I started my research into how birds fly by simply photographing, filming, and drawing them. I first photographed birds in the city centre, with the aim of capturing them on the ground as well as mid-flight. Sam Mealey had the fantastic idea of visiting Bristol Museum to draw and photograph the stuffed birds, many of which were posed in mid-flight, which provided a great opportunity to study them up close. Both sets of photographs are shown below;
Whilst in the centre I also did some life drawings to get a first-hand idea of their structure and motion paths;
Also, in the Bristol Museum, I drew some "life" drawings of the stuffed birds, taking advantage of the chance to study wings that won't fly away! Here is a compilation of my most informative drawings, including a "360" of a Red Kite, which helped as a reference later when interpreting my footage for animations;
In addition, I took as much footage as possible of seagulls and swans flying in the city centre, which is compiled below;
Next, I took these photographs at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm. I began with photos of birds just milling about to get an idea of their form before trying to capture them moving.
I also made some informative life drawings on my way round, including the motion paths of a falcon;
I struggled to film flying birds on the farm to start with, but luckily there was a birds of prey display, and I managed to capture some really useful footage of a falcon, eagle owl, and barn owl taking off, flying, and landing in succession, as shown in the video below from 1:16 onwards;
After reviewing my footage, I was able to make these useful sequences of birds taking off, flying, and landing;
Then I drew most of these sequences in my sketchbook, as drawing's one of the ways I learn best. However my camera isn't advanced enough for slow motion filming, so some drawings don't look "understood". I have also scanned in some diagrams drawn from this online tutorial - http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/index.html ;
I made good use of these sequences by using them to animate a falcon taking off in Flash. I rotoscoped 5 key poses, then used my sequences, footage, photos and drawing to make the animation below;
Next, I decided to animate a bird flying in stop motion. I very quickly made a wire armature of a generic bird, originally with a 3D body, but I later flattened it to make animating its wings easier. I wrapped it in masking tape for a quick and solid skin. Then I twisted thicker wire to make a stand for it, attached to some corkboard. Finally, I brushed some moulding latex over it to keep the tape down;
Below is my first animation test for my crude bird armature. It is shot on ones at 25 fps. I only animated the wings in my first 3 tests to make sure I grasped the basics first. This test turned out sticky, with incorrect timing and spacing, but I got a good feel for the motion from it;
Next I attempted to animate a moving background with it. It was very rushed but it does give the sense the bird is moving forwards. It is shot on twos at 50fps; I decided this was better timing, but there were too few inbetweens, and the key poses weren't strong enough. Plus, the background is just a headache, so I decided to focus just on the animation of the bird.
This third test was shot on twos at 50fps with more inbetweens. I feel I made the key poses much stronger and the spacing is much better. However, this time I made too Many inbetweens, so it flies too slowly, but is still very slick compared to the first tests.
My fourth and final (due to time restrictions) test was shot again on twos and at 50fps, but with 16 positions per cycle, which turned out to be the right amount I think. This time I animated the body moving up and down with the lift, and attempted some overlapping action on the tail, but it appears to move up when it should go down and vice versa in retrospect. Also, the armature didn't allow for me to rotate the wings or animate the head, so this isn't as advanced as it could be. However, I am overall pleased with the result, as it feels informed by all I have learnt from my investigation into Birds in Flight.