09/02/2023 - Finalized Proposal + Book References

After receiving the feedback that I had gotten from my supervisor about my research ideal, I decided to type out the finalized Proposal for hand in.

I feel as though I was able to type out my intentions of my idea and research throughout the document and what my intentions are with the project.

Lastly, I decided in the end to create short animations of a armature (with a specific personality), doing basic movements such as:

• Walk Cycle (I will experiment first with a neutral walk cycle and then try to create a walk cycle with the ideal personality that I want to show)

• Emoting - The armature being animated to show anger, happiness, sadness (perhaps even use a mouth set to show it)

• Interacting with objects - Standing and Sitting, holding objects etc

Here is the final proposal below:

STOP MOTION CHARACTER ANIMATION PROPOSAL - Anthi Metaxa

.docx

Download DOCX • 109KB

What I had also managed to do was book out some books from the University's library. The reason why I did this was, apart from using them as research but also being able to use the university's facilities to my advantage. They had a huge range of material which I found useful so I decided to find what I needed the most.

The books I ended up borrowing from the library were:

• Stop Motion animation: frame by frame film-making with puppets and models - Barry J.C. Purves

• Body Language: How to read others' thoughts by their gestures - Allen Pease

• Frame-by-frame stop motion: the guide to non-traditional animation techniques - Tom Gasek

• Acting and character animation: the art of animated films, acting and visualizing - Rolt Giesen and Anna Khan

02/02/23 Week 2 - Proposal PLan

After having thought of my idea, I decided a good idea would be to create a plan before creating a finalized version of my proposal.

Here is the document that I had created for my Proposal and the Schedule that I wanted to create for my Project.

Final Year Project Plan - Character Animation

.docx

Download DOCX • 152KB

30/01/2023 Week 1 - Final Year Project (Idea, Asking Questions regarding research)

The New year has arrived, and it is time to finally begin my Final Year Project and I honestly can't believe that I am at this point since it feels extremely surreal to me.

Over Christmas, I was thinking of ideas on what I could be doing for my final project. In the end, after having thought about it for some time, I decided that I wanted to work on Character Animation for Stop Motion. The reason why I chose this was because I wanted to be able to show my skills in character animation and be able to find a job in that domain.

So, since I had already an idea in mind, I had to think about what exactly I wanted to show to be able to show off my skills visually. In the end I decided that since I am not comfortable in making puppets for Stop Motion, that I would instead be using a regular armature. Through this armature, I will be able to pull off actions such as: Walk cycle, Run Cycle, different emotes (Happy, sad, angry etc.) and a dance.

Questions that I should be asking myself would be:

• Are the armatures going to be animated in a stylized way?

• Will I try to go for a constant visual look throughout my animations (such as the lighting and backdrop)? How will I edit the rigs out (if I intend to use rigs and not magnets), using Adobe After effects, Adobe Premiere pro or Adobe Photoshop?

• What framerate suits my animations best, 12 fps or 24fps?

• What form or research will I end up using? Will it be based on books and articles? Or will it also be based on qualitative research such as comparing old work from new?

• As well as contacting companies regarding my work?

I feel as though there is still much for me to consider however, I am trying to keep in mind that the more I think on how to approach this now, the easier it will be for me when it comes to the practical work.