Animation Feedback and Next Steps.

I just had a great chat with Lynn about my remaining work load for this module. It really hit home how little reading I'd done into the specific animation properties which would benefit my characters I'm currently working on (the adult and the child). I've been to general. Sure it's been great doing motion studies and tons of scenario sketches to flesh out my characters, and the generic cyclic tests, but I've become guilty of not doing what I've always preached as a hugely important thing:

Looking to a massive range of existing sources for influence. 

So that was a wake up call I was glad to get. I guess I'm just adjusting to the whole interpolation of the two modules. I mean, I've done this module before, albeit to a lesser criteria or whatever, but yeah, it's thrown me off a bit in terms of delegation. 

Feels aside, I now have a bit of direction. I'm going to take my characters, and create a sort of "personality board" which represents the sort of character they are. Pretty much a mood board. And then deconstruct and analyse the way these characters have been animated, and from that see if I can perhaps direct my own animation from these studies. 

I did this sort of thing last time round on this module. I think I actually started off the module by creating a mood board of characters. Although I don't believe I looked into motion at all. So my animation sucked even more than it does now. Although the design was relatively strong. So hopefully from this new approach I'll have the best of both.

Influence/Personality Board for Adult

Images.
Top Left: Ozymandias (and Bubastis) (Watchmen)
Top Right: Li Shang (Mulan)
Bottom Left: Howl (Howl's Moving Castle)
Bottom Right: Altair (Assassin's Creed)

Deconstruction and Justification of Inclusion:

Ozymandias.

Although he's yet to be animated in a film or games, Ozymandias was an inspiration to the character by means of demeanor. In Watchmen O is always in control. He's always a step ahead of everyone else.

O is also an example of the perfect fighter, and this confidence and prowess comes across in his battle scenes in Watchmen. However, his calm confidence shines constantly, not just when fighting, and that quality is something I think is a strong testament to his intelligence. 

Li Shang. 

In Mulan, Li Shang is also a very experienced fighter, and the strong poses which support his animation give him a strong, confident demeanor also.

In my animation, I'd love to have this sort of feeling to the adult character, but with a bit more exaggeration given to the follow-through of the motions.



Howl.

I really admire the animation of Howl in Howl's Moving Castle. Throughout the film Howl's animation helps support his confident personality by giving him a very organic, elegant sense of motion, like wind or water moves.

Because my character is a deity, I think this idea of fluidity in his animation will help seal him in with the rivers and the mountains of his world through harmony.




Altair. 

Altier is an obvious one. I hope it doesn't seem to obvious or lazy to include him in here, but I feel he's very relevant, and especially since I'm creating cyclic animations for games.

Altair's animations are some of the most appreciated in contemporary games. Obviously, considering the circumstances, I won't be aiming to complete animations as remarkable as the ones in Assassin's creed. But I do hope to at least have a strong confident personality evident within my submissions.

I think it's also important to note the attention given to specific areas of his body. For example, in areas where he wants to stay low, he keeps his head down and focused. And when he runs his body dips and streamlines, etc. I'll go more into this and the rest of these in my report.




Next up I'll do the child version, what inspired his personality, and how and why it differs from his adult self.



PS.This is what happens when I remember GIFs are a thing.