Test Animation

This afternoon I have been trying to sort out creating a scene with perspective and viewpoint in it. I was struggling for a while trying to combine my images and set with the textures. Since we are looking down from above on to the character (although still at a slight angle keeping it simple for a younger audience) I know the texture behind him should probably be one of the floor, so I tried out a few variations but something didn't fit quite right to me.

It was at this point that I started adding darkness into the work. Since it would all be in shadows beside the little bit of light provided by the moon I thought making my work darker would solve this nagging feeling I was having that somethig didn't look right. And I was pleased with the outcome.

I really liked this outcome where the background was so dark it was almost black but you could still see a tiny bit of the texture through. I'm not sure which outcome I think would work best but when I start adding them to my animation I think it will clear it up for me.

More Sets

Since the other sets worked better than expected I decided to continue using this method as I moved on to other scenes from my story boards. I created and edited some more sets to move my work along.

Character perspective

Now i've gotten my storyboards finished it was time to draw up my characters so that I can start putting them into my animation and creating a final outcome. 

Storyboards with Viewpoint

I've decided to change a few scenes from my story boards to include perspective and viewpoint into my work. The two scenes I thought would work best with this were the scene where the little boy thinks something is trying to grab him in the woods (but it turns out to be branches) and with the reveal of the dog. 

This gives the audience a sort of birds eye view down on our character through the branches. I have made the branches look like claws reaching down for him..

but then with the reveal we are shown it is nothing to be scared of after all !

with introducing the dog I at first had it howling at the moon so the little boy mistakes it for a wolf and runs. In this perspective the dog leaps and him..

and we get a viewpoint through the dogs eyes looking down at the little boy on the floor. 

I didn't want to add too many changes or over do it with perspective and view points so I feel like just including these changes will work well and draw the audience into the story more. 

Viewpoint/Perspective

One of the critiques I've taken on board after talking to my tutors this morning is that I need to consider viewpoint and perspective within my work. over the weekend I have tried  to do this through new storyboards for my animation. And before I started doing this within my own work I thought it would be beneficial to research into it more. 

I found some useful links online that helped me into learning how to draw the body for a birds eye view. Initially I wanted to do this through primary research like life drawing but unfortunately for me with only 3 weeks left of this unit time didn't allow it so looking it up online seemed like the nest best option...

http://idrawgirls.com/tutorials/2011/11/07/how-to-draw-body-in-perspective/

http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/three-point-perspectivethe-really.html

I then started thinking about my audience and using perspective to fit them. I found an article which stated that younger children are insensitive to viewpoint and decided to look more into this.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022096591900709

I thought the best way to do this would be to look at other animations aimed at children and see if and how they use viewpoint.

In all these video examples from disney films I noticed that the use of perspective isn't over the top. Much of the views are side on similarly to how i've been working on my animation. However there are occasions throughout each of these clips where they use perspective and I think it makes the whole thing much stronger. Now when looking at creating new story boards for my animation I think I will narrow it down by only selecting a few scenes to use viewpoint where i think it would be useful in making the scene stronger. 

Critique

I had my critique this morning, and I was dreading it but it actually went really well, and I found all my feedback really useful and informative. Overall I think I was able to put across all the effort I have put into this unit so far and it was wonderful to get positive feedback and recognition for this. I think I showed well that from the beginning of my project, with the first learning agreement, that I have gone back and done in depth research into creating my narrative, characters and animation.

Important points that I took away from this critique were the suggestions from my tutors and peers on how to improve my work. 
The first point that was brought to my attention was my focus on view point. I have all of my viewpoints coming from one side, to improve my work I need to look at different viewpoints and story space. I will achieve this by considering viewpoint in a new set of storyboards and then creating them. I think this will improve my work as a final outcome.

Another point to take into consideration (which I knew would come up as I was already aware of it) was my use of sound. So far my work doesn't have any sound, I've justified this by explaining that I would like a longer animation to create my sound for to make sure it all works well as a whole rather than doing it in stages. Sharon suggested that I create my own sounds when I reach a point where I am adding sound e.g. creating sounds for wind through the trees and this is something I can do at uni.

The final point the I need to think about which was brought to my attention was clarity. For children clarity is a big thing especially since I am including reveals within my work. It was suggested for example in the scene where the boy sees eyes watching him from the trees that I do this from to points, one with the little boy and one focusing on the eyes before I reveal the owl. This will put emphasis on the scary eyes building tension before the reveal and add more clarity to the reveal because of this.

Overall I was pleased with how my critique went and although I know there is still a lot of work to do I feel confident that I am on the right track and have shown well that I have learnt a lot personally throughout this unit. 

Reflection

So far I am happy with how my work is going. The set designs that I edited in photoshop worked better than I expected and I received positive feedback about how the final set outcomes looked from my peers. 

I've tired to immerse myself fully in the research side of this unit to learn all I can, since as I said previously this is something I have never tried my hand at before, and I feel as though I have learned quite a few new techniques and skills throughout this process. 

Although I haven't recorded it fully on my blog I am always keeping in mind that sound is an important aspect of any animation. I have been researching ways in which others use sound to aid their animations and screen based work and have been thinking about what sounds would work best with my own work. More of my own ideas and thoughts on sound for my animation will be added here soon but I think it's important to know how long my animation will be so I can add sound to match that accordingly. 

Finally the animation process itself has been a real learning experience for me. I've enjoyed using stop motion animation and am pleased with what I have achieved so far. However I am concerned the amount of time it has taken me to produce only a few seconds of animation and I am concerned about getting everything done in the remaining time for this unit. As I said at the beginning of this unit it is more important to me personally to achieve something I am happy with rather than a long animation which in my mind isn't as good quality. I am hoping that the time consuming part of making my animations was taken up with the time of research and creating my sets and now that I have those basics down I will be able to achieve more in a shorter amount of time. 

But I will know more after my critique tomorrow morning. Hopefully it all goes well. 

Test Animation 1

Owl

movement

Story Boards

Now I know what my narrative is about and I have ideas on how i'm going to go about creating it i've started to make story boards to plan out scenes for my work. They are pretty rough so far but here is what I have come up with...

1. Setting the scene - the view from looking out of a window. It's nighttime and there is a forest.

2. View pans out and we see the little boy fast asleep safe in his bed.

3. The noise of a dog barking wakes him up.

4. He looks over at the dog's bed and sees paw prints leading away.

5. He realises that his dog must be outside and lost.

6. Little boy follows the dogs paw prints noticing that they lead into the woods.

7. He goes off into the woods at night in search for his dog. 

8. He notices eyes watching him from the tree and is scared

9. On closer look he realises that it's only a little owl sitting in the tree.

10. He continues in search of his dog.

11. He feels something grab at his shirt and turns to run...

12. Only to realise his shirt had just gotten caught on a low hanging branch.

13. Again he continues on the search for his lost dog.

14. He hears a howl and up ahead sees a wolf howling at the moon. He turns to run..

15. It is chasing him and it leaps !

16. He realises it was only his dog all along and the two go back home.

As I said previously theses are all very rough but it gives me an indication of what I need to work on for each scene to portray my story to an audience. I may add and tweak bits here and there but it's a start on planning out the final outcome.