Cubie and Sphere

This is a video that took me about 3 hours on Maya. Our brief was to make the Cubie and Sphere characters interact.



I found the last few times I've tried animating on Maya VERY hard but this I found much easier after getting used to it. I'm really pleased with this animation, although looking back can spot things that could be improved once I'm more experienced.

3D Balls

Here I animated 2 balls on Maya; one had to be heavy, like a football, the other light, like a ping pong ball.

I found the lighter one a lot easier to do as it's the sort of thing i've done before on flash.

Here is the heavier ball which I found harder to do. I'm not as pleased with it as I think I should have made it roll a bit longer. I think the rolling on both doesn't look natural but will be improved when we add shadow and texture to show rolling.

I found this quite fun to do but challenging coz i've never used Maya and usually work in 2D.

2D Squash & Stretch Animations

Here is x2 2D squash and stretch animations I did; one of a cubie character, one of a ball.

I found it quite hard to do when adding the top bobble and animating it. I thought back to the millennium when everyone at my school wore them in a 'millennium party' which helped me picture how they move. I did it in 7 frames.

Here is a animation of a ball squash & stretching. I did it in 4 frames and just looped it back and forward.

Morph Frog Animation

Our assignment was to morph a circle (from a template we got given) into anything we wanted and then back again in 12 frames. I attatched mine for you to see. I decided to make something interact with the circle rather than the circle morph.
I chose a toad after seeing loads the other night in the rain because they inspired me.. strangely enough.
This took about.. 3 ish hours to do and it's just a test, so it's not amazing, and we don't get marked, else I would have spent longer on it.
I was going for a sort of Hibbert Ralph Entertainment 'Spider In The Bath' feel.

I did it in pencil and coloured pencil.

If I did it again I would have used water colour as I don't think the pencil flowed very well. Although this may have made the paper curl and look uneven in sequence.

I did really enjoy seeing this all come together and can't wait to do more animations!

First Lesson Ideas

For our 2D Animation brief we have been given a piece of paper with a circle inside to morph over 12 drawings into a shape/design of our choice. We have to remember to number each drawing and we can introduce colour if we want to.

After having insomnia last night and venturing out along for a long wander in the rain, I came across dozens of little toads hopping along the undergrowth by our campus. I was drawing frogs from the moment I got up, stupid as it sounds, but it took me back to when I found toads in my garden at home and how enormous I remember them being. I had found my inspiration. Toads.

My initial idea is to morph the circle into a lilly pad, where a fly is sun bathing. A frog's head pops up from the water right of the page as if from bird's eye view and sucks it up with his tongue.

I'm planning to create this animation in pencil or water colour to introduce subtly colour to the animation without being to harsh to watch.

Here are my first sketches: