APD- Week 2- Play and Time

Theme:
Play and time

Content: 

Inspired by the loops in early animation, ‘black thin king by birdo’. In this short animation, the main action of this character is walking in loop, while the surrounding environment and the interaction of other characters make this animation richer, even if the entire animation action is a loop, which is reason why the audiences might not think the whole animation monotonous because of the loop of action. Looping is a efficient way to express time. If it can be used flexibly, the final effect of the animation will be more effective.
 < https://youtu.be/SKD_571v8xY>

The style is inspired by a video clip from  ‘Howl’s moving castle’, cooking eggs and ham. I learn the concept and expressions from it. In this clip, Hayao Miyazaki uses anthropomorphic techniques to make food vivid and emotional. This approach is also used in my GIF. 
<https://youtu.be/JaTvYBHizuY>

Method:
FlipaClip (software)
1. The basic movement
2. Facial expression  
3. Color them 
4. Refine some details

Response:
Loop is a basic way to express time in animation, whether it is linear or interaction production. However, in my usual practice, I often overlook the importance of loops for animation. Through the observation, many actions in daily life are loop, such as walking, running, etc. These basic movements are indispensable in animation. Not only that, loop can increase the strength and beauty of movement, for example, the circulation of hair or streamers. So these are the main reasons why I use loops to make this GIF. I hope that through this practice I can have a deeper understanding of loops and improve my ability to use loops flexibly in future animation learning.

Before doing this GIF, I spent some time trying to figure out what kind of actions are appropriate for these two characters. And observed the movement and changes of food in Hayao Miyazaki's animation. The food animation clip of ‘Howl’s moving castle’ has facial expressions that changing as the food changes. When I making this GIF, there is a plot where the yolk is pulled up by the bread. I did many tests and finally kept the most natural one. Fortunately, the final results is satisfactory.

For the movement of the bread, I let its limbs shake with the body to make the whole look more vivid. In the design of the facial expressions, more details have also been added, which makes the bread into the whole of the picture.

In terms of the main project in studio 2 is mainly about character movements, this practice gives me a deeper understanding of character movements and learned the important role of loops in animation.