Week 5 Part 1

This week focussed on more advanced animation techniques in flash. Most notably, the use of bone structures to create realistic movement in objects, usually by placing constraints on how they move. This technique of essentially hinging objects together will prove invaluable when animating 'Seraphi', one of the two characters in my animation. Serpahi is an anatomically complicated creature but not particularly emotive, therefore using bones to create gentle loops of her hovering above the ground will be the most efficient way of animating her.

Week 4 Part 1

This week was mainly focussed on understanding the requirements of the final animation rather than learning new skills in flash. This was largely achieved with assignment 2, in which one of the most difficult tasks was dividing up the potential workload evenly between me and my team-mate: Ari. Because we were working off my concept, we decided I would direct and handle the more creative side of the project. This is largely done to maintain a consistent visual style throughout the animation. On the other hand, Ari will act as producer on the project, handling the slightly more procedural aspects, such as creation of the flash folio as well as the rendering and compositing of the animation.

A misunderstanding of what was meant by 'methodology' resulted in me detailing the different methods of animation for the two characters. While not intended as part of the assignment, this did prove useful in establishing how the character's personalities will dictate what techniques are used to animate them.

Week 3 Part 1

Well I'm starting a bit late on the blog, but I might fill in the previous weeks i missed later on. The only problem is when I use facebook and blogs etc I tend to lose...the will...to live. Anyway, my concept was picked this week as one of the 11 to be animated. Booyah! During my 1 minute pitch, I chose to focus more on the personality and design of the characters rather than the story as I felt they were much more compelling. The setting, however, was my big selling point as I have it more or less completely fleshed out in 3D. Even though my pitch was chosen, not many people seemed keen on animating a floating locust/squid/angel with six legs and wings. Luckily, Ari was interested so we formed a group. As there is only two of us, deciding who will do which job could prove slightly difficult, but since I'd planned to do everything by myself, any help is a plus.

The following are concept sketches I presented