I chose to explore this week's theme of Time as Material through the practice of animation principles. Specifically, I focused on Squash and Stretch.
Max talked about Chuck Jones using motion smears and how Squash and Stretch in particular can be used to interpret time as an animator. I also looked at the cartoon Ren and Stimpy by John Kricfalusi and Bob Camp, which uses extremely exaggerated motion smears and frames.
Linking into my studio work of action figures in motion, I referenced a YouTube clip of a baseball player throwing a ball in slow motion. I then manipulated time in the sequence firstly by using the framerate. For slow motion, I used a lot of frames with small changes in movement to connote delayed speed.
Additionally, I exaggerated the lines of action and the body parts of the figure, similarly to how Ren and Stimpy episodes will often use exaggeration and stretch and squash to manipulate time.
My finished object is of a cat jumping up to a table edge then bouncing away wildly. My first go at this sequence was unsuccessful because I have not used motion tweening before and I was very confused. However I managed to solve the issue using the Pen Tool and Anchor Points to manipulate the motion path of the cat.
My main intention in the finished object was to create a sense of the cat levitating in the air, defying time and physics before being flung away dramatically and spinning wildly.
