How to walk.

Today i sat down to have a proper attempt at Burt, he was one of the 3D tasks that had me a little worried or the first time i attempted it something went terribly wrong, not that i could tell you what it was exactly, lets just say he was going backwards. 

I dove right in when i realized that i didn't actually know how to walk, i mean obviously i am capable of walking or else id be dragging myself along the ground, but the movement of the foot was not something I'd ever really looked at.

SO... 

I decided to YouTube it. "People walking."  The thing was, it was just too fast to really understand the step by step changes, so i downloaded the video and played it back to myself in slow motion of VLR. This really helped me and enabled me to pin point 5 particular stages that the foot goes through in movement of which i attempted to sketch down, took me a few times to get it quite right.

My rough attempts at figuring it out, there was an awful lot of pausing and un pausing, even in slow mo. 

I bulletpointed my 5 most important key frames i suppose these have become and attempted to write them down in a way i that i would be able to visualize later on when i forgot how to do it again, because lets face it, that happens, i realized it wouldn't quite work and therefore i made a visual aid to help me in the painful future. 

Here are my 5 key frames.

1. Heel up, ball of the foot flat on the ground.

2. A much more dramatic arch in the foot, as if on tip toes. Toes still flat on the ground.

3. Foot has lifted off of the ground and moved forward past the other, heel is closest to the ground,  toes point upwards in a straight line.

4. Foot is now flat on the ground, toes still point up slightly.

5. Toes flat on ground.

(The same cycle of movenets takes part in the other foot too, just obviously at different times, i mean i like symmetry as much as the next slightly obsessive person but its not appropriate in walking.)

Thats all on that really, i shall upload my walking Burt later once he is confident enough to walk on the internet, he suffers from a wee bit o'stage fright. Bless him.

A no reason drawing post.

After breaking up for Christmas i decided i would attempt another drawing of someone in detail, i used to do more of these but never seemed to finish one, so here is Morgan Freeman, under development.

TAKE! (on me, take on me, i'll be goooone...)

Evenin' chaps and lasses, this weeks 2D task was to draw up a little cartoony crazy take for a little cubey fellow. It goes pretty quickly so i probably should have doubled up on the frames but i think it gives him a slightly manic quality and i've always quite liked manic people ... and cubes. He does a little dash around, then some magic about a wall and then an explosion, sorry i've ruined it for you, but what did you expect really... this is a blog.

Put him in an enviroment.

Hello my fellow friends and not friends, its been a busy little week, let me first fill you in with a healthy dose of Maya. Excited? You should be! I have finally gotten around to finishing my first attempt at putting squishy our happy little ball friend into his first environment, the over all out come is juddery and rough but I am happy to be left with something that resembles what it should be like, an achievement in its self if you ask me!

My heavy and light balls...

I enjoyed drawing these sequences but now realize that in order for them to be more effective i needed to do at least double the amount of frames, for starters they move so quickly that you can barely see what is happening, and when you can they both look very similar. I think i will probably have another go at this very soon.

People watching, and then give them animal heads...

Decided to have a proper crack at this brief thing, i like it because I've worked under a similar title before and love twisting around real life images into something impossible.

I took a look at the suggested artist JJ Grandville, his illustrations are so sweet and story book like that i thought id make a few copies. Please forgive me for such shocking lighting, but its dark and naturally the time i thought suitable to get things done. More to come on this topic. 

First product of 2D animation.

Just a quick little look at the first task we were given as a group. Nice bit of bonding and what not, you know how it is. I had to turn a small hippo like fellow into a very different shape drawn by the next person in the register that was also graced with "W" surname. (Its always been a hindrance ) Anyways back to the matter at hand, heres what happened. (Slow i know, was on 12fps not 25.)