Dialogue: "An Old Time Talky"

I've had an idea for a very weird show for quite a while, that I've developed with my brilliant sister, Izzy. I won't give too much away, as it is a million dollar idea, but it involves characters called Manny DoFanny, and Quigely, in a fantasy London-esque town somewhere in a time period I can only describe as "old timey". I draw inspiration from characters such as Archibald Snatcher from Box Trolls, The Duke of Weaselton from Frozen, and Zazu from Lion King. This excessively fancy animation shows a child on a unicycle dreamily introducing themselves as they cycle through town. I loved animating dialogue, as it adds such richness and life to the character. I gave Manny DoFanny a weird exaggerated British accent, great big eyes shining with an uncanny amount of hope, and bright pink lips and cheeks juxtaposed on their pasty white skin. I WILL redo this one with a full background. I actually want to make a pilot episode or trailer in a similar fashion. The logline: A fancy boy, faced with ridicule, on a quest to find his roots.

Walk Cycle: "Taking a 2D Stroll"

Now we're getting somewhere! This project was fun from day 1. I wanted a busy scene, in a fantastical setting with fantastical characters, all walking in different styles. My little guy is fast walking, he's important and a busy body. My humaniod character is dreamy, with their head in the clouds, a skip in their step, arms swinging carelessly. My big guy is slowly walking along, head bent over slightly, more melancholy. I illustrated a full cycle of each and then pegged them and walked them across the screen as different rates. I pegged all of THAT to the background and panned it as well. It was extremely satisfying to make the characters heel make contact with the ground, solidly plant, and stay in that spot (no sliding) while the other foot carried over and planted itself, now allowing the first foot to lift. I loved giving each guy a personality with just a walk. As with my other animations, I would like to finish this one, color them all in, and maybe add mustaches, hats with feathers, and cloaks to dangle, float, and careen with the walks.

Weight: "A Piggyback Ride"

I must be a masochist because I chose to animate a human hopping onto another humans back. I took reference footage with myself being the provider of the piggyback ride, and my lovely sister as the rider. The stumble at the end could definitely use some more frames, but lets face it, I was pretttty exhausted from redrawing this frame by frame confusion. It was quite a challenge to keep the figures from expanding or contracting, and balance them landing in the right place, stumbling the correct amount, and AHHH!!! I have anxiety just thinking about it. It's a nice little animation though, and I think with some clean up, I will be able to use this in a portfolio as well. It would also be fun (well maybe not fun, maybe the word I'm looking for is TORTURE) to animate more toony characters doing this in a slightly more exaggerated fashion. PS: I did not rotoscope. Not that I have anything against rotoscope, but I have actually never done it (yet).

Head Turn: "Happy Dog"

What's better than a playful cat? A DOG ! Kidding (not really dogs are better) but I think even cat people can agree, this dog is cute. Based after my son, this dog is obviously ready for a treat or a toy. After the turn, he does a take, in which his super cute little ears perk up in delight. My follow through/overlapping action on the ears could use some work, and there is a bit of distraction in the lips appearing and disappearing that I plan to refine. Over all, for a first try I'd say it's DOGGONE good. :D

Flour Sack: "You're tripping"

This animation is my greatest failure in this class, nay in my life. The sacks look inappropriate at best, with bulging buttocks. I wanted to make the one sack trip the other sack and then laugh at him, but it looks as if they are twitching and undulating in convulsions. The walk is ALL wrong. I wish I could burn this. I plan to remake the flour sack exercise COMPLETELY. Lets just forget it, people. I was truly TRIPPING when I made this. ;D

Pendulum swing: "Playful Kitty"

What's better to show off my sweeter side than with a playful kitty? This assignment was to illustrate a pendulum attached to a moving object. I used reference footage, and line work style to create an sketchy look. I will probably remake this completely. The kitty jump could be a lot better and I would like the hand to be more consistent. But I felt that the actual swinging is not too bad! MREOW!

Ball Bounce: "Eye See What's Happing"

EYE showed off my love for the macabre in this ball bounce exercise. My character experiences a sudden loss of eye ball, and runs off in horror. The pupil helps add dimension to the ball and there is plenty of squash and stretch (and some blood splatter) to illustrate it's squishinesss. The spider interacts with the bouncing eye, and stiffly rolls away. There are some technical problems (stiffness of character, spider, ball comes to too abrupt of a stop) with the animation but over all I think you can SEE whats happening here. I definitely want to touch this up to use as a portfolio piece- for the non-faint of heart client.

A little about me

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Brenna and I'm a USF fine arts major. I do lots of art such as painting, drawing, and sculpture, but my focus at USF is animation. I believe that in this class I will learn how to make quality 2D animations. But I know we will also watch tons of funny videos and talk about our most hated movies. We will also learn lots of horror stories about the industry! I am looking forward to an awesome semester! :)