This April vacation I got a lot done on my senior project applied piece. I dove into the project head first, without much planning. This method is known as the ‘straight ahead’ approach. I favor straight ahead even though it has distinct disadvantages. According to the Animators Survival Kit disadvantages include but are not limited to:
• Things start to wonder
• Time stretches and the shot gets longer and longer
• Characters grow and shrink
• We tend to miss the point of the shot and not arrive at the right place at the right time.
• It can be hard on the nerves

While straight ahead fits my personality and work habits, it isn’t the ideal way to build a proper animation. The opposite of straight ahead is ‘pose to pose.’ This is when the animator carefully plans out the animation. “First we decide what are the most important drawing-the storytelling drawings, the keys- and put them in. Then we decide what are the next most important positions that have to be in the scene. These are the extremes and we put them in- and any other important poses. Then we work out how to go from one pose to another – finding the nicest transition between two poses. These are the breakdown or passing positions.”

The best way to animate is a combination of straight ahead and pose to pose. There is a lot of emphasis on planning and improvising. Sketches are the foundation for the final product but there is plenty of room for improvisation. You get that spontaneity of straight ahead with the coherency of pose to pose.
My biggest adversary in making my bouncing ball animation was the lead in. I had no idea how I was going to create an affect that prepares the audience for the balls motions. I did some research on fading in and out, and it’s a perfect way to create a title screen. I simply drew a black square covering the entire stage, added a title over it, and faded the box to be transparent after 10 seconds. I still have a problem though, after the box would fade the animation would start abruptly and there was no time to absorb what was happening on the screen.


A light bulb went off in my head. I decided to prepare the audience by spawning the ball through a tree. I animated rainclouds which rain on soil and give life to a tree. This tree rabidly grows and gives life to the ball, which falls from the tree and bounces on the ground, the precursor to the obstacle course.




While I’m pleased with my progress and creativity I am dissatisfied with the Microsoft paint –esque look my animation has. It is also very choppy because it is done in 12 frames per second instead of the industry standard 24 frames per second.
To enhance these flaws I’m hoping to add a virtual camera which will allow me to zoom in and out and pan across the screen. Without the virtual camera my animation becomes confusing because when the ball has bounced to the other side of the screen I can’t pan the camera to follow the ball I have to create a new stage which makes for a choppy animation.

An early history of animation

The Animators survival kit has been a great tool. Ive learned a lot about the history of animation and the fundamentals behind them. Over 35,000 years ago humans began painting animals on caves that showed motion. In 1600 BC the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II built a temple to the goddess Isis which had 110 columns. Ingeniously, each column had a painted figure of the goddess in a progressively changed position. To horsemen or charioteers riding past-Isis appeared to move! The ancient Greeks decorated pots with figures in successive stages of action. Spinning the pot would create a sense of motion. It was not until 1824 that ‘the persistence of vision’ principal was discovered. This principle rests on the fact that our eyes temporarily retain the image of anything they’ve just seen. If this wasn’t so, we would never get the illusion of an unbroken connection in a series of images, and neither movies nor animation would be possible. Many people don’t realize that movies don’t actually move, and that they are still images that appear to move when projected in a series. Animation by definition is the illusion of continuous action. In 1868 the flipper book was invented. It was simply a pad of drawings bound like a book along one edge. Hold the book in one hand along the bound edge and with the other hand flip the pages and the result is an illusion of motion. Today the classical animator still flips his drawings the same way as a flipper book before testing it on video. He places the drawings in a sequence, with the low numbers on the bottom, then flips through the action from the bottom up. In 1896 a New York newspaper cartoonist James Stuart Blackton interviewed the inventor Thomas Edison who was experimenting with moving pictures. Blackton did some sketches of Edison, who was impressed by Blackton’s speed and drawing facility and asked hm to do some drawings in a series. Later, Edison photographed these- the first combination of drawings and photography. In 1906 they publicly released Humerous Phases of Funny Faces. Blackton used about 3000 ‘flickering drawings’ to make this first animated picture- the forefather of the animated cartoon.

A few years later Winsor McCay was the first man to try to develop animation as an art form. In 1914 he created his most famous character Gertie the dinosaur. This was the first ‘personality’ animation- the beginnings of a cartoon individually. It was so lifelike that the audience could identify with Gertie. It was a sensation. McCay also made the first serious dramatic cartoon, The Sinking of the Lusitania, in 1918. A war propaganda film expressing outrage at the catastrophe, it was a huge step forward in realism and drama- the longest animated film so far. 25,000 drawings shot one at a time.



In 1928 Mickey Mouse took off with his appearance in Steamboat Willie – the first cartoon with synchronized sound. ‘You have no idea of the impact that having these drawings suddenly speak and make noises had on audiences at the time. People went crazy over it’ (Ward Kimball, early Disney Animator) In 1932 the first full color cartoon Flowers and Trees was made. In 1937 Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first fully animated feature length film, raising cartoon drwaring to the level of art and holding the audience spellbound for eighty-three minutes. The tremendous financial and critical success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the foundation of Disney’s output and gave birth to the ‘Golden Age’ of animation: Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi and fantasia.

Here is a short clip i finished today. It took me about a half hour of work total. It is based off my Flash Demo 1 sketch. Although there are no moving parts, i taught it was necessary to play around with the rolling ball physics and squash and stretch. I made the piece as i went, i didn't know how it was going to look at the end. This goes against the advise of my mentors, who suggest breaking down my animation into smaller peices but i was anxious play around with my idea. The cup that the ball landed in was actually supposed to be a cup with a joint which allows it to tip over. Considering how much time this would take i made it stationary for this example. I realize how unrealistically my ball seems to hover and float in the air after launching off the ramp. The balls trajectory seems off. When the ball lands in the cup it bounces around a couple of times and stops abruptly. I deffinely lost motivation towards the end of the clip, explaining the messy finish. With some more practice and patience, i will get this right.

march 19

After taking the advice of planning before doing, i have drawn out two sketches of animations i hope to complete. I used lined paper, pens and pencils to create these simple sketches. The first sketch, titled "Flash Demo 1" is an obstacle course involving two balls, blue and green. Initially the blue ball rolls down a ramp, lands in a cup which tips over, spilling the ball on a see-saw which launches the green ball.
My second piece is a little more complicated. The green ball is riding on a sled on wheels which catapults it across the field until it finally crashes into the three blocks. My two sketches will utilize several of the 12 principals of animation including squash and stretch, slow in slow out and others. These are very early concepts and I am going to revise and edit them as i go along. Once i get advice from my outside experts i will make these changes.

March 17

Over the past weeks i have gathered a lot of information on how i should be tackling this project. I am actively communicating with my outside experts. Kris Dunham explained that the higher the frames per second (fps) in an animation the more detail you can create. Flash Pro's default FPS is 12, meaning for every second in an animation there are 12 frames. 3d animation requires higher fps because 3D has a realism aspect that would be canceled out under 12 frames. Creating an animation in 12 fps has its benefits. Animations will be less time consuming. Also the finished product would be smaller file size and have faster rendering time. He reminded me that animation is half planning and half doing. I have to put my ideas on paper before I can start animating. He also told me about the stages of animation. Instead of putting it into my own words I’ve copied and pasted his exact words:

Reference. Look around and use the world as your reference for your animation. Go get a ping pong ball and bounce it around and film it.

Thumbnails. Draw little tiny sketches of what you want to accomplish in your animation and the timing you want. You want to understand what Key frames there are and where they fit in your time line.

Blocking. My favorite part. Blocking is when you put your key frames into the software that you are using. Only the key frames go in at this time. It will help you feel out the timing. At first your blocking will look like a bunch of snap shots but trust me it helps. In the bouncing ball exercise it is only the times the ball hits its peaks and when it hits the ground/objects.

Blocking Plus. This is when you throw in your breakdowns. Remember those are the keys between the key frames. They are so important. A bad breakdown will kill an animation. This part also helps solidify the timing and spacing of an animation. A beginner animator might find his/her toughest battles at this point. But don't lose hope, just work through it. The good news is that we often only make the same mistake a dozen times before we really truly learn from it. When you playback at this point you will see what kind of timing changes need to be done. From personally experience it is better to be a tad too quick on the timing then too slow.

Refining. This is where you do your inbetweens and fill up all the gaps of the animation. Sometimes you wont have to touch all the inbetweens but make sure that they are what you want.

Polish. This is where you separate the amateurs and pros. This starts when everything is in there, Key frames, Breakdowns, and Inbetweens. The animation has all the information in it and reads well but now is the time to show how beautiful the actions really are. You go back all through the animation and decided what needs to be tweaked and played with. This is called "finesse". You will hear sometimes animators say ," His blocking stinks but he finesses it so well it looks great." I know a couple animators who have that skill.

Finalizing. Generally you show your work all through the following processes to some people who understand animation. But finalizing you show it to people who don’t know anything about animation. Mostly because blocking and blocking plus will never impress and just confuse a non-animator. This is just a tidying up process. Any loose ends you have might need to be addressed. I usually take a sweep through the eye area. People watch eyes of characters more than the watch anything else. Now in the bouncing ball experiment you would just take a look at your S&S. You might decide to squash 18% rather than 15%. It really is a nit picky stage.

These stages make sense to me. I have been trying to do everything at once and it hasn’t worked to well for me. Instead of putting my ideas down I would rush to animation and it would come out sloppy. I am going to use these tips so that I can create a polished product. I am a little mixed up about key frames and blocking. Blocking is very useful because it lays out the most important parts of the animation, thus guiding you along. However I’m not sure how I am going to incorporate blocking into Flash. I am used to doing 1 frame at a time one after the other. Now I have to figure out how to space out and time out my animation before I even start animating. I am going to continue a dialogue with my outside experts to address these concerns.

February 28

The Illusion of Life has offered me many insights in the world of hand drawn animation. Thus far i have learned how Walt Disney methods helped shape the animation industry as it stands today. Early animation was crude and unrefined until Walt introduced his ideas to the scene. After his animation team completed a couple of successful animations, Walt suggested they begin creating more life like animations instead of the more primitive "rubber hose" style of drawing. Thus realism in animation was discovered, For example Instead of Micky Mouse being able to extend his hands infinetly until he grabs an object, he'l now be drawn out walking up the object to pick up. Disney's animations surpassed others at the time because its characters had feelings and emotions unlike any other at the time.This more lifelike approach took more time but Walt learned how to save time using a few simple techniques. The drawing boards used by animators of the early 1930's had pegs which held the artist paper firmly in place. When the paper is held by pegs at the top of the board it is impossible to flip more than one drawing at a time. Walt discovered that by placing the pegs on the bottom five papers could be "rolled" at a time enabling the animator to correct the relationships and strengthen the action as he makes the drawings.

February 1

Today I talked to Jane and Kathy about the stress I'm having regarding this project. I ask myself daily "Was this the right decision, is this too ambitious?" We concluded that by organizing my thoughts i can help alleviate my stress. I have broken down my project into these priorities.

-Creating a storyboard

-Learning basic flash techniques like layers and sound.

-Contact outside experts.

January 26

I have been practicing the "Motion Tween" feature in flash. This is a very helpful tool because it can transform objects or move them across the field without having to painstakingly do it frame by frame. For example, here i have a rainbow ball which transforms into ALEX. I did this by creating the rainbow on the first frame, then i selected frame 35 and drew ALEX. So on frame 1 i have a rainbow ball and frame 35 ALEX with blank frames in between. To transform the rainbow ball into ALEX i simply selected the motion tween option. Motion tweening has a lot of possibilities and i am going to continue experimenting with this.

So far i have conducted research through experimentation. Much of which is trial and error. For instance i have had a lot of trouble with motion and shape tweening. The frame by frame animation I'm used to takes a lot of time so tweening saves a lot of time. However I'm wasting time trying to figure things out.

As you can see tweening creates a more fluid motion than frame by frame drawing. However I'm confused why I have to select shape tween instead of motion tween to make the ball move. The squash and stretch principal isn't utilized because the program gets confused and thinks I want the ball to gradually stretch as it falling to the ground. This isn't what I want of course, I want it to squash and stretch as it hits the ground. You can see the difficulty I'm having first hand. When the ball collides with the ground it bounces back and just looks generally unappealing.

January 12

I discovered a valuable peice of information today. The 12 basic principals of animation. It is found in "the bible of the animation industry" The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. The 12 principals are:

Squash and stretch

Anticipation

Staging

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

Follow through and overlapping action

Slow in and Slow Out

Arcs

Secondary Action

Timing

Exaggeration

Solid Drawing

Appeal

Below i created a simple demonstration of the squash and stretch principal. As the ball collides with the ground, the impact causes the ball to squash. As it becomes airborn it stretched back to its orrigional shape.

January 4

I figured out what i want to. Instead of Habitat or Web Design I've decided to do my senior project on flash animation. My essential question is "How can i teach myself to be a flash animator." I'm pleased to have finally chosen a topic. However I'm still unsure that it could be overly ambitious.

Ive made two demo animations. I created a brief demonstration of a stick figure running. It is rough and unpolished. It looks like it's running, but not smoothly. I need to keep practicing and conduct research. My other animation is more abstract. It consists of a single line bouncing off of walls spawning other lines which bounce and continue the process.

So far I've learned that aniamators use mathematical equations, such as the law of cosine to create realistic animations.

December 10

I have not used my time effectively this week. I have been unmotivated and haven't touched my senior project binder. I'm so indecisive that it's causing me to lose motivation. I'm going to get back on track.

November 19

I still don't know what im going to do. Web Design interests me as much as Habitat for Humanity. I have begun researching data from the Habitat website.

November 12th

I have begun senior project. Jane gave me a binder with everything i need. Im happy to have gotten off to a good start. I'm still trying to figure out weather i want to do my project on Web Design or Habitat for humanity