Today during Animation 3, we continued working on making animations for each of the 12 Principles of Animation. So far, I have done 6 of the principles, and have started making textures for one of the animations. As of right now, I have hit somewhat of a roadblock in terms of ideas about what to animate for the other principles. Other than this, it has been going rather smoothly. I will probably end up modeling and animating everything at home, and using my time in class to make textures. I will likely do this because I have access to Maya 2023 at home, but I do not have access to Photoshop at home, which is what I use to make my textures. Overall, I intend to put all my effort into the work that I do this year, so I will be dedicating a fair chunk of my time to animating. With that said, I look forward to working on these animations after I get home.

Today during Animation 3, we were finally able to start using Maya. This year, we have upgraded to Maya 2023, which is a huge leap from the previous version we were using. So far, I have managed to make basic animations for 5 of the principles, of which I intend to make more detailed later today after I get home. After not having used Maya for a good while, it feels nice to be using it again. I honestly forgot how fun it is to make simple models and animations, rather than something overly complex. Overall, getting back into the swing of things has gone surprisingly smooth. With that said, I look forward to working in this class again tomorrow.

Today during Animation 3, we reviewed the 12 Principles of Animation and answered some questions about it. We ended up having to find YouTube videos demonstrating each of the principles because we do not have Maya 2023 on the computers yet. Overall, it has started out relatively slow because, as I said, we don’t have Maya 2023 on the computers yet, but I look forward to when we do get around to working in Maya.

1. What is the main purpose of the principles of animation?

It produces the illusion that the animation follows basic laws of physics

2. What was the difference between Disney’s philosophy of animation as compared to Warner’s and Tex Avery’s philosophy?

Disney’s philosophy was to use the 12 principles of animation to create realistic animations that follow the basic laws of physics, while Warner’s and Tex Avery’s philosophy was to push the boundaries of what is possible in cartoons that aren’t possible in real life.

3. What is the purpose of the squash and stretch principle?

It gives the animation a sense of elasticity, which prevents it from feeling stiff and lifeless.

4. What does anticipation do for animation?

Prepares the viewer for an action that is about to happen.

5. How is staging applied to animation? How is it similar to theatre?

Staging is applied in animation to guide the eye of the viewer to the main focus. This is similar to theater in the sense that the staging helps the viewer understand what is going on.

6. What is the difference between straight ahead action and pose to pose?

Straight ahead is making an animation frame by frame, while pose to pose is taking the major poses of the action and drawing everything in between based on those major poses.

7. Describe follow through and overlapping action.

Follow through is the preservation of momentum after part of an object stops moving, such as lurching forward when a car stops, while overlapping action is multiple different actions happening at once.

8. How does slow in and slow out create realism in animation?

Slow in and slow out creates realism by giving the viewer the impression that the object has to gradually gain momentum before reaching max speed.

9. Who or what does the arc principle apply to?

The arc principle applies to nearly everything except machinery.

10. Why does the arc principle not apply to mechanical movement?

Arcs are used to make movement look natural, while mechanical movement typically looks unnatural.

11. What is the important thing to remember about secondary movement?

The secondary movement should never take away from the primary action.

12. Describe why timing is important.

Timing is important for many reasons, the most prevalent of which are 1) so that the viewer can process what is going on, 2) to retain the feeling of realism in the animation, and 3) to properly convey the speed of the action (or actions) that are being done.

13. Why is it important to employ a level of restraint when using exaggeration?

Overdoing exaggeration ends up making the animation seem too cartoony, while having just the right amount of exaggeration makes the animation stand out while still being semi-realistic.

14. What does solid drawing mean?

Solid drawing means to give what is being drawn a consistent set of properties, such as mass, volume, and shape.

15. What is important to a character when it concerns appeal? Why?

When it concerns appeal, it is important to not overdo it with the character. It should have a relatively simple design that conveys the personality of the character, but that is also pleasant to look at. If the character has no personality in their design, then they become basic and forgettable. If the character is difficult to look at, then people will not look at the character, also leading to problems.

Videos of Principles since we don’t have Maya yet

1. Squash & Stretch – 12 Principles of Animation

2. Anticipation – 12 Principles of Animation

3. Staging – 12 Principles of Animation

4. Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose – 12 Principles of Animation

5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action – 12 Principles of Animation

6. Slow In & Slow Out – 12 Principles of Animation

7. Arcs – 12 Principles of Animation

8. Secondary Action – 12 Principles of Animation

9. Timing – 12 Principles of Animation

10. Exaggeration – 12 Principles of Animation

11. Solid Drawing – 12 Principles of Animation

12. Appeal – 12 Principles of Animation

Today during Animation 3, we got into groups and made a short stop-motion animation using LEGOs. For our animation, we made a bee run into a wall, where it disappeared into the ground, a table rising out of the ground in its place. We really did not have any major issues with this assignment, but the one issue we did have was that the bricks used to assemble the bee did not want to come apart when we needed them to. We eventually got them apart, but it was still shocking how sturdy such a small build was. Other than this, we did not have any issues with this, and are happy with how this turned out.

Presentation Link

For our Animation 2 final, we ended up having to pitch our storyboard to our teacher. To make this, we took pictures of the storyboard pages, uploaded them to a group chat, copied and pasted them onto the slideshow, and cropped them to show one panel of the storyboard per slide. Making this did not take very long, with all of us being assigned certain slide ranges to go over. When actually presenting this, we ended up reading two slides before passing it on to the next person and cycling through that same order. Overall, this I would say that the storyboard pitch went well.

This is our completed asset list for our Animation 2 final. We tried to split up the work as evenly as possible. We also tried to have plenty of medium and low priority assets that we could scrap if absolutely needed while making sure there were not too many to reasonably get done. Overall, I would say that we have done a good job making sure that the work is relatively evenly distributed.

This is the storyboard for our Animation final. With how much we have planned, we should have more than enough to make a decent length animation and have plenty of content that we can cut if necessary. We have high hopes for this, and we are looking forward to having fun with this project.

Today during Animation 2, we continued working on our Animation final. We have planned out how we are going to go about animating the project, but other than that it feels like we have not gotten much done today, which does not help.

Today during Animation 2, we finished our final project. It has been a long and (somewhat) painful process, but we have finally completed it. We ended up having a couple days left, so we ended up adding more sounds. We were all as productive as we could be during this, but even then it still went by incredibly slow. We did have somewhat high hopes for this, and even though it did not turn out exactly as planned, we are still proud of what we were able to do with this. Overall, we are glad to finally have this done. With this final project completed, we should be done with Animation class, at least until next year. That said, I look forward to learning more about animation next year, and I wish everyone reading this a great Summer.

Today during Animation 2, we finished animating our final project and are now fully rendering. We are already rendering on multiple computers, and since other students need to be able to work on their finals as well, we are deciding to leave most of the computers open so they can work as well. Because of this and how long the renders are taking, I have decided to copy all of the files of our project onto a USB so I can render this over the weekend. We are nearing the end of this project and it feels nice to not be as stressed about it, but we cannot let up now. We will keep pushing through this project full force until the very end. I look forward to finishing this during finals.