Animation Introduction (Week 8)

Week eight we were separated into two groups by Alec and were going to be begin our introduction into our animation workshops. This week I was in group two and was going to be taught by Sarah on how to animate the drawings we have created and learning how to do so on the many animation software’s available to us. We began with the first software ‘Adobe Animate’, this was not my first time using this software but was a more in depth introduction and teaching to what I had previously learned. I had used ‘Adobe Animate’ to piece together some photographs which I had taken for a animation final project, including some sounds, scene transitions and creative cuts in order to piece together a stop motion short film.

Personally I don’t enjoy using computers to animate as I would prefer to illustrate my characters/worlds as concept art, rather than digitally move them as I find it difficult and tedious. This meant that within the first explanations of how to use ‘Adobe Animate’ I was confused with the entire process and found that the amount of button layouts and maneuvers were quite difficult to understand. However I understood some of the processes that showed us how you could show the different layers of your animation as you worked on them, how to add onto your different layers with ‘onion skinning’ and was able to recognise which key frames had artwork on them, as some of the key frames would have a black dot, differentiating them from a clear frame. I also learnt that with many online software’s it works best if you label the layers accordingly to your work, to keep yourself on the right path and helps you to understand which layers of the work you have began working on. This lesson was a basic example of some of the work which we would be creating on ‘Adobe Animate’ so Sarah our tutor taught us that it helps to create a base/back-ground layer and draw in position a ‘ground line’, so that it will make it easier for us to show the bounce movements of the ball, with a realistic line of perception. The next layer we created was the ‘ball’ layer and this was to explain what the animation was to include and help us know were we should draw our animation.

Overall I created some pieces of quick, rough animation to get a very basic understanding of ‘Adobe Animate’ and I believe I will need far more hours of practice on this software to get a full understanding and a possible smooth creative process when working on my animation pieces. I enjoyed the introduction into animation software and I am confident that I will develop my abilities and learn important techniques for a career within animation.

This was one of the first pieces I practiced with ‘Adobe Animate’ and was trying to learn the best way to draw the movement of a bouncing ball. I set up my animation by first selecting a dark blue colour for the ‘ground line’ layer and then positioned a straight line across the page. I changed colours to a lighter blue and clicked onto another layer and named it ‘ball’ and once my line of perception was created, I began my basic bouncing ball animation. We had been given a helpful sheet that instructed us what specific ball timings would look more realistic and work well with frames per second, and in order to help me with the drawings of each bouncing ball section, I clicked the light blub icon/onion skinning and was able to view the positions of all my drawings in a light green, helping me to create accurate moving drawings with minimal overlapping.

In this photo I had labeled my layers to help provide me with a clear idea of which layer I was working on, as Sarah instructed simple labels help allow the animation progress to remain simple and precise. I labelled the background layer ‘ground’ and the animation layer ‘ball’ and this helped remind me which layer was the first base and which layer I would be creating my bouncing ball animation on. To help me keep track of what drawings I had already created, I clicked the light bulb icon and this then showed a accompanying green ball to represent all the key frames. Another feature which helps you be aware of what key frames has drawings on them is that each circle on the key frames will remain clear until you have drawn on the frame, then the circle will fill into a black dot and represent a frame with drawings. Learning these helpful tools within ‘Adobe Animate’ made for a less confusing process when creating an animation.

Again not a successful animation, but I tried to experiment with different movements of a bouncing ball and created a character with simple circle and oval shapes and that was throwing the ball up with their arm. I decided on a more bright colour of neon green and decided against a back ground line, using my characters feet as the ground representative and focusing more on the ball movement. I had used all the helpful tools from which I was taught within my lesson and although the actual smooth process of creating a animation was proving to be difficult for me, I had decided to experiment with some alternative movements and bouncing ball scenarios. To help me get a rough idea of the different animations I could be creating such as characters passing a ball between one another, characters throwing the ball, characters partaking in activities such as bowling or tennis and or even just a repetitive practice session on how a ball would bounce off the floor and continue bouncing, which factors including weight, size and shape.

Once we had learned the basics animation on ‘Adobe Animate’ our task was to animate three different sizes in bouncing balls and show how we could accurately depict the balls movement and weight. This was my attempt at animating a tennis ball.

I had struggled with ‘Adobe Animate’ in class so when I had travelled home I decided to see if there was animation softwares on my iPad, that I could have a try at animating our tasks on. The animation software was called ‘Rough Animator’ and this is animation of a bouncing ping pong ball.

I found the simple mechanics of Rough Animator really easy to use and was actually enjoying animating rather than being confused and frustrated. I YouTubed some bouncing ball references and with the help of my own knowledge I think I did alright in showing how each ball bounces with their different weight. This is my final animation of a bowling ball bouncing and I really think I will be using Rough Animator for a lot more of my upcoming work.