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.