Walk Cycle Project

Walk Cycle from Tien Nguyen on Vimeo.

My final project for Intro to 2D Animation was to create a walk cycle.  The cycle should include a character of my own design, and the character should be walking in a "treadmill" walk cycle.  The project had to have at least 12 original drawings, animated on 24 fps, and a scrolling background.  We had the option of using either Adobe Photoshop or Toon Boom Harmony, I chose to use Harmony.  The illustration for the background was done in Photoshop and then imported into Harmony.

The new required Principle of Animation for this project was:

1. Contrapposto

Definition
-Contrapposto:  A position of the depicted human body in which twisting of the vertical axis results in hips, shoulders, and head turned in different directions.  (In my own words: The counterpose of the body--the hip goes up on the leg that holds up the weight of the body.)

(http://webneel.com/daily/sites/default/files/images/daily/08-2014/1-walk-cycle.jpg)

This project was my biggest animation challenge yet.  I found every aspect of it to be difficult because there's a lot of parts to a walk cycle and if any one of those details or movements were off, then it throws the whole walk off.  So I had to keep in mind to work on one body part at a time starting with the legs, then torso/contrapposto, then arms, and finally the head and nose.  Each one of those body parts have specific movements that I had to pay attention to.  Such as the timing in the legs and feet on certain poses so that it shows the weight of the body moving, the successive breaking of joints of the arms, the arcs of the torso as it moves up and down during the walk, and the head rotations as the torso moves.  In the end I think I got a pretty believable walk cycle but I think I should try animating some more walk cycles on my own time to fully understand the complexities of it all.
Animation Reference - Athletic Male Standard Walk and ALAN BECKER - Animating Walk Cycles were also used as references.

Flow Project

Flow from Tien Nguyen on Vimeo.

This project builds upon the successive breaking of joints project in which I had to take the idea of energy flowing through a limb from one end to the next but with a more flexible object.  I decided to animate hair flowing in the breeze that cycles.  This is my first project using Toon Boom Harmony to animate.

The new required Principle of Animation for this project was:

1. Flow

The optional Principle I used was adding a secondary object that interacts with the initial object (blinking).

Definition
-Flow: Making the animation more fluid by the use of overlapping actions and “S” curves during movement.  (In my own words: Basically successive breaking of joints but with a much more flexible object; successive breaking of "noodle.")

(http://45.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0acc2AsAM1qz53u1o1_1280.gif)

A big challenge of this project was getting used to animating with Toon Boom Harmony.  It's a lot different than Adobe Photoshop, the onion skins which I rely on a lot are different colors on Toon Boom and that made it really confusing at first.  Some of the hotkeys are also different.  Another challenging aspect was getting the flow correctly.  Unlike successive breaking of joints, there's no joints I could base some of my movements and arcs off of.  I tried a few different variations of the hair flow until I got something believable.  I also had to make sure that the hair length stayed constant, which was tricky.  In the end I think I was very successful in making believable hair flow in a new animation program.

Successive Breaking of Joints Project

Successive Breaking of Joints from Tien Nguyen on Vimeo.

In this project, I was assigned to create an animation that shows the successive breaking of joints, by animating an arm slamming down on a table, hammering a nail, ringing a doorbell, or pitching a ball.  I decided to animate the ball pitch.  I had to at least show the arm and show flexibility in the motions.

The new required Principle of Animation for this project was:

1. Successive Breaking of Joints

The optional Principle I used was adding an upper body to the character.

Definition
-Successive Breaking of Joints: Refers to rotating joints in the opposite direction to its normal bending. In the real world this wouldn’t be physically possible without actually breaking a joint.  In animation bending the joints in the opposite direction will add a lot of flexibility to a movement.  (In my own words: Bending joints that in real life would break to show the flexibility of a character.)

(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOK6B-8ilddNNDjKStNO0gBvE5045HYi2dWIabTE7qBxtHpk5NYZFf50bUYLhV92bGo_AouRn6z-_nW3n8beTNzFopOCqi0m0DImifOg_8ANHKAfjNsaGTzZINxyTAxmHc70190qNZsec/s1600/S_B_of_Joints.png)

There were many challenges to this project.  I first approached this by finding reference videos of a a ball pitch on YouTube.  Here was my video that used to reference so I can exaggerate the motions of my character.  With previous projects, I would start animating pose to pose but with this project I started animating straight ahead (and then I went back to pose to pose when I needed to add more inbetweens).  The reason for this was because it was difficult for me to visualize how this would look because this was nothing like I had done before.  I also ended up adding a lot more body parts than I had anticipated.  So that meant I had to pay attention to ever single arc as the body was moving.  But in the end I'm glad that I challenged myself by putting the upper body and I am proud of myself because I think the results were mostly successful.

Bouncing Ball Project

Rubber Ball Bounce from Tien Nguyen on Vimeo.


Bowling Ball Bounce from Tien Nguyen on Vimeo.

For this project I was assigned to create 2 animated bouncing balls.  One was a rubber ball bouncing at least 3 times across the screen decreasing in energy, and the other was a bowling ball being dropped and bouncing to a stop. The purpose of this was to see how two different objects made of different materials react to the force of gravity.

The required Principles of Animation for this project were:

1. Arcs
2. Timing
3. Slow in, Slow out
4. Squash and Stretch

Definitions
-Arcs: Most natural action tends to follow an arched trajectory, and animation should adhere to this principle by following implied "arcs" for greater realism.  (In my own words: Most natural actions follows a series of curves and arcs, animation should be the same.)

(http://media.tumblr.com/fd3fafcaf5903e1605fa722347bdc81c/tumblr_inline_mnut16qz4G1qz4rgp.gif)

-Timing: More drawings between poses, slow and smooth the action.  Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper.  A variety of slow and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement.   (In my own words: The number of frames for an action translates to the speed of the action.)

(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Sv3Ycg4QIEVPugLdF6yqw2aK6QYV9AymnKRFpNrIhNCAAwGm5rxrekQV1Kn_000fzJoOo3MnhrFFt_jNDGLwDkOkKKn650fN5jPCF9MzdTdPosphqUHJ8Sx9g97fE9qG0dEBtnk1NpE/s320/timingTip4.jpg)

-Slow in, Slow out: The spacing of the inbetween frames at maximum positions. Rather than having a uniform velocity for an object, it is more appealing, and sometimes more realistic, to have the velocity vary at the extremes.  (In my own words: Having more inbetween frames closer to the extreme poses and less in the middle makes the action more realistic because the object accelerates and then decelerates.)

(http://www.freepik.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SlowIn_SlowOut.gif)

-Squash and Stretch: Defining the rigidity and mass of an object by distorting its shape during an action.  (In my own words: Squashing and stretching an object or character to exaggerate it''s movement.)

(http://archives.frederatorblogs.com/channel_frederator/files/2009/01/ball.gif)

Before I started animating I had to find videos of balls bouncing that I could use as a reference.  My reference for the rubber ball was this and for the bowling ball was this.  After that I used Adobe Photoshop to animate.  I began with drawing out the arcs that would give the proper heights and distances that the balls should bounce at.  The arcs for the bowling ball were shorter and narrower then the rubber ball's.  Then I drew a ball and had to give it the proper timing and spacing on those arcs.  The bowling ball bounces faster than the rubber ball so it doesn't have as many frames near where ball contacts the ground.  The bowling ball also doesn't squash and stretch when it hits the ground.

There were many challenges and successes with this project. The arcs were the hardest thing for me to get right, I know I must have drawn the arcs for the rubber ball at least five times before getting an arc that looked believable.  I also had to make sure the squash and stretch for the rubber ball had to decrease as it kept bouncing.  The timing was also challenging, there's hang time at the top of the arcs so I had to make sure there had to be a proper amount of frames there.  Although by going through these challenges, I think I was successful in making believable bouncing balls in the end.

S.M.P.T.E. Leader Countdown Project

S.M.P.T.E. Leader Countdown Project from Tien Nguyen on Vimeo.

For this project I was assigned to create an animated countdown that could be used as leader into a film.  The countdown counts down from 8-2 with two seconds of black at the end, and each number has to be on the screen for exactly one second.  How we colored the animation was up completely up to us, so I went with a pencil-like look.

The required Principles of Animation for this project were:

1. Timing and Spacing
2. Creating Keyframes
3. Creating at least a few in-betweens for each number

 The optional Principle of Animation I chose to include was Squash and Stretch.

Definitions
-Timing and Spacing:  Spacing actions to define the weight and size of objects and the personality of the characters.  (In my own words: Give meaning to an object or character's movement and weight with the right timing and spacing of frames.)

(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiepAURagwSoCuhPDLII9aKcwe0N6aQH_uTzwObyF5UajyDV9HYUfMEe7bTWKhvdpTdG4sBuv3eDhcpOwg2wS-XTPUubuL6mJV9Rpa9swxzAxDWK5uwGs4KTHjkVBcCv98It-VQyHuKafI/s1600/timing-and-spacing.png

)

-Keyframes: A drawing that defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition.  (In my own words: The drawing at the beginning and end of an action.)
-In-Betweens: Frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image. (In my own words: Drawings between the keyframes which creates the illusion of motion.)

(http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/midori/Handouts/history_files/key_n_inbetween.jpg)

-Squash and Stretch: Defining the rigidity and mass of an object by distorting its shape during an action.  (In my own words: Squashing and stretching an object or character to exaggerate it''s movement.)

(https://elliswylam.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/pb_squash_anim_02.gif)

To start my project, I began with drawing thumbnails of ideas of what I wanted to do.  A lot of ideas flowed through my mind as I was sketching but I knew that I wanted to have the numbers morph into each other because I figured that would be a good way to show Squash and Stretch.  (The stretching can really be seen when the number 4 transformed into the 3, and the squashing can be seen when the number 3 transformed into the 2).  After I finished my thumbnails I used Abobe Photoshop to animate my ideas.  I started with drawing the keyframes of each number.  All the numbers lasted on the screen for three frames before it morphed into another number (except for number 2 which lasted five frames).  Next, I drew the breakdown pose for each number, and from on then I drew the inbetween frames which shows how the numbers morphed into each other.

This project also came with a lot of challenges and successes.  This was my very first animation project and I never animated anything before in my life.  That alone made things difficult because it required me to think about how things should move or act, which I've never done before.  And because I've never animated something before, I didn't really know how much time I should plan ahead to animate.  I've found out that I should takes about 4-5 hours for me to do a good second of animation.  I also found out that some of the breakdowns I originally drew weren't actually the right ones and sometimes I had to shift them a little when I drew the inbetweens in.  But overall, I think I was very successful of getting my ideas from my thumbnails into an animated form.  I didn't think I that I would be able to do it, but I did and I'm really proud of myself and I like how it turned out.