Meilin Zhu’s 2D animation padlet by ZHU, MEILIN (Student)

Frist of All

d3333105 — 2024-10-01 19:24:32 UTC

This week, we started to learn 2D animation after a semester. During the class, I think the main content of this semester should be about character or object animation trajectory and fantasy theme creation. This week, I did two types of animation altogether, and I also determined the direction of ica production.

d3333105 — 2024-10-01 19:35:13 UTC

In class, we watched some fresh videos and learned how some very smooth animations or animated movies were drawn. This usually involves someone wearing a costume that can be motion-captured and performing specific movements in front of a camera camera, which are then sketched or depicted on video by an animator. I noticed that these workers wearing motion capture costumes would stick some lines with different colors on their bodies. Through some understanding, I learned that these are for the convenience of the painters to position their (animation characters) bodies, which is more convenient for later production. After class, I drew this 2D animation video according to the requirements of the class, which I think is very interesting. I drew a total of 103 frames, and found that the more frames I had, the more natural my animation looked.

In addition, in the process of drawing, I found that it was more convenient to use different colors to distinguish different parts of the body of the character, and at the same time, I could check the fluency of the front and back frames according to the different layers.

d3333105 — 2024-10-01 19:47:46 UTC

I decided to choose these four as my ica themes. Although I have not been able to adapt to the use of ai mapping to compare the differences between me and ai, but I may adapt in the future. At present, I plan to search on Google and make collages of objects to help me complete such homework. I hope everything goes well. Or maybe I'll try to use chatgpt to make text to help me finish my animation.

d3333105 — 2024-10-01 20:06:08 UTC

My current vision for the ica scenario is this: I have a cat with a sociopathic personality who, while not actually harming anyone, hates everything and everything in the world, including me and my dog. It races against time, trying to destroy everything in the world it can touch. To this end, it has made some alien friends, and often calls them to think about how to destroy the world. But in the end I remembered that my cat had passed away and that I was the only person in the world who could see it, and that it was trying to get our attention in this way.

In the follow-up work, maybe this week, I will put these four keywords into chatgpt to see what kind of script it can produce for me, so as to reflect on and compare with my own themes. I hope it helps my story.

And I made sketches about the cats and aliens in my story.

d3333105 — 2024-10-01 20:12:01 UTC

This is my ica schedule for this week. On the way to think about ica, I looked up a lot of animation and YouTube materials, and finally referred to Garfield and my monster friends. The former refers to the way animals and humans get along, and the latter gives me the inspiration of communication between aliens and human beings

d3333105 — 2024-10-17 11:11:20 UTC

Role prototype reference

About my ica animate

d3333105 — 2024-10-17 11:14:32 UTC

Background reference and some ideas in animation: I want to simplify the character as much as possible and make it more characteristic, so that I can draw more content to increase the coherence of the animation. Background By shooting realistic background and possibly drawing reference, this will be more life-like and better express the story.

d3333105 — 2024-10-17 11:16:40 UTC

Animation as background reference (from the Chinese Little Red Book)

Animation shot this week

d3333105 — 2024-10-17 11:27:48 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-16 17:17:51 UTC

character design

d3333105 — 2024-11-16 17:36:08 UTC

Animation show about similar graphics I drew

d3333105 — 2024-11-16 22:27:01 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-16 22:27:15 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-16 22:28:04 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-16 22:28:21 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-16 22:56:24 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-17 10:55:20 UTC

Chinese ink painting experiment

d3333105 — 2024-11-17 22:31:42 UTC

Break away from the binary shape of traditional animation, and try to modify the picture with the feeling of illustration

d3333105 — 2024-11-19 09:39:18 UTC

ANIMEX

d3333105 — 2024-11-22 09:12:44 UTC

My storyboard draft

d3333105 — 2024-11-22 09:14:24 UTC

Storyboard draft

d3333105 — 2024-11-22 09:21:37 UTC

The first draft of the story, which roughly ends with the kitten going to rest with its owner after getting tired of making trouble, finds the cat's body on his neck passing through him and realizes that the kitten is dead

d3333105 — 2024-11-22 09:22:12 UTC

The final draft, which roughly tells the story, ends with the kitten persisting in trying to rest on its owner's lap after wreaking havoc, but jumping around can only pass through the owner's lap. At this time the cat understood what, looked up at the picture frame, found that one is the master and the dog and himself, but the other is the master and the big dog. In fact, he is already dead, and it is the white lie of the alien that makes him think he is still alive and accompanying his master.

d3333105 — 2024-11-22 09:36:01 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-22 09:36:59 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-11-27 19:20:54 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-12-05 01:12:04 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-12-05 01:13:24 UTC

Drafts of character designs (aliens, dogs）

d3333105 — 2024-12-05 01:14:25 UTC

Character design adjustments

d3333105 — 2024-12-05 01:16:49 UTC

Story version finished draft（in English）

d3333105 — 2024-12-05 01:18:44 UTC

Draw an animation of the process of giving up a version of the cat walking

d3333105 — 2024-12-06 23:45:38 UTC

Animation storyboard and story rhythm adjustment drawing complete!

d3333105 — 2024-12-06 23:47:31 UTC

Drew a long shot that I really like

d3333105 — 2024-12-06 23:52:39 UTC

Adjust and try the background atmosphere of the scene

d3333105 — 2024-12-06 23:54:57 UTC

d3333105 — 2024-12-06 23:59:55 UTC

Enrich the design of the protagonist

d3333105 — 2024-12-08 22:39:59 UTC

Since it was winter, I drew a picture of the protagonist and tried different ways to paint it

d3333105 — 2024-12-09 18:44:56 UTC

Finish drawing the line draft

d3333105 — 2024-12-09 19:51:13 UTC

Drawing modified the recent popular life four grid picture, is the use of real photos and favorite cartoon characters interaction generated pictures.I think the most interesting thing is the combination of reality and people, which is the result of my reality pictures that I haven't taken yet

d3333105 — 2024-12-10 16:11:55 UTC

I tried my animation a little later to unify the general tone with the atmosphere I wanted

d3333105 — 2024-12-11 20:49:43 UTC

the last

d3333105 — 2024-12-12 20:31:44 UTC

About my animation《My little Cat》

d3333105 — 2024-12-13 01:47:06 UTC

The inspiration comes from the Chinese animation "Luo Xiaohei War" in which the protagonist monster little black cat Luo Xiaohei, is a small black cat that can talk and have emotions. Also considering my experience, I had a puppy that I had for a long time but eventually passed away. So I decided to combine these two experiences and at the same time choose four titles from the themes given in ica course to make a theme.

They are 1. My antisocial cat2.Alien communication3.A race against time4. I think its dead

The problem I encountered while making this: I usually use the feeling of ink painting, but this increases the difficulty of painting. I had a hard time making sure that the colors were even and similar on every page, especially if I was drawing hundreds of images.

I learned to design characters and roles that were different from my usual painting style, to conceive shapes, costumes, movements and expressions of different races, and to think about how shapes could highlight characters' personalities in short films. I also learned the movement of animals, watched their movements, learned how to draw frame by frame. Then I learned the creative direction of fantastical creatures like aliens.

At the same time, I learned to make a background that fits the scene story. I also learned to describe a story from multiple perspectives of the character's psychology.

I also learned to use tools like timelines, clips, and motion curves to precisely control the flow of time in animations, as well as how to convey the emotional states of characters through facial expressions and body language, increasing their expressability.

I think the quality of my animation is relatively perfect, because I have used and learned every place according to the content I learned in school.

If I redo this project, I will reduce my painting time and use another way of painting, which will make it easier for me to paint. At the same time, I may also adjust the idea of my painting story version to make the whole animation more smooth and story-like.