FINAL MAJOR PROJECT EVALUATION
Abbie Rial
Animation, Year 3.
Needless to say, the process throughout the production of my Final Major Project has been a strenuous yet highly gratifying one. There have been multiple changes from its original inception back in 2013 (at the end of our second year of university), changing it from the original concept it stood to be, into the one which I decided upon when it came to the production of the actual animation itself. Originally intended as a mock-umentary in the style of Attenborough, in the end it became a simplistic learning based animation, focussing on the Alphabet – at he suggestion of my tutor.
The original concept for the Kittypillar actually came about through a lazy afternoon of messing about with various word play with my flatmates. The phrase ‘caterpillar’ was thrown out, and in a childish voice one of us said ‘Kittypillar’ and it really stemmed on from there. After doing a few quick doodles of the idea, I showed them to a friend, who proceeded to impersonate famous wildlife presenter David Attenborough, whilst ad libbing some commentary about them. This gave me the idea that I needed to put together a proposal which I would present to my tutors. It also meant that I had a potential voice-actor at the ready, willing to contribute towards this project, should it go ahead.
Wanting to aim for a future career in the field of children’s book illustration, I felt that doing a Final Major Project themed around children’s animation would be a perfect route to go down. It has been a long standing goal of mine to produce works for children’s, so starting off with something educational and most importantly entertaining was the highest of my priorities. I made a point of gathering together plenty of reference materials in the forms of books, videos, testimonies of industry artists, and most importantly feedback throughout the creation of my final ‘Kittypillar’ animation from its main viewing demographic: Young children.
I made several blog posts filled with reference materials pertaining to the aesthetic influences of children’s TV animation over the years, as well as some with links and contact details for several illustrators specializing in the field of children’s book illustration. I learned through all of these buildings of examples, that television programmes which have proven the most successful and to prove the test of time with children, are those which carry a ‘home-made’ look to them. Shows which have the hand-drawn and highly juvenile design to them – which look more like an actual drawing made by a child – seem to be the most popular. This was definitely a plus for me, as I decided to opt for the traditional route of animation with this project.
I started out at the beginning of the project by writing up a proposal for my original idea – the one pertaining to the mock-umentary format – in order to put my initial ideas and work plan across to my tutors. Of course, each of us on the course had to come up with several proposals for our Final Major Projects, in order to A) Show a sense of professionalism by coming up with a selection of ideas which the ‘client’ (or tutors, in this case our tutors) can pick and choose from, and B) Have something to fall back on, should our chosen idea fail in some way, shape or form. I, personally, came up with two ideas: My ‘Kittypillar’ animation for children, and the other being a whimsical silent-film-style story about a little Jack Russell. The latter was more geared towards the topic of my dissertation, which was centred around early silent film and its impact on animation.
F.M.P Proposal #01 – “The Life and Growth of the Kittypillar”
Posted by abbiestabby on May 2, 2013
Wanting to aim along the lines of something which could be put towards to future career aspirations in children’s book writing, I thought this was a simple, fun, and effective idea which I could try out. “The Life and Growth of the Kittypillar” will be a mock-umentary style animation geared towards children and cat-lovers alike. In it, I may want the creature to be regarded slightly as a form of “cryptid” (a creature which is widely rumored bit as of yet not proven or dis-proven), in order to draw the audience in more.
It will incorporate simplistic language with simple, cute visuals which will all go towards gaining approval of the young viewing demographic. I will be having either straight forwards bright, block colours so that it will engage children more, or scribbly, crayon style colouring. This will make every frame look unique and hand-drawn, as a children’s colouring book would be, so there’s definitely an option. It is important that I keep it simple, as going into too much detail will detract from the focus of the animation and its target audience.
I am aiming to have it read out in a very children’s book style manner, whilst at the same time using enough intelligent language to still play into the documentary style genre. I intend to have a narrator speaking throughout the length of the video, in the well-known and commonly documentary-associated style of Sir David Attenborough. These voice-overs and many other subsequent voice effects will be filled in by my good friend Shaun Rackley, an aspiring voice-actor.
For the research element of this project I will be watching various insect-themed documentaries on both television and dedicated internet sites. I will read through encyclopaedias which have the lives of caterpillars in detail throughout their subject-specific sections. One documentary in particular which inspired me to create this project was “The Hellstrom Chronicles”, a documentary in which one man voices his theories on how the insects will one day overthrow humanity as the predominant species. My animation will be very tame in subject matter, but nonetheless, I found this documentary useful, especially with it’s time lapse of a caterpillar going through the transformation to being a butterfly. Time lapse videos, now that I mention it, will be an invaluable source for visual reference.
I will come up with an entire history, genealogy, behavioural traits and care facts for this make-believe creature. I will use behaviours and physical traits of both caterpillars and felines, in order to make this creature a believable one. Having already come up with a basic design off the top of my head, observing pictures and moving images and even real life instances of caterpillars will give me a better idea of how they are put together and what their movement patterns are like.
F.M.P Proposal #02 – “Plucky Bill”
Posted by abbiestabby on May 7, 2013
Wanting to generate an idea which will be in closer proximity of the research which I will be doing for my Dissertation piece – “The Rise and Fall of the Silent Film Era” – I thought that doing something in the silent film genre would prove to be both beneficial and and fun project to do. I will be opting for a slightly different take on silent film with my piece, which I think will appeal to a much wider audience and make for some good comedic entertainment.
Wanting to incorporate all the stars of silent cinema (though it may not prove entirely factual when thinking about the heydays of specific stars etc) into one sequence will be a challenge, but I am confident that it will make for an entertaining piece regardless. I want to create an animation about a lesser regarded star of the silent film age – the performing canines which were used in an abundance of film. Partially because of the phenomenal popularity of “The Artist” star “Uggie”, a performing Jack Russel, my animation will be about a little Jack Russel back in the 1920′s / 1930′s, wandering into a film studio in Hollywood and inadvertently causing a ruckus and getting in the way of all of the sets / actors / tech crew. Eventually, by the end of the animation, the dog will run into Charlie Chaplin. Reminding him of the dog which appeared in his 1918 film “A Dog’s Life”, he picks it up and smiles, unable to stay mad at the commotion it has caused.
Because Jack Russels are so highly thought of as working dogs, being highly intelligent and able to learn a multitude of tricks by any given trainer, I think that they would make a fantastic choice for my leading role. They were also a common choice for performing dogs in the silent film age, so it will be in homage to that also. Having a relative with a very well trained Jack Russel, “Bill”, a performing dog which has done one or two variety acts and historical re-enactment events (alongside her other dog Ed), I will have suitable access to an animal which I can draw reference from for movement, mannerisms, shape, and so on. Thinking about it now, I may even incorporate a cameo from my auntie’s other dog, which is a Lakeland Terrier / Yorkshire Terrier cross.
A good little blog post I found whilst doing some quick internet research for this proposal, is this WordPress article entitled “First Film Dogs” found on http://thebioscope.net. It includes a fantastic video clip from the 1894 Edison short “Athlete with Wand”. Though the dog is not performing, it is highly obedient in sitting there whilst the athlete performs. This being practically the first ever footage of a dog in film, I thought that it was a good piece of the history to include.
Mut, who plays scraps in “A Dog’s Life” by Charlie Chaplin will definitely be stated as one of the main inspirations behind this idea, as well as “The Artist”s Uggie. A clip below, taken from the Chaplin film, really shows the well behaved and excellently timed comedic skills commanded of the dog during filming, which really accentuates the comedic effect of a particular scene. They say “never work with children or animals”, but I think Chaplin made a tremendous exception to that rule with this film, and “The Kid”.
Once again this project is at present a toss up between traditional and digital. I may very well have to incorporate both, whilst enlisting some outside help in order to help me create background and certain graphics and what-have-you. Because it will be in black and white, and in the style of a silent film, I will have some certain amount of freedom with experimenting with the frame rate (the frame rates of silent films sometimes being varied, due to hand wound cameras). I will also have to try and find a decent quality “aged film” filter of some description in order to put the final touches on my animation in After Effects.
Before going with the ‘Kittypillar’ concept once and for all, I made several developments on each idea for a few weeks before making my final decision. This included looking into any narrative routes I could take with each idea, as well as concept sketches, test animations and other contributory art work. For my ‘Jack Russell’ idea, I looked up several inspirational ‘buzzwords’ in order to get some more story ideas out and onto paper. I listed each of these words off on my blog and typed up any ideas that were generates during the session. I made sketches, referencing several found images of Jack Russells, as well as observing them from life – having friends with the breed as pets. I also did a test animation of the dog character in order to get a vibe for what sort of animation style / character design I would go with, should I eventually decide upon going further with it.
Likewise, with the initial stages of the Kittypillar concept work, I did some observational sketches which would contribute to the final character design. I made a point of collecting decent reference images of various forms of caterpillar, as well as trying to find some genuine creatures in various foliage and gardens near my home. I made a particular point of looking up breeds of caterpillar which were observably more fluffy / hairy than your standard garden breed. Moth caterpillars seemed to display this quality a lot more. One thing I wanted to make a defining feature of Kitttypillars is how fluffy they are.
I based the Kittypillars design initially on a style which I experimented with a bit in first year – quite a whimsical style involving the use of a biro pen, the main subject of which was my cat: Norman. Feeling that I could develop on further from that style and make good use of it, I integrated it into the Kittypillars overall design over time. As previously mentioned, the concept for the Kittypillar itself was based on some wordplay which led onto some quick little doodles that seemed to catch on with several people, of whom I showed them to.
There is a sketchbook that I have been putting work into throughout the length of this project. Granted, it is not as full as it could potentially be by this stage, it is still incredibly useful as a reference point, and a place to express any ideas that may or may not work. In this sketchbook, I have included expressions sheets, various designs such as Kittypillars with segmented bodies, multiple legs, fully grown ones, baby ones, and so on. I have also spontaneously drawn several Kittypillars interacting with each other and various other beats, in order to generate potential ideas not just for this project alone, but for any future narrative ideas I may work on in the form of a children’s book.
There are a range of concept pieces in this sketchbook, ranging from standard, quick pencil sketches, to fully coloured works which could be used for presentation purposes. There are also planning pages on which I have written out ideas for animation sequences and potential animation styles I may or may not use in regards to the movement of the Kittypillars body, etc. I have also done drawings from the perspective of the Kittypillar looking more as it would, were it a genuine creature. Needless to say, the more gentle appeal of my original aesthetic for the critter is much more appealing than it would be on a legitimate creature.
Throughout the original sketches, Kittypillar was depicted as having sets of legs, as a centipede or certain breeds of caterpillar typically would. Through the developments of various character design sessions in which I added / took away certain originating features, I came to the conclusion that overall, Kittypillar would for one look much cuter minus the limbs, and for another, would be far easier to animate. It would be less time consuming to animate one singular body movement as opposed to having to animate each individual limb for each walk cycle – if it were that time consuming, it would prove to be quite counter-productive as far as getting a half-decent end product is concerned. After coming to this conclusion on the design, I created a short walk-cycle test, or in this case a ‘crawl-cycle’ test. Gauging the weight distribution of the character coupled with a convincing antennae movement proved originally to be quite a tedious task, but nevertheless, I ended up with something that I definitely feel works very well for the character.
One concept I experimented with at the beginning of this project was to have the character animated over photographic backgrounds. This would be in a Rotoscope sort of manner, minus the video footage, but with stills in its place. Unfortunately, this idea fell through at a very early stage due to the resources for the required styles of editing being unavailable to me at the time. I made some small pieces of experimentation with the idea at first, drawing up a Kittypillar, which I then cut out and proceeded to photograph around various points of foliage and the like – in order to get a feel for what the visuals would probably look like, were I to consider this technique of animating.
It was discussed very early on in the project between myself and my tutor about the potential marketing possibilities which came with this particular characters design. The potential for merchandising with the ‘cuteness’ of this character would be quite good, should I find the right audience and the right way going about making the character appeal to them. With the help from one or two other creative individuals which I have the good fortunate to be in contact with, we were able to generate some ‘toy design’ mock-ups. One of which, was a knitted Kittypillar, which we lovingly dubbed ‘The Knitty-pillar’. With some tweaking and re-working of several aspects of the toy which we ended up designing, we could definitely have something that may appeal to young viewers. More insights into this aspect of the character will be looked at through the remaining time of our Professional Practice sessions.
Still along the lines of merchandising potential, for my birthday of this academic year, a family member was kind enough to surprise me with a 3D cake resembling my Kittypillar design. Actually seeing the character brought into a physical 3D format certainly helped me gauge the physicality of the character, and also appreciate the work that I had done on the character so far. The size that the cake was made at was certainly a lot bigger than an actual Kittypillar would be (if the make-believe genealogy is anything to go by), but nevertheless it was fantastic having a temporary form of maquette to be able to draw inspiration from. Several sketches were made from that, swiftly before the treat was entirely consumed.
I felt that it was important to take different breeds into consideration as well – there are plenty of breeds of caterpillar, and plenty of breeds of cat – so I decided to start compiling a collection of designs. Some designs were more geared towards the standard breeds of cat that you would normally find, and others were made to look a bit more fantastical. The latter, I feel, would appeal more to the younger viewing demographic of the animation, whereas the Kittypillars based on legitimate breeds would probably appeal more towards the adults watching with them. This being said, it could be vice versa, but that all will be decided after some form of focus group is organised. The breeds of Kittypillars now range to a phenomenal degree, some designs made were also created based on the personalities of people I know (made deliberately to resemble them in some way), or some of their favorite things, etc. I think this large and possibility infinite mix of designs once again has the greater potential for marketing appeal. I put together a character sheet showing a ‘blue tabby’ Kittypillar – a decent mix of both ends of the spectrum, so that attendees of the End of Year Degree Show have some additional early development work to browse.
Before I started putting together the thumbnails for the animatics that I generated for this project, I asked Shaun (the person who did the original mock-up commentary) to put together some cleaner recordings that I could work from. I left it to him to generate some on-the-spot commentary like in the preceding video, the only thing that I stipulated were some starting points that he should work from i.e. an introduction, eating habits, habitat, and so on. Once I had those recordings in my possession, I got to work on putting together the thumbnails that I could generate the rest of the project from.
INTRODUCTION
“Hello, I’m David Attemborough, and allow me to take you into a world of complete imagination. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you ‘The Kittypillar.”
FEEDING HABITS
“The Kittypillar is well known to be able to eat almost anything on the planet. However, the Kittypillars favorite source of nutrition, are watermelons…eaten whole.”
LIFE SPAN
“All Kittypillars that are born into this world, will live a lifetime of exactly 100 years..and for each each year they live their life, a new segment will be added to the Kittypillars body.”
HABITAT
“The natural habitat of the Kittypillar, are that of the tops of trees. They sleep with their bodies wrapped around the branches, and curled into a ball. From a distance, a tree inhabited by Kittypillars looks as though it is bearing fruit the whole year round.”
MATING HABITS
“The Kittypillar mating habits are something to behold. The male Kittypillar, after first choosing their mate for life, will offer them a token of their undying affection. The most valuable token a male may offer a female, are shiny things, from the human world.”
After the early drafts and animatics were generated to accompany this commentary narration, it was unfortunate that Shaun could not continue supplying me with voice acting, due to work commitments amongst other things. With this cropping up, I decided to enlist the help of someone else at University who would willingly help me out with recording some narration. Sean O’Hanlon who is a student on the Games Design course agreed to re-record some of the original recordings, along with generating some new material. This came as a great relief as we were nearing the end of a semester and I needed material to work with over the break period which we were given.
There was a basic script which I put together after a read-through of the old one, and handed to him before our recording session. I allowed him to have a bit of leeway with the script, saying that he could feel free to add or take away any little bits – as long as it was consistent with the general starting points. The second recording session went incredibly well, especially with the help of Alex Murphy – a fellow Animation student – who assisted with the technical aspects in the recording studio, whilst I, myself, gave direction to Sean. I am wholeheartedly thankful to both Shaun Rackley and Sean O’Hanlon, as well as Alex Murphy, for their help with this important part of my Final Major Project.
- “Hello there viewers. Allow me to take you into a world of complete imagination. Let me introduce you to a charming little fellow from the deep depths of your garden. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The Kittypillar.
- The Kittypillar is a wondrous creature, which comes in all shapes and sizes; From those resembling the common house cat, to those of a bit more fantastical description.
- The Kittypilar can be identified as either a boy or a girl by the colour of their antennae. Like the beak of a budgie, a Kittypillars antennae will be blue for a male, and a fleshy pink for the female.
- All Kittypillars that are born into this world, live a lifetime of around twenty years. For each year that they are alive, a new segment will be added to their Kittypillar bodies.
- The natural habitat of the Kittypillar, are those of the tops of trees. They sleep with their bodies wrapped around the branches, curled into a ball. A tree inhabited by Kittypillars, looks as though it is bearing fruit the whole year round.
- The Kittypillar is well known for being able to eat almost anything on the planet. Whilst generally, Kittypillars in the wild feed on anything from plants to mice, the Kittypillars favorite source of nutrition are Gingerbread Men.
- The Kittypillar mating habits are truly something to behold. The male Kittypillar, after choosing their mate for life, will offer their chosen female a token of their undying affection. The most valuable token a make may offer its mate, are shiny things from the human world. When a Kittypillar is in love, the ends of their antennae will light up, and are often mistaken as fireflies.
- Like other animals in the animal kingdom, the Kittypillar has different body language depending on its emotional state – their antennae often show how they are feeling. When they are happy, their antenna stick up, and they make a high pitched purr like a tiny bell. When they are sad, their antennae droop, and they lower their head. When they are angry, their fur puffs out quite like a dandelion, and their antennae go flat. This is also a common defense mechanism. When scared, a Kittypillar bunches up together, and often rolls into a ball to protect itself.
- Like many creatures, it is possible to domesticate a Kittypillar. Whether purchasing one from an established breeder, or catching your own, owning a Kittypillar can be a fun and very rewarding experience. Depending on the size and bred of your Kittypillar, they can either be housed in a terrarium, or in a cat tree which can be used by both house cats and Kittypillars alike.
Once I had listened through all of the final recordings made during that session, I went about picking a handful of the most interesting / easiest to work with, and started to create animatics for each choice that I had made. By this, I mean the points which had the potential for the most interesting or amusing visual aspects that I could generate. Some others, fascinating and humorous as they were, did not quit appeal to me in that sense. I also chose them based on the fact that this is supposed to be a mock-umentary, and so decided upon those with the most pertinence to such a documentary format. The starting points / recordings that I chose in the end were:
- Introduction.
- Breeds & Sizes.
- Breeding Habits.
During the time that I was putting the original rough animatics together with the narration recordings that I had acquired, I also sought the help of someone with musical knowledge and experience, who could create a suitable soundtrack for my animation – having previously depended on right-free material websites. They would not have worked out as well in the long run, should any commercial recognition come to the animation. I asked the other people on my course about what they would be doing about acquiring a soundtrack for theirs, and it seemed that they were all going to the same person for their custom soundtracks.
Tom, at ParaBox Records UK, was the immediate choice that I made after consulting my peers. Of course, having worked with him on a prior university assignment, I should have really thought to go to him first. After agreeing to help me with this project, he asked for what sort of theme I would be requiring for this animation. I asked for something ‘light-hearted’, typically ‘childrens TV’ themed – asking particularly for the use of a xylophone, as they seem to be prevalent in media productions aimed at younger children.
What he eventually sent me after completing my request, was absolutely perfect accompaniment for the Kittypillar animation. Tom was even courteous enough to send me the sheet music that he generated along with the actual music track itself. The track is light-hearted – as required – whimsical, and quite memorable once you have listened to it through once or twice. He has also done it in such a way that it can be looped through several times without any noticeable blips or cuts in the audio.
For the most part, the productions of the early animations for this project went very well. Despite this, I found myself drawing to a stand-still – a point of zero inspiration and a severe lack of enthusiasm. I consulted my tutor, Gareth Sleightholme, for his opinion regarding this matter. After a lengthy discussion on what routes I could take next at such a late point in the project, we came to the conclusion of creating a children’s alphabet-themed animation. For one thing, this could be done in segments, so an incomplete end product would not be so much of a hindrance as long as I could at least a handful of letters done. For another, the animations to go with each letter wouldn’t have to be drastically long either – only having to briefly illustrate the word accompanying each letter.
As soon as we were done with this discussion, along with the help of one or two of my peers, I wrote out an alphabet with corresponding Kittypillar-themed words. Instead of going with just standard generalized alphabet words, I themed them around the main character of the ‘series’, at the suggestion once again of my tutor. It admittedly took quite a while to think of half-decent titles, but once we had each had a good brainstorming session, I typed up the words and letters into a blog post. They were as follows:
A is for APPLE.
- B is for BALLOON.
- C is for CUDDLE.
- D is for DOG.
- E is for EGG.
- F is for FLUFFY.
- G is for GREEN.
- H is for HAPPY.
- I is for ICE CREAM.
- J is for JAM.
- K is for KITE.
- L is for LION.
- M is for MUMMY.
- N is for NOODLES.
- O is for ORANGE.
- P is for PAINTING
- Q is for QUIET.
- R is for RABBIT.
- S is for SWEETS.
- T is for TREE.
- U is for UMBRELLA.
- V is for VASE.
- W is for WORM.
- X is for XYLOPHONE.
- Y is for YELLOW.
- Z is for ZEBRA.
With the exception of ‘DOG’ (which I ended up substituting with ‘DAISY’) I chose to aim to animate up to the letter G. This would give me roughly about a minute of complete animation to work towards, which would be perfectly enough to submit at the end of the project.
With a lot of use of the ‘boiling’ technique throughout the actual animating process of this animation project, there is a very nice sketchy / scribbly aesthetic to the ‘finished’ frames (some of which still require colour at this point – which I will be trying to complete during the allocated time given for the Professional Practice hand-in). This is a technique often favoured by the animators behind series such as ‘Roobarb & Custard’. If I would have left the moments when Kittypillar wasn’t moving as just a single still frame, it would have looked horribly static, and not visually appealing / complimenting to the rest of the sequence in the slightest.
For the span of the actual animating and editing, I consulted my peers on the Animation course for their opinions and constructive criticisms. One thing that seemed prevalent in their observations, was that the on-screen titles of ‘___ is for…’ and ‘(LETTER)’ seemed to delay for too long. With this in mind, I went about syncing them to the soundtrack a bit more, which worked absolutely perfectly, and looked appealing in both the singular letter videos, and the final compilation. Comparing both the title sequences before and after, it was definitely a good call trimming them down a bit and fitting them to the soundtrack.
The sequence for ‘A is for APPLE’ I feel could’ve been better laid out where positioning is concerned. The figures of the sequence seem to veer off towards the top of the screen as it goes on. Were I given the chance to do this sequence over, I would definitely use better judgement of placing. The apple itself is my favourite aspect of the scene, as it maintains a consistent shape. The Kittypillar, however, I feel could’ve been ‘doing’ more. Peeking out from behind the apple and having a few nibbles seemed a bit short-lived. Maybe if I were to have added a licking of the lips or a few more flicks of the tail, it would’ve given it that little more character that would’ve suited it.
The only observations that I can make on the sequence for ‘B is for BALLOON’, is that I could’ve added some more frames in between each ready existing frame (this would’ve slowed the animation down a bit, giving me more chance to add some characterisations in), and I would’ve also added a bit more personality to the Kittypillar featured in the sequence. Having it just smiling as it lifts up into the air, holding onto the balloon string, seems a bit too simple in hindsight. It works though, despite this seemingly over-simple format.
‘C is for CUDDLE’ was done using a standard, simplistic process of repeating frames in a loop to give the effect of repeated action. Whilst one Kittypillars head movement seems a lot more frantic than the others, I feel it gives each of the two characters on-screen a sense of individual personality. Somewhat of a happy accident, in retrospect, I originally intended them to display a simultaneous, slow motion of head movement. Differing the speeds between the two certainly gives it a quaint sense of endearment.
I chose to go for a more abstract sequence with ‘D is for DAISY’, as having a Kittypillar crawl up the side of a daisy would prove to be too ‘fiddly’ and time consuming, given the restricted amount of time I had to create this rebooted concept. I thought that I may as well utilise what was already there with the daisy itself, and make use of what I could, fashioning a Kittypillar into the sequence as best I could. I decided upon having the face pop out of the centre of the flower, with each other facial feature popping out separately – in order to add some more visual interest to the piece. Having everything pop out at once would’ve made the sequence over far too quick, with very little visual interest. This is the only abstract piece in the animation as a whole.
‘E for EGG’ was the final sequence that I managed to complete within the allocated time before hand-ins. I did one or two other variations of this sequence, one of the originals being themed more around the concept of ‘Easter’ – with the Kittypillar decorating the egg by painting it with it’s tail. In the general made-up genealogy of Kittypillars, they come from more spherical eggs, but I felt that having one pop out of a standard egg would be something that a lot more children would recognise.
Having reached the point of animating the letter E, I have decided to focus on polishing up the sequences that I have so far. This will indeed be a project which I will seek to carry on even after the end of the academic year, and my time as a student in Higher Education. The next step for me in regards to this will be, as previously mentioned, colouring each of the frames in. This may take a substantial amount of time, as I have generated around roughly 300 frames for the entirety of the animation at this point. Nevertheless, I am optimistic that it will look aesthetically pleasing once it is all finished. I am opting for wax crayons for the colouring technique on this project – this comes after a long debate as to whether I should use pencil, or felt tip / marker, or indeed, crayon.
Certainly this project has had its ups-and-downs, trials and errors, trial and mistrial. There have been moments of great productive power, and others of a creative block, which has been more than counter-productive. Needless to say, I have gone through a lot of development personally as a creative since the beginning stages of this project. It has made me re-evaluate a lot of techniques and approaches when taking on a project of this magnitude and fashion, and so I believe that I will be much more prepared for any professional work of this caliber in the future. Thought I do not believe I will be going specifically down the animation route, I am confident that I have taken enough on board with this assignment to be able to cope with professional commissions in the future.
AbbieSTABBY 