sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Experimentation Showreel - Reflective Journal” - 11.05.2017

For the show reel, I had to present my best work produced over the animation course. So looking through my best, I naturally included my most recent animation due to the natural development of my skill going ahead with the course. So with the footage I accumulated, I imported them into After Effects with the royalty free music I found online and began tweaking the order and timing that the animation played at. With the audio, I cut it down to a minutes length in Audition so the show reel would time perfectly with my footage. Once done, I added an opening including my name and the showreel title, and an ending giving more information about myself and how to contact me, as well as mentioning the original distributor of the copyright free music.

My strengths during this project would be:

Editing - From using After Effects and Auditon so extensively lately, I had no problem editing together a showreel that was impactful in a way that was flashy, funny and to the point.

Animations - Using a variety of some of my best work and a small amount of my average work really helped to make an interesting curve. For example, this would be me showing a basic animation that isn’t very interesting but would then show my best piece when the music ramps up, peaking the viewer’s interest at this point which acts to keep them engaged.

My weaknesses during this project would be:

Restrictions - Due to restrictions on the amount of time the show reel has to be, I have created to version where one doesn’t meet the specified time, but in all works better as a showreel. On the other hand, the other meets the allotted time with bad work that cheapens the experience. I’ve placed both in the hand-in folder for compare and contrast so that the viewer can decide which one works better.

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Animation to Sound Reflective Journal” - 11.05.2017

To begin the project, we received a series of workshops leading us through the after effects software. This workshops taught us how to best use the software in order to complete the tasks assigned to the class through the animation to sound project. Firstly, we studied combining visuals with music, having the freedom to choose a song that we would then animate visuals too, allowing the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them, all whilst exploring our own creativity. Once acquainted with after effects, we moved onto lip syncing. This is where we used a pre-made animation and had to choose an audio clip of our choice to lip sync to. We learned about dope sheets, timing and syncing, also getting the chance to use Adobe Audition. For the final lip sync, I drew my own mouths in Photoshop and imported them into After Effects, where I then animated them to the new audio track of my choice.

My strengths during this project would be:

Learning - Through these exercises, I was able to learn a great deal about Adobe After Effects and Adobe Audition. From the small amount I have learned, I now feel that I know the basics to get by and I now have the knowledge and ability to further my learning in the software in I choose to.

Syncing - Learning the inner workings of syncing animation to audio has been a great help because this process is used extensively throughout the film. From this, I feel that I want to sync an animation to sound, but through the use of hand-drawn 2D animation.

My weaknesses during this project would be:

Effort - The amount of effort I put into my lip sync task was lackluster to say the least. The mouths I created were rushed and failed to convey the shapes needed to believably mimic the movement of a mouth.

Timing - As well as mouth shapes not working with the words said, there wasn’t enough of them. Wrong mouth shapes had to be used. This made for a really uncomfortable watch since the human eye has a knack for picking up these sort of mistakes.

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Media Industries: Roles and Practices Project Reflective Journal” - 11.05.2017

At the beginning of the project, we viewed UK based companies and researched their location, speciality and projects in order to learn more about the animation industries roles and practices. Learning how most of the demand for animators is mostly CG in the UK, but also viewing stop motion studios suck as Laika, and viewing 2D projects and how these types of animations are being combined in new and exciting ways, creating hybrid animations. From all these exciting topics, my group were assigned with 2D Animation Production. From this, we brainstormed what we would research, assigning roles to one another so that we could accumulate the information, in the end, inserting and cutting relevant information to create the most informative, engaging slide we could. During the middle of research, there was a breakdown in communication, but due to a review of our content, we pulled our individual research together in the presentation to create a greater focused presentation of the history, development and present state that 2D animation faces in today’s industry.

 For my research, I feed off the question of ”What is 2D animation?”, breaking down the process to the audience and showing them visually the stages of the pre-production, production and post-production. How pre-production plans the production prior with scripts, storyboards, audio, characters and layout. These are then combined together to create an animatic which is used to review the story before spending the time and money producing the animation. This is repeated after alterations have been made to further cut the film in order to improve the experience. Production begins when all amendments to the animatic have been made. Keying animating the character’s posing during the major action comes first, which is compiled into an advanced animatic. From here, breakdowns are added to go inbetween the key frames. At the end of the animating pipeline is the inbetween animator, that handles inbetweening the breakdowns and adding additional frames to the production. Backgrounds are produced for the layouts and the characters are redrawn frame by frame and coloured on cel sheets. In post-production, the frames are photographed and converted to film. This is the end of the 3 stage cycle of creating the film, giving you the final product.

My strengths during this project would be:

Knowledge - Due to wanting to specialise in 2D, I was keen to convey my knowledge of the field through the presentation and learn any additional information regarding 2D studios and its relevance in the animation industry currently.

Research - For my research, I feel that I found appropriate sources that provided the information needed on the traditional animation industry and the process it follows.

My weaknesses during this project would be:

Leadership - At times, I took the role as the leader of the group and would delegate the research roles among the group. However, from prioritising other projects over this one during the weeks, communication broke down towards the middle of the project, causing time to be wasted researching off topic subjects. In the end, communication resurged and we all co-operated in the task to focus the presentation and reviewing it to ensure the flow of information was ordered correctly.

Contact - For the contact, I should have chosen a smaller animation company that had a history of producing 2D work. I contacted Sun Creature Studios via email, and unfortunately, I didn't receive a reply.

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Reflective Journal” - 11.05.2017

From the start of the BA1b project, I chose to specialise in stop-motion and produce my very own biped puppet with the use of materials, fabrics and colours. Once finished with the sculpting and designing of the puppet, we’d have to test are creation, experimenting with rigging it to react to the mystery box.

 Over the past 27 weeks, the development of my puppet and box through the creation process of stop-motion has taught me invaluable knowledge of the working of stop-motion and the experience to design, create and animate my own stop-motion scene.

 Firstly, beginning with a rough design of the character and drawing a storyboard to plan the actions that this character will follow. Once complete, an animatic was used to aid with the timing of actions during the sequence. For development and consistency purposes, a character and expression sheet was designed in order for me to build the wire frame up to resemble my character, even going as far as to sculpt a 3-dimensional sculpture out of super sculpey to aid in the turnaround, silhouette and posing. Continuously adding materials and shaping them around the frame, slowly but surely my puppet began to take the shape of my own character. During the middle and end of the creation process, I experimented with the rig in order to come to terms with how to animate a bulkier model, all in order for me to have the knowledge of how to animate this puppet smoothly when it came to me creating my final sequence. After animating, I proceeded to add necessities such as background art and music in order to immerse the viewer in this character’s world. Post-editing taught me to use after effects and its many helpful effects, such as Keylight 2.0, masking, keying and post lighting. After finishing the process, I then compiled my progress into a reel, showing my experimentation process and learning from the start to the beginning of the mystery box project.

 My strengths during this project would be:

 Character Design and Model Sheets - These designs clearly portrayed the character and aiding in creating substance for his story, aesthetic and behaviour.

The Experimentation Reel - This shows my development over the project and really highlights the areas of the task that I excelled in.

Mystery Box Sequence - The final animation was an amazing feet. Combining audio, stop-motion animation and post-editing to create this interesting, atmospheric short scene. I really love the stark contrast in the shadows and lights, which the character shares with the background that really immerses him in this environment.

 My weaknesses during this project would be:

 Storyboard and Animatic - In comparison to the higher quality work produced. I personally feel that these two pieces were sub-par, which is a shame since these are two important parts of the process that can prove to make or break the project. I believe that I should have redesigned them due to their quality and that my final animation does not use any actions shown within their content.

Research Portfolio - This could have improved, showing my development to its fullest potential, but due to poor management on my part, I struggled to show the full extent of my learning.

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Sequence - Mystery Box” - 11.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Sequence - Mystery Box” - 11.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Sequence - Mystery Box” - 11.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Sequence - Mystery Box” - 11.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Sequence - Mystery Box” - 11.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Sequence - Mystery Box” - 11.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“Mystery Box Sequence - Mystery Box” - 11.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“2D Animation Production Presentation - Media Industry, Roles and Practices” - 09.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“2D Animation Production Presentation - Media Industry, Roles and Practices” - 09.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“2D Animation Production Presentation - Media Industry, Roles and Practices” - 09.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“2D Animation Production Presentation - Media Industry, Roles and Practices” - 09.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“2D Animation Production Presentation - Media Industry, Roles and Practices” - 09.05.2017

[sketchbook-project-ba1b-1602522]

“2D Animation Production Presentation - Media Industry, Roles and Practices” - 09.05.2017