Stop motion animation using wire skeleton

I encountered some difficulty with moving and keeping my character consistent in my last stop-motion animation. The character would often be unable to hold position. I decided to try to animate another plasticine character, but with a wire skeleton this time. There was a vast improvement in the amount of time taken to complete the animation, as the previous problems were eased if not entirely resolved. I still have an issue with the charter's walk, but I'm pleased with how the wire skeleton made the whole animation process easier. 35 frames.

National Media Museum

Th e Museum had an extensive section on the history of animation. Some photos and a video of some of the things on show:

Zoetrope

Thaumatrope

Praxinoscope

Phenakistoscope

 

I made a 12 frame Phenakistoscope - I used quite simple drawing as there is limited space on the circle. I've animated it digitally to give an impression of how it works. 

Digital Thaumatrope

A Thaumatrope is one of the first forms of optical illusions, and is seen as vital in the development of animation. It give the impression of the merging of 2 images, even though they are entirely separate. 

Anaglyph concept

This conceptual illustration is in reference to Eiji's description of PanOptican "level by level, PanOptican disapear, the clouds are up to the eightennth floor... " The building is described as huge, so I used the Hilton in Manchester as my reference. I adjusted the shading and lines in this anaglyph image, as well as adding a more complex background. Overall, I think the image works quite well. Done with a graphics tablet in Photoshop. 

Manchester As I have decided to adapt the setting of my animation to Manchester, I needed to gather some reference - Here are some of the photographs I will use in context:

My work space

Some photographs depicting my work space at University

Stopmotion Animation Photos

Some photos of the model in progress, as well as the make sift set I created! 

Play dough stop motion

I sculpted the play dough to the image of the character Eiji (Although a simplistic version due to the nature of the material) Quick experiment with stop motion - I think the lighting could have been better and the background more consitent, but I'm quite happy with the movement. I think as larger model would be required for a more polished sequence.  30 frames.

 

I've improved thge lighting and backdrop, as well as having more than one scene and position. The camera is still a little shakey though, but I think the movement of the model is nice and fluid. 41 frames.

Stopmotion animation in iMovie

Quick stop-motion animation, consisting of 33 frames compiled in iMovie HD.  Issues with lighting, but I'm quite happy with the overall movement. I may try and animate a model in this way.

Anaglyph Illustration

Using an online tutorial,  I customized the line-art of my illustration. Unlike some of my previous anaglyph images, this image should look unaffected when 3d glasses aren't in use.  Although the lineart is quite messy, and my method needs to be improved, (and lazy backdrop) I'm pleased with this drawing, especially the perspective on the gun/hand.

Frame by frame animation in Adobe After Effects

After having drawn the original first frame in Adobe Photoshop using a graphics tablet, I copied it onto a second layer and redrew any feature that would move etc, and then compiled them in Adobe After effects. Character Eiji smoking. 18 frames. 

Eiji walk cyle

Using the walk cycles below as a template, I animated a character in Adobe Image Ready. Origianally Th esame drawing was used for each frame, resulting in a messy and jerky animation, I then decided to redraw every frame to get a tidier and smoother animation. I also introduced the use of colour.

I decided to have the charcter move rather than walk on the spot - some of the steps are a bit strange, but I'm fairly happy with the result.

Rough walk cycles

Two rough walk cycles I sketched in Adobe Photoshop and animated in Adobe Image ready. The first cyle consists of the 4 main keys point of the walk cycle for each leg: Contact, recoil, passing and high point. It consists of 8 frames per second In the second walk cycle I've added more frames between each movemnt to make the movement appear smoother. This consists of 15 frames per second. 

Digital Eiji sheet

I created this sheet to practice posing and figure, as well as working on my character consistency. I inked the figures with a fineliner, but then coloured and shaded them using a tablet in Adobe Photoshop. Colour palette top right.