycle. I didn't draw the arms as i wanted to focus on getting the head, body and legs to move as good as correctly as i could.

Ball Bounce

This is another Ball Bounce i created in order to see if i could make sure the ball was consistent in volume, as my other ball bounces changed in shape in certain frames. I also wanted to make sure that i used enough squash and stretch so that it looked like a ball and less like a water balloon. I made sure that the frame of the ball hitting the floor wasn't so stretched. I think it turned out alright.

Colour Rugby Ball

I wanted to add colour to my previous Rugby Ball Animation. I also added 3 stitches on the ball to try and show it rotating through the air. This would hopefully make it appear more life like and realistic. Overall, i think it came out ok.

Rugby Ball Animation

This time i tried animating a rugby ball because of its shape. I am becoming familiar with the round bouncing ball exercises and i wanted to see if i was able to animate a rugby ball flying through the air. It came out ok and i am quite happy with it.

Basketball Bounce

Another Bouncing Ball Exercise!!! This time i tried animating a basketball bouncing through a hoop. I am quite pleased with it. Once again it was planned on paper and transferred into Photoshop. It is 33 frames.

Purple Ball Bounce

Another Ball Bounce Exercise. I wanted to create an animation of a ball bouncing on the spot. I think it came out ok; but i think i could have used more squash and stretch to make it appear more bouncy and i think that this would have given it more character.

Colour Ball Bounce

I have been exprimenting with colour in Photoshop. I have taken all of my seperate drawings of my first bouncing ball animation and added colour - although it looks more like a pea than a ball. I think it came out alright. I would like to use more frames and create a longer animation.

My Third Bouncing Ball Exercise

This is my third Bouncing Ball Exercise, i think it looks much more smooth compared to the balloon animation. I tried to make sure that the ball bounce looked realistic by using squash and stretch - giving the ball a feeling of weight. I think that it is important to exaggerate certain points of an animated object in order to show weight and energy.

My Second Attempt

This time i applied the techniques i learned and tried something different. I attempted to animate a balloon falling on a pin and popping. I don't think its great and i prefer my first bouncing ball animation. I think i definately needed more frames as a balloon would naturally float down much more slowly in contrast to my animation.

My First Bouncing Ball Exercise

This is the first time i have ever tried to animate so i am new to this. I create characters and illustrations, so this is the first time i have ever animated a drawing. I really enjoyed it and this was my first attempt.