Andy Fossey's Animation and Illustration Blog
Monday, 2 June 2008
jokes!!
i found this video on you tube! it is a cg lip sync of the joker. i have become fascinated by lip syncing. i like watching how other people interpret the audio and how they create subtle gestures that give the lip sync its character. the back ground is simple, just a scratchy brown backdrop, but, this is also effective! it doesn't distract us from the lip sync but subtly sends a tone across to the viewer that there is a dark cloud around this character giving him a quite menacing persona.
i think the lip sync is very accurate and the timing is bang on! there is also strong anticipation for the words to seem spoken, especially when he says 'jack'.
i think it is these small simple gestures that has helped to create such an effective lip sync.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
adam phillips is really good!!!!
this is called little foot. a cool little film with som very origional characters! i also love the way he creates such depth in his scenary. i think this is done on toon boom, a programme i would like to learn!
enjoy!
love spiderman!
i think spiderman is such an animated character!
i think the formation of his character with his spider-like agility and strength really allows the illustrator to push the limits of human anatomy.
i think this is the reason why i like to draw spiderman so much, i think it allows me to see how much i can exagerate the human figure witout it looking wrong
very old walk cycle
casting my mind way back to november '07 we had a pre production task where we had to create character in a storyline together. my character was called Mac. i decided as research into his character i would animate his walk cycle. this was my first ever walk cycle and dispite the mistakes i am proud of it!
nervous me!
our first creative lip sync where we had to design a character that represented ourselves... seems so long ago....(sorry)! anyway, i created this emo kid thing which seemed to look like me so i went with it. we also had to create some foley sounds that introduced ourselvves so there was something to animate to... so there i was in this quiet little room making a complete tit of myself trying to record something to animate to, needless to say, i was a bit nervous. so i decided that thats what i would say! easy!
as i was nervouse in the recording i animated a simple body to help communicate this through the body language, so i animated my character shyly rubbing his arm. and to give him something to be nervous about i put a greazy little cheap brothel in the beckground.....use your imagination!
lip sync lola
as a first excercise in flash andy gave us an old model he had used before. just so we can get familiar with flash. the model was a bitchy little dog named lola with a wierd mans voice. i think this voice gave lola a sleazy personality and also gestured at very obvious and exagerated mouth movements which made it easier to pick the correct symbol. i think this exercise helped me alot as i went on to do many more lip syncs as it became something i rather enjoyed! i think this exercise helped us to get to grips with the phonetic shapes that our mouth makes rather than how it is spelled. very useful....nice!
flash............aaaahhhh aaaahhhh!
lets step back in time.............we were introduced to flash . a nice simple 2d programme to create some simple yet effective animations with a light hearted tone!
we were shown a clip from an animator called adam phillips called 'the yuyu'.
i think this opened my once sceptical eyes to the world of flash animation.
after searching youtube, i think adam phillips' animations have thier own distinct character with an origional bunch of characters and his deep scenary that seemed to entice me further into the story.
check out 'THE YU YU'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9QHEbU0cWY&feature=related
we were shown a clip from an animator called adam phillips called 'the yuyu'.
i think this opened my once sceptical eyes to the world of flash animation.
after searching youtube, i think adam phillips' animations have thier own distinct character with an origional bunch of characters and his deep scenary that seemed to entice me further into the story.
check out 'THE YU YU'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9QHEbU0cWY&feature=related
Thursday, 6 March 2008
OSTN Ident - Busker
the brief for this project was to create an ident for a student television network. to brainstorm ideas i started to draw images which i thought would relate to student conditions such as sports, music, living conditions and being broke. we spoke to our client o ask some clarifying questions which i found helpfull because it allowed me to define the borders in which we were expected to keep.
i chose to go along the theme of music and had an idea of a busker which also ties in with the theme of money.
i new from the start that i wanted to animate this piece by hand and that i wanted the style to be quite loose and scratchy so as the image seems to be alive and will move of its own accord.
when i started story boarding the idea i found that it was hard to come up with anything resolute in 10 seconds so an animatic was a great tool to see if my storyboards would work.
once i finished my animatic i started to think of how to do the animation. before i started i needed to record the sound of a guitar in order to get the cues for the motion in my animation. i set up one of my flatmates with a guitar in a sound recording studio and recorded a light up beat accoustic track using three key notes. after refining the sound i then researched the hand positions in all of the notes. i took photos of his hand in all of the positions from both a front view and a birds eye view in order to get the right shape in both of the camera angles i was to use in my animation. i then drew a detailed picture of each position to become more familiar with the shapes of the hands.
to come up with the design of the buskers appearence i drew from various photographs of guitarists to become familiar with the shape and position of the body when holding a guitar whilst sitting on the floor.
i then animated to the dope sheet i produced whilst analysing my sound track frame by frame giving me my cues. this procedure was helpfull and very effective as it allowed me to map out my animaiton to create convinsing movements in time with the sound. i animated the front view (or shot 1) up to 5 seconds. then i switched to a birds eye view of the buskers legs and his collection blanket. this was made from several frames that were repeated to create 2 boils, to give a base for the zoom in to the OSTN logo. between the two boils i animated a coin falling from behind the camera into the collection blanket. this was the end of my hand drawn process.
i then scanned in my drawings according to the dope sheet and sequenced them in after effects. i then created my background/foreground. i chose to put my background infront of my animation so i could use the boils i created and still be able to zoom in on the OSTN logo without spilling over the background and created a much claener edge. this was a simple process, i just created an alpha channel where my animation would be and this was all i needed to do to create the illusion that the animation was in front of the background.
to finish the animation i made a fade out to the official OSTN logo and recorded sound effects to fit the actions taken in the animation such as dropping a coin into a pile of coins and blowing across a microphone to create a 'woosh' effect for my fade in. i also used a sound effect of a busy street off of a CD to give the animation a sense of place. to finish i adjusted the sequence so fit neatly into the 10 second slot and recorded a voice over saying 'You're watching OSTN' to finish off the fade in.
i think that this piece is a successful piece of animation which i found demanding as i didnt have the digital luxuries of a software programme to create my animation until it came to editing. i think after effects was a good tool to use when sequencing because of the user friendly interface which was clear and precice and was a relief to end up with a piece that i am proud of.
i chose to go along the theme of music and had an idea of a busker which also ties in with the theme of money.
i new from the start that i wanted to animate this piece by hand and that i wanted the style to be quite loose and scratchy so as the image seems to be alive and will move of its own accord.
when i started story boarding the idea i found that it was hard to come up with anything resolute in 10 seconds so an animatic was a great tool to see if my storyboards would work.
once i finished my animatic i started to think of how to do the animation. before i started i needed to record the sound of a guitar in order to get the cues for the motion in my animation. i set up one of my flatmates with a guitar in a sound recording studio and recorded a light up beat accoustic track using three key notes. after refining the sound i then researched the hand positions in all of the notes. i took photos of his hand in all of the positions from both a front view and a birds eye view in order to get the right shape in both of the camera angles i was to use in my animation. i then drew a detailed picture of each position to become more familiar with the shapes of the hands.
to come up with the design of the buskers appearence i drew from various photographs of guitarists to become familiar with the shape and position of the body when holding a guitar whilst sitting on the floor.
i then animated to the dope sheet i produced whilst analysing my sound track frame by frame giving me my cues. this procedure was helpfull and very effective as it allowed me to map out my animaiton to create convinsing movements in time with the sound. i animated the front view (or shot 1) up to 5 seconds. then i switched to a birds eye view of the buskers legs and his collection blanket. this was made from several frames that were repeated to create 2 boils, to give a base for the zoom in to the OSTN logo. between the two boils i animated a coin falling from behind the camera into the collection blanket. this was the end of my hand drawn process.
i then scanned in my drawings according to the dope sheet and sequenced them in after effects. i then created my background/foreground. i chose to put my background infront of my animation so i could use the boils i created and still be able to zoom in on the OSTN logo without spilling over the background and created a much claener edge. this was a simple process, i just created an alpha channel where my animation would be and this was all i needed to do to create the illusion that the animation was in front of the background.
to finish the animation i made a fade out to the official OSTN logo and recorded sound effects to fit the actions taken in the animation such as dropping a coin into a pile of coins and blowing across a microphone to create a 'woosh' effect for my fade in. i also used a sound effect of a busy street off of a CD to give the animation a sense of place. to finish i adjusted the sequence so fit neatly into the 10 second slot and recorded a voice over saying 'You're watching OSTN' to finish off the fade in.
i think that this piece is a successful piece of animation which i found demanding as i didnt have the digital luxuries of a software programme to create my animation until it came to editing. i think after effects was a good tool to use when sequencing because of the user friendly interface which was clear and precice and was a relief to end up with a piece that i am proud of.
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