Write-Up #3

The four readings that helped me with my animations were:

1) WalkHandout helped me with the recent assignment of animating 2D walk cycle. It provided me with information of how to approach the walk cycle assignment by having pictures that explained the walk cycle of a character. This handout had pictures depicting what legs should look like as the character lifted up its feet as it began to walk. There was also a good example of Grumpy's walk cycle which helped me understand how a good walk cycle is created and I used this example as a reference when doing my 2D walk cycle assignment. This handout is also very useful because I can refer back to it when doing my 3D maya walk cycle also!
2) Ollie_johnston_notes reading was also very useful. It explained the process of creating a character. This reading talked about things such as planning out what exactly you want your character to be like hence "illustrate ideas or thoughts, with the attitudes or actions."  This article gave me a lot of information on what to do and what not to do when creating a character sketch such as picture in our head on what you want to draw, everything has a function and do not draw without knowing why. There was also a section in this reading that had questions I should ask myself before drawing and putting something on paper which I find useful because I tend to not think thoroughly enough to expand my scattered thoughts and ideas. This reading is something that will help me with future animations and the upcoming animated scene assignment.
3) DanStpsAnimScn reading is very descriptive on what is needed to be done for the upcoming assignment of animating a scene of your choice. This reading provided step by step instructions on what needed to be done in order to create a powerful and worth watching animated scene. This reading talked about things such as planning the scene by storyboarding everything first and planning staging and such. After you have your idea you then draw thumbnails for the key scenes. Once that's done you can then do rough drawings of the scenes and once you're satisfied with what you have, you can then add in the overlapping and shoot a timing test and then clean up your drawings and shoot another test. This reading provided a basis for what I need to do in order to create a good animated scene.
4) FrankOllieStepsInAnimatingScene reading provided me with lots of information of animation and the process animators go through to create a scene to the best of their abilities. Although you have an idea for a specific scene, there is always a better way to execute the scene so it is better to brainstorm all your ideas out. This reading also explained what a supervising animator does. They are responsible for the work done by the people who work under them. If there is a rookie amongst them, the supervising animator will help the rookie in order to help produce satisfactory work. This reading also talked about what an animator does. An animator is in a way an actor. Whether the animator may be quiet, introverted, or quiet, these traits melt away as they work on their character. This reading explained some of the different roles in the animation fiel and it also explained perspective and staging a character. For perspective and staging, there were pictures provided explaining how perspective makes a big difference in your animation. There were example pictures provided of Captain Hook from Peter Pan. This reading not only provided me with a lot of information of animators and what they do, it also taught me more about perspective and how sometimes your first idea may not be the best idea. With the information provided by this reading, I have a clearer idea of how I will tackle the 2D scene assignment.