Specialisation Project Initiation Report
My specialization project is focusing on 2D animation and starting from a semi-intermediate level and working my way up to a high-quality level of animation. I’m not using adobe animate to do my animations. I’m using a free program called OpenToonz.
My previous skill set for 2D animation is fairly basic but I have improved from studio 1.
Trimester Goals
My goal for the trimester would be to produce something as polished as the example below but not as long as the example, possibly a maximum of a 10-second clip but a minimum of a 5-second dialogue piece.
Ultimate Goals
My ultimate goal is to create animations of this standard in the future.
Here are some of the resources I’m planning on using to better myself regarding 2D animation.
https://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-master/?v=6cc98ba2045f
I’ll be using this website to pick animation exercises that I’ll be using to practice what I’ll be writing notes about for my research. I’ll also be using the Animator’s Survival Kit for some research.
Here are some other resources I’ll possibly be using.
http://www.floobynooby.com/flashcourseA.html
http://blog.navone.org/p/notes-and-tutorials.html
http://blog.animationmentor.com/
Body of Work
Workflow breakdown
Resources
Animation Exercises: https://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-master/?v=6cc98ba2045f
Pinterest Animation Inspiration: https://pin.it/jvwudseubb2mo3
Pose to Pose: http://blog.animationmentor.com/straight-ahead-action-and-pose-to-pose-the-12-basic-principles-of-animation/
OpenToonz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNl9QtAwrD8
Jump Reference: https://youtu.be/2vfoyY9lshI?t=473
Once I figured out my specialization I went and re-found this website with a list of animation exercises and I chose the following; A walk cycle, run cycle, overlapping action, character blinking, jumping over a gap and a sneeze. I also wanted to do some more exercises like a 5 second dialogue piece, character reaching for an object on a shelf and a laugh but I didn’t get round to doing those because I ran out of time due to some slight poor time management. However, I did try to challenge myself with each animation exercise I did, like for example instead of doing a regular walk cycle I decided to do a quadruped walk cycle of a dog.
As you can see I did use reference for the walk cycle but I picked out all the major key poses from the reference and worked from there. For a lot of my animations, I found most of my references from Pinterest and I compiled a Pinterest board full of different animation references and examples. I also had video reference for my jump animation as I wanted to use some parkour jumps as a reference. I once again scrubbed through the video to find key poses and extremes to work from.
Since I was also doing a majority of my animations within a new program, OpenToonz, I had to learn the interface and some of the hotkeys. Luckily it was all fairly easy to learn but I did struggle with trying to figure out how to import images into my scenes and so I looked at a tutorial on how to import image sequences and audio into the program.
Here are my notes from the video
- Rename pngs so they won’t import in as different levels on the Xsheet
- Opentoonz doesn’t accept mp3 files only wav files
- To playback animation with sound go to Render > Preview
I tested out the method from the video with an audio file first and it worked perfectly, and because my version of the program is an updated one compared to the version used in the video I didn’t have to tinker with the settings to playback the audio as it played perfectly fine. I, however, did come into a bit of difficulty with importing an image sequence into OpenToonz, I had named the files correctly and imported them correctly but for some reason, the program wouldn’t recognize the images and only have 1 frame imported and all as a blank screen. I then gave up on trying to import images in and so I just had a split screen of my program and the images open separately, very rudimentary I know but it was the best I could do.
I realised while animating I was exclusively using the ‘Straight Ahead Action’ technique which was making the timing on my animations less coherent, so I went ahead and did some research on ‘Straight Ahead Action’ and ‘Pose to Pose Action’ and here are my notes from the website I was using for my research.
- Seems like 2 separate ideas, like 2 animators tried each method and animated that way
- Definition from the book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life;
- “Straight ahead animation starts at the first drawing and works drawing to drawing to the end of a scene. You can lose size, volume, and proportions with this method, but it does have spontaneity and freshness. Fast, wild action scenes are done this way. Pose to Pose is more planned out and charted with key drawings done at intervals throughout the scene. Size, volumes, and proportions are controlled better this way, as is the action. The lead animator will turn charting and keys over to his assistant. An assistant can be better used with this method so that the animator doesn’t have to draw every drawing in a scene. An animator can do more scenes this way and concentrate on the planning of the animation.”
Straight Ahead Action
| Pros | Cons |
| Better flow & lyrical feel to movement | Animation could become floaty & unfocused |
| Unrestricted approach allows creative accidents | Runs the risk of emphasizing the wrong action |
| Allows character choices & thoughts speak to the artist as the brain is more open to a creative stream of conscious thought | Lack of texture in timing |
Pose to Pose Action
| Pros | Cons |
| Strong on communicating story points with strong acting poses | Can come off as contrived & seem too posey |
| Extreme & contact poses make it easy to structure, time out, build, & change a performance | |
| Preferred by studios, as it’s quicker to iterate & more adaptable to director’s revisions |
- If you follow your reference & animate in straight ahead, you’ll end up with exactly what’s in your reference.
- Not creative and is copying what’s present
- Instead plan out main acting choices and beats for a shot first
- Acts as the foundation of shot & are your pose to pose guides
- Block in main poses first then work straight ahead between those poses
- The result is a mix of both methods
- Once the shot is blocked out, look back at the reference to see if something is missing and fix accordingly
I then implemented this knowledge into my work when I started work on my sneeze animation which I wanted to be more polished and finished compared to my other animations which were very rough and quick. I set up some major poses, using the ‘pose to pose’ method, and then I went in and worked on the in-betweens, using the ‘straight ahead’ method, while constantly checking to make sure my timing was appropriate for the animation.
My final stab at research was mainly in the interest of my cross-discipline of a final project game which is using stylised characters and so I found an incredibly helpful article on animating stylised characters.
http://blog.navone.org/2011/02/animating-limited-characters.html
Notes from the article:
- Limited/stylised characters are quicker and easier to animate.
- The more abstract or stylised a character is the less the audience expects it to move in a natural way
- Less reference is needed for planning and animation for a limited character (reference isn’t as useful)
- Facial reference is still important if the character is talking and/or expressing in someway
- Basic timing reference is also needed
- Human characters require more reference and pose-to-pose blocking to maintain rhythm and balance
- With limited characters it’s best to block in a layered fashion, timing is more important than posing.
- This gives the animator instantaneous feedback regarding the timing of the shot
- (paraphrasing) Think of animating limited characters like a haiku; there’s a strict set of rules to follow but within those rules, there’s lots of freedom.
- When faced with the problem of wanting to put across a particular gesture or attitude with, say for example, a car or robot the solution is to try not to force human movement into a car or robot, but find something within the limited physiology of the character to convey the same emotion in a new way.
- In the case of a living creature, find the natural behavior of the creature to suggest human behavior
I don’t have any examples for this topic as the game hasn’t entered the production stage just yet and so I’ll be keeping this research in mind when I’m at the animating stage next trimester.
Appraisal of the finished project
I didn’t exactly plan to have a finished animation at first but then I decided for my sneeze animation to my fully finished and polished animation.
What went well?
What went well was really how polished I managed to make the animation while also keeping to my own style and with my previous animations I would heavily reference and essentially copy my reference animation but with this one, I only looked at the major poses from my reference and completely did my own in-betweens.
What didn’t go well?
What didn’t go well was the fact that I could animate it in OpenToonz as I had trouble with the perspective of the animation, so I had to draw all the frames in Paint Tool Sai and set up the frames in Photoshop. So it was a tedious process to keep the timing in check but it worked out in the end.
Future lessons & goals
I plan to manage my time a lot better so then I have time to make more animations and to have a final idea on what I would like to do. I would like to repeat doing all the animation exercises while also challenging myself slightly by giving each exercise some sort of twist to it. I would also like to learn a bit of rigged 2D animation but mainly for games, so rigging in unity, as well as attempting a lip sync animation.
References
2D Animation Showreel. (2018). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/7iRVn9LVyUU
2D Body of Work. (2018). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YfMw43U5Kcs
Animation Refs. (2018). Retrieved from https://pin.it/jvwudseubb2mo3
Best of Parkour and Freerunning 2018. (2018). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2vfoyY9lshI?t=473
Flash Animation Online Course. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.floobynooby.com/flashcourseA.html
Glen Keane – Duet HD. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkARp7dqSBk
Navone, V. (2018). Animating Limited Characters. Retrieved from http://blog.navone.org/2011/02/animating-limited-characters.html
OpenToonz Tutorial #2 – Importing, Xsheet & Exporting. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNl9QtAwrD8
Riki, J. (2018). 51 Great Animation Exercises to Master – Animator Island. Retrieved from https://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-master/?v=6cc98ba2045f
Six of Crows – Trouble. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab4FS_6pZLk
Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose: The 12 Basic Principles of Animation. (2018). Retrieved from http://blog.animationmentor.com/straight-ahead-action-and-pose-to-pose-the-12-basic-principles-of-animation/
Chiara Tallarico 