Pencil

I have been doing a lot of pencil test animation. I thought I'd write a little bit of a review on here for my evaluation.

I have found it quite hindering using the most basic form of light box which is a bit like drawing on an easel. I would have been able to do much better on a flat table-like light box and my line work would have been much better.

I have had to trace a lot of the drawings straight off the screen captures or put the screen captures first then the previous drawing on top and then the sheet I am drawing on over that.

Although this is a short cut, I have a good reason for doing it. I don't think I have the time to learn how to animate by drawing properly in time for the hand in date of 27th April. The hand in date is a whole month earlier than I had originally thought as the term ends 28th May, which is when I thought we'd be handing in our projects. I have still learnt a lot from animating in this way, especially about timing, movement and expression.

I have tried the method from the Disney video, Frogumentary. I have done two key frames and then put them on the light box and drawn the in between frame over the top of them.

It has all been a little tricky with the light box I have as it isn't quite bright enough to see through many frames. I have tried some thinner paper but it isn't as good quality and I think this will show up on camera when I make the frames into an animation.

I've decided not to use the same scene to do the acetate cells as I'd prefer to try out building the layers for the animation. I am thinking of choosing the next shot with Bambi, Thumper and Flower in it. Otherwise I may do the scene where Bambi tries to say "bird" and do each bird on a new layer.

Easter

I am currently preparing for work over the Easter holidays. I am going to be staying in my caravan and working full time at a seasonal job I have in Scotland. As I will be in a caravan I will have limited access to resources such as the internet and the library. In preparation for this I have downloaded ebooks that will allow me to travel light and still keep up my studies. I have managed to pack my light box to take to the caravan and worked out a place I can store it and the lamp without cramming the caravan! It would have been good to use a proper lightbox but the plastic hollow one with my lamp underneath is proving sufficient.

I will not be updating my blog over the Easter holidays due to lack of internet access. I will be carrying on taking notes from Disney: An Illusion of Life and animating scenes from Bambi. I will update all I have done when I am back.

My goal is to become confident enough with a pencil test to ink it onto acetate and colour it with Guache paint. If I'm really lucky I will also have time to paint a background for the scene, but I doubt I will have time due to my other two modules and it is slightly less relevant to the project.
Happy Easter!

Development

~ I have decided to animate the character of Thumper (from the film Bambi) in my tests. I find the character easier to draw than a lot of the other Disney characters I've practiced drawing. The animators also use the bounce and stretch principle of animation with that character a lot, which is interesting to study.
~ I have started the development part of the project. With the assistance of screen captures I have taken from Bambi, I have drawn up a succession of frames from the scene in which Bambi and Thumper skate on a frozen lake. It is a very short first test and has made me think about how many frames are needed to show actions and how to get from one key frame to the next. It has also given me my first chance to practice using a light box.
~ I have also typed up all written research notes into a printable form.

NEXT:
~ I am going to photograph the frames I have drawn and see how it plays through as an animation.
~ I am going to make more screen captures from Bambi and draw some more frames that will hopefully make a better animation than my first test.