Lesson 7

Story

Telling a short story with random poses.

this is insanely fun and creatively challenging :)

it's all about getting the emotions and main idea of the pose right. 

sometimes it gets a little off, and translates differently for the sake of the story.

The challenge here is to keep as much of the idea /emotion of the pose 

as possible while creating the story, however weird /interesting. 

Lesson 6

Extrapolation

Translating the human expressions and poses to animals (dog).
This was a challenging and fun assignment, I found that the more loose in the lines and the more focused on the expression alone, the better the translation. Because you can't just copy the exact pose. There is such a huge anatomical difference, as well as difference in facial structure and expressions, and then there is the body language difference.

studying the structure and feel of a dog (rough)

It was difficult translating the human anatomy to the dog's anatomy, since it is so different, especially the legs. Many times I found that I could use the dog's tail as a substitute for the human leg, and it works in terms of expression, and translates the pose pretty well.

In some cases I had to rethink the entire pose, to get a similar feel instead.

Extrapolation, finding similarities in pose and expression 01

Extrapolation, finding similarities in pose and expression 02

I did something similar in the 'character for animated feature' class
you can check that out here:
http://hj-characterforanimatedfilm.blogspot.dk
In lesson 2 i translated the character Alan Grant (JP) into alternate dimension characters who were animals ;) there the idea was to find and keep his key features, as well as the 'human form', unlike this assignment, where the dog's anatomy isn't altered.

Google / Youtube research

Lesson 5

Exaggeration

With this assignment I was trying to find a main feeling, expression or idea with the pose, and then exaggerate it for the sake it's intent. I was also trying to incorporate space, silhouette, shape and line of action. I tried to keep it more loose. some poses could be exaggerated even more. I found that the position/tilt of the head really emphasized the exaggeration.

Lesson 4

Space

Trying to create a sense of space, pushing and pulling back and forth into space, foreshortening limbs, and emphasizing with shading. testing it with perspective lines and points of ground contact.

Lesson 3

Silhouette

Compared to the shape, the silhouette is more intricate and defines the pose in more detail and clarity. With silhouette it is all about finding or creating negative space and opening up for clarity.
It is also very handy to be able to turn the pose for a better read of the silhouette, as long as you don't loose the main purpose of the pose.

Lesson 2

Shape

Here I am trying to capture the pose with a simple a shape as possible. I added more detail to some of the pose shapes in order to clarify the main idea. But generally, the simpler the shape the clearer the pose.

using as simple shapes as possible to define a pose

comparing the posed line of action with the shape

By comparing it to the line of action I can push and pull the shape to better convey the main idea.

adding fleshed out poses to the shapes 01

adding fleshed out poses to the shapes 02

adding fleshed out poses to the shapes 03

It's cool how you can instantly see where you can push a pose, just by looking at the shape.

Lesson 1

Line of Action

I always thought that the line of action was in the spine. but this makes so much more sense. lol

the line of action is just the line that captures the main idea of a specific action.

I find this to potentially be a powerful tool, now that I know how to use it !

the green lines you see in the image above are alternative lines of action.

I jotted down some of my thought along the way. comparing the line of action to the shape, and how it differs (many time I tend to look at the contour instead) and I looked at opportunities for adding line-weight to the line of action where gravity pulls the most. The strongest thing about line of action is the indication of force direction. 

It really clears things up for me.

I'm still a bit off in some of them, I think I'm still looking too much at the contour.

practise, practice, practise.

the suggested corrections make totally sense to me, considering the main idea of the pose.

and sometimes you just have to exaggerate the line of action to clarify the pose.

I also tried to study the line of action in various mediums.

line of action in photos

line of action in traditional paintings

line of action in movie frames