Worm Animation

I have decided to advance the movement of the circle into an animation of a worm.

Worm 1-

By trial and error I've worked the correct movement out, but I want to move it across the page.

Worm 2-

Making the worm move across the page- I changed the opacity of the frames so I could see through them all to work out where the worm had to move to next.

Simple Circle Animation

Skill

learning about simple movement in animation.

Learning Approach

I just drew a simple shape and decided to experiment with the timings, learning by trial and error, testing different techniques out.

Key Tips from the Learning Process

1. In the last animation I tried to make the circle come from different sides. It doesn't work however because in some of the frames the circle is too small and it makes it flicker. I need to make sure the subject is the same size in every frame.
2. Again in the last animation, I have forgotten to remove one of the frames so half a circle flicks onto the screen while it's also moving on the other side of the screen. I should double check I am only showing the frames I want to or it can ruin the whole animation.
3. Changing the timing on each individual frame is tedious and take time. I didn't realise until far into the last animation that you can select all frames and carry out the process only once.

1- The first animation is 16 frames repeated 4 times with a delay of 0.01 sec between each frame. It's too fast:

2- On this second animation the time delay is 0.1 second... I definitely prefer this speed:

3- Here I have managed to ping the circle backwards and forwards.

4- I've tried to make the ball appear from different directions. There is a problem with the size of the ball in a couple of the frames however which is proving impossible to sort out... I think I would have to start again if I was taking this project further.

Overall...

Although trial and error can be a laborious process I found it really good not to have any structure to learning, to be able to experiment. I allowed me to explore without worrying about making mistakes and I discovered loads of small shortcuts etc which would have been really difficult to find in a manual. However, I don't believe that it's they best way to learn all the time, but I think that there should be a balance between textbook learning (studying), and just getting stuck into the process without knowing what you are actually doing.

Bird in Animated gif

Skill

Creating an animated gif in Adobe Photoshop

Approach to Learning

I researched 'animated gif in Photoshop' on the internet and taught myself by following the steps from http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/build-animated-gifs-in-photoshop/.

Process Notes

Key Tips from the Learning Process

1. I found that sometimes I got muddled up with the different layers and the order they were meant to be in. In the future I need to remember toname/label the different layers according to the correct order.
2. At first, my animated gif was too fast and I found out that the preview in Photoshop is not very accurate. I learnt to save and export my gif then watch it in quicktime player to get a feel for timings. Then I would go back and edit.
3. Alos, my first attempt was too short. I had to repeat the 9 frames 5 times so there were 45 frames in total.
4. When i tried to upload my gif onto my blog it wouldn't work. Through trial and error I learnt that the gif needed to be saved as an MPEG- 4 file

Animation 1-

Too fast and too short

Animation 2-

Slower, but still too short

Final Animation-

Overall...

Learning from a step-by-step guide was simple and quick, making me realise how easy it was to put together an animated gif. If i had known how to do it sooner I think I would have used it a lot more in the past, I will certainly use it in the future. The demonstration I found was really good, however, similarly to learning from books, if i had trouble with something I would have been stuck and had to wait to go into college to get help.

Reading Week

In 'Animation: A Handy Guide' I found a section explaining about bone structure in animation particularly interesting and decided to give it a go. It turned out to be very useful. All 9 images can be put in a loop in an animation to make it look like it's flying. When I get back to college I will put it into flash/ make an animated gif.

Skill

I want to learn how to use illustration to make an Animation. How to create realistic movement in a an animation.

Approach to Learning

I borrowed a few books from the library and read up on some animation techniques, taking notes as I went along. Then I drew the sequence to test out the suggested technique.

Key Tips from the Learning Process

1. Make thorough, step by step notes so I can work without the book in the future.
2. Mark important pages so when I want to go back and try out a particular technique I can easily find it. I did not do this I wasted time trying to find information again.
3. When I draw out an image to animate I need to make sure I can see the previous image so the animation will line up properly. I thought I would be able to work out the size if the area I was drawing onto was the same size, but i found out that there is still a risk that the images will not synchronise.
4. Make sure the general shape of the image is similar to the others being put into the animation

Overall...

Teaching myself animation techniques from books meant I could learn/ work at my own pace ensuring that I understood everything as I went along. If I felt I did not understand something I could go back and re- read. However, I did have to be self disciplined. With no-one overlooking what I was doing I could have been easily been distracted. I felt I managed to keep on track though. Another downside was that if I did not understand something after re-reading I was on my own. I would have to wait until I went into college to ask someone. Overall, I found working from books a very successful way of learning.