Evaluation.

What can i say about this module apart from it was rushed. The work i did in the week i was quite happy with although if i had given myself enough time it could and SHOULD have been so much better. I once again (like most flash animations i do) ran into a few hastles here and there, the main one being lines. Every other piece of animation i've done in flash before was filled. I'm a huge fan of colours and i often enjoy using my own unique pallette. Pale purples, mint greens all are exceptionally nice to work with. I didn't MIND that i couldn't use colour in this animation because that was the style i was going for. I was going for the "doodle in a book" look and i think it worked.

Anyway back on point without the colour fill problems happened when i was attempting to animate. A prime example is the walk cycle (not the walk cycle itself, the grass underneath the Lion). In a perfect world i would have loved to make the grass brush under it's feet but due to not having that fill and the way i was using tweens to move the grass it just wasn't possible. Unless i frame-by-framed every frame of grass (which would have sent me loopy). The stills were fine (The Lion eating the Zebra, the Zebra itself) but when the animation came into it it was incredibly hard to do.

As with all cycles the walking and running cycle were hard to do (The running cycle would be quicker thus technically meant i could make a few mistakes and the speed would cover it up) but the slow walk cycle meant that i couldn't really do any "fill" frames because they'd be seen.

PRESSURE SENSITIVITY HOW I HATE YOU! (Jk Lu rly <3). Once again TIME was the main factor, if i had the time to go back and redo the whole walk and run cycle again with sensitivity turned off i would have, but i didn't have the time. The animation isn't just those 2 cycles so other things needed to be done in time for the deadline. Now i know that when it comes to frame by frame...DO NOT use sensitivity on your tablet otherwise it leads to a weird water balloon effect that i'm not a fan of. (Luckily you can still see the movement so i got away with it i guess).

Overall as with every module i've learn not to leave it to the last damn minute ALL THE TIME. I say i've learnt it in every module but i actually have now (I probably say that too). I annoy myself so much with this kind of lack of time keeping that it effects my work. That's about it.

Time....Oh time...

Originally planned was to have a human jump in the mix at the end as a kind of twist. "This is what you're taught (Ending at the Lion) but this is the truth (Ending at the Human). Now although i would have liked to do it (and still may) i didn't leave myself enough time to do it in this version.

The final version is below ;

- Flash version -

Am i happy with it? Somewhat....Do i think i could have done better? Stupid question...Does this appear as though i'm talking to myself? Yup. The problem was noone's but my own, i left myself too little time to do what i actually wanted done. For the time i had i got my vision down the best i could. If i had more time nothing much else would change apart from smoothing out of frames and the adding of the human role.

I strayed from the storyboard which didn't help things and things like the walk cycle were harder than expected (I knew they were going to be tough but i didn't know HOW tough) the hours of zooming in and erasing stuff due to my own stupidity was tiresome at best.

Anyway, enjoy.

The hardest part.

The quadruped walk/run cycle....The fact i've left it to last minute also isn't a good thing.

Unlike originally planned, tweening just wouldn't work on this (For the fact that, the object isn't actually filled, it's just an outline meaning it would get VERY messy if all the lines were crossing each other due to tweening aswell as it just not looking that great).

I did tweening on my Panda for the flash module in 2nd year and although it looked ok it wasn't great, luckily the panda was filled with a colour so mistakes were hidden, but it isn't the case here.

UPDATE 1 # - A really quick sketchy wobbly version of the walk cycle, the head after the first part goes a little skewiff aswell as the back front leg and the front back leg (lol) SNAPPING into place. The tail is also going to be a bother, that's why i left the bastard out in the test. The head isn't being redrawn each frame which may be why it looks a little wooden, i think i'll just work on it a little more.

UPDATE #2 - A fair few hours later, things are cleaned up the tail is added and it's pretty much done...I'm not a fan of the wibble wobble of the lines but i drew it with a tablet and rather than being smart and turning pressure sensitivity OFF i left it on so it looks all over the place.....*huff*.

As with everything if i had more time it would look better but being ME time constraints are constraining so yeah....This is the best it'll get.

UPDATE #3 - The wobbly jobbly running animation, personally it looks to much like a bears body but looking at the references this is how a Lion's body works. Once again the static head is REALLY starting to piss me off but as with before, i don't have the time to Frame-by-frame the head aswell as finishing the run animation ontop of everything else. Bah

UPDATE #4 - Cleaned up without tail. The more i look at the head the more my blood starts to boil. I tried a quick shape tween to give the idea of "wind/weight" but it really didn't work (below). Once again i hate to say this every god damn post but yeah, if i had given myself more time it would be possible and i'm sure it would work, alas, no. Back onto the run, the reason i didn't turn pressure sensitivity off on my tablet was continuity. I didn't want the run cycle to be smoother than the walk cycle for own stubborn reasons i guess but because it may detatch itself from each other. The walk cycle is wobbly so why not make the run cycle? Keep it all together in one big happy wobbly ball.

 


UPDATE #5 Yeah, finished. The changing thicknesses is annoying, the head is annoying, the tail was annoying to do and doesn't look right, aswell as changing thickness....*sigh*

Anamatics!

Sometimes i confuse myself a lot more than i should, the first animatic i threw up wasn't even paced and timed properly....That's the point of an anamatic....Yet i missed the point....*sigh*

The second one is paced a little better with one of the loops i chose. The third and forth are the same with 2 other loops that i chose.

Lion revision #2

Cleaned up original, mane touched up. Secondary front view mane looked lifeless so tried to spruce it up, obvious symmetry though so may change it up.

First is now finished, second is being tweaked.

LION revision.

So yeah, i decided that i'd use the Lion as the animal in my animation for the sole purpose of it looking better from a design stand point. The bold black mane just works better with the lined paper background than a Lioness would.


REVISION 1 - Lines were cleaned up, mane was messed with, Anatomy and limbs were broken apart ready for animation. A second revision will be up done as i'm still not 100% happy with this.

Lions vs Lionesses

Upon researching i happened to have ran into something of interest. I always had an inkling that Lionesses do most of the hunting but i never knew it was a sure thing. According to many sources Lionesses are the primary hunters for each pride.

I did orignally intend to have a LION in the animation but upon finding this it makes sense to keep it as factually accurate as possible and change it to a Lioness.

 UPDATE

Maybe i was a little hasty when i instantly changed to Lioness, looking at it from a DESIGN point of view the Lion is more interesting because of it's mane. And visually (with the style i'm aiming for, the Lion works much better).

As you can see, the mane existing gives it that extra bit of umph....And it isn't like Lion's DON'T hunt...They just aren't the primary hunters. I may revert...

Zebra style #1

This was the first design of the Zebra ;

Digital ;

Personally, it doesn't look much like a zebra, the legs were too thin the patterns were way too (Through lack of a better word) 'blobby' the lines weren't crisp enough. A lot needed changing. Talking to Luke helped me understand that the anatomy was off as he instantly jumped on it and gave me some Cc.

The second revision was ;

As you can see the pattern now looks a lot crisper, the overall anatomy looks 'slightly' better. The legs still being WAY off. The third and final revision fixed these problems and against the lined background i personally believe works very well.

Final revision ; (Kind of)

Anatomy is somewhat fixed, lines are even more sharp and clear, tail added, proportions thrown around to make it more realistic. This is the final version of the 3 and if you look at the first one (which i'm now quite embarrased about) you'll see a vast improvement. It no longer looks like a Mr blobby Zebra and now a clean crisp nice looking Zebra.

The Lion?

Tertiary and most important in the animation, also going to be the hardest to animate...(Why do i always give myself Quadrupeds to animate...)

The problem with animating a Lion running is the sheer force of it all. Like humans all 4 legs leave the floor for a brief moment but they all move reasonably independantly....This will be fun.

The Zebra.

The Zebra being the secondary part in my animation will be the first animal that the viewer sees.

This personally was chosen over other animals such as a Gazelle because of the bold white/black contrast. This animal was PERFECT for the style i imagined and i personally think it will work very well.

What's allowed?

Seeing as this is intended to be aimed at people still in secondary/primary education Sarra brought up a valid point of what's allowed? What can teacher's show while still being on the right side of the law (Rules).

Is blood allowed? Logically seeing as you see childbirth in primary school mild violence would be allowed (seeing as there is nothing more brutal than witnissing it). The problem here is that if this was TV aimed i could look at the rules for Ofcom but this will be internet based....Where technically there aren't any rules or censorship.

I think i'll just be aware of the violence i add (if any) i can use clever movement to not actually show violence but let the people watching be aware what's happening.

Final idea/ Storyboards.

The final "chain" i've decided to work with is ;

• Sun
• Grass (Primary - Producer).
• Zebra (Secondary -Herbivore)
• Lion (Tertiary - Carnivore)
• Human (Quaternary - Omnivore)
• Fungi (Quinary - Detrivore)     

With this idea floating around my head i imagined what would be possible along with the style i wanted to do.

Due to this being educational and something that i learnt about in secondary school, i have a fond rememberance of lined paper and lots of it. Using this as a background along with just bold black lines i think will look very nice.

STORYBOARDS!

The storyboards were a quick indication of what i wanted, you'll see in the final that i left some things out or changed somethings.