Study Task 3 - Stop Motion - Armatures

The Action of Batting a Ball:

Batting a Ball work on Timing:

Action of Kicking a Ball:

Kicking a Ball work on Timing:

Study Task 4 - Stop motion - Armature Walk Cycles

Today I worked on the blocking for the Armature Walk Cycle and the Variation of a walk - Sneaking. Here are the results:

Walk Cycle:

Sneaking:

Reference Footage for Sneaking - Study Task 4

Here is a video of me attempting to sneak as a variation of walking for this Study Task:

Tim Allen Masterclass Workshop

Today I had the amazing opportunity of being taught about body movement in relation to stop motion animation by the Animator Tim Allen who has worked on films such as the 'Corpse Bride' (as shown below) and 'Frankenweenie' :

 

Today I have learnt that human movement is based on arcs. When the body closes in on itself (the foetal position), your spine curves, your fists clench and your body tenses. Also your face scrunches up, e.g. your pupils go down, you close your mouth and your eyebrows go down.

However when we spread out again, our arms stretch out, our spine straightens and we open up our hands. This body movement is key when thinking about a character closing in on themselves because they are scared and then when they open up their body because either they think the reason to be scared is gone or they have plucked up the courage to face their fears. In addition to this some more key movements that he taught us are that when you torso goes forward, your hips go back and your knees bend. Where as when your torso goes back, your hips go forward.

I thoroughly enjoyed this lesson with Tim as we were even given the chance to use puppets that he had brought with him to create small stop motion clips of body movement. Here are the clips that I created and some photographs from throughout the session:

Study Task 3 - Stop Motion - Armatures

An armature doing the action of throwing a ball:

In the next video the timing was worked on more:

Dragon Frame Induction

Today I had an Induction to using Dragon Frame, after being told the health and safety rules, as well as how to safely use the equipment, we were given some time to try animating with some modelling clay. Here are my results!

Stop Motion - Study Task 2 - Giving Character to a Block of Wood

Here are my final videos for Blocktholomew the Wooden Block:

1) Leaping over a Cavern:

2) Sneezing:

3) Laughing:

4) Conveying Happiness and then falling on his face and becoming Sad:

Study Task One - Stopmotion Coins

Here are my Final set of videos for this Study Task:

1) A coin shot in ones, moving from left to right:

2) A coin shot in twos, moving from left to right:

3) A coin accelerating and the decelerating across the screen:

4) A coin moving in a pendulum action:

5) A coin acting as a bouncy ball:

6) A coin acting as a bouncy ball, diminishing across the screen:

7) A bouncy ball made from plasticine, diminishing across the screen using squash and stretch:

Progress on Study Task One for Stop Motion Animation

Here is my progress in this study task so far:

This is a coin shot in twos using increment lines.

This is a Pendulum swinging Coin!

Finally this is my progress so far on a bouncing coin on the spot:

Stop Motion Animation using Dragon Frame

Here are my first few try's of using Dragon Frame to complete the Stop Motion study task: