Daily Reflection #21

I cannot believe it is already Wednesday.  I feel as if week 1 was only yesterday!  Well, anyway.  I have been furiously attempting to finish this scene of animation.  My goal from  the beginning has been at least a minute of animation and I am determined to get it done.  How about a picture update?  This has been my life for the past billion or so hours.

[caption id="attachment_290" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mark Opening Door"][/caption]

So, as you might be able to see, this is the sequence where Mark is opening the church door I talked about in a previous reflection.  It's from his perspective, so it is as if you and he are both opening the door at the same time.  There is a hand, but I've hidden that layer so as not to clutter up the door lines.  See how they seem to darken as the door comes closer to you?  That's onion skinning.  The oldest frames are lightest, while the most current frames selected are darkest.  This way you can see frame-by-frame how your subjects/objects are moving.  It also makes in-betweening much easier.  Though, it is still horrendously tedious and a strain to the eyes.

The tedium comes with the timing and pacing.  For example, if you look at the door again, you see that there are more lines or more frames when the door is opening as opposed to its half-open end.  This is because I want to convey weight to the door.  Because I want a realistic door, I have to analyze how a door moves.  A heavy door opens slowly in the beginning because you're fighting against full static friction and torque.  Heavy doors move quickest halfway, and slow down again as they fully open.  To slow down the motion, I add more frames.  To speed up, I increase the distance between each frame, use less frames.  So, I will have to add more frames to slow down the end of the door opening.  Once you have the timing down, you've got the perspective to handle.   And them comes the realization that this doesn't look right and you have to scrap about twenty or so frames.  The most aggravating part is that such tedium is only rewarded with about 1.7 seconds worth of film.  Ready to rip out your own hair?  I am.

Worth it, though.  If you look closely at the photo, at the numbers in the top right, you can see that I have officially passed the 300 frame mark.  YAY.  Ugh, it is time for sleep.