WEEK 2 SUMMARY

WEEK START - 1st of October

WEEK END - 7th of October

This week was mostly based around learning more techniques to do with Dynamics. On both Monday and Thursday, we did actual animation exercises; both involving bouncing balls.

Regular Bouncing Ball

Bouncing Ball with Squash and Stretch applied

"I didn't run into any real issues with this task, and I feel I completed it in about average time. I didn't feel like I was going too quickly and rushing, which was a worry I'd had last week. At the same time, I wasn't going really slowly to the point of annoying myself." (link for original post)

Secondary Action - Bouncing Man

"I decided to add a little figure sitting on top of the ball, who would bounce up and down as the ball did. I was really enthusiastic for this task, especially since it allowed for more creativity and personality than the other tasks.

I ran into one problem where I wasn't sure what the appropriate distance between two frames would be, which lead to two different versions of frame 12, dubbed "12 v1" and "12 v2". After using both and comparing outcomes, I found that 12 v1 worked better." (click for original post)

Secondary Action - Portal Gun

"I wanted to have it somewhat inspired by the Portal game series, by having the ball bounce along, open up a portal, fall through it, and continue bouncing after falling out the second portal. I didn't run into any issues with this animation; I thought that was surprising, given the more complex arcs and the amount of things in the air I had to manage." (click for original post) 

I'm really happy with how these came out, especially the Portal Gun one. It took some trial and error for certain little bits within animations, especially when it came to spacing of stretched out bouncy balls on ascension and descent. However, these issues were easily solved with making multiple versions of the same frame, and seeing which one worked best.

If I was to tackle this task again, I maybe would've considered varying ball weights for each animation. For all 4 animations, they all seem to be the same weight and bounciness; that being, very light and very bouncy. To try and bring in some more variety, I would try a heavier ball with an appropriate secondary action to go with it; for example, a bowling ball sort of weight, maybe crushing a bowling pin upon contact with the ground.


This week, I'm also more confident regarding the character essay. The session about building characters from the inside out proved beneficial, especially in the sense that I've since looked back at old characters I made and realising how flawed they are as characters.

I'm now fairly assured that I'm going to go with Emmet from The LEGO Movie, with my question still needing the final validation before I delve further. Right now, primary research is on the character, the film and the brand the two are based upon.


Overall, this was a great week! Many useful techniques that will prove valuable in the future, both of this course and in my animation career in general. This week’s introduction to the bouncing ball and secondary actions were really interesting. It’s steadily creeping into the territory of animation I’ve been looking forward to doing, with more fun visuals and creativity involved; “the good stuff” if you will. I’d say in terms of improvements, I’d say the portal gun secondary action animation could use a little timing work, and some more obvious cues for the portal gun actually appearing. But apart from that, happy all around!