Summative Work - Show Reel and Final Film

Summative Reflection

Summative Assessment Reflection Introduction to Animation 1A has been my first time animating or using tools of animation, and over the course of this class I have developed my skills in visual storytelling. In week one I was surprised by how long it took me to animate a loop, and how much thought and preparation went into every frame in order for it to make sense. The time it took me to finish exceeded my expectations and made me rethink how I prepared for each project. Now I plan in advance to be finished well before the deadline because of how time consuming the work is. During the course I have tried animating traditionally and digitally, and I think that digital animation is my preferred medium. I have been animating using photoshop, and it has allowed me to work quickly while playing animations immediately and making adjustments and changes as I go. I did a loop animation and bouncing ball exercises traditionally, and found that I took less risks in animating because of the time it takes to test animations by photographing them beforehand, and the time it takes to edit mistakes by erasing or redrawing altogether. In week 5, I created my first real character and interaction during the Smears and Distortion animation, and I pushed myself to convey personality and create a connection with the audience. This project took the most planning and research for me, and I looked at the movement of other characters with distortion and eye overlapping in order to draw mine moving. I think that I still could have exaggerated it even further and used more stretch in the movement of the character. This animation was also my first time using a boiling loop, which I really liked adding to a scene because of the motion and personality that it brings while making the tone more playful. The part of the animation process I enjoy most is seeing everything come together and watching animations and adjusting them. Since the process is so difficult and tedious, it is really rewarding when an animation comes together and the illustrations that look strange as a stand alone drawing turn into a smooth animation. So far this course has taught me how to embrace the animation process and value the skill and time behind even really simple animations. The final project of Animation 1A has taught me how to adapt when faced with challenges, and the value of post production additions. I started by animating using Photoshop and importing drawings from illustrator, but photoshop stopped exporting rendered animations and I needed a solution. After speaking to our technician I decided to use After Effects, meaning that I needed to learn a new software to complete the project. This cut into my time significantly, forcing me to make alterations to my original plan and shorten my animation. I learned that it is extremely important to plan for complications to arise while working on a project and to give myself more time to work than expected. This project was my first time using sound in an animation, and I found that it made significant changes to the film and the expression of emotion. Through music and sound effects I was able to totally change the meaning of the movement of the shapes and give them personality. This is especially important considering that my animation is of very simple shapes. By using post production I managed to answer the brief better and produce a more complete animation.

Animation 1A - Formative Reflection

 Introduction to Animation 1A has been my first time animating or using tools of animation, and over the course of this class I have developed my skills in visual storytelling. In week one I was surprised by how long it took me to animate a loop, and how much thought and preparation went into every frame in order for it to make sense. The time it took me to finish exceeded my expectations and made me rethink how I prepared for each project. Now I plan in advance to be finished well before the deadline because of how time consuming the work is. During the course I have tried animating traditionally and digitally, and I think that digital animation is my preferred medium. I have been animating using photoshop, and it has allowed me to work quickly while playing animations immediately and making adjustments and changes as I go. I did a loop animation and bouncing ball exercises traditionally, and found that I took less risks in animating because of the time it takes to test animations by photographing them beforehand, and the time it takes to edit mistakes by erasing or redrawing altogether. In week 5, I created my first real character and interaction during the Smears and Distortion animation, and I pushed myself to convey personality and create a connection with the audience. I chose to create a really simple character and scene, so I was surprised by how much I could do with this simple illustration and the way it was able to communicate with the audience only through eye contact. This project took the most planning and research for me, and I looked at the movement of other characters with distortion and eye overlapping in order to draw mine moving. I think that I still could have exaggerated it even further and used more stretch in the movement of the character. This animation was also my first time using a boiling loop, which I really liked adding to a scene because of the motion and personality that it brings while making the tone more playful. The part of the animation process I enjoy most is seeing everything come together and watching animations and adjusting them. Since the process is so difficult and tedious, it is really rewarding when an animation comes together and the illustrations that look strange as a stand alone drawing turn into a smooth animation. So far this course has taught me how to embrace the animation process and value the skill and time behind even really simple animations. I think that moving forward I want to continue to put extra effort into the foundational skills of animation and the building blocks required to animate in order to produce the highest quality films when making something more advanced. I really appreciate how even a bouncing ball can have a personality when animated properly, and I am inspired by the versatility and range of really simple objects and characters in animation. I think that I will continue to focus on this moving forward rather than super intricate characters and scenes. This approach to characters has improved the way that I tell stories as an animator and an artist.

Animation 1A - Displaying Work

The Rough Draft of my Zoetrope GIF

 

Final Zoetrope GIF

Week 2 Looping GIF

Week 3 Bouncing Balls

Plan for Week 5 Secondary Action

The first animation I did but I could not figure out how to add the antennae to it

Secondary Action Video

 

Brainstorming for my week 6 video

Final Week 5 Video

Bouncing Ball Exercise

 

About Me

My friend and I visiting Cambridge

Hi! My name's Josie and I am from Canada. I am a graphic design student taking animation and interior design as my electives.

Trello

I will continue to post updates with this Label- for my daily tasks please see my Trello board above.

INTRODUCTION PART 3

HOW OFTEN SHOULD I BE DOING THIS?

At least once a week... Don't save it all up till the day before hand in or you'll forget what you've done.

HOW MUCH?

EACH week, try to cover your Animation courses, your Personal Learning and your Brainfood. It doesn't need to be a huge amount of information, but it should be a good balance of text and image. Don't just give us a bunch of images without context or attribution.

WHO WILL SEE THIS?

At the moment it's just you, your fellow animation students, and your animation staff. Eventually these journals will be brought more into the public domain for your external assessor and potential employers to see. You can of course share the link with whoever you would like, but keep your content courteous and considerate.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON'T DO THIS?

Your work will suffer, you won't achieve the sort of grades that you hope for, and your lack of willingness to do what we ask of you will be noted by us, your colleagues, and potential employers.

INTRODUCTION PART 2

HOW TO USE THIS JOURNAL

There are THREE main areas that we want you to document here:

1. Your work towards completing your animation courses, i.e. ANIMATION 1A INTRODUCTION in Semester 1 and ANIMATION 1B PRINCIPLES in Semester 2. This is where you provide evidence of all your work and thinking about your animation courses and projects that you will be assessed upon.
   
   
2. Your PERSONAL LEARNING, this is where you will document all of the animation related work that you are doing above and beyond your assessed courses. This section is very important to your development as an animator, it is where you define the type of animator that you are, and the sort of films you want to make. It is not assessed directly, but it will have an enormous positive impact upon your ability and your confidence, which will in turn affect your assessed work. It's not optional...
   
   
3. BRAINFOOD, this is where you document the experiences and thinking that you encounter that will inform and inspire your film making. There are some good films about film making, but great films tend not to be quite so self referential. Your Brainfood as defined by Animation staff should encompass:
   
   
1. Books you are reading
2. Films you are watching
3. music you are hearing
4. Bands you are seeing
5. Food you are eating
6. Exhibitions you are seeing
7. Places you are visiting
8. Conversations you are having
9. People you are meeting.

This list has not ended...

ABOVE ALL ELSE, MAKE SURE YOU "LABEL" YOUR POSTS, OTHERWISE THEY WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME VERY DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE.

INTRODUCTION

Introduction To This Journal Part 1

This is a template for an online journal to be used by ECA Animation students. The purpose in provodong a template is to make clear to students what the base level of information we require each week is. At the moment new journals will be boringly, but usefully similar in layout. Once base levels of information have been established we fully expect to see greater individualism shown in nature, if not quantity of content and presentation.

The format of these journals (blogs) uses "labels" to organise posts. Posts can be entered from any page, or directly from the blog editor, it is also possible to mail entries to the blog. Posts will appear on the frot page in the order in which they are published, using the section tabs across the top of the area where posts appear, or the labels widget at screen right will take you to a filtered view showing only the posts with the label selected.

This becomes a more powerful tool for organisation when you realise that new labels can be added very easily, and that each post can have more than one label. Labels are created and edited in the post editor.

Content can be quite media rich, images both still and moving are possible, as is embedded HTML code...

ANIMATION 1A Introduction

Rachel Everitt's semester 1 course

PERSONAL LEARNING

Where you move past the basics and deal with the animation that defines you as an animator.

BRAINFOOD

Where I feed my brain...