Applied Animation: Scene Split

Now that we are in a position to animate, we sat down and went through which scenes we would each be animating. We had decided early on that we would each take a character, Katy taking the boar and me the wolf, as it would be easier this way to produce consistent animation for the characters and the overall finish of the animation would be cleaner. This left the choice down to who wanted to animate more than the other, as the wolf character has more speech than the boar. With this in mind, we decided that I would take the wolf, as Katy felt that she would animate slower than I would and she felt more confident with the boar character. I was fine with this, as I felt confident that I could handle the extra animating.

Scenes I have to animate

Katy's scenes

Because of this extra animating and the fact that I am doing post, Katy is taking the titles and credits to even out the workload. We will also animate the robin in our own scenes, as it will make it easier for the two of us. I feel good about the work split and I am happy with our roles.

Applied Animation: Final Characters

Now that we have made the amendments to our characters and I have drawn up the final environments, I thought it would be useful to draw up the final characters and create a colour sheet for us to refer to whilst animating to help maintain colour consistency throughout the project. 

Colour Sheet

I also made a note of the brush size we would be using, just in case there was any confusion throughout production. By doing this, I hope to minimize my work load in post, as the characters should already have the correct colour line work and the correct fills before they get passed onto me for post. 

However, I did notice that when I loaded this up on a computer at uni, the Robin's textures are way too saturated and I will need to come to back to this before we move on to animate the Robin, but we are aiming to animate the robin last, as for now I can focus on animating my character and solve this when I reach the robin.

Applied Animation: Making Changes

In relation to our Interim Crit, I went away and made the adjustments to the boars texture and colours as suggested. I feel that this boar works a lot better than the previous ones, as it stands out from the background and it is clear to the audience. The colour also makes the boar the centre of attention, unlike before when you got distracted by the background.

Look Test

I will now draw up the final characters and create colour sheet for us to refer to whilst animating.

Applied Animation: Interim Crit

During our interim crit last week, Katy and I showed our peers what we had done since our pre-production crit. We started with our lip sync tests and whilst people thought they were good, they did mention that they would have liked to have seen more behaviour in there, however we did mention that we had only had a chance to animate the mouth so far, as we wanted to create a set of mouth layers that we could use throughout out entire animation, rather than animating each mouth separately. The group agreed that this was a good idea and felt that it would help to make our task that little bit easier, but we should also remember the importance of human mannerisms when we are animating.

We also discussed our environments. I had created a number of look tests for both the boar and the wolf environment, which we showed the class to gain a better insight into which ones worked well and which ones didn't. Whilst people agreed with us that the wolf with the darker shade on top worked best within its environment, they weren't so sure about the boar, as they thought that it blended in too much with trees. This is something I also believed to be a problem and was unsure how to fix the problem. However, it was suggested to us that we re-explore our idea of a purple boar, as this would work really well within the environment and would also add to our aesthetic. This is definitely something I am going to experiment with, as I feel that it would be a very nice solution to our problem.

As a final note, we discussed what we had in mind for foley and background sounds. We had decided that we weren't going to have any music, as we feel it would distract from the overall animation, which our peers agreed with and we will search the BBC sound library to gather a collection of foley sounds we feel are appropriate for the environments. On top of this, if we get the chance, we will attempt to record our own foley sounds.

Overall, I feel that we are in a good position despite the fact that we are a few weeks behind our schedule. If we focus on beginning production, I feel that we will be able to turn it around and get ourselves back on track.

Responsive: Evaluation

As a whole, I have found this project to be beneficial and challenging in many ways. It hasn’t necessarily challenged me in terms of my animation skills, but it has challenged me in other ways, such as working as a team member and working within very slim time frames. It has also provided me with an opportunity to work on my animation skills that I felt weren’t as strong as others, such as timing and spacing. Not only this, but this module has pushed me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to find new ways to solve a brief. I feel that I have progressed both as an individual and an animator throughout this module, and I have learnt a lot about myself and how I cope with new pressures and working on multiple projects at one given time.

In terms of animation skills, this module has allowed me to take a step back and focus on developing skills that I felt would benefit future work. One of the skills I have been able to work on is my character animation. For the first brief I completed, I focused upon the character and looked into body movement and body language more closely than I had in previous projects. I found that whilst doing this, I also learnt a lot about timing and spacing and how, when it is applied correctly, it can make a huge difference to how that character moves. I am really pleased with what I learnt from completing this brief and I feel that I have gained a stronger understanding of timing and spacing that I can apply to other projects, such as Applied Animation.

Another aspect I feel that I have developed is character design. ONFORM provided me with the opportunity to work upon my skills as a character designer, which I feel it did so, however, I don’t feel that it worked as well as I initially thought. Whilst it helped me with character design, it helped me more with idea generation and encouraged me to create ideas more quickly each time. Although it didn’t fully achieve what I had hoped it had, it did provide me with practice in drawing digitally, which is something that will benefit me in future projects, as I predominantly work digitally. I also feel that this brief is the one in which I found the most improvement. It is evident throughout my responses that my line work becomes stronger, I become more confident with my drawings, and I begin to think of more complex ideas. I also found that as the brief progressed, I was able to generate ideas much more quickly and I was also able to complete the drawing much more quickly too.

A final skill that individual practice has resulted in me developing, is applying the principle of timing and spacing. This is something that I have always understood but struggled to put into practice. I used the last brief to focus on simply applying this principle to a simple animation. I found that by focusing on this area alone, I was able to successfully apply the principle and I feel that I understand it much better than before and I will be able to apply it to future animations.

During my collaborative practice I found that I enjoyed working as part of a team much more than when I had previously attempted to do so. I feel that I have improved greatly upon my communication skills and I was able to bring up concerns in a professional manner that resulted in problems being sorted in a mature way that didn’t leave any member of the team feeling unhappy about the decisions. I managed to keep up constant communication with my team members and I feel that I worked well as part of the team and contributed fairly to the project. In terms of communication of ideas, I feel that I did a much better job than previously in Character and Narrative. I feel that I was able to communicate my ideas in a clear and concise manner that was understood by all members of the team, and from that I was able to work with the team to create a successful outcome to the brief.

For the collaborative brief, I focused predominantly on post-production because I wanted to improve my skills in this area, as it is something that interests me. I feel that I have made a lot of progress with After Effects and I find that understand how to use the program to solve issues such as light balance, motion jitter and I can also use masks effectively.  

Reflecting upon my time management for the module as a whole, I feel that this hasn’t been my strongest module for it. During the start of the module, I had a tendency to leave things until the end and left myself with very little time to complete the briefs. This led to me cutting a few corners and not doing as much development work as I would have liked, particularly for the first brief I completed. It also had an impact on other modules, such as Applied Animation. Despite the fact that it was unlike me to do this, I have learnt that I can lose motivation when I let things get on top of me, and this is something that I will always try avoid in the future. To do this, I will make lists of what I need to do on a weekly basis and take each task at a time, rather than thinking of the finished outcome.

Overall, I feel that I have enjoyed this brief as a whole and I feel that I have learnt a lot of things about myself both individually and as an animator. I also feel that I have developed on a number of skills that will benefit me in future projects and I am pleased with my progress overall.

Responsive: Project Report

Responsive: On Form

For my final individual brief, I decided to do a relatively simply brief called ONFORM. The brief consisted of creating a drawing/ sketch based on a shape that was published weekly to Tumblr. You were allowed to sketch whatever you desired so long as it was in black and white, you didn't change the proportions of the shape, you didn't rotate the shape and the shape was clear within the image you had drawn.

I thought that this was a nice little brief to have alongside my other two briefs and I could use it to focus on simply drawing, as character design and environment design aren't my strongest points. I wanted to use this brief as an opportunity to try and develop upon those skills a little and challenge myself to create a number of different character based sketches from the shapes each week.

I started off very simple and focused on idea generation and trying my best to come up with a single idea, as I struggled quite a bit to begin with. However, I found that as I went on, my line strokes got more confident and I was finding it easier to see things in the shapes and come up with multiple ideas. Once I started to get quicker at drawing and coming up with ideas, I began to look at adding shading to my drawings and taking it a little further, rather than just creating a simple outline sketch. I also wanted to push myself and begin to think about how I could make my drawings look less flat with the limited colour palette I had been given.

I found this brief extremely useful to me, as it challenged me to think of a number of different outcomes for different shapes and quickly. It helped me with idea generation and I noticed that I was able to come up with ideas a lot quicker towards the end of the brief. It also helped me to improve my digital drawing skills, which I will be able to take forward into future briefs. On top of this, I feel that I have managed to successfully create a series of sketches that are each different from the last that depict what I set out to achieve at the start. I have been able to create a character based sketch each week and I am pleased with my own progress.
Overall, I feel that this brief has been really successful and has helped me to improve upon skills that will benefit future projects.

Applied Animation: Research

In order to start animating, I thought it would be a good idea to get some research done on how these animals move in real life to help me make the characters move in a believable way. After out lecture with Sara we learnt that it was important to give the characters subtle behaviours as these are what make the whole performance more believable to an audience. So I sat down and looked up some videos on YouTube of the Robin and the Wolf to attempt to find any subtle behaviours that were unique to these animals.

I noticed that the Robin tends to be quite twitchy and jumpy and has very sudden movements that would be missed if you blinked and I feel that incorporating some of this, slightly not so subtle, behaviour into our character would help to create a better performance. I also noticed that the Robin's head moves quite a bit in an inquisitive manner and I also feel that this would be a nice little gesture to have our character do every now and then. 

For the Wolf there wasn't much to go on, as they are very active animals so never really stay still throughout the clip. However, at around 9:10 the wolf laying provided me with a nice little clip of subtle behaviour. Wolves tend to move their ears a lot above the rest of their body (other than their tail) and they are constantly moving. This is something I should definitely consider, as the ear movements could coincide with the tone and mood of the dialogue. Their faces also have a lot of expression which is also something I will need to consider to help give my character a believable performance. 

Responsive: Do It In Ten - Transition: Resolution

Reflecting upon how I handled this brief, I feel that I did a much better job than my previous attempt. This time I managed my time much more efficiently. This allowed me to not only complete the brief on time, but pay more attention to the actual animating. Having said this however, it isn't my greatest animation and the line work is a little sloppy in places, but I feel that the timing and spacing is a lot stronger within this animation than in previous ones I have completed over the year. Timing and spacing are two things I have never really quite been able to apply practically to my work, despite the fact that I understand them perfectly in theory. This time I was able to apply both fairly easily to my work and I feel much more confident applying both principles to other animations I work on in the future.

Submission

Overall, I am pleased with my final outcome despite the fact that the animation is a little weak. I feel that I have improved in an area that I have been struggling with for a long time and I am confident that this will help me to make better animations in the future. I have also managed to gain control over my time management once again, which is a huge relief and I feel better now that I am on top of things once again. 

Responsive: Do It In Ten - Transition: Development

As I was designing the final shapes/ symbols that would be displayed within my animation, I thought about how I could make these shapes consistent throughout. This led me to use the pen tool in Photoshop, as this would make my lines a lot smoother and help me to keep the size and shape more consistent than if I were to draw them by hand.

I started out by drawing a quick sketch of the symbols on a base layer so I had an idea where each shape would appear within the animation. Although they were very basic, rough sketches, I found that it made it a lot easier for me to plan out how my lines would transition from shape to shape and which path they would take. This isn't something that I usually do, as I am more comfortable when I am doing straight ahead animation as opposed to pose to pose, however, this did benefit me massively and made the task a lot easier than I imagine it would have been if I was basing this on guess work. Pose to pose is definitely something I will consider using more of in future animations, as it helps me to keep the timings in place and takes away some of the guessing.

Example of rough sketches

I had decided early on that I wanted my symbols to have a little bit of 'life' in them whilst the shapes were static and had decided that I would draw out the symbols on twos to give them a slight boiling effect so there wouldn't be any completely still shots. I found that this made the animation easier to watch and it didn't have any uncomfortable periods of no motion at all. However, I could have taken a little more care with some of the lines, as some of them don't quite match up and there are obvious mistakes. Having said this, I wasn't 100% focused whilst I was completing this animation, as I wanted to focus more on CoP and Applied. Also, although I found the animating quite easy, I did struggle to keep the first symbol, the Yin Yang symbol, consistent and it didn't look as neat as the other symbols. After I had moved on to other sections of the animation, I returned to it and altered some of the frames to make them appear more consistent, however I still couldn't quite manage to get it as steady as the other symbols, so I decided to leave it, as I felt that it wasn't worth getting wound up about.

Yin Yang symbol

Putting that issue aside, I worked towards completing the animation. I found the crown symbols the easiest to animate and keep consistent and I got these complete relatively quickly with no issues. I feel that this is the strongest section of the animation and I am really pleased with the timing and spacing I achieved within this section of the animation, as this is something I have always struggled to with whilst animating. 

Animation Development

Animation Development

Although the final symbol was quite complex compared to the others, it wasn't all that difficult to replicate. I did find that it was a little more challenging to keep the shape as consistent as the crowns, however I feel that I did a good job considering the shape was very symmetrical. Having said this however, there are some frames in which the lines are a little bit warped and it is noticeable, however, at this point, I wasn't too concerned, as I had more important projects to work on.

I definitely feel that I am on the right track to completing this animation on time and to a good enough quality to submit and I am happy with the progress that I have made. 

Responsive: Mega Crit

Last week , I had the opportunity to show all of the work I had completed so far for my individual brief and what I had completed for the collaborative brief. We had to make presentation boards and the focus was on professionalism and how we had presented them, rather than the content of work so this time I put a lot more thought into how I was going to present my work and decided to keep it simple and clean.

I kept the style of boards consistent throughout, changing only the logo and the description of the briefs where appropriate. However, I was a little self aware of how little work I had to put on my boards. As the majority of my work was animation based and one brief was still on going, I did really have much work to present.

Overall, I received a measly two comments, which both focused on showing development work. So I found this crit to be extremely unuseful. As I haven't done anything like this before it would have been nice to receive feedback that was useful and relevant, however this wasn't the case and I am a little confused as to what worked and what didn't regarding my boards. Having said this, now that I have completed all of the briefs, I will have more work to display on my final submission boards and I feel that this will look a better. Because no comments were made, I think I will stick to the design I created for this crit and just make sure that I don't overload the boards and keep them as clean and consistent as possible.

Despite the lack of feedback on my individual practice boards, the boards that Molly had created for out collaborative brief received a lot more feedback. However, these were also based around the work rather than presentation. I had set up a computer with a loop of our 4 animations playing with sound and people really liked what we had done and how we had approached the brief. I'm really pleased that people liked what we had done and I feel that the project was a success.

https://issuu.com/emmamccutcheon/docs/dazed.pptx.pptx/1?e=0

Overall, I don't feel that I have benefited from this crit massively, but I feel that I have a basic understanding of how to present my work in a professional manner.