pasithea

The past two nights, I've been doing some throw away practice animation. I hit on this idea a few months ago but hadn't got to put it into motion until now. It's not a very original idea but I'm having fun with it.

The gist is to take some simple action like a walk, run, turn, jump, picking up a weight, etc and try drawing it several different times.

My goal here is to learn not just to move stuff around but to really emote well. Staging, timing, expressiveness and all that stuff.

Anyhow. Below are the first 3 samples of a character being 'surprised' and turning to look a different direction.

The first one is the 'no thought put into it version, just do the action requested'.

Here are my self criticism notes. If you agree, disagree, or have other input, I'd appreciate it. (NOTE, I left the 'positives' in there too just so you know I'm not being too harsh on myself)

Good
Good motion arc
Blink good
Solid character; stays on model.
Good follow through
Staging connects well with character.
Some minor stretch and squash

Needs Work
Left hand flips around too much.
Tells us nothing about the character.
BORING!!!!!!

Here's the second one. A startle, then a slow turn.

Good
Startle convincing
turn has good arc.
Shoulder follow-through is decent

Needs work
startle could be more extreme
last frame pops
shoulder drop on turn okay but needs work.
arms move wrong during turn
mouth is boring.

And last for the evening, the 'wild take' version.

Good
Very expressive
Some solid drawings. My god! I drew hands!
Running-in-the-air
Timing good (except end)
Good framing for the motion

Needs Work
Moves too far left when dropping to ground.
Turn to look and drop too fast.
Goes pretty far off-model by end of sequence.
Wider framing reduces emotional impact.

So.. The next thing to do here is go through and 'fix' the 'needs work' parts of these sequences and reshoot them and see if I can make them better. Then maybe do a couple more takes on this particular action or move to another simple action. FWIW, I suppose I should also note that these are animated on 1s (except the panting at the start of the 3rd one but that was for effect) That's a definite problem with being inspired by good cartoons. All on 1s with no layers. Okay, really this is a good thing and marks a big improvement in my animation style. Though, I should give myself a scolding for animating a 'finished' character in my pencil tests. Granted he's simple, but I really should be doing stick figures and only the slightest hint of facial expression when it's absolutely needed. This would not only save me time but also help me identify issues in my motion by simplifying the image. My next set of tests will be less detailed.