Responsive: Do It In Ten - Transition: Development

As I was designing the final shapes/ symbols that would be displayed within my animation, I thought about how I could make these shapes consistent throughout. This led me to use the pen tool in Photoshop, as this would make my lines a lot smoother and help me to keep the size and shape more consistent than if I were to draw them by hand.

I started out by drawing a quick sketch of the symbols on a base layer so I had an idea where each shape would appear within the animation. Although they were very basic, rough sketches, I found that it made it a lot easier for me to plan out how my lines would transition from shape to shape and which path they would take. This isn't something that I usually do, as I am more comfortable when I am doing straight ahead animation as opposed to pose to pose, however, this did benefit me massively and made the task a lot easier than I imagine it would have been if I was basing this on guess work. Pose to pose is definitely something I will consider using more of in future animations, as it helps me to keep the timings in place and takes away some of the guessing.

Example of rough sketches

I had decided early on that I wanted my symbols to have a little bit of 'life' in them whilst the shapes were static and had decided that I would draw out the symbols on twos to give them a slight boiling effect so there wouldn't be any completely still shots. I found that this made the animation easier to watch and it didn't have any uncomfortable periods of no motion at all. However, I could have taken a little more care with some of the lines, as some of them don't quite match up and there are obvious mistakes. Having said this, I wasn't 100% focused whilst I was completing this animation, as I wanted to focus more on CoP and Applied. Also, although I found the animating quite easy, I did struggle to keep the first symbol, the Yin Yang symbol, consistent and it didn't look as neat as the other symbols. After I had moved on to other sections of the animation, I returned to it and altered some of the frames to make them appear more consistent, however I still couldn't quite manage to get it as steady as the other symbols, so I decided to leave it, as I felt that it wasn't worth getting wound up about.

Yin Yang symbol

Putting that issue aside, I worked towards completing the animation. I found the crown symbols the easiest to animate and keep consistent and I got these complete relatively quickly with no issues. I feel that this is the strongest section of the animation and I am really pleased with the timing and spacing I achieved within this section of the animation, as this is something I have always struggled to with whilst animating. 

Animation Development

Animation Development

Although the final symbol was quite complex compared to the others, it wasn't all that difficult to replicate. I did find that it was a little more challenging to keep the shape as consistent as the crowns, however I feel that I did a good job considering the shape was very symmetrical. Having said this however, there are some frames in which the lines are a little bit warped and it is noticeable, however, at this point, I wasn't too concerned, as I had more important projects to work on.

I definitely feel that I am on the right track to completing this animation on time and to a good enough quality to submit and I am happy with the progress that I have made.