At first, I didn’t know what to draw, and while I was thinking about it, a strand of my hair fell out. I got bored so I started blowing my hair. This led to this animation.
Animate CC
This is the first time I have animated with vector graphics software. I really enjoyed the whole process of making it. By using it, vector animation is very different from the usual TVP digital graphics that we often use. It is very advantageous when creating animations such as flowing water and bouncing.
Unfortunately, class time was limited and I only managed to complete a very small part of it.
the cover of Hongbao
For Chinese New Year, I painted the cover of Hongbao.
Relearn the TVP
After the Clean Up Workshop, I understand that Clean Up is far from easy. It is a very basic, but important job. As beginners, we all have to start with Clean Up if we want to enter the animation industry.
I had already studied TVP last term, but I was unable to practise with it at home because of the computer version. I’ve been using procreate on my iPad to draw animations, so I’ve almost forgotten about TVP. To clean up the line work, I relearned TVP.
In November I joined the Visual Communication department at UAL China and around Chinese New Year I was given my first assignment: to produce an illustrated story on my own. I needed to do everything by myself, from deciding on the theme, story content, layout, to editing the text and publishing. It was a big challenge for me as a novice. I am glad that I completed the assignment successfully and of course onn time.
First 2D class, drew emotional shadows and flying bee:
Trying to show emotion through shadows I find is very difficult. Through today’s experimental exercises I found that sadness is the overall character shading tends to be downwards, while anger and open lines tend to be upwards.
This is my first time making a little animation. It’s really fun.
From this week, I started to prepare the presentation
WEEK 7(2021.11.8-11.14)
8/11/2021
Basic walking
Basic running
Walking and running look simple and are the most basic of animation exercises, but when actually drawing them, I found it difficult to draw a common action not in a strange way.
9/11/2021
Another day of drawing, so happy. Today, I found out that I am still not proficient in PS and could not complete the full animation in class, but most of the students seemed to be similar, so I think I need to practise more.
When I was drawing the piggy bank, I realised that I couldn’t draw the broken ceramic frame by frame, so I think I need to put it on my practice list!
Here are the results of the class:
Because of limited time and unfamiliarity with the software, I was only able to draw the cat’s tail.
WEEK 8(2021.11.15-11.21)
Mood Change Walk
2D turn head background
WEEK 9(2021.11.22-11.28)
Horse Walk
2D turn head
Week 10(2021.11.29-12.5)
Complete the full horse walk animation
Redrawing the Mood Change Walk
I created a character based on my own image: tall and thin, with a long, thin neck
When I started working on the character design, I found a very obvious problem with me, I always draw the character like she was on a piece of paper: it is flat. Although this is a 2D character, I still wanted her to have volume. That’s when I remembered what I had learned in my life drawing course: how to make objects have volume in the easiest way possible. As well as catching the keyframe of the action, I found another important role for life drawing for me. I hope to take the life drawing course offline next term, so that I can get some guidance from the teacher.
I have finally started to learn animation officially. Every day, my practice was drawing or learning about animation, which made me feel like I was in heaven.
To me animation is a kind of magic, creating a whole new world with just pen and paper. Now, I’m going to start learning this magic.
Here is my daily record of learning magic.
Week 1(2021.9.27-10.3)
Arriving in London on the day of the start of the school year, everything was a bit of a rush, but amazingly, I didn’t feel strange.
I was pleasantly surprised by my first Animation Workshop on Wednesday. We played different characters to shape a story together and felt how different people would react in different situations.
I was unable to attend an offline event in isolation and missed the karaoke night prepared by Steve, but I think there will be another opportunity afterwards. The first week was a bit busy with adjusting to jet lag and settling into life, and I didn’t pay much attention to animation other than the usual life sketches. Oh yeah, about the sketching, I think I’ll start a new site to document my whole process.
Week 2(2021.10.4-10.10)
Still in Self-isolation, so I continue to live in online classes.
This week in Animation Workshop we worked on the classic bouncy ball, drawing 5 different ball movements falling from a height. This was my first real formal study of the fundamentals of animation, as my original subject is not animation. In order to show us the realistic and concrete movements of the different balls, Steve brought balls of different materials and showed them to us live. After practising on my own, I found out that animation fundamentals are not as easy as I thought, but they are more fun than I thought!
For the 5 different materials of the bouncy ball, here is my video work:
When I first finished drawing it, I thought it was perfect and very true to the real world. But in conclusion now, when I uploaded the animation, I found that many parts were very stiff and not at all realistic and natural. It turns out that watching a piece for a long time can create aesthetic fatigue, and in turn, you can’t see what the problem is. After that, I need to look back at my previous work regularly to find the problems and then correct them.
Week 3(2021.10.11-10.17)
follow animation
Week 4(2021.10.18-10.24)
diving animation
Week 5(2021.10.25-10.31)
Lift puppy animation keyframe
With the limited time, I only finished the keyframes, but it is really helpful to be a reference when I redrew the lifting.
