#knb125

What did I watch?

a stop animation by Charley Bowers called ‘It’s a Bird’. It was in black and white and made during the 1930’s.

What was it about?

The short ‘silent comedy’ film was about a man who had travelled to an area where a ‘metal eating bird’ was supposed to have originated, and he was determined to capture it. He encounters a worm that can talk; its behaviour is typical of slapstick comedy in that it is a very physical style of movement when it encounters the bird. The bird is captured and taken away where it then lives with the man. The bird eats more metal and then hatched an egg which turns into a car.

How did it make me feel?

The film was entertaining for me, despite its surreal animation and character behaviours. As a child I used to watch a lot of Tim Burton’s stop-motion films and avidly loved them, so this film was nothing entirely new to me. It made me feel nostalgic despite such a different time period it was created in, but I have much appreciation for the work that goes into stop animation. The flow and design of characters created fascinates me as you can make the believable whilst still creating an obscure and surreal picture.

Initial ‘gesture’ sketch

The initial gesture sketch above is of a classmate.

Character created from initial sketch

#5 KNB125 (Animation History and Context)

#6 KNB125 (Animation History and Context) FINAL

Assessment 2 - Flour Sack

This is the final iteration for my flour sack animation where I’ve included the full pose to pose draft from my previous post.

In this animation, I’v added an anticipation before it jumps, where it gathers all its ‘energy’ and inhaling by moving its insides upwards, holding it, then jumping and landing.

Here are all the frames: LINK

Aminah QUT

Flour Sack ;

This final flour sack walk-cycle animation proved to be challenging. 

Unlike the human walk-cycle, which I have previously done, a flour sack has no limbs, and therefore makes it much harder to animate as if it were walking.

Using my previous walk-cycle test {below}, I used it as a base to pose out the key frames of the flour sacks ‘legs’/’feet’. As it has no proper arms, legs, or a head, I chose to animate the top of its body to be swaying, to add extra visual appeal to the animation, as well as a slight secondary animation with the little nubs on the top of the flour sack.

As well as the lack of limbs proving a challenge, I also found it difficult to find a way to animate the flour sack as if it were moving forward from it’s side, like in my human walk-cycle test. A side-view flour sack just looked awkward, and animating walk-cycle from front view would not look as effective. 

I ended up using my circle guides as if they were 3D spheres instead of 2D objects, and shading the sack as it walked to appear like it was turning as it walked. Because of this technique, as well as the way I had shaded the rough sketched of the key frames, I decided that I liked the ‘cartoony’ and minimal shadowing/colour aesthetic with this animation, as it is something I have seen some artists use many times in their artwork, and I personally find the aesthetic very visually appealing.

Some stills from this animation can be found under the cut.

Flour Sack ;

My original flour sack animation concept was to have the flour sack perform some sort of ‘wiggle’ or ‘tip-toe’ before jumping in order to move forward.

I thought of this idea, as I felt it was more realistic of a sentient sack to do in order to move around, as they have no limbs. I also intended on emphasizing the anticipation and squash and stretch for this animation.

Final Floursack Animation

Flour Sack ;

With my flour sack sketches for my animation, I used techniques from the life drawing lessons to help show the joints and movement.

One of Patrick’s main techniques with his in-class demonstrations was to start out with the ‘big shapes’, or rather, two rounded rectangles or ovals to show the different sections of the body. 

I used this technique to lay out the foundations of my flour sack drawings, in order to more easily draw the sacks in different poses.