Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Animation

Week 10 at Art School - p.1

I wasn't actually at art school today as I sprained my ankle pretty bad last night and am bed bound for the next few days. Today would have been the second day in IT - animation studies. Fortunately I'd picked up the crib sheet from the tutor last week and realised that I had all the software needed and could get on with the assignment on my own at home. So here goes...

We had to make a simple animation of about 6 frames. Sunshine very cunningly suggested I do an animation of a charleston dancer (to remind myself of my previous life as a swing dancer). First, I had a go at drawing out a storyboard of what I wanted:
Found that it was not enough information - thought maybe I should take photos of myself doing a basic charleston. Sunshine suggested that I just film myself and then take the stills that I wanted - which was a much better idea. So this is what I did: this was yesterday afternoon, BEFORE I had done my ankle in.

From this, and using some reference illustrations of "flappers", I started drawing a template:
From this I traced out 5 frames (some repeat so I didn't have to do all 8 frames), scanned them in, coloured them in Photoshop (as required for the assignment), did some initial animation tests on Adobe Image Maker, a bit more tweaking, and then Voila! My first little animated gif. Enjoy!

12 comments:

Lin said...

THIS IS FABULOUS, Mithi!! I LOVE IT! What a great job!

Karen Sandstrom said...

I LOVE this! Congratulations. And seeing how you put the process together was fabulous.

Maggie said...

That's great! Thanks for sharing your journey and your fantastic work.

Anonymous said...

It looks great. I had not realised that such a lot of work went into it. I shall look at all animated gifs with much more appreciation. This one is super. I hope your ankle heals quickly. Get well soon!

andrea joseph's sketchblog said...

Hee Hee. This is FAB Mithi!! Love it.

Anonymous said...

He he he we love animation

What do you mean your *previous* life?

littlemithi said...

Hehehe Piglyt ... can't remember the last time I danced properly (apart from my wobbly charleston in the living room so I could film myself). I was supposed to have gone to the LSE xmas party last night - but my ankle wasn't having any of it! I do miss dancing - and feel quite unfit from not doing it as well. But I feel no connection to the scene anymore and have therefor no motivation to go out. Maybe I'll start doing more dance inspired art projects and that'll inspire me to go out dancing again ...

Hashi said...

WOOHOO! This is super. I'm sorry to hear about your ankle; get well soon so you can shake a leg again!

Jana Bouc said...

FABULOUS! Thanks for showing how it's done. It was fun seeing all the steps including the photos of yourself dancing. I used to love swing dancing and took some classes. It's so much fun, though I never was very good at it. It's one of the things I'd love to do more of if I had the time and energy and someone to do it with.

Anonymous said...

What a delightful little gem.

ainslie said...

he he, wonderful, specially the beads around her neck, great movement!

Anonymous said...

I think this is absolutely brilliant!!! Nice meeting you at the flea market, by all means give me a ring or drop me a line even if its just to discuss our mutual love of the twenties!

Vicky (aka ClaraBows)