Pose to Pose Animation Task: Part Two, Introducing Character.

For my second animation I decided to introduce an element of character. I didn't stray too far from the bouncing ball idea though, and made sure the body of the character resembled a ball so I didn't make the task to complicated for me. The first thing that came to mind was a teddy, and I went with the idea because it wasn't too complex of a character, and would be able to bounce in a sequence similar to that of a ball. (That makes sense, right?)
The next thing I did was plan out was what was going to happen in the short. I didn't just want the teddy to bounce along, I wanted there to be a reason for it. My first idea was to have him jump of a ledge. This would have been a good opportunity for me to consider anticipation, but I came up with the idea of having the teddy rise into the air with a balloon and I liked it so I went with that. This still allowed me to consider different principles of animation though, in particular Squash and Stretch, Timing and Spacing, Follow Through and Overlapping Action, Ease In/Out and Arcs.

 

Planning out my frames

I figured my planning was sufficient so I went ahead and started drawing, again on punched paper. Rather than draw frame one then two then three etc. this time I drew frames one and four for example then filled in the gaps. I did this for the balloon rising sequence especially as I was unsure how the teddy would turn, as the balloon wasn't going straight up and I found it easier to work out this way. 

I started off by drawing my frames in pencil, and I was unsure whether I wanted to leave it like this and digitally edit them, or go over them in fine liner for a more defined drawing. I decided to go for the latter as I had not yet done this, and I'm glad I did because I think the end result looks so much better than just pencil on it's own.
I think I've done well with this task. I struggled a little towards the end keeping the character the same volume, but I don't think he shrinks too much which is a plus. I also struggled with the limbs as I was unsure where they should have been drawn, but again I don't think I have done too bad of a job. They seem to fall quite realistically, well, to me anyway.

I have really enjoyed creating animations on paper. It's something I have done before, but it was still nice to return to it and get back into the swing of animating. I definitely think hand drawn animation is going to be something I do a lot of, as I would consider it to be one of my strengths. But then again, I would love to get really good at drawing digitally, just because it cuts out the process of scanning and editing images, which I really dislike doing. It won't stop me from producing hand drawn animations though, because I think they look great when they are finished and put together, and it's so satisfying to be able to see it finally come to life.