Start of uni

Week one of uni done! It’s been a really good week and been nice to get back into studying again, although I still don’t feel like I’m back at uni yet. I’m sure that will change soon!  

So far this week I’ve met some wonderful and wonderfully crazy people as well as starting with the basics of animation. Our first task was the bouncing ball exercise.  We had to animate a bouncing ball after observing a bouncy ball on different surfaces.  I have animated a few pencil tests of a bouncing ball. Here is the first one, a really simple and quick bouncing ball (no squash and stretch).

The 2nd one I did (sorry not converted it to avi yet) had the squash and stretch to emphasise the balls movement and give it more ‘bounce’.Here is an image from Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas’s book ‘Illusion of life ‘detailing the bouncing ball.

Here are some images from my summer project (any pictures in my sketchbook are ©Disney) . I chose to do a sketchbook based on Disney’s 9 old men:  Les Clark; Marc Davis; Ollie Johnston; Milt Kahl; Ward Kimball; Eric Larson; John Lounsbury; Wolfgang Reitherman; Frank Thomas.  They refined the principles of animation which animators abide by today and have inspired generations!  I found that their work on the early films and shorts of Disney inspiring. Their work was engaging and entertaining and I knew exactly what the characters were thinking. They really made me believe in the characters and stories and at some I found myself particularly caught up in the emotions shown on screen (and yes, even a few tears were shed). Their work has certainly inspired me and I always remember watching the films when I was younger and then trying to draw the characters I had just seen. This was the start of me drawing and I’ve never stopped since. Thanks guys J