Back to school

I'm back again to school, which explains the late update, but here it is, a huge amount of stuff I've done during the last few weeks of summer and this first week of school.

SOME 2D ANIMATIONS DONE AT SCHOOL

-Eased arm

I've done one before. This one has a small anticipation.

-Eased ball

-pingpong ball

I really do not like this one, it has too much spacing. What I wanted to do was to get the timming for a pingpong ball, which has a quick bounce. 

What makes it look even more wrong I think is the squash...

It's lacking a nice cushion at the top of the last bounces, which adds to the lousy movement...

-bouncing marbel 

And this one is much better, with a quick bounce, not much energy is preserved. 

-falling ballon

-falling vase

Hmmm, I think that's it for animation. I havn't done too much with traditional these days... 

I've also worked on some dialogues and words, but those with some 3D characters. When something nice is done I'll show it to you  ;)

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OIL PAINTING

I've got a lot into oil painting lately. It has a lot more to it than digital stuff, even though it's harder, without instant mistake correction (ctrl+z), and it doesn't dry out instantly either XD-

But it does has a lot of artistic stuff, improves decision making and problem solving.

Here are some of the tiny paintings I've done.

All of them have been done in one sit, taking from 1 to 1:30 hours each. Some made from direct observation, others from imagination, and others from places I've been. 

I saw this scene on the airport, then some days later I made the painting from what I remembered, but mostly liked, about the scene. 

observation

observation

observation

observation

observation

imagination

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ILUSTRATIONS / SCENE STUDIES / NARRATIVE

This picture came to me while reading Crime and Punishment. This scene has to do with the main character walking down the streets, when suddenly hearing some particular conversation that pushes the series of events that makes up the whole story.

It is a really quick picture, focused on the colors and the composition. Figures are not defined, just enough to understand the scene. What I wanted to settle down was the way colors, ligths and shadows, tell a story within a picture. 

In this case, the silhouette, watching from the dark, belongs to the obscure character thinking obscure things. The bright guys in the right side of the scene talk about random stuff, not so random for the main character though, but they are good guys. 

I added a little bit of red just to make a small "prediction" within the picture. Perhaps going too much into the cliché (Red = danger), but it helps tell the message. 

This way of doing pictures, taking inspiration from stories, really puts the basic concepts of art into work, since they are not just created to paint nice pictures, but to make pictures work, or say something. 

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Here is another picture, this time without a concrete story, but with some words in mind:

afternoon, coffee shop, rain, comfortable, city. 

Yes, it has something to do with the Goat Kid story, it may exist within its world; cluttered buildings, a dirty city, lots of stuff, etc.

What I was looking for here was the contrast with these two colors: yellow and blue, and how yellow, being a warm color, can create a comfortable atmosphere within a blue, cold scenario. 

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And here is a quick sketch with another character that may be part of the Goat Kid world.

This guy, The mechanic, perhaps is someone that lives alone, building weird things, inventing machines, talking to 

himself, etc. 

He is a cat or something similar. 

And thats all for now! 

Thanks for reading :D 

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RANDOM 3D STUFF I FOUND AND DID

Funny smoke

Clouds.

First of all, the almost usual walk cycle:
This time I did a double bounce designed by Richard Williams. He says that you can create a nice double bounce by making your passing position a down position, as well as the contacts. The rest are ups, and that gives a funny jumping guy XD.

I think this one did not turned out as good as I expected. It has some flow issues, as well as timming issues.

I really think it needs more power on the extreme positions, like those two contacts. But I'll say the bad timming and posing has to do with my struggle on the planning. I tried to plan the walk beginning with the down positions (the down position method) which seems ok until you need to add the contacts. [if you look carefully, my contacts are not good, nor precisely mirrored].

I do like the arms animation, but they need a better timming. The arcs are fine I guess :P

Must keep working on a way to make movement flow nicely through the entire animation. 



And that's for the walk cycle.
CLOUDS - Or something coming through the clouds. Is a small animation proyect I'm working on to find out an easy way to build up a complete colored animation. It is mostly a research excersice for me to find out:

1. Ways to move backgrounds
2. Create a visual developement style that does not need of high and expensive technology
3. Integration of traditional hand drawn animation with some more digital methods, such as After Effects animation and Flash.
4. A small introduction on sstorytelling - This wont be a full story, it has to look like a scene that may form part of a bigger film. 

Here are my first thumbnails:

Here I explore the look of the clouds, the overall tone and atmosphere.

I want to create something simple, almost like a moving painting. Tiny accents like the birds will be there, leading the finishing animation of the aircraft appearing, which may be the most complicated thing. Still waiting for some designs of that ship. 

Here are some cloud animations I did yesterday.

They are done in photoshop.

This one was animated with AfterEffects, plane by plane. 

This one is too fast for my taste. Clouds are not a fluid; they do not reform so quickly. 

On upcoming updates I'll show some designs for the aircraft, some more animation studies, perhaps another stills, and whatever comes to my mind ^^.

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And for the Illustration part, I finally finished that Goat Kid portrait I've been working on for a while.

I'm quite happy with the result, specially the light and color it has. I'm the kind of guy that prefers dark pictures with few hues, but hey, colors are great too! :D (but not that easy to control hahaha)

And that's all for now!

Thanks for reading! :)

A small update - Digital Animation

Hey, I'm using a new layout here, I think it's better than the super complicated thing that was before. It loads faster and you can scroll till the bottom, checking many posts at once.

And for today: Digital Animation, but the frame by frame type, so what is digital is just the medium. That is, no weird, great, uber-hi-tech involved on it.

I'm talking about the animation I began working on Photoshop the other day. The goat guy just standing there, when suddenly he sees or is told something, and then he goes away.

reaction
change of pose - weights
The beginning of a walk! - Yes, I thought that putting a character into a walking position was going to be a huuge deal, and it was not so bad at all.
Animation looks not so fluid for the last frames, I know, it just needs some more inbetweens, but I guess movement is already solved and understandable. Don't you think??

And now the next proyect will be:

SOME KIND OF DIALOGUE!
>I'll try to make some mouth gestures with a generic face :P
>But first I'll finish another walk cycle, this time a "double bounce" suggested by Richard Williams.


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As for sketching and drawing, I've been working mostly on concept art stuff, landscapes and such.

Couple of sketches just to remember how this guy looks. I think the one on the right is a little bit off the model, the left one is just perfect ^^. A young dude with an innocent look, yet somewhat cranky - doubtful. 

This are some of the things I've doing to improve my landscapes. The first one is a very quick sketch with color and light in mind. 

The second one is something far more elaborated. It was done with the Goat Guy's story in mind. I thought of the city where he may arrive, at mid-day, with the sun coming from the right. 

Image planes where really useful to give the illusion of depth. 

And adding those tiny figures at the bottom really creates magnitude on the scene! (something I've been trying to do for a long while, with no success at all)

Two new animations and a Portrait

The Goat Kid animation (that dude needs a name) is ready!! Here you have it:

I had a great time working with this one. And I learned a lot too, I had to re-think and re-draw his ears because they were moving too slow, I worked a little bit more with his jaw, even the animation is quite simple there. I also added that cloth on his neck, which adds a lot to the overall movement; its flow.



I tried to do some line cleanup by tracing each sketchy-frame on a new piece of paper. I usually do not do this, and even I do prefer to not do it at all. It does takes time and some effort, and its a process which does not has to do a lot with animation, at least that's what I noticed. The animation is already solved by the sketch stage, loose lines are good enough to show the viewer what the character does. The cleaning process is more an aesthethics thing, something more involved in finishing a product.

I guess it is quite useful for a production, but for a student, not quite. It does gives a nice look and an easy read, but again, I prefer to keep exploring and trying animation things, than tracing everything over and over again.

And here is another tiny animation I began working on the other day. It's done in photoshop and has yet to be finished. Just keyframes and another two frames are done, but I think the movement is clear enough.

I'm wishing to add a nice "idle" before the movement, as well as a settle down right after it. 

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And some non-animated stuff now.

I did some sketches just to practice poses, when the idea came to me: Why not interacting with the character while you draw it[him/her]???  

It's quite fun, at least it adds something extra to the poses excersice, while you work with the character's personality and reactions. 

Fun thing to do ;)

And here it is something I've been working on regarding digital painting:

Its an animated gif that shows the progress until now. 

I was thinking on adding a background and some more light.

Thanks for reading!!! :D 

ANIMATION. Tea Drinking

It's finished!!
I know it's not clean or colored, but the animation is finished.

This was an excercise to understand how to use a simple background. Make a character do something else than walking, learn to study a certain pose or movement, and an overall scene construction.

I really like how it turned out.

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and a sketch I did at school.

Tiny update this time, I know, but I must scan other two finished animations, I'll upload them in the next days :D

thanks for reading!

Bitácora del Capitán

I created a tumblr days ago :   http://arturoarias.tumblr.com/

Thinking about this blog I decided to use it more as an animation journal [animalog], I think is more fun and useful in the long run.

Here I found another way of solving the hand movement. I was making just too much for such a tiny intention (getting a cup) I guess it looks more comfortable now.

Those are some of the planning pages I did for the animation below(still in progress). With those I figure out, before animating, what is going to happen, why and how. It usually takes me more than expected, arond 2 hours... haha, but I can tell you it's worth it. Doing a non planned animation is not that easy, and the results are often weird, and if you do get something good, you have no idea how you did it... That's why is nice to keep things organized.

Also, I have to admit I just love to draw poses and study them, you learn things from it: you research how stuff works, you put it in practice, and test it during the animation - if it works, good, if not, then do it again. That adds up a lot to your skill :P

Things spotted:
-I like how he turns his head
-It doesn't look so smooth - still running on twos (12fps)
-remember to add an overlap on those ears
-I do like the finishing movement of his left hand, not so much the beginning of it

That's it for this one. I should check the initial part of the hand and continue animating:
-when he touches the cup
-when he takes the cup to his mouth
-drinking

Seems to be a lot to be done! And its taking long, but I'm learning a lot of stuff in the process, and enjoying it too! :)

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Also, I did this other walk cycle. Really simple, treadmill movement.
I must say I do not like to animate walk cycles "on a treadmill" - I can't figure out the correct way the body moves and reacts to the step. It's weird to go the other way around like feet>legs>thighs>torso instead of the usual way, letting the torso fall to the ground because of gravity and use the legs to keep it from falling, all of that while the body actually goes forward. That's why I think doing the entire movement forward is better, but that's me.
You can do quite good and easy .gifs with the treadmill though XD

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Regarding the guy with the spilling milk and all, I'm done with that. But my scanner went crazy, went to buy a new one, and now all the frames must be scanned... and they are a lot, so I'm taking it slow, but it will be ready for the next post ;).

But here, have a simple pencil test for the guys movement. That's the final timing and acting.

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Aaaand Some art stuff and sketches that have nothing to do with animation, at least directly (but it makes you a cool artist yey!!! haha).

Wild dog references

Wild dog character

Those are some characters I did, used a different method this time, trying to keep the flow of ideas despite correct anatomy or any kind of technicality involved. I must say it worked!

Observation practice - Oils

I wanted to practice some light and shadows with just a grayscale palette. I never did such a study, at least with oils, I was too scared, but It's not that hard, at least with just two colors XD I'll add a third one on the next study and see what happens :P


Aaaand that's all for now!
Go watch The Croods, quite nice art and good story, I liked it ^^

Thanks for reading!! :D

Animated Update

A lot of stuff to update today!

Lets begin:
My Tea Drinking animation is still in progress.
I think it needs some changes, specially on the way he reaches for the cup. It's not natural enough, it's not even logical! XD

It's so dark because of the soft lines I used, but you can still follow the path his hand makes, that's what I believe is completely wrong.

I've been working on his head turn at the beginning, here it is:

That's it for this proyect. As I said, it needs some clean up and re-work.
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Time for some walk cycles!!
Here I have one that was done entirely on Photoshop, colored and all.

WalkCycle10
-I definitely prefer working with pencil and paper.
-MUST begin working with hips and shoulders to get body movement! = Rotation in and out
-Added a slight change on his contact foot, just to see what happens. It does not add weight, but adds reaction
-found out that the crazy lines are called boil = has a lot of it

The next walk cycle I've been working on [A huge one] has tree different views. Something more like an animated character sheet. This time I'm not translating the character, but moving his limbs like if he was on a treadmill. Not as easy as it seems!

Here is the front view / pencil test 

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And the new animation I'm working on.

This one is something much more story related. It is not exactly a huge story, but it tells something, at least more than just walking dudes.
The idea is that of a guy boiling milk, trying not to get distracted just to avoid milk from burning, but a fly will get in his way and bam! chaos will eventually happen. 

This is just the first part, where he lights the stove. Trying to get the right timing and some acting here. No dialogue.

Simple character to avoid distracting on form and focus on animation.

I think that's all for now.

Thanks for reading! :D

Drinking Tea . Animation

Have a blue devil

The guy-cat that drinks tea - Work in Progress
Since walk cycles are not everything in this life, I decided to do something different. This time I'll work with a simple animation in which a character interacts with an object in an environment. Those three elements will make me focus on how to use background layers, thinking about animation in parts and checking the overall animation over and over until the desired movement is achieved.

It's going to take me a while to finish, as well as a lot of effort. It actually looks more complex than those walk cycles, but if you think carefully, its almost the same: extreme positions, timing, spacing, shapes and volume =P

I'm using an almost generic character; again, what I want to achieve is movement and a way of solving animations.
Until now, I've found that good planning and concentration during the animation process can really boost the overall quality. Also, doing some previous studies regarding issues like anatomy and form can help a lot.

Here, have a look at the beginning of this animation The guy-cat that drinks tea - non walk cycle themed XD.

Please, let me know what you think ^^ 

Any further progress will be shown here, right now I have some extremes and breakdowns set up. 

And, since this is an animation blog, have a walk cycle!! XD 

I tried to make this one with a sense of volume. I guess this is the first one showing the character with something else than a dull profile. 

WalkCycle 8

Done on 8's - also known as cartoon walk