Using the two videos I had as research for the animation I divided the
footage up into different areas of study. At first I cut down the 100 minutes
worth of film to 12 minutes of relevant material that ran in consecutive
segments, but were not in any particular categories. I put this onto a
video that I could use it as an overall idea of the movement of the bear,
but was aware this was not going to be of much use in the actual detailed
study of the animation.
 I decided to
discount the adult run as an option for the final animation as it was apparent
from the videos that polar bears do not really run very much except in
quite specialized cases. Being as I wanted to demonstrate more day to day
actions of the bears the run did not seem appropriate. The video footage
did not also give much of an idea of how the animal looked from the side
as it ran, as the most detailed clip showed the bear running towards the
camera. This would have meant that I would have had to infer the movement
from this and other less detailed clips, which was not the point of the
project.
The cub animation clips were for ideas in the eventuality that I would
finish the adult animations and have time free before the deadline. The
problem with doing the cub animations would be that a new model with the
cub proportions would have to be built. I did, however, decide on
the actions I would use should I have the time.
Once I had decided on the types of actions I was going to animate the
polar bear performing, I had to decide what the actual sequence was going
to consist of. Being as I did not want the final animation to be a cycle,
I did not want it to look as if it could have been cycled. This meant that
I wanted a clear idea of what was going to happen in each sequence.
|
I discounted
the eating option for the animation, as this would not have been all that
interesting with such a low resolution head where it would be difficult
to know what was going on. Low resolution food would also have caused a
problem as block food being eaten by a block head would end up looking
like a puppet pretending to eat food. This could be overcome by using a
higher resolution model for the head and food, but this was not the point
of my chosen project.
I decided that
it would be interesting if the difference between the younger and older
bears could be seen. The experienced actions of the older polar bears are
imitated by the younger ones, but not really achieved due to both inexperience
and lack of 
body
weight in the case of trying to hunt. In contrast to the adult bear footage,
there was little evidence of the cubs walking, as in order to keep up with
their mother as the travel, they tend to run along to the side of her.
This means that when the cubs are walking, this tends to be a rest time
in between bounds. With this in mind I decided that should time allow I
would animate the polar cubs running and hunting, and use these as a basis
for comparison with the adult.