Feedback for Drawing for Animation Sketchbook

We had a seminar where we show and tell our sketchbooks and get feedback on where we can improve it before the deadline. I feel that with my sketchbook I do not have that much time updating my sketchbook however I really need to stay onto of it in order to improve my drawing skills.
The feedback that I got was that I needed to push the understanding of figures in action by studying more poses. I think I am going to do this by looking at figure books and doing more life drawing sessions. She said that I had a good sense of shape and a growing understanding of simple forms that makes my drawings really clear. The main thing that I need to work on is how artists display light in drawing as I think I go a bit over the top with shading most of the time. The session however was really helpful and eye opening.

Ranger Rick's Adventures -Boomer's Grumpy Day Storyboard

Here is the start of my final major storyboard, so far it is going very slow because I have decided to shade it with black and white. I have pushed the storyboard back a bit so that I have time to write my essay however now that I am cracking on with this, I am going to aim to finish it in three days. i like how its going so far although and I hope that I get the screen directions right as I have struggled with this before.

Deep Storyboard

 This is my storyboard for the Deep Project, in these images doesn't have the action or dialogue however in the real thing it does. After doing my storyboard Derek gave me some feedback during the seminar on how I could improve and what mistakes I made. I was spent so long on the drawings that I forgot about the important things like screen direction and objects that seem to disappear in the shot. Mainly I have to look over screen direction for the next projects and I have to focus on how the camera moves as in some shots it doesn't make sense. However he said that I had good numbering and interesting ideas.

Monty Walk with Maya - Week 5

I am happy with how my monty walk has turned out, I found the feet the most difficult part as the control panel that controls the heel, ball of the foot and toes was not quite cooperating with how I wanted it too. However I realised it was because of the knee positioning so I changed it. Also next time I would do more walking paces because I haven't done that many, I think that was because I found it quite difficult. I however like the character of monty how it walks and leans side by side.

Normal Walk and Character Walk - Stop Motion

Basic Walking

This was final product of many attempts of getting the puppet to walk realistically. I really struggled with the puppet as some of the ligaments were loose and whenever I tried to fix it it would only get worse. Also the puppet kept falling over or I would accidentally hit the camera and then have to redo the whole of the walking. However this is my final attempt and Im pleased with it even though it is not perfect. The things that I could improve on is taking even more frames so that the walking motion is smoother, also lean the back backwards a bit as the puppet is quite hunched over. As I am finding stop motion quite difficult at the moment, I think I am considering not to do it next term.

Character Walking

I prefer this walking compared to my previous one due to the large steps that the puppet takes, it seems to be more realistic and smoother between each frame. I like how the character walk is long lunges and and long arm movements too. I found it easier to do the character walk in comparison to the basic walk.

Constraints and Lifting a Box with Maya - Week 8

Todays lesson was quite difficult but once you get the hang of it it became easier, learning how to program the constraints was the hardest part. As we did the walking with Monty last week, walking up to the box was much easier and I think that I have captured the feminine side of the character with how it is walking. I would quite like to do another one to get used to the constraints side, maybe create one that really emphasises how heavy the box actually is.

Elongated Head Turn - Week 7

We had to do a second head turn except this time we had to make it a quick elongated head turn. Looking at references from comedy cartoons such as Warner Brother's Looney Tunes, we could see frame by frame how the animators managed to get such quick body moments as they use elongated in-betweens. I tried my own version however I think that the in-betweens needed to be even longer as it is happening all so quickly. I also think that I need to animate his facial expressions a bit better as well. I find hand drawn animation quite difficult at the moment unfortunately, so it was quite hard to correct what I'm doing wrong as the animation happens so quickly.

Updated Stop Motion Ball Throw

After being disappointed with my first ball throw, I decided to change it and improve it because I thought there was very little anticipation and action. I decided to exaggerate the anticipation by properly lunging my puppet before actually throwing the ball, then when it does it balances of one leg and the body weight changes from one leg to the other. I am much happy with this ball throw compared to the other and I'm glad I changed it.

Falmouth Harbour Painting - Drawing for Animation

I had some free time today so I wanted to get back into my painting which I really enjoy doing. I went to Falmouth harbour and it was such a beautiful day and therefore I thought it would make a beautiful painting. This would be great to add to my drawing for animation portfolio as I haven't done any painting so far either. I worked on a A3 canvas which I find hard as I'm not used to working such small scale, therefore I found it hard with the detailing in the boats but I'm happy with the landscape overall.

Mery Poses with Maya - Week 7

In this weeks Maya session we got to play around with a character called Mery, this was really fun to do as I got to see how you can change and manipulate a rigged character. I actually didn't find this that difficult as I learnt how to key frames really quickly so I could create a Mery pose quite easily. I think I managed to capture expression well with her face, I didn't realise how many controls animators rigged in a characters face, the was quite time consuming getting the perfect facial expression.

Life Drawing 4

This week in life drawing we had a female model so it was nice to see how the figures differentiate from each other. At the beginning I needed to loosen up a bit so we started with some quick figure drawings. After loosening up we had to choose a coloured chalk but no one that is similar to the paper so I chose this nice orange. 

 Charcoal, white and orange chalk

I think this piece is my favourite life drawings that I have done as I like how the orange chalk has become the mid tone and contrasts with the black and white. I think that I need to work a bit more on the hands and practice them in my sketchbook, as I find it hard to keep the proportions. 

Charcoal Pose

With this 10 minute pose, the proportions are not quite right, I find that the spine is not quite in the right place or the centre of gravity. I could of done it much better I think next time. I think what I need to do is step back from the canvas and look at my work as I am more likely to spot the mistakes.

Sitting Pose

We had time for one more life drawing, as before the face that I drew made the drawing worse in my opinion so I went for a simple look. I started incorporating the orange chalk into the figure, however I did not have time. On the other hand the proportions are looking much better then my previous drawings.

This was the last life drawing session, I have enjoyed it a lot but found it difficult with the proportions of the figure. I also want to learn eventually how to draw without reference therefore I am going to keep on practicing my figure drawings.