HS ANIMATE (S1-4 of G12)
I decided to take this activity as a way to improve my drawing skills by continuously drawing. The only animation I have done before was Claymation but even that experience was years ago. I am excited to be able to make drawing come to life by their movement. I think it might take me a while to create a piece that I am satisfied with as I tend to be very critical with my work but I am willing to put in the effort to improve. Each week, we upload our animations onto a Padlet so we are able to give feedback to each other and are able to review our work.
In the first couple of lessons, we had an introduction to animation and how to make a simple one. We use Procreate on the iPads with an Apple Pencil. The app is very nice and it is very easy to use. Below are a few quick animations that I have done in the first couple of weeks of doing this activity.
It takes a bit of time to make sure the movements are smooth which takes up quite a number of frames, there is a limit of 46 frames per animation. However, that is not a big problem as I can use other media and apps to be able to “stitch” the small animations into one big lengthy one. The following animation is one that I have needed to “stitch” together because I wanted to make sure that the person climbing out of the picture was smooth. I struggle with drawing proportions and especially hands so I needed to use some references to attempt at improving my skill.
The follwing animation was more focused around the detail of the animation. Although the body proportions are still an area that requires work, I wanted to express a dread and I used the contrasting colours to show this. The simple leaf falling was done to show how still the image and give an impression that the character is holding his breath and before going into the room. I’m glad that I was able to express my idea as I find that translating very difficult but also my ultimate goal in drawing and animating.
The next animation was made by using a pre-existing picture ( in this case the Mona Lisa) and creating effects on the image. I chose bright colours to contrast the traditional painting, a nice mixture of the old-fashioned and the modern. I think that it turned out rather well. I could have done a more intricate pattern or effect but I felt that it would be best to keep the animation simple.
I did a small animation for the most recent session, the style was more of a sketch and very simple. I wanted to focus on movements and make it even little creepy but I don’t think it turned out very well and I hit the frame limit. Below is the result but it could have been a lot better. Next time, I’ll try and do a nice fruit themed animation with bright colours.
The following animation is one that took me while. I wanted to make lemons as planets with a small rocket ship flying in between them. I wanted to play around with the lighting a bit but I also encountered a small difficulty with the layers when making this small gif.
As our last session comes to an end, I feel grateful that I took up this activity. As I was always interested in art and animation, I’m glad I was able to actually make something by myself even if my animations weren’t particularly complicated. I enjoyed learning and understanding how to make foregrounds and backgrounds and understanding the layers. Procreate was a very easy program to use which helped my learning and made me less confused than I could’ve been. In conclusion, I’m very grateful that I was able to improve my drawing and animation capabilities through this activity as the progress wouldn’t have happened without it.
Lo1: I’ve noticed in artistic activities that I have a good understanding of colour, shading and rendering but I also know that I struggle with sizes, keeping my work neat, and proportions. I think this activity will allow me to improve that but it also helps me identify what I am able to do.
Lo2: I have drawn before but I have never animated before so in a way, this experience is similar but different. Drawing people and objects is a familiar notion but drawing the same idea with a slight difference in each frame is new. I underestimated how much time I spent on making a 15 second animation and the effort that it takes which makes me appreciate animated films all the more. This activity allowed me to build on what I already know whilst also introducing some new concepts.
