Animated Experiments

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Bouncing Ball exercise

The aim of this session was to be introduced to animated and create a small short practical of a ball bouncing

I used the shape tool to create my bouncing ball and the move tool to adjust any mistakes I made to create my practical.

I feel like the process went well and I had a lot of fun doing it, I had a bit of trouble using the shape tool because it was a bit restrictive with how I could squash and stretch It but I managed, I even did 2 extra balls bouncing with the spare time I had after creating the first.

I am satisfied with my final outcome and enjoy how it looks all together.

(gif here)

If I could think of anything else that I could do in the future with these skills in mind, it might be character movement, using squash and stretch along with timing and appeal.

11.09.2024

Animation rules and facial expression

Animation
is a series of images that give the illusion of movement.

Squash and stretch

is used to give characters or objects weight and flexibility.

Timing

is used to make something move faster or slower.

Exaggeration 

is used to give more life out of actions that may be boring if done realistically.

Anticipation 

is used to prepare the audience for what is about to happen.

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The task today was  Using a graphics tablet and animating facial expressions.
I drew this animation using a graphics tablet, I drew the first and last frames first to give a sort of guide as I drew the in-between frames.

I drew the facial expressions on a separate layer so I could work on them independently.

Drawing this was a lot more difficult than drawing the bouncing ball animation that I did a while ago, as learning to use the graphics tablet, along with drawing a more complex drawing, made this process more difficult than previous.

18.09.2024

Understanding Shot Sizes

I learned how to use and understand how to shoot and compose different shots using a camera in animation and in live action. I also learned how to improve my writing structure.

We used a template given to us by our teacher, to draw out some of the camera shots that were shown to us, such as Extreme close-ups, point of view, over-shoulder shots's dutch views, etc.

We also learned about how high or low we can put the camera to show scale and how characters may feel about each other, an example being the camera being low, showing the character's scale against others.

Another angle is an establishing shot, showing a wide array of an area, to see where the setting is taking place.

I found the Dutch angle most interesting as it can be used to show a character's thoughts without them saying it and instead showing it by tilting the camera, which could make it seem that the character is nauseous or in distress.

I didn't really like the point of view very much as it was a bit tricky to draw, along side with drawing a character from above and below, I have some learning to do there.

the shots I used to draw were a Dutch tilt, close-up, over-shoulder, big close-up, etc.

25.9.24

Colouring techniques in adobe animate.

Today I learned about how to compose environmental Images and understand how more advanced tools work in Adobe animate.

I used many different tools to create this such as the shape tool to construct the buildings, moon, and ground and the brush tool to draw the clouds.

I also used a feature to add create effects to my drawings that I did to make them fancier and interesting, as well as to just make them look nice.

Some of the effects I used were the blur and glow effects.

I also used gradients to create the sky in the back.

I quite liked the gradient effect I did in the background, it made it feel high effort and the glow made it feel more immersive and alive. 

I think where I used the blur effect was slightly out of place but I liked it too, it's a good tool to show depth.

15-16.10.24

Advert Planning

This is a storyboard I created using Adobe Animate to think of an idea of what to make in my team's task to create an advertisement about Stanmore Studios.

23.10.24

Advert Production evidence

I used a few tools during the final production of my advert in Premiere Pro, 2 of the main tools I used were the cutting and speed/duration tools.

I used the speed/duration tool to help make certain frames or sections in the video much longer so that the voiceover that I did for it syncs up well.

I also used the cutting tool to compile all the frames into one cohesive narrative, to better make sense of what's going on, and to organize certain sections of the advert so I can more easily work on it.

Here I used the cutting tool to splice up the audio, along with making part of it louder and quieter pulling up and down the bar inside of it.

Here is the bin, which is where I stored most of my frames for individual use to use in the final production of my advert, using the bin was very useful and made me effective at my work, I liked it alot.

I overall enjoyed what I learned and would like to do something similar like this again.

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Final Animation

Here is the Final Animation I made for my team 

5.11.24

Animation Project - Evaluation

My task was to create an advert for Stanmore Studios with the following criteria to meet:

1. Make it meet 15-30 seconds in length
2. Make it clear that it is about Stanmore Studios which is what is being advertised
3. Add elements of animation into it using what we've learned
4. Use different shot sizes and camera angles (close-up, profile shot, etc.)

My initial response to hearing this criterion was a slight bit of dread, wondering on how I was going to animation 15- 30 seconds of animation is such a short time frame.

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My idea changed quite a bit, instead of the character walking to the left with pictures of Stanmore Studios sliding into frame and then out of frame.

I instead changed it so the character speaking would stay standing still while expositing information to the viewer, as the camera slowly and subtly zoomed in, and pictures of Stanmore studios slid into frame, and then out of frame.

Nothing exactly influenced this change, it was mostly due to time and simplicity.

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I had issues figuring out Premiere Pro, along with trying to colour the character a colour, so I didn't and coloured in other things, such as the crown that appears on his head in a frame, this was a lot simpler to do and easier.

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Looking back at me and my team, if we're to improve anything in the future if we were to work together again, perhaps splitting the work into other sections for each person to do, then grabbing what we have made, and compiling it all into one, instead of one person doing mostly everything.

This would help lessen the work on the individual doing everything I believe.

Something maybe I'd like to develop myself is to try and focus on the task at hand better, and get less distracted by others so that I can finish the task more efficiently.

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I believe I could have possibly drawn more frames to make the animation smoother and enjoyable, though I didn't have enough time to do so or have the will to invest that much time to do it.

So I just made storyboard shots of the character and used that as individual frames with the voiceover going over it.

Possibly something I could have done differently is making a plan but I'm unsure if it would have helped a lot.

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I wanted to make the mouth move but again, I didn't have time nor was willing to, however, I would like to try that in a future project.

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Concluding with the project, I believe it went well enough, there were some things I wanted to do differently and to add to the project but was unable to due to time.

I have learned a few things from this project like how to use Adobe Animate more effectively and how to use Premiere Pro.

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Overall I think the project was successful and I like my final piece, I enjoyed animating in Adobe Animate and using Premier Pro to cut and composite everything together.