Tia Whitehead - BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts

In today's animation class we were told to create a Halloween animation that included all of the techniques that we had learnt in our previous animation classes. Below is the animation that I created: In the animation we were told to include arcs, to show weight, to use the squash and stretch technique, to use timing and spacing correctly in the animation and to look at layers and depth within the environment. In the animation, when the doll's head is about to reattach to its body I incorporated an arc. I believed that using it in this part of the animation added to the effect that the head is floating and finding it difficult to attach itself back onto the body. When the doll's head falls off of its shoulders I made sure to think about weight of the doll's head to help with timing. As the doll's head is heavy I made sure that the head would reach the floor quickly. I also used the squash and stretch technique subtly when the doll's head hits the f...

In this session we continued to look at the movement of circular characters in motion and how another object attached to the character could also be effected by its movement.  The first character I created was a hedgehog. I focused on the hedgehog's spikes and how they would move while the hedgehog hits the floor and spins around. As the hedgehog is a living creature it means that it squashes when it hits the surface and stretches when it bounces back.  The second animation I created was of a tassel attached to a ball. Just like the first example, the ball also squashes when it hit the ground due to the material it is made from. As the tassel is a separate object to the ball and is only attached by one point, the tassel is able to move in different directions as it is pulled by the primary object which is the ball. For my final character I created a rabbit with floppy ears. The character is living so it still follows the same squa...

In this session we were introduced to looking at how balls of different weights would bounce within an environment.  For the first exercise we looked at how a soft ball would bounce in an arc motion when moving to the right. We also found that when the ball hits the floor it becomes squashed due to the ball's weight and the momentum that is behind it. In the next exercise we then looked at the different weights of three different balls and how this would affect the height that each ball bounced. The ball on the left is a ping-pong ball which is small and has a hard surface, meaning that it is able to bounce higher as it has less weight to slow it down. The ball in the centre is a tennis ball. Tennis balls are soft but hollow which allows the ball to squash on impact, allowing it to bounce but not as high as the ping-pong ball. This is as more energy is absorbed by the ball. The final ball on the right is a bowling ball. Bowling balls are larger than both the ping-po...

Here is a 20 minute life drawing sketch that I created on white water colour paper using a graphite stick and red and blue coloured pencils. As always, with my first life drawings in the session, my drawing was disproportionate, as shown in the legs and upper body. I did find this exercise beneficial as I was able to use the blue for darker and the red for lighter tones on the body. I was also able to use the direction of the colour to imply that the model is three dimensional.   Here is a 20 minute life drawing that I created on black paper using three different coloured pastels. I found that using three different shades was very beneficial as it allowed me to use a neutral colour as well as a colour for highlights and shadows. Here are my final 10 small sketches from today's life drawing session. Each sketch was completed in between 1 and 5 minutes and was created using a light coloured pastel on black paper. These are my favourite sketches fro...

In this session we focused on creating 5 different ways in which a coin could be in motion. 1.) One way was by ensuring that the pictures of the coin were placed on each frame evenly spaced apart. This gave a smooth effect as if the coin was in continuous  motion going back and fourth. 2.) Another way was by causing the coin to ease in and out of motion. I was able to do this by ensuring that more images of the coin were placed at the beginning and end of the sequence while only a small number of copies were placed in between. This gives the sense that the coin was slowing down and speeding up. 3.) I then looked at how attaching a string to a coin that's moving in a straight line would look incorrect. This is as realistically the coin would not move in the way that it does while being attached to a string. 4.) For the fourth exercise I then created a pendulum using an arc, coin and string. For this, I  ensured that the pendulum...