Reference footage-based boxing

This is one animation I did during one of my university lessons, and since then, it did become another big step for me in terms of performing a new technique within animation. As university helped introduce me to Photoshop and what can be done within it, and one aspect university taught me in relevance to Photoshop was drawing on top of footage to form 2D elements from it, and that is what I've done with some boxing footage. This was more of a test as opposed to being part of an assignment like the other boxing animations were.

 

As well as drawing on top of the footage itself by outlining the boxing person, I had a go with forming an evolving background, to create a flashy background while showcasing the actions of the boxer, actions which are more natural because of using the footage as a template. Thanks to this animation, this has been a technique within Photoshop I have enjoyed at a point where I have used it within my future projects.

 

The 'Flip Flop' animation is a good example, outlining my own feet and flip flops to form natural actions while digitising the lot. With this small animation however, while the background could have been neater, and I could use more of the footage if I have the time, but I still look at it as a decent stepping stone, it's even considered to be one of the better lesson based animations I have done because of what I have learnt from it, and the quality of it I admired enough to want to share it, this mix of digital frame by frame while using footage has been one of my favourite animation methods, I would certainly recommend any beginner 2D animator to use this method, to get an idea on how to create consistent 2D animations in terms of movement and the physical proportions of the assets.

 

As a lesson based animation, this took under a day, a few hours to be more specific, the outlining process to form the consistent boxing movements is what took the longest, and all of my frame by frame content I always go for 12 frames per second (FPS), I would argue that six seconds of an animation is at short it can be without taking too much out of your day, I remember making an animation segment go on for ten seconds, which ended up taking multiple days; not that you should make scenes or animations at least six seconds, but if you only need to show off an example, then six seconds within Photoshop is the right amount for an abstract animation under a tight schedule. This one was eight to nine seconds, which was just lengthy enough to finish it before the class was over, as well as outlining the movements from the reference footage, there was the colouring of the boxer and the background too that while not taking as long as the outlining, did make the creation of this clip slightly longer. So, despite a lengthy experiment, it was worth it to get more of an idea on how this frame by frame method works within Photoshop, and it made the time within the lesson useful too.