Timing & Spacing

My "homework" was to do the bouncing ball exercise on page 100 and the jumping exercise on page 101. During the bounce of a ball, the action slows at the highest point and the drawings are spaced closer together. The bounce happens rather quickly and the ball stretches before and after. Interestingly, a person jumping follows a similar pattern.

New Goal: Learn 12 Principles of Animation!

As you can see, I'm setting a new goal for myself. I will independently study the 12 principles of animation in order to stimulate my growth toward becoming a better animator. I still feel like a beginner right now and I've got a long way to go (and I'm not afraid to admit that!). I want to record my journey, crummy animations and all, so that I can look back and see my own improvement. I'm hoping that keeping a blog will help me to stay motivated too! I'm using two main sources to study from: Preston Blair's book Cartoon Animation for traditional techniques and Digital Tutor's tutorials for implement them in 3D. More to come soon!

Personal Portfolio

Hey, I finished my first assignment for my web design class! Here is a screen shot showing the Home page. I don't have a whole lot of experience with web design, so I was proud with what I was able to accomplish. I especially like the links buttons that I created in photo shop.

A New Beginning

Hello! It's been about a year since I've updated this thing and now I'm starting it up again for another class: Web Design. The blog topics will be expanded to include web design along with the theme of animation. I finished the projects I wrote about previously and I should probably post pics/videos of my final work! I will write about my new projects as well. Look forward to more posts, I will be writing about once a week!

Ahh finals!

This week is the start of my finals so I wont be able to post much. I just want to quickly thank everyone for posting their comments. I have really enjoyed reading them! This blog has turned out to be a fun way to learn more about something I love, animation, and it was overall a neat experience. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep posting after this semester or not but thanks for reading!

Call Me Crazy...

So now I have only a week left to finish my entire animation for my class (if you remember, it's the room with the giant glass in the center that I posted images of earlier). There is still much work to be done, mainly adding sound effects and improving the camera movements. To add to the madness, I've placed another element into the scene that wasn't in the original painting: a doll. My narrative for the animation is seen from the perspective of the character as she walks around the room feeling confused by the oddly sized objects. Only at the end does she realize that she's a doll inside of a doll house when she looks into the mirror on the dresser. I've posted an image of my model next to the picture that she is based off of. It looks good for a start but the hair and the apron are giving me trouble. I hope I can get everything done before it's due next week!

Women Who Rock in Animation

A couple weeks ago I talked about Mary Blair, one of the first women to hold an influential position working for Disney. Now I want to talk about some of the women who work in the industry today.

As far as opportunities in the animation field, we've come a long way from the Ink and Paint department. As an article from Women in Animation (Education First, Travel Next: Tips From Some of the Pros) points out, "In an attempt to engage more viewers by capturing another point of view, women are even being sought out." A few examples of women who have recently worked in management positions include Jean McCurdy who ran Warner Bros. Animation during its golden age and the creative team of women behind Nick Jr.

For girls especially but also anyone interested in an animation career, I recommend reading the rest of the article for tips about getting into the industry. Also, see the Women in Animation blog where you can find a bunch of blogs created by professional female animators.