Week 13

Exercise 2

Exercise 4

Discuss the following questions on your weblog.

1)  Apart from their different sizes, it is obvious from Luxo Jr. that the big lamp is “older” and that the small lamp is “younger”.

How is this communicated by the animation? Give at least THREE examples.

Do NOT say because the small lamp is playing with a ball, or that its name is Luxo Jr. – you should be looking at the animation, how the lamps move and emote (emote means to express emotions).

Firstly, the big lamp moves slower as compared to the small lamp. This is because the big lamp is "older" and so it moves slower.

Secondly, only the small lamp is interested in playing with the ball. Again, this is because the big lamp is "older" and similar to humans, an adult would not play with a ball in the way that small lamp does.

Thirdly, the big lamp shakes its head - something that is more commonly seen in older people.

2)  Give an example from Luxo Jr of how timing is used for comic effect. Explain how the timing decisions contribute to the humour.

It becomes sad for awhile after what happened to the ball, but then comes back shortly after with a bigger ball and is happy once again.

3)   When you create a joint chain, these form a hierarchy, with the first joint at the top and the last joint at the bottom. Explain why this is necessary for the joints to work properly.

This is to allow more joints to move at the same time. This adds to the realism in an animation as most actions do not only consist of a single joint. It will appear unnatural if only one joint moves at a time.


reflection
This was a very useful but exercise.