last blog post

I completely forgot about the blog until just now, I will attempt to sum up the last few weeks. The concept art assignment forced me to use photoshop, which I've always avoided because I found it confusing. I no longer find it confusing, my head is definitely around it now, and knowing photohshop a little better enabled me to do my 2D assignment a lot quicker and more effectively. I'm quite pleased with how it came out!

To sum up, the most vital thing that this subject has drummed into me is that you should sketch your ideas in tiny thumbnails first and then develop them step by step. I look back at animation I've done previously and see a lot of undynamic poses and boring animation that could have been made a lot more interesting with a little extra effort and planning. I am going to attempt making an animation over the holidays using this new philosophy (previously i would do a sketch in flash and draw over it in illustrator, but i know see the importance of starting small and with an actual pen and paper).

The first thing i did over the holidays was to make a goofy walk cycle for said animation. i sketched out some key poses, then resketched them larger in flash, and planned every frame of the cycle before touching illustrator.

take a look:
sketchy version: http://greasymoose.com/random/crazywalk.swf
finished version: http://greasymoose.com/random/crazywalkcolour.swf

this is easily the best walk cycle i have done, it only took most of a day to do as well from start to finish.