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.
For my actual animation needs I divided the material I had collated into sections of reference. 
These sections consisted of:

  •  Adult walk
  •  Adult hunting
  •  Adult run
  •  Bears eating
  •  Cub walk
  •  Cub run
  •  Cub hunting
  •  Cub play

  • 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.

    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.

    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.
    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.

    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. 
    From studying the footage I decided that for the walking sequence I was simply going to have the bear walk along, turn to look at something on the ground and then walk on.
    For the hunting sequence I decided that I was going to divide the stalking into two parts. The first part would involve the bear carefully trying to establish where a seal was hiding under the ice and sneak up on it, and the second part would be the bear trying to get to the seal under the ice by using its weight to break its way through.
    Quite often, as the bears break through the ice when they pounce, they fall further through as they push on the ice where the cracks get bigger underneath them. It is quite common for the bear to fall through and throw its back legs in the air with the sudden breaking, and in its desperation to get to the seal underneath them. I thought this would be a good way to end the hunting animation as it would give the sequence a conclusion.

    Studying the Animation

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