Applied Animation: Interim Critique

In today's interim critique session I pitched my ideas and thoughts for the brief to the rest of my class in order to gain some constructive feedback on my work and any suggestions that I could explore that could potentially improve my ideas. I feel that I received some positive feedback although I must admit, not many people had much to say in this critique (I did that good a job!).

Having said this, I feel the feedback I did receive was beneficial to me in helping me make some important decisions to move my ideas forward. In particular, the feedback revolved around getting character designs and environment designs started in order to begin experimenting with style and detail within the overall title sequence. The thought and consideration of how detailed I want my animation to be was brought to my attention and I need to carefully consider this aspect of the title sequence, as the amount and complexity of the detail will effect the overall mood, tone and atmosphere of the animation, which will ultimately reflect the style and tone of the book. It was also pointed out that I should carefully consider which programme I want to use to animate my title sequence. Photoshop was my obvious choice for animating digitally, as this is the programme I am most comfortable with. However, it was suggested that After Effects may also be a good programme to use for a title sequence, as this programme gives the potential for 3D camera angles and makes panning and zooming a little easier than Photoshop.

Another thought that occurred to me during the presentation was how I was going to animate the characters walking and such, as I haven't actually ever animated a walk sequence before. Rotoscoping is something that I could look into to make the process a little easier and to help maintain my time management. I also feel that this will help me to make my characters movements more realistic, which I feel is something that I want to achieve within this animation. It was also suggested that I take a look at Harry Potter for inspiration for my first setting.

Finally, I brought up my ideas for audio. Reflecting upon the tone and mood of the book, I feel that using significant sounds would create a much stronger, more sympathetic atmosphere than if I were to use a soundtrack.

There are a lot of things I need to experiment with, but I feel that I have a lot to move forward with and I need to get started.