Updated leica reel

So this is my most recent Leica reel. There will be some tweaks (especially in the timing) but this is the general idea that I'm going for.
I'm really looking forward to getting some sound added in.


Run Leica reel v5 from Daryl-Lynn Ramsay on Vimeo.

A good attitude is so important

You know, I have been struggling a bit lately.The stress of 4th year and the pressure I am feeling about moving on after school has caused me to lose confidence in my abilities not only as an animator but as an artist in general. Sometimes it can be so hard not to compare yourself to your peers, and I just feel like I'm not at their level, or the level I'd like to be at.
Then it seemed like everything I tried was failing and I just started to spiral into this really self-defeatist attitude.
this sort of thing doesn't just affect me badly but it affects my relationships as well and I can tell it was starting to weigh on my boyfriend that I was coming home in a horrible mood everyday... not to mention the fact that it has totally stunted any motivation or creative energy I had.
So I promised myself and Rodger that I would force myself to be positive instead of cracking under the stress. And behold! I solved my puppet's dress problem, and stress-free created a working prototype that I think is beautiful. Now I can finally see a glimpse of the vision I had in my head. And all because I just made that small effort to relax and try to enjoy what I am doing.
Animation is just too tedious and hard not to be loving it while you are doing it. You'd go bat-shit-crazy.

The thing is, that you can have everyone around you being supportive and telling you that you are doing great, but that doesn't matter to you if you don't agree with them.  So do yourself a favor, I guess haha.

My camera is dead at the moment but there will be pictures to come very soon. I am so close to being able to begin animating!

Puppets

The past few days has been spent making puppet prototypes.
I gotta say it's very hard on the back, I have to stoop over my table and get really close because the wire and joints are so tiny.

I'm also having difficulty with using a dress. I've always had my characters have pants on and the dress thing gets really tricky when my character makes very wide movements with her legs...like running, which here will be lots of...obviously.
I can up with this 3 piece skirt thing that could work, but there are a few problems with it.
a) the puppet is getting really bulky in the hip area and could create shadows when I have it lit.
b) the skirt pieces and the legs (5 pieces in total) are all working from the same hinge which can make moving some pieces without disturbing the others really tricky and I can't really have more hinges in this area.

Another problem I didn't consider was that when I draw I tend to cancel out hard edges so when there are bends in elbows and things I make them very rounded and stylistic. I can't do this with the puppets and I'm worried it will conflict with the replacement puppets I will be doing at times which are previously drawn. The contrast may be cool though, who knows.

Fail

Today I has half of a front-on run cycle completed when my foot unplugged the computer.

I suck!

Texture tests!

Now it has been really important for me to include texture on my puppets. I must admit I have become a paper fanatic, it's borderline financially crippling, which just goes to show how geeky I can get -.^
My biggest fear,however, is that there will be too much of a shimmer/boil. Sometimes my puppets will be hinged and sometimes they are replacements. This means that sometimes they will boil a lot and sometimes not very much at all. So this is a concern for me. I'm not sure if it will look cool or not. I have been comforted by a wonderful instructor that sound will subtract a lot from this effect but nevertheless it will still be there.

Here is a very rudimentary test I have done with two different paper textures.

paper Texture Test 01 from Daryl-Lynn Ramsay on Vimeo.

paper texture test 02 from Daryl-Lynn Ramsay on Vimeo.

A big issue I had was lighting. I just shot these with a reg camera in the kitchen. So let's assume they will be a bit better in better circumstances.
What do you think? Would you be very distracted by something like this or would you enjoy the texture?

Tests!

I have been working on tests lately. I'm actually fairly rusty with animation (especially hand drawn) after this summer so...you know... not everything is looking its best, but it's a start! and it's getting the ball rollin'; re-kindling the love affair.


  

So out of practice

I have reached this point where I am constantly freaking out at everything besides what I need to focus on. This week I realized just how out of practice I am in regards to drawing animation. I spent almost all of last year doing puppets and tactile techniques to the point where now that I need to draw something I forget! It sucks haha. but i'm back to practicing.
Here is an example at an attempt at a run cycle that looks like something I did in first year haha. I didn't animate the head or concentrate on the body's up and down... I was just trying to remember how the legs worked in general haha. I tried to start with a head on one but even then I had to resort to this sad profile view.....and it's still not so great haha. At least this one is working a bit..the other attempts I couldn't get past the contact drawings.


This has taught me that I really need to draw more. A lot more

Story

Making a compelling story is very hard indeed.