Final Animation

This is my final outcome. I am pleased with the finished piece, I managed to create the outline effect I wanted whilst still maintaining solid movement in my narrative. Looking back I wonder whether I could have complicated the movements a little bit more, learning the techniques however may have been time consuming and so may have put more strain on the outcome in the long run. I would have liked to perhaps experiment a little bit more with stop motion as I think it's a really interesting and effective technique. I also would have liked to make the drawings a little bit more detailed however detailed drawing is not my forte and so perhaps its a good thing I didn't.

I'm happy with how well the narrative fits into the time scale. Also very pleased with how the humour in the narrative came together. Overall not too many regrets and glad I had the opportunity to experiment more with flash and learn some new tricks!

Continuing to make the animation...

The animation is starting to come together i've tried to combine as many different movements into frames as I can without making it too complicated. The narrative is fitting into the timing adjustments I had planned and recreating my characters and storyboard is also a success.

Frame by Frame animation

At times I had to individually edit each frame, very tedious but the best way to create a clean animation. This was mainly when one limb or object was moving and so the body had to be edited in order to create a complete outline.

The black dots represent each individually edit frame (keyframe). I had to do this numerous times throughout my animation.

Use of the bone tool

The bone tool was something i'd not used before, similar to the tweens it allowed a movement to created. However, meant mainly for limbs. I used it on the arms of the first cactus in an attempt to create a smooth flowing movement.

The limb is controlled through outlining where the joints would be as shown below:

More use of the bone tool:

First frames animated

I'm pleased with the outcome so far, it has been reasonably simple to put together but in order to create more realistic movements I will have to start to combine different types of tweens and movement tools in frames.

Beginning the animation

I began by importing my 30 seconds of audio into a layer so that I could make sure my timings were correct when drawing up my images and making the movements. I drew my animation through my Wacom bamboo pen. I found this quite tricky but did prefer it to using a mouse. I stuck to the brush tool as I really like the uneven effect it gave to my outlines, sketchy but solid at the same time.

First few frames:

These first few frames were basically still image and shape tweens. I had not yet needed to involve anything else.

Expression experimentation - flash

I experimented with the expressions created in my development. I again layered each part of the face to create the most effective movement.

Moustache: created by a shape tween

Mouth: shape tween

eyebrowes: motion tween

eyes: classic tween

I wanted to experiment with the different tweens in order to have a good idea of which to use when in my final animation.

Flash?

I started to experiment with Flash CS4 as I knew this way I could create the outline design I had been developing and also the different movements from my narrative. I took the same motion i'd used in my stop motion experiments and played around to create the same outline outcome in flash.

Layering- As i was recreating the same motion as before only the arms would be moving, so each arm had to be put on its own layer in order to preserve its shape and location when moving. I used shape tween in this instance but hope to also experiment with motion tween, classic tween, frame by frame and the bone tool.

Experimenting with brush strokes, I chose one to recreate the uneven effect I had developed in my sketchbook

Final timeline; keyframes for each change in shape/movement.

Animated outcome:

Final Storyboard

1. The growth of the two cacti. From tiny to full sized cacti.

1a. The full sized cacti and base shapes for following scenes.

2. Cactus 2 - Introduction to facial features and expression.

3. Zoomed out to also introduce outfit. Facial expression at full distance. Cactus 1 still idle.

4. Introduction of Cactus 1 facial features and expression.

5. Zoom out to full view of both characters.

6. Change in facial expression

7. Change in facial expression again and introduction of matador stance.

8. Cactus 1 initiates competition. Drops down to bull stance.

9. Cactus 1 charges. Cactus 2 change in facial expression.

10. Cactus 2 succeeds.  Change in facial expression again.

11. Second charge of Cactus 2.

12. Cactus 1 change of emotion. 

13. Introduces problem to viewer

14. Zoom in on issue - thorn in bum cheek

15. Zoomed and highlighted.

16. Cactus 2 cowardly surrenders.

Timing Adjustments

I listened to the music and planned out the narrative in order to fit the different scenes to each corresponding section of the audio.

camera angles

Looking at the best angles to give the full effect of my narrative at various times.

colour/ no colour

BLOCK COLOUR MATERIAL?

I liked this idea as I felt it would bring a different kind of texture to the characters rather than a boring solid colour.

SKETCHY COLOUR?

I like the vibrance but as stated before I like the simplistic sketchy animation idea and this definitely deters from that  

This is my favourite, I used different thicknesses in lines and the outcome I find to be really simple but really effective!