During the first term of the course I had the opportunity to learn different techniques and Tutorials which would allow me to improve my skills in both animation and drawing. With Life Drawing on Thursdays I can develop my drawing skills and anatomy techniques, while on Mondays and Tuesdays I worked on practice animations.
Monday Animation workshops:
For Unit 1 we are required to create various short animation exercises to help us improve our skills in 2d digital animation as well as applying the 12 principles of animation into practice. From a bouncing ball to a character with a tail, lifting, push/pull, a walk cycle, a Quadruped walk Cycle, body acting and lip sync. I enjoyed creating and learning each animation exercise as well as having my Tutors guiding me and giving a second opinion which helped me complete each exercise. Below are keyframe sketches for some of the exercises:
3D Workshops and Inductions:
I also had the opportunity to attend various workshops such as the 3D make workshop. During this time I learnt about the various different machinery used and the safety requirements during its use. I had the opportunity to also use some of these machines ensuring that the correct safety precautions were taken. Overall it was a very new experience which I was able learn a lot from for future projects that I may want to create in the 3D make space.
15/10/24 -3D Modelling and Scanning
Today I did a few experimentations using modelling clay to create characters and then have them scanned for use in Maya. We did this in groups, each person in the group designed a body part. I was in charge of designing the head for our character. I was going for a LO-FI style in terms of colours.
Once they were Scanned into Maya where we would practise rigging the characters:
Tuesday 2D digital Animation Workshops:
5/11/24- Using Adobe Animate
I did a practice test animation using the techniques learnt in the 2D Digital Animation class for Adobe animate, I learnt how to use tweening, Morphing and Looping. I created a strawberry that morphs into a Blueberry.
I also created a flight path animation for a bird using reference from the flight animation cycle, my idea was to animate a flock of goose flying over a mountain landscape.
Character and Brushes Practice using Photoshop:
Using photoshop I created a few different characters as I wanted to experiment with different brush styles both for future characters and backgrounds. I used a Gauche style brush for the two sample background studies and I used various thick textured brushes for the different characters, playing with the size and opacity of the brushes as well as how sharp or smooth the edges of the strokes would be.
Using 3D software NOMAD:
During my learning I downloaded the Software Nomad which was free to use without having to buy a licence. This software is good for sculpting 3D characters as well as importing 3D scans. I wanted to try out sculpting my own character, I had to first learn the software tools and how to maneuverer around. But I picked up the techniques quickly and began to sculpt. I wanted to create the head of a Dragon so I used a few references on Pinterest to give me an idea of what features I wanted. I also used the paint tools and texture to experiment with different looks. Of course I still need more practice especially in adding more detail to the character, but it was a new experience I wanted to try.
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