I have just completed drawing and coloring the Saloon in Adobe Flash.

The saloon will be used at the beginning of the animation to show where the scene takes place. This is regularly used in episodes of 'The Simpsons' and 'Family Guy'.

The Simpsons house.










I used many different online resources to research into what a saloon looks like.

Here is 2 versions of my final image. The first shows the Saloon with black lines. The second shows it with brown lines as it will appear in the animation.

The brown lines will help it fit in the scene.

This drawing took a lot longer than expected, but I am happy with the outcome.

In the next few days I hope to complete the intro to my animation.

I have recently begun the lip sync process of the animation.
The recording went well and was done in one sitting.

I am going to be lip syncing in separate compositions in Adobe After Effects. I will then pre compose these and import them into the final animation file.

I have been researching online into what mouth shapes to use when lip syncing. The following images are some that have helped:

The following is a Lip sync test using the 'Potato Sheriffs mouth'

It looks like I need to create some more mouth shapes.

When Lip syncing I use the wave file image to gain the correct timing for the words.

All my characters have around 4 - 5 different mouths.

The Following are the Oranges:

Default mouth. This is used when the character is not speaking or showing emotion.

A, AHHH, EH, I. This mouth shape is used the most when animating. It can be used for most words.

F, TH. This is used before words beginning with F. It can also be used for words beginning with TH (but only because the orange uses F's)

O, OOH, URGH. This mouth is used for all words with oooh's. Is also used for short words.






I use the wave file in Adobe After Effects to see when the mouth shapes are needed.

The following is a walk cycle test created within Adobe Flash and Adobe After Effects.

If I am to use this in the final project it would be looped.

This consisted of 4 different feet images, 4 different leg images and 1 image of the body.

I feel it works well but may need to be sped up if I am to use this. This is to avoid the image of sliding along the floor.

 
Leg Down                

 Leg Up

This image would also be rotated.

 Foot Down

Foot Up

This would also be rotated.

This week I have been researching into how fruit would move (if it could).

Comparing the fruit to humans helps me imagine the movement.
For example, I imagine an orange to move much like a overweight person. Where as a Cucumber would move like a skinny person.

In women's magazines they are often comparing their body shapes to fruit, referencing back to this is helpful.






















My Animation will following a minimalist style so I will not have a flowing motion when animating the walk. I will however have the major key poses.

I have also been taking notice of the 'Elasticity' and 'hardness' of the fruit I am animating. This will have an effect on the exaggeration, when the fruit if moving. Also the animation principle 'squash and stretch' will benefit from this research.
The following video is a Tango advertisement. It shows many different types of fruit rolling down a hill. This helped with my research.

My animation will be called:  The Ripe, The Bad and The Cutlery
Original name: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The following is a saloon door test. It was created by drawing 6 separate images importing them into Adobe After Effects and changing the opacity on each frame.

The orange will be walking in the final animation.

As you can see in the video I have also added some movement to a poster. I feel this gives the impression of a draft when the door is opened.

I used 3D layers when creating this animation test. I feel it works well.

Over the past week I have redrawn all of my art. I am now using Adobe Flash.

I started to animate with the old art but had to stop. This was because the characters looked out of place. The lines were very thick and didn't suit the backgrounds.

Old                                                                                       New

Old                                                                                      New

In my opinion the new artwork looks a lot more professional. I have also put the images in a neater file system, so it is easy to locate the images you need.

I found Adobe Flash to be a very useful piece of software.
When drawing you are able to choose the smoothness of the lines. This gives you a neat finished image.

You can also edit the lines you have drawn much like when masking in After Effects.



This software also has an easy way to add shadows. When using the brush tool you can choose to paint 'over' under' or 'on' a paint layer.

My art style is inspired by Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin. They are the founders of 'The Behemoth' and the creators of 'Castle Crashers' and 'Alien Hominid'.

They have a very distinctive style and create all of there art in Adobe Flash.

After much research into 'Castle Crashers' and other Behemoth titles. I have realized black lines are very rarely used. This is especially used for backgrounds. 

The outer lines are usually a darker color of the fill. 

I have created a mood board containing all of the things we associate with The Wild West.

I have decided to create the animation using Adobe After Effect and Adobe Illustrator.

I have just finished the art work for all characters and backgrounds.

For the past couple of week I have done some research into realistic motion. 

The following links are youtube videos that have helped me with my research:

Tumble Weed:

Depending on the size and the strength of the wind, a tumbleweed can move in many different ways.

The video above shows many different types of the weed moving. Some don't hit the ground, when others roll slowly.

Tumble Weed (The Simpsons):

This video shows tumble weed within Animation and how it could move.

My tumble weed artwork














Saloon Doors (Animation):

This is a short animation 'TetsuyaSantos' created in 2009. It shows the perspective of the doors when looking straight at them. 

My animation will have minimalist style so the door will not be a smooth animation. I will However have the key poses.

1

2

3

4.   The doors continue to swing for a short time after they have been used.

Walk Cycle:

The walk cycle above is a personal favorite of mine. I like the way the animator has included secondary action in the hair and feet. The character is also very appealing.

We all know what a walk looks like and how it is done.  Left foot forward, right foot forward, left foot forward and right foot forward. However when this is put into an animation, it wouldn’t signify the weight (or any of the factors in this report) of the character.

Lets look at the feet.

1:  Starting position. The foot is flat to create the feeling of weight and balance.

“Keep the foot back till the last possible moment” The Animator’s survival kit [2001] WILLIAMS R Pg.136

2: The toes then remain grounded as the heel elevates with the leg. I didn’t realize how much the toes bent until research.

3: The whole foot now is elevated. The knee is at its peek for bending.

4: The foot begins to return parallel to the ground

5: The heel has first contact with the ground. This softens the landing.

The process is then repeated.

There are many ways this could be changed to show the weight, age or balance of the character. For example the easiest alterations would be to change the way the foot lands, the height the foot is raised or the way the knee bends.

For this project we have been asked to produce an Experimental Animation which includes realistic motion.


I am going to be producing a Western animation. The characters will be different types of fruit and vegetables.


The realistic motion will be: Walk Cycles, Doors, Lip Sync, Tumble Weed, Birds


I am yet to decide how I will create my animation. The following are animation tests using different styles...




Stop Motion:

This is a simple stop motion test. If this were created with professional lighting and many more frames a second, I feel it would be a nice animation.







The image to the left is of the different pieces used in this animation test.


I enjoyed creating the animation in this style, however I feel it would take to long and need better equipment to gain a professional finish.

Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator:

These animation tests were created within both Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator.
I drew the characters and Backgrounds in Illustrator and animation within After Effects.


This was relatively easy to achieve, however there is not a lot of animation within these tests. If I were to do the entire video in this style, I would have to draw many many more pieces of art.

I created the video below in Adobe flash. There is not much movement but I feel it works well.
The movement in the second shot was created using a motion tween.

The following video was created by masking the mouth and eyes on separate layers. Changing the position and using the layer mode 'multiply'. I was testing live action with flash animation.

I created the video below in 2006 using MS paint.  It was my first animation and was created by drawing each frame from scratch. Watching this video shows me how much easier Adobe Flash and other products have made animating.

The twelve animation principles are as follows:

·      Squash and Stretch (bounce)

·      Anticipation

·      Staging

·      Pose to Pose

·      Follow Through (clothes, hair, bags)

·      Slow in and Slow Out

·      Arcs (joints)

·      Secondary Action   (clothes, hair, bags)

·      Timing

·      Exaggeration

·      Solid Drawing

·      Appeal

     

    These will all be looked into later in the project.