Animation Brief, Production & Evaluation

Time management

Deadline = 11th December 2020

Today = 10th November 2020

Completing brief could take from 2 - 14 days.

Completing an animation would take from 7-14 days.

Do any sort of evaluation from 1 - 4 days

(MAX = 32 days / MIN = 10 days)

Lesson plan

L3 - 17th Nov

L4 - 19th Nov

L5 - Free

L6 - 24th Nov

L7 - 26th Nov

L8 - Free

L9 - 1st Dec

L10 - 3rd Dec

L11 - Free

L12 - 8th Dec

L13 - 10th Dec

L14 - Free

Plan 1:

L3 - L8 for learning software

L9 - L13 for animating

Plan 2:

L3 - L5 for brief work

L6 - L14 for animation (Prioritise free periods for learning software etc...)

Initial thoughts

1. Create an extremely basic stickman animation showing one activity I do in my life.

2. Do a stop motion animation of a certain character that involves driving.

3. Create a stickman fight scene, recreating a real life fight.

Manageability

1 is very manageable as drawing stickmen is pretty easy and I know what I do in my life so I wouldn't need to do extensive research on it. 2 is easy to do but it will take more time than I would like it too. 3 was just a random idea that I thought of, I do not even watch fights, so I would have to do a lot of research into that and animating a stickman fight might be out of my league for time being.

The most manageable thought would be 1. This is because drawing a stickman is easy but making it move is more challenging, however most of what I do in my life does not require a lot of movement. I also believe that 1 shouldn't take up as much time as the others.

Idea expanded

I want to create a basic stickman animation showing one activity I do in my life. There could be a narrator that has convocations with the stickman, I.e. "Hello me!" "Hello!". Were the stickman would enter a room and sit down at a computer and start doing stuff with reactions to what appears on screen.

Success

Success will be if the viewer can understand what I do in my life through the actions of the stickman and its environment.

Research

Since it is primarily 2D drawn animation and about a stickman, I have looked into stickman fights as I think there is a lot to learn on how to animate a stickman properly. I love how Alan Becker animates his stickmen, primarily using the environment to show perspective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a1r0JaONS4

Another stickman fight that does it a bit differently is this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_qGO4GrbQM, They like to switch from stickman to realistic body proportions depending on how intense that section of the fight is.

In general, looking into stickman animations would be beneficial as I could roughly copy art style and movements.

I have also seen a few tutorials on how to animate stickmen properly and believe I have a general understanding of how it is meant to be done.

• Speed & timing is determined by how many pictures of frames it takes to make it happen.
• Less frames of said action, the faster it will be. The more frames of said action, the slower it will be.
• Acceleration and deceleration are determined by an objects start and end on the timeline.
• Organisation is key when it comes too animation as a whole and very important when you have a detailed background. 

Extra skills

I will need to up my skills in drawing in general if I want to improve my end product and the speed of the animation process. I might need extra Adobe Animate skills so I can improve the flow of my work.

Storyboard & Script

Progression

24/11/20 - Practice and start animation by making the door open / Made the door open animation and made initial stick figure.

26/11/20 - I will start making the walk through door scene and maybe the start of the walk scene / Skipped walking through door, didn't have the energy to do it and can't figure out how to animate it (requires extra research). Started the run/walk animation.

01/12/20 - Continue run cycle and maybe create set up scene... / Extended run scene, still needs to be extended. Didn't create set up scene.

03/12/20 - Hopefully finish the extended run scene / finished run cycle and started work on intro. Will need to organise my layers eventually...

08/12/20 - Finish secondary run cycle and create end scene / Finished secondary run cycle and created scene. Getting into the chair was the hardest to animate as I didn't want to delay myself by experimenting with 3d movement this late into the project.

10/12/20 - Finish animation / I finished the animation and checked over parts that I thought needed improving. All in all, I think I did well for my first animation project but I believe that sticking to a trackpad for drawing wasn't the best idea.

11/12/20 - Finished animation

Evaluation

At the start you said what success would look like to you – were you successful?

I believe that the animation I created was to some extent successful. It shows what I normally do in my day to day life, play video games, but I doubt it shows it well enough.

What was the hardest part?

The hardest part was trying to incorporate a 3D depth to the 2D theme. At the start of the animation, I made a door which opens and should have revealed "me", which would then walk through the doorway and become the size it is now. However upon trying to get it, I could not figure out how to do it realistically as my attempt were choppy and always randomly changing size.

What was the most enjoyable part?

The most fun part of it was creating the end scene where "me" jumps into a chair and goes into the monitor and waves goodbye. It was fun as it was different from repeatedly creating a run animation.

How did you improve your animation skills?

By watching stickman fights and in general stickman animations, it showed me how to make a stickman more fluid and having more impact to its movements. Considering that I couldn't make a fluid animation, I believe the videos truly did help me create a flow to my animation.

 

What changes to your workflow could you make in future projects to improve your outcome?

Halfway through the project, I learned about the key binds to create different frames. Specifically the F5 key bind. Using F5 create new frames to extend out the drawing. This was extremely helpful as before I used it, I was just dragging frames around to extend them (Which was quite a tedious process).

How could you improve your presentation skills (get feedback if you haven’t yet)?

I was very vague on what I wanted to create so maybe being a bit more specific on what outcome I wanted.

You did lots of work before beginning your animation, included in this was lots of research, trying out animation techniques etc. Which research was the most useful (explain)?

As I have said before, watching stickman fight animations. Seeing how other animators drew and change the stickman to create a very fluid and impactful animation was both inspiring and helpful in helping me to make a more fluid animation.

Who would you say is the target audience for your animation(consider: age range, gender, interests)?

Main audience should be young teens of any gender, aged 12-16, with an interest in animation. but in reality anyone can watch it.

How successful were you at evidencing your progression and work as you went along?

Due to the constant reminding of our teacher telling us to document our progress I was very successful in documenting what I had done and what I was going to do.

How would you manage your time differently next time?

I probably would allocate a bit more time to research as the research I did was very profitable. The more research I did the better my workflow could've become and the better the outcome of the project.