Week 1 and 3 - Clean Up and Inbetweening

In week 1 and 2 the class was split up, one class would have clean up the other character design. We would then switch in week 2. In week 3 We had Inbetweening. I'm gonna talk about the characterdesign week in another (big) post. As for now, I can hardly call the work done in week 1 and 3 my own. Let me explain:
We had Clean Up with Lee Huxley who gave us about 13-14 frames from a short scene from the movie "An American Tale: Fievel Goes West." It was the key frames/breakdowns done by the animator, so we should clean them up - make one consistent line with a technical led pen, following the looser drawing made by the animator. Not very creative, not really my thing.



In the inbetweening week we were lucky to have Uri again. This time we got 11 frames from the movie "Balto" which was to be inbetweened with 13 frames. It was a bit more creative than clean up, but again it can't be called my animation:



We we're alsp supposed to make four poses with the character before the inbetweening:


Its supposed to be: Surprised, the conqueror, fleeing, and in love...

Drawings, away!

First of all, look at this drawing:


She kindly sat still for 3 hours so I could draw her. The portrait doesn't quite catch the life from reality, but I guess that it would be hard to smile for 3 hours, even for this sweet Swedish girl :)

Now, to judge from my blog, all I've been doing in the last four months of 2009 is animation. That is not true, I've just been too occupied (and sometimes maybe a bit lazy) to post all the other stuff. Well here goes, from the second week in September to the middle of December:

In the second week, week 36 that is, we had perspective with Bjørn Lomborg. This meant going through alot of different rules for making correct perspective. The only time we saw us triumphed by reality, was when trying to make the sides of a cube technical equal in length when the cube only has one vanishing point and only two visible sides. So if you know how to, do tell me!
We went to draw at the cathedral Tuesday morning:




Our first teacher Zdenko most kindly decided that we should have homework for when he came back 8 weeks later, infact Zdenko most kindly decided that we should make 8 good, solid and clean drawings, 1 sketchbook of hands and feet, and one with sketches....On top of all the other homework other teacher's give from day to day. The 8 drawings was eventually turned into 7, and the sketchbooks into half sketchbook as we grew closer to his return - only a very few students made everything.
I ended up with these 7 drawings:


The first couple of days was mostly used on getting alot of critique on each and every drawing turned in. At the end of Wednesday we could finally continue with the final assignment: Creating a line of characters based on a setting chosen by the class. After alot of discussion the setting ended up being "Clown Hunters..." In a dystopian future some kind of 3th world war has turned society into a primitive, scattered wasteland. Clowns are the only kind of entertainment, hence they're hunted by ruthless "clown hunters" hired by evil circus managers..!
Thursday morning we all sat down to create our own 3 clown characters, I made these:

After another class meeting where all clown was rewieved, 4 was picked to be further developed by all. I ended up with these designs:


The "ninja clown" is more or less the original design, the big clown is pretty much my work - it was the size that was chosen. The female clown is a combination of what I liked from my own and from the one chosen on the class. Finally, my own little clown was chosen as the 4th character, though I myself didn't get around to develop it further.

In week 44 and 50 we had "Elements of Design" with the fabled Lawrence - no teacher at the school has so many stories surrounding him and such a reputation. It was two great weeks, alot of theory, but very, very useful theory. As mentioned we worked with the elements of design:

Line, shape, value, form, space, texture and colour

In order to get the abstracts right before the details we were very limited in our use of materials, thus to prevent us from drawing, the first many assignments was to be done with a 1cm broad tusch. And to get the feeling right - which is what creativity is all about - the assignments included tasting and hearing. These are my final pictures:

Each assignment focused on one of the elements of design, but without excluding the others.
1st assignment: Taste the strawberry icecream, note down whatever words come to mind then make the taste of strawberry icecream with line.
2nd assignment: Taste the dark chocolate, note down whatever words come to mind, google them and find pictures then make the taste of chocolate with shape.
3rd assignment: Listen to jazz (I don't remember which cd it was, something new yorkish) make the sound with black and white and two values inbetween.
4th assignment: Choose a real of fictional character to make a tea set out of - focus on form. I chose V from V for Vendetta.
5th assignment: Make a burning house interior - focus on space.

As for texture we never got to have the assignment because of time pressure, and colour is such a big field that we will have a week with it at some point in the spring. You can see Lawrence's work here: http://www.lawrencemarvit.com

In week 45 we had storyboard with Uri for two days. Divided into four man groups we should storyboard "How the Elephant got its long nose." I concentrated on the meeting with the snake and the battle with the crocodile. My idea was to make a comical contrast between a scary environment and alot of build up tension contra the young elephants lack of understanding of the impending danger. We had one afternoon, evening and morning to plan things, make mastershots, thumbnails and the final storyboard, so I didn't get around to make the fight with the crocodile given my focus on the building tension. The mastershots for the two sequences:

The storyboard is as follows (they should be read in the order of a comic):


As I realised that I was not going to finish the board I decided to make the two most interesting thumbs from the battle (which should have been the other half of the board), so the last to pictures have alot going on before, between and after.

V for Vendetta is owned by DC Comics (sadly not by Alan Moore himself)

Week 46 and 49 - Goofy Animation with Meelis

In week 46 and 49 we had animationlessons with Meelis Arulepp, an animator from Estonia who among other things has animated on Asterix and the Vikings. We had animations exercises with Goofy as a model. In week 46 we had to make him lift a ball that should look as heavy as possible and in week 49 we had to make him look drunk.



The bouncing balls principles really shines through in these exercises: threating Goofy's stomach and head as simple balls really gives you a point to direct everything out from in these exercises, ecpecially the arcs becomes a play.



I really planned the last animation out very strictly, ironicly it is the last 10 frames wich I did very fast an loosely that is the best. But of course, you can't plan the loose kind of fluency: less planning, more fast pased sketching next time.

(note Goofy is owned my Disney)

Week 39, 40 and 41 Animations

Week 39 was the last week with Uri. Since friday should be a fun day, we got that's week assigment early: Animate a flour sack after a storyboard by Uri. I missed the inbetweening in the two middle scenes, so I had to settle with this:



As mentoined, friday should be a fun day and it was indeed! We watched pixilation movies before figuring out the plot for our own pixilation movie in groups. Then we shot it in 3 hours. Except for my hand you'll see in the movie, I did my best to function as the director - otherwise the credit goes to Sandra, Thomas, Christoffer and Atli.

The Pillow Hunt from Niels Dolmer on Vimeo.

Since the animation was done fast, went fast and is without sound I figured the plot might be quite hard to catch, so to make the story (and a second view of the movie) a bit more interesting, let me tell it!
A girl sits uncomtable at a chair and decides to find something more comforting. She encounters a magic hat that gives her a magic turtle-compass. She fellows and finds a freezing guy, aids him and befriends him. After some travel they encounter an evil wizard! The friend with the scarf attacks, but the wizard curses his leg and forces him away, then teleports behind the girl, hits her, teleports and takes the hat... The beats him, he falls, and turns into a pillow - The End

In week 40 and 41 we had a teacher from MarkFilm (http://markfilm.dk) named Anders Nejsum to teach us basic walk. Walks are rather technical so at the first week we ended up doing a simple standard walk:



In the second week, we needed to come up with our own walk. I decided to go for a sneaky walk:


The Pink Panther is the property of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

First Animations

For the last 3 weeks I've been thaught basic animation at the school by Uri Kranot - an independent filmmaker/animator from Isreal. (You can see more about him at his site www.tindrumanimation.com). It has mostly been fun, interesting and very time consuming to finally touch what my education is all about. In the first week, apart from bouncing ball and pendulum exercises, each student made their own "short" which was to be "10 seconds long and about a frog and a fly." I made this:



In the second week we continued with the wave and follow through principles ending up each making our own short about a ball with a tail. The ball was to enter the frame joyfully, remember something, exit and come back in. Note that the ball doesn't jump in fear in the middle of my animation, but because it came to think of something it should get. Ofcourse that should had been clear in the animation.

1st Week at KAU: Clockman, drunken elephant and burning squirrels

Holidays are over, the 24th I started at KAU or CA (Character animation) as it is called now. It has been quite a busy week, with lots and lots of drawings focusing on good construction, but thats not an excuse to make poor poses, or boring characters anyway.
Here are some of the best stuff I've come up with this week:
The tasks for each drawing was, as I remember them:
Make a superhero standing in an action or acting pose.
Draw a drunken elephant in 30 min.
Make a drawing of a woman/girl (the idea with the squirrel came from an earlier assigment).
Make a drawing containing what you've learned this week

Some Tower Background

Remember the ”upcoming project” I mentioned two posts down? Turns out it turned into an examination project at the media school, which again turned into a personal project... Because some things are remarkably unwilling to be finished. Anyways the shown (and yes, slightly unfinished) background is a part of the project, enjoy!

I’m off on vacation, cheers!