Write-Up #2

The four readings that helped me a lot with my animation assignments were:

1) The GlenHandout1 reading helped me a lot because the reading was about "the ideal animator." There was a list of things to keep in mind for animating, things such as "don't animate for the sake of animating." This reading helped me out because it highlighted important things you needed to do as an animator such as committing to an idea, using techniques such as squash and stretch, and etc. This reading was very insightful and gave me a lot of things to think about when doing my assignments.
2) ElEnt7_Anticipation was about the importance of staging and anticipation. It discussed things such as how animators have a certain allotted amount of time to get their message across to the audience, therefore things have to be well staged and the message should be clearly and quickly stated. The reading also stated things such as how your animation should go hand in hand with the camera movement that allows the camera movement to provide perspective and dramatic effects to your animation. This reading helped me with the anticipation assignment a bit because it helped me figure out how to stage my character by showing only what was needed and not doing anything extra that distracts from the overall point of the assignment which was to show anticipation.
3) GlnWhyAnimate reading discussed things such as anticipation, had questions I should ask myself when I animating that I would never have thought to even consider. Questions the reading said I should consider were thing such as: do I care about the characters? what does our character feel about himself? and etc. This reading helped a lot with the anticipation assignment because I did not fully grasp the whole anticipation assignment and this article helped a lot because it explained anticipation a lot more and gave me tips on what to do and what not to do.
4) ElEnt6_Timing reading discussed a variety of things ranging from anticipation to timing to rhythm and even reversal of curves. In this reading, it talked about the importance of each of these things and why they're needed in animation and what their importance is. This reading helped me grasp a better understanding of each of these topics by providing examples and why they're so important in animating. This article helped me a lot with the anticipation assignment because there was a long explanation on animation and how animation would look clumsy and awkward without including anticipation. This reading also helped me with the head turn assignment because of the portion of the reading where it talked about timing and how long we want to space the drawings and what kind of drawings should be included to give the overall animation a good flow to it.

360° Head Turn

Anticipation

Bouncing Ball With Tail Redo

Write Up

The four articles that helped me the most with my animations were:

1) Halas_Whittaker_01 article because it was about movement and caricature, timing, and how weight affects timing. This article helped me a lot with the assignments because it also provided pictures that demonstrate what the article was talking about. This article helped me with assignments such as the bouncing ball with the tail and the roller coaster. It showed me and explained more in depth why timing and weight play a big factor in your animation especially in the roller coaster assignment because it has the force of gravity acting on it when it is going down the slope. This article also discussed how in each picture, the character/object gets closer together to demonstrate it going slower and having it go farther away in each drawing to show it going faster.

2) Goldber article was also very helpful because it talked about timing in depth. This article also talked about how having an animation with no in betweens and such demonstrates a stiff type of animation. However, with in between drawings, it has a better flow. There were many examples and pictures that demonstrate the right and wrong way to animate something with and without in betweens. This article also went into depth about spacing much more than the Halas Whittaker article. This article has helped me a lot with understanding spacing better because of the many examples. Spacing and timing is something used a lot in animation and with a better understanding from about these things, I apply them more effectively in my assignments such as the bouncing ball assignment, where the ball had to get closer together while at the top to show it going slower and have it fall faster to the ground because of gravity.

3) Williams_1 article was also very informative about breaking of the joints and successive breaking of joints to give flexibility. There were many pictures showing successive breaking of the joints and what to do and not to do. There was also a lot of demonstrations of breaking the joints in different situations, one man is slamming his hand down and another is throwing a ball. This article helped me with the anticipation assignment because my character had to move his arms to pick up an item. With the use of successive breaking the joints, my character has more fluid motion and not stiff hand motions. 

4) Arcs article elaborated more on how Arcs work in animation and why we use arcs. With the creation of arcs, animators were able to break away from the stiff and rigid actions in their animations such as when a character was walking. Before the invention of arcs, characters popped up and down. This Arcs reading helped me understand the importance of arcs in animation. This article has helped me in my animation assignments because in assignments such as the jumping can and anticipation, curves were needed in order to show a more fluid change in character motion without them looking stiff and rigid especially when moving.