Module1- Illusion of life- Directed Study Activity

I was quiet excited about this project because it was going to be the longest animation i had created. I actually started this animation before the previous one but stopped, because it had a longer deadline. The objective of this project was to learn morphing, pause, spacing, straight ahead and hang time. I also love this animation because it was the first time I designed a character, and the way he walks by research and then developed him using small gestures to anthropomorphisize him. I watched  videos on Youtube of ducks walking and discovered that they bend forward and streach there neck out to observe new things. and I then animated my character doing that smoothly this can also be seen in my test sheets were I plan the motion in change of body the duck has. I know this is only a small thing but for my first time I think its a good way to learn for later works. Also I really like the morphing of the head when the duck turns his head and also the squashing of the body when its about to fall into the puddle, the exaggerated eyes give him that sense of fear which quickly turns to shame when he looks around to see if anyone is around before moving back. I enjoyed animation the step back because of the slow step  but quick shift which gave the character a bit of life, as if hes thinking about how to move and were to move. This is again seen when my duck wiggles his tail before jumping off and taps his feet together before jumping into the puddle. I definately think this has made me more confident to experiment with character movment. I thought the story was also a big part of the whole thing, heres a young duck who finds a puddle and thinks its deeper than it is. I really do love innocent stories like thins where things happen to cute characters simply because they dont know any better.

 

I did take a look at real ducks and studied definate features that mine should have but I felt the simple and imagionative version ment less could go wrong. e.g I realy needed was a recognisable beak an and body shape, but wings and feathers were not necessary unless they are in use because they almost camaflage against a young ducks body when there folded in.

 

Below are videos i looked at for research to my final video on this module.

 

The video above, I slowed down in order to see clearly how the duck moves. My observations show that it leans forward and although it looks slow in the video the feet move quiet quickly. I also looked at Disney's Silly Symphonies - Ugly Duckling (not the black and white one).