Bird flight cycle

I love birds and flight, and last year I started a mini project that was based around bird flight, however due to lack of planning and the fact that I tried to animate it in a 3d program that I couldn't use very well it never really went anywhere, however I did find this:

http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/index.html

this is an incredibly helpful site on bird flight, going into great detail about different types of flight, the shape and pattern of flight, it was quite helpful when I read it before so now I am going to use it again to try and make a 2d flight cycle...hand drawn in photoshop

Arm slash v01

So I have decided to do some practice animations in the time before I get back to doing actual work.I think one short exercise animation every few days would be good, this way I get to practice timing and emotion and also I get to practice my drawing skills on a wacom, which may have been a contributing reason as to why I got such low marks in the last project. I couldn't decide what to do as I didn't particularly want to do another walk cycle (although I probably should have done).

so I decided (somehow, I'm still not to sure how I arrived at the decision) to do an arm slash, originally I imagined the character holding a sword, however I haven't drawn it in yet and  I probably won't so I can just pretend that he is swinging his arm in a violent motion as if to say "NO!"

It is still not quite finished, but I thought I would put it up to show that I am doing something with my spare time.

I quite like the movement of the shoulder on screen right (his left shoulder) as I think it adds more depth to the scene and makes it feel 3d. I have yet to animate the head which will probably be the next part, then I will add details, (maybe colours) and I will be finished with this and I will move onto the next one

Lotte Reiniger

Whilst in the library looking at the animation DVDs I found a dvd that was a compilation of Lotte Reinigers animations, Reiniger animated silhouettes of characters which I thought I might find interesting as again it is using body movement to portray emotion I only saw two of the animations from Reiniger: "The Magic Horse" and "The Grasshopper and the Ant" I found both very interesting, the animation itself was good however for me it is more about the detail in this one, although they are silhouettes there is still a lot of detail in them and Reiniger does still manage to portray emotions very well by the use of movement.

                                                                The Magic Horse 
I especially like this one probably mostly due to the fact it has birds in it (I love birds) but it has a nice story and the animation is still quite good.

The art of movement

So I was looking for animations on Vimeo, and I found this, it was one of the first that came up under the search of  '2d animations'

'Thought of You'

I love this, I think it is beautiful and this is almost exactly the reason that I am interested in animation, it is not about pretty pictures moving for me, for me its about the art of movement. I love the grace and emotion that goes into the movements, I think its strange, (but also interesting) when parts speed up or slow down, and the very fluid movements which sometimes lead to wings and things is very beautiful.

One of my friends showed me this:

The Shrine / An Argument

Which, although it is beautiful and a very good animation it doesn't interest me as much as "Thinking of you" because it is more about the beautiful pictures moving then about the actual movement, which is what I think animation should be...although I can still appreciate the beauty of it.