Due Tuesday, October 1st!

note: for those of you that were absent on thursday, please read the previous post for what critiquing you need to do with your classmates.  

Bring in both of your walk cycles for critique!  Critique will factor heavily into your grade.

You will be graded on the following:

Walk Cycle 1:
Displaying realistic, believable motion.
Solid grounding of the feet and proper weight distribution.
Craftsmanship. (solid black lines, consistent line weights. Clean line art)
Documentation of first walk cycle critique notes.
Identification of the Contacts, Passing Positions, Up and Down Positions, and In-betweens.

Walk Cycle 2:
Characterization: Do we understand who the character is by his, her/it's walk?
Identifying Extreme Drawings, Key drawings, and In-between Drawings in Critique.
Craftsmanship.
Believability of walk.

From this point on, we will be focusing primarily on storytelling in animation! Excellent work in trying to undertake such a hard project so early!

To be completed for Thursday!

1) Gather references for your second walk cycle and start work/continue working on it! Bring any questions you have to me on thursday! Remember we will turn in both walk cycles on the 30th!

2) Get 2 people from the class to critique your FIRST walk cycle!  The people you pick should be determined by the following.

• Person #1: Someone in class that you know well!
• Person #2: Someone in class that you do not know well!

This is a good chance for you to get to know your classmates a little better, and gain a fresh perspective of the work you are doing.

• Make note of their comments!  Structure your critique of your work in a sliding scale of 5 comments, based on the following:

• 1st:  What is the most successful thing about your walk?  (STORYTELLING) (+ +)
• 2nd: (+)
• 3rd: (*) Something working, but still needs to be refined further.
• 4th: (-)
• 5th:  What is the thing that needs the most improvement in your walk cycle? (- -)

Please document their comments, then write what you learned about your walk cycle.  This can be typed or written down.

Turn in your documentation about your first walk cycle to me BY 3:00 on THURSDAY!

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REMEMBER THAT BOTH WALK CYCLES ARE DUE ON SEPTEMBER 30TH!

An excellent link about acting for animation!

(Remember to check the link below for details about what's expected for Tuesday!)

Check out this article about acting for animation.

http://floobynooby.blogspot.com/2012/04/james-baxter-notes-on-acting-for.html

As you begin to work on your second walk cycle, we are starting to add more characterization and personality into our walks!  There are some important things to consider when creating a character, and animating a character on screen:

• What is more important? The main poses, or the content between each pose?
• When I animate, do I have to always act out what I want to create?
• How close to reality should I stick with my actions?
• Is there a way I can subvert expectations by creating a character that looks a certain way, and giving that character actions that betray her/his/it's look?
• How do I compose my character's actions, and how do I stage that character in a scene?
• I need to remember that the paper that I draw on is not the bounding box of my character's actions.  It is merely the frame of a camera. Can my character create more important gestures by moving in and out of the frame?

The link above will help answer some of these questions for you.  Personality and engagement is key, and when we can create something believable on screen, we are naturally drawn to it.  Animation prides itself on making the unfamiliar, familiar to us, so feel free to experiment with your character's walk!

I will talk in detail about this link on tuesday. Remember to check the link below for details about what's expected for tuesday, and email me if you have any questions!

Things to be complete next tuesday, and notes for second walk cycle!

1)  Finish your first walk cycle and scan it into Toon Boom!
2)  Between now and next tuesday, get 2 people from the class to critique your walk cycle!  The people you pick should be determined by the following.

• Person #1: Someone in class that you know well!
• Person #2: Someone in class that you do not know well!

This is a good chance for you to get to know your classmates a little better, and gain a fresh perspective of the work you are doing.

• Make note of their comments!  Structure your critique of your work in a sliding scale of 5 comments, based on the following:

• 1st:  What is the most successful thing about your walk?  (STORYTELLING) (+ +)
• 2nd: (+)
• 3rd: (*) Something working, but still needs to be refined further.
• 4th: (-)
• 5th:  What is the thing that needs the most improvement in your walk cycle? (- -)

3) Start work on your second walk cycle over the weekend! We will be working on our second walk cycles in class on tuesday, but this weekend is a great (re: the best!) chance you have to do some significant work for your next cycle!

Your second walk cycle is one of CHARACTERIZATION, meaning, that we are to be able to understand who the character is by their walk alone. Some of the greatest walks in popular culture are so indicative of the people who walk them.  You may even know people in real life by the way they walk, enter a room, or exit one.

Parameters and notes to follow:

• We should know important personality tidbits about the character by their walk!
• The walk, like the first one, is done on a 2-D plane, moving from left to right.
• You will be graded on quality and craftsmanship, as you are on walkcycle#1.
• Create/use reference footage for your walk cycle! You can film it with anything; it is just important to use references for the type of motions you want. 
• Remember. You are ACTING! But also keep in mind that when we act, there are some things our characters do that our body can not.  It is up to you as an animator to know that references are only that: References.  They are not a crutch, or the end-all be all to acting.

As a secondary note: Youtube is the greatest free source of historical footage, if you are inspired by famous walks from Earth's history.  Make the most of the Web Resources you have!

4) On Tuesday, come with tools in hand ready to continue working on your SECOND walk cycle. I need to know by then what walk you are doing.

Have a great weekend!


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Important due dates to remember:

Sept 26:  Incentive day for finishing both walk cycles (Scanned into toonboom) at 95%.
If the entire class can do this, we will do something special.

Sept 30: Both final walk cycles due at 1:00 PM.