Category Archives: Video
ThunderBUCK
A few weeks ago we went as a class to go see the Tim Burton show at LACMA. As a result, this week’s one hour assignment is to create a short animation in the style of Tim Burton, using any of the methods we’ve learned so far:
SPOOOOKY . I was truly not excited about this assignment. There were no bright ideas rattling around in my brain. So I entered into my hour with low expectations. But ignoring the lame scare, I think this ended up looking kind of nice.
I don’t know if you can tell on youtube, but last minute I decided to screw around with a multiplane and animate rain running down the window, which ended up being one of the most interesting parts. I believe that if it was actually visible, you would agree that it was cool too. What’s cool is that there was barely any animating going on, it was a stupidly simple set up. I was working on something KIND of like this:
(Except the plates of glass were being held up by stacks of plastic film cores.)
stacks of plastic film coreI collaged a few images in photoshop and printed them out. 
And drew the Burton deer for him to change into: 
That was really it. I placed the window frame above the deer head and scraped glycerin across it every frame so that it looked like it was raining.
glycerineThat’s the experiment that I think got me the most excited. I know it’s too dark to even see here, but at full resolution it was a nice touch. So I got a new trick to keep in mind.
The only thing thing I moved after that was a lamp for the car lights and the exposure/ISO setting on the camera to fake the thunder. Easiest project yet, and I think it’s the most successful.
Well- that’s it for me. The length of this post can be attributed to procrastination, but now the guilt is overwhelming, and I have to go work.
Lip Sync Assignment
I am shocked with how much fun these assignments are. I tried to push this movement a little bit, but I still think I could make it crazier. Everyone in the class has the audio clip and crit’s in 3 minutes. I’m excited. I’d say there are 5 people still in the cubicles still working.
Einar was telling me that the best drawings come during the in betweens, and I definitely agree for this project. After 20 or so drawings of the head I started to loosen up, here are my 2 favorites:
I also got to use x-sheets for the first time:
I printed out 3 x-sheets. One to plan for the body, one to plan for the eyes and one to plan for the lips. Somebody had already analyzed the audio clip and delineated on what frames the words would start. Next time I’m going to have to do that myself. So I animated the lip-synch, then I made this frame for it so it had some context:
I don’t know if he’s telling someone else to get away from the cake- or if he’s seeing himself in a mirror and is trying to stick to a diet. It’s dumb either way.
Barley Roto and Cublic Update
Here is a rotoscoping experiment I did with some footage of my dog, Barley. I don’t think I like it. I mean- it’s neat to see my drawings move that well- but I can’t really justify the amount of time I spent working. It looks JUST like the video, so what’s the point? Either way it’s a cool shot because I could draw her changing from gallop to walk:
I think I’d need to modify the source images to make this worthwhile. But it was a fine experiment. I’m going to focus on animating by watching rather than tracing, though.
HERE’S A MID-SEMESTER CUBICLE UPDATE:
1 Hour Assignment- Sasquatch
The animation in this is seriously awful.
The 1 hour assignment this week was to create a rudimentary puppet and set. I had some lofty plans for the set until I realized that I was probably approaching the assignment in the absolute wrong way. We only have 1 hour with the camera, that includes time to set up and get out. So I decided to make a REALLY basic puppet, and REALLY basic set, and just focus on making the animation look right. Just make the puppet move well.
Somehow I ended up doing the opposite of what I set out to do: I made the set 20 minutes before I had to get started out of paper and some plants, and it ended up being the most interesting part of the animation. The Sasquatch puppet was very poorly made, so I couldn’t really move him properly.
I did manage to get off a cool sequence of handheld shots, though. So the experiment wasn’t a failure. After I edited the whole thing, and even gave it some titles, it all just kind of looked like a polished turd. I wasn’t going to post it.
BUUUUUUUUUT- I ended up kind of liking this stupid video. Props to my dad for giving my brother and me this ridiculous monkey as a stocking stuffer 5 years ago. I think its face is the only reason I like the sasquatch at all. I mean look at this thing:
So anyway, here is my dumb project:
UPDATE:Katie saw this video and immediately thought of this song, so I added it to the video. I think they were made for each other.
ElektroSchutz
Play it full screen.
Another 1 week assignment. This time we had to animate a big Tex Avery style reaction. The end product is a little funky- but it’s still a lot of fun too see my drawings move. Trying to figure out how to key frame the movements was the hardest part for me.
Here are some of the sketches I used to time it out:
And the background image:
