BradMatarazzo.com » Animation

Almost underwater

Brad — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:38:45 +0000

This was a personal experiment to see if I could push my overlapping action further. I think the physical motion of the jellyfish is fairly good, though there are a few minor things missing from the equation. The jellyfish never settles. If there was a subtle backwards push as the jellyfish winds up for the next thrust it may have sold this animation. At the time I could not grasp how to animate tentacles with it. Reference is key.

If you would like to loop this video, right click on the vimeo player and click on ‘loop is off’ which changes it to ‘loop is on’

Go with the flow

Brad — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:21:25 +0000

Overlapping action is an important concept to grasp, and even more important to be able to put into action. After the main action in an animation starts, other actions follow creating an overlap. In this seaweed test, I experimented with timing and found the slower version to work better. Some issues I have with this animation are the volumes change at certain points and there are some jitters in the spacing of the frames at the top of the seaweed.

If you would like to loop these videos, right click on the vimeo player and click on ‘loop is off’ which changes it to ‘loop is on’.

Finding a new direction

Brad — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:49:48 +0000

This exercise focuses on showing depth within a flat piece of paper. My first attempt has the scaling right, but the timing is much too even. It is as if the ball has a motor in it. The second try has a more natural timing and spacing of the bounces. By the end I was drawing single dots on pieces of paper. It’s amazing how they come to life when put in the right order.

The harder they fall

Brad — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:26:13 +0000

In this exercise the goal was to show a heavy weight to the ball. I was slightly more successful with this one compared to the lighter ball. It still needs more settle at the end. There should be more variation between the first and second bounce. The change in speed helps to sell it as a heavy ball.

No one can teach you to see

Brad — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:03:42 +0000

The bouncing ball exercise is used to learn the fundamentals of timing and spacing. After countless attempts, this still doesn’t quite cut it. I couldn’t see it when I first started animating, but now looking back I can tell what could be done differently. The arcs on the bounces feel forced. The spacing on the frames needs to change a little where they hit the ground. Right now the ball doesn’t know if it is heavy or light. The last few bounces speed up too fast in relation to the beginning. A grand attempt.