Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The trickiest part of this challenge was working out how to animate the rain! In the end I went and looked at My Neighbours the Yamadas for some clues on approaching it!

Animation Challenges: 3 - Scaredy Dog!

 

I wanted to have a go at animating a quadraped moving and turning around, and I also wanted to catch up on the Emotion Change challenge, so I included a change when the dog 'sets'. I decided to use a Preston Blair dog model so I could get animating straight away.

 

Here's the video I referenced.

Animation Challenges: 3

Here are the new challenges for spring 2013!

Beginner: REFERENCE

(the technical challenge)

Referencing is something most animators do not do enough of. We often dive in and presume we know how something should move. Referencing could involve finding an image sequence, video reference or even recording yourself. For this challenge you have the freedom to animate whatever you like as long as it is from something you have referenced. For example, animate a bird flying taking off whilst referencing a video of a bird taking off, preferably frame by frame. I would suggest avoiding rotoscoping because you will learn to see more when you can't just trace the action. All the great animators have done this and still do. It allows you to build a library of convincing actions and principles in your mind that will strengthen every subsiquent piece you animate. Remember, you don't necessarily need to copy every frame. Try to pick out the keys and extremes, and then breakdowns to guide you. Have fun and try something complex or challenging, you may even want to apply this challenge to the others.

Intermediate: REACTING TO WEATHER

(the performance challenge)

A lot of character is found when a character reacts. 'Acting is reacting'. Animate a character reacting to a changing weather condition. For example; it's snowing, it's cold, it starts to rain, the fan stops working during a heat wave. There are many ideas and scenarios to play with.

Advanced : DIALOGUE SCENE

(the acting to audio challenge)

Same as last tome. Animate to this slightly longer short audio clip.

Female character; ''Hey, I know you.''

Male character; ''Hello. You know me? Cool. I mean, yeah you do. Do you?''

Right click and download here

If you have any questions or technical problems just comment to this post.

Any form of animation is fine.

The next challenges starts 1st July.

... And remember you can still post any animation you have unrelated to the challenges.

30 days of animation

Last month I decided to animate something everyday for 30 days. This is the result.
It was difficult to even think of what to animate most days. I spent a few hours on average for each day, sometimes it felt like all day. I originally intended to do them quicker but they usually didn't get going till the late evening. This also meant all the days where only 'first passes' or 'straight aheads'. After the first 5 days I realised I should try to maintain a reasonable quality. It wasn't easy, a lot of time was spent hitting a wall but I had fun trying something different everyday.

Le bal de Rémy (Circus Marcus) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Animation Challenges 2 - He's headed this way!

Here's a bow legged rampage for the technical challenge!

Animation Challenges

Scrapbook

I was going to finish my last animation challenge this week and post all three but I have to make a short trip away. Instead, I thought I'd compile and share all my odd pieces of test animation and unfinished pieces. Sometimes I have the urge to just animate something, this is often the result.
Challenge post coming soon..