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