Trial and Error

Hi there! There was a ridiculous amount of snow today in Philadelphia so I thought sand animation would be a good way to get out of the winter rut. Unfortunately, the shot I was working on was just not fitting the aesthetic which leads us to the title... trial and error.

Sand animation is pretty interesting in that you animate straight ahead with little planning and then your shot is done! It's time consuming to make but once it's done, it's done. Traditional animation consists of keyframes, inbetweens, and then inking and coloring. If one of your frames gets messed up you can always redraw it and pop it in to the animation but if you mess up in sand the whole shot can be ruined. This has led to me doing a lot of "test shots" and then bringing in Mee Choe to discuss. She is really great to work with because I can't always execute what I want to happen but she sure can! Today was a little rough and although it didn't result in progress, at least I have more practice.

Last week I was doing a test of the eel shot to see how the composition would work and how I wanted the seaweed would move. The one above has more of a serpentine motion (to which someone asked- are those his little eel friends? No.) as opposed to a flowing motion. I did not realize how SLOWLY I would have to animate the weeds to make them flow- they have to BARELY change in each shot. Also I took out the bubbles. You can see how different the two turned out and the importance of testing and practice! 

stay warm! 

-Haley