AP 2 Research

I know I should have given my readers some input to what I have been up to in terms of research and what gives me inspiration during this module. Since I have kind of forgotten to mention all of this earlier I am doing it now, better late than never.
First of all, when it comes to knowledge about animation I only have a few sources that I have been looking at during this module.
For learning animation there are very few online resources I have been following:

Keith Lango
11 Second Club
Animaiton Mentor Tips and Tricks Blog
Animation Mentor Webinars

I know this might seem like a short list but I feel that I get all the info I need from this next to the other material I have been using in book form and DVD:

Character Animation Crash Course - Eric Goldberg
Animators Survival Kit - Richard Williams
Animators Survival Kit Animated - Richard Williams

Even though there is still a lot of good tips and knowledge online, I still feel that the best knowledge I have gotten is through the last 3 materials which I have read and watched. It is the absolute foundation needed in order to get started. I have now been studying animation for 3,5 years and I feel I have gotten to a point where the best way to learn is to simply do animation and figure out work flows that work for me.

Please don't misunderstand me as I don't read about animation. It is great reading material which I never get tired of but my focus is now leading more towards practicing it and studying the world around me which leads me to my little video here:




During this module, there has been a lot of discussion between me and some fellow students regarding offsetting parts of the characters body to loosen up the animation. I remember back in the day when I used to offset characters body parts by offsetting the keys as I was close to finishing the animation. It was a horrible thing to do, I did not just offset things. I changed the timing. And the worst part was the mess I created in the time line. Once I took this step with my animation there was no turning back and it was horrific. Luckily after watching Animators Survival Kit Animated I finally got my head around the understanding of the difference between timing and spacing and I am now thinking like a 2D animator as much as possible and I am implementing offsets in my breakdown drawings, changing the spacing and not the timing. It makes it all a lot easier to manage and it is possible to make changes.

Even though I have managed to do this with the body I have still been kind of doing the same thing with the fingers of a character which is why I did a little test to find out. Does the different joints of a finger actually arrive at different timings.
According to the video, my two outer joints does actually arrive 1-3 frames later than the first, depending on the speed.
Even though this is proven on the video, I would still conclude with that it is still possible to build it in using different spacing. As long as it looks like it is happening a different speeds it should be good.
The most interesting observation I made however is how uniform the last two joints move together as one which is something I have not taken into account with my animation before.

I am sorry about not being very specific about all the stuff I have been looking into and I will improve on this from now on. I have now added 2 more boxes on the right hand side where I will add videos and links of interest that I have come upon.

Finishing off this post I am giving you the link to what I think is the most inspirational 11 second club clip I have seen up to this moment:

11 Second Club - Ice Cream

I know it is from November but still, it is extremely beautifully done and I love watching it frame by frame and seeing all the work and details behind this animation.