Character Animation 2: Character Acting

Oh man, where do I start for this post. I was really excited for one class that I had in the month, character Animation 2. In my time at Full Sail I have had the pleasure of taking 3 other different Animation classes, 2D Animation, Fundamentals of Animation, Character Animation 1. Each oth those classes have taught us more and more about the principles of animation and how to refine our skills further and further. For Character Animation 2 we had two different projects to work throughout the 4 weeks, a Pantomime and a Sound Clip.

For the Pantomime we had to tell a story, and show two different emotional shifts, throughout the Animation. For my pantomime I choose to tell the story of a young boy that is walking happily, with his balloon, and ends up loosing it due to a gust of wind.

For the Second project I we had to choose a sound clip from a sound clip library and animate our character according to the clip.

Pantomime Project: Final Submission

  

There was a lot that I could have done better in this animation, but overall it came out pretty much the way that i wanted. I tried to get the emotion of a younger boy that lost his balloon to the wind, and that child like innocence of losing the thing that is important to them.

Sound Clip Project: Blocking 

The first layout of the Sound clip animation. Everything is very rough, in order to get the timing and feel of the overall animation.

Sound Clip Project: 2nd Pass

This was my first run through after the initial blocking stage. Everything feels really floaty right now, because I was in too much of a rush to get out of the blocking stage. I could have benefited from staying longer and adding anticipations and holds.

Sound Clip Project: 3rd Pass 

On this pass I've really pushed the animation to its next level. I added more anticipations, moving holds, and refined the downward point to make the emotion translate through the action.

Sound Clip Project: Final

This was my final go through of the sound clip animation. Here I added in the final mouth shapes, in order to get the character to look as though he was speaking the words. Last minute animation fixes, and the quick and dirty render to finish off this project.

Overall I loved this Character Animation class, the teacher was extremely helpful, and always willing to help people with one-on-one critiques. The further I get through my degree the more I appreciate all the hard work, and dedication to Animation. I hope to continue animating characters and creatures and further refine my skills.