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So... I decided to draw a random mannequin. Didn't get it done. (any idea what's being said?)

Week 4: Arcs
    Study and understand this principle.
    Animate three (unconnected) arcs, either within a single animation, or in three different animations.
    How do the arcs benefit these animations?
    Animate an action that uses straight inbetweens instead of arcs. Explain why this action does or does not work.
(schedule: sta.sh/0lwe662dsow)
(other weeks: weekly animation challenge folder )

Stuff I thought was most useful:
Illusion of Life, p62-63
The Animator's Survival Kit, p90-92
animationbrain.com/arcs-2d-animation-principle.html
brianlemay.com/Pages/animation…
principlesofanimationuwe2010.b…
www.animdesk.com/principles-of…

I've found that sometimes, even when drawing an arc to go by, it's possible to end up with a straight line. :/ I thought I'd made an arc for the head, but when I scanned an earlier version to check it, it was on a straight line. Then when trying to put s-curves on the upper arms, I also ran into issues. Seems it's kind'a important to know exactly what point I should be arcing. Whether it's the top, bottom, center, or edge of a shape. I probably need to get a better eye for seeing stuff while flipping, since I can't quite tell for some things unless I scan the drawings and then watch it.
I also need to work on drawing more expressively. The key poses of this are actually a version 2 that I'd traced and worked on making less stiff, and they still seem a bit iffy.

I thought I might try animating some random hand gestures, since there'd be arcs in that. I thought of four gestures, vaguely based on something, and ended up filming myself acting them out a few times (seems my right arm ended up slightly sore. Though, I wonder why the left isn't). I only have three out of the four here, though, because the last one just didn't seem to match the other three. And... since I couldn't figure out how to time stuff that's less than a second, I ended up importing one of the videos (which looped a few times) to Premiere Pro and looking at the timing (as well as looking at the movements closer).

There's an arc for the head, for the upper arms, and a wide arc for the forearms (which I didn't finish drawing in). ...there probably should be an arc for their back/torso too, but I didn't pay much attention when drawing it...

So. Um... 'How do the arcs benefit the animation': Well... it helps them look more human? It keeps the arms the same length (hopefully)? And, since I accidentally animated their head with straight inbetweens at first, inbetweening without the arc looked wrong. I suppose kind'a elevator-y? But, some animations would look okay without arcs. Like... if I was animating an elevator. It depends on what it is and what effect is sought.

Oh, also, the pose with their hands up in the air is pretty symmetrical. I tried to keep that but not twin it (because being perfectly symmetrical is bad), by having one arm a little higher than the other and the hands turned a little differently (and also looking at my ref for help in that, so it's mostly based on it).

Description
So... I decided to draw a random mannequin. Didn't get it done. (any idea what's being said?)

Week 4: Arcs
    Study and understand this principle.
    Animate three (unconnected) arcs, either within a single animation, or in three different animations.
    How do the arcs benefit these animations?
    Animate an action that uses straight inbetweens instead of arcs. Explain why this action does or does not work.
(schedule: sta.sh/0lwe662dsow)
(other weeks: weekly animation challenge folder )

Stuff I thought was most useful:
Illusion of Life, p62-63
The Animator's Survival Kit, p90-92
animationbrain.com/arcs-2d-animation-principle.html
brianlemay.com/Pages/animation…
principlesofanimationuwe2010.b…
www.animdesk.com/principles-of…

I've found that sometimes, even when drawing an arc to go by, it's possible to end up with a straight line. :/ I thought I'd made an arc for the head, but when I scanned an earlier version to check it, it was on a straight line. Then when trying to put s-curves on the upper arms, I also ran into issues. Seems it's kind'a important to know exactly what point I should be arcing. Whether it's the top, bottom, center, or edge of a shape. I probably need to get a better eye for seeing stuff while flipping, since I can't quite tell for some things unless I scan the drawings and then watch it.
I also need to work on drawing more expressively. The key poses of this are actually a version 2 that I'd traced and worked on making less stiff, and they still seem a bit iffy.

I thought I might try animating some random hand gestures, since there'd be arcs in that. I thought of four gestures, vaguely based on something, and ended up filming myself acting them out a few times (seems my right arm ended up slightly sore. Though, I wonder why the left isn't). I only have three out of the four here, though, because the last one just didn't seem to match the other three. And... since I couldn't figure out how to time stuff that's less than a second, I ended up importing one of the videos (which looped a few times) to Premiere Pro and looking at the timing (as well as looking at the movements closer).

There's an arc for the head, for the upper arms, and a wide arc for the forearms (which I didn't finish drawing in). ...there probably should be an arc for their back/torso too, but I didn't pay much attention when drawing it...

So. Um... 'How do the arcs benefit the animation': Well... it helps them look more human? It keeps the arms the same length (hopefully)? And, since I accidentally animated their head with straight inbetweens at first, inbetweening without the arc looked wrong. I suppose kind'a elevator-y? But, some animations would look okay without arcs. Like... if I was animating an elevator. It depends on what it is and what effect is sought.

Oh, also, the pose with their hands up in the air is pretty symmetrical. I tried to keep that but not twin it (because being perfectly symmetrical is bad), by having one arm a little higher than the other and the hands turned a little differently (and also looking at my ref for help in that, so it's mostly based on it).