Rotation: Traditional Animation

During this rotation we practiced traditional animation. During this rotation we engaged with straight ahead as well as pose to pose animation (the two main methods of traditional animation.) We also learned about the principles of animation including: squash and stretch, anticipation, ease in and ease out as well as how to read and use timing charts.

The first animation I tried was a straight ahead animation of a rabbit jumping out of a hat. As this was my first attempt at animating in this style, I struggled to get to grips with the style, and I feel like my idea was actually better suited to a pose to pose animation style.

For the animation of the three facial expressions, I decided to use the character design which I developed in a previous rotation. I felt that the expressions I drew were quite similar to one another, so I redrew one of the expressions to push the difference between the frames.

The first video shows the keyframes as well as some of the break downs between keyframes. I also included the straight ahead animation at the end.

My final piece was my take on the debating character moving their arms between three poses. I chose a hand on the hip, in the air and then on the chest. I also combined this with straight to head animation to have the character disappear at the end of the video. This animation went beyond the specifications of the brief. Although I am proud of this as a first attempt at traditional animation, as it does not fully fit the brief I am not completely happy.

I believe this comes down to my inexperience with timing charts. I tried to follow the chart, but quickly lost focus on following the timing. If I had time to redo this animation, I would simplify the concept and then try to strictly follow the timing chart.