FMP 2019 Evaluation

Although my last year project was on 2D animation, I decided it would be best to do it again but much better than before. Moreover, the plan was to include a second character different from my character in terms of personality and a setting comprising of man-made structures in narrow streets technically suburbs. In order for me to commence the project, I started with background research therefore I took less than I promised I would aim for and I did so finding nearest ones partially around my area. I even went furthermore to capture more footage most of which are closer to Croydon. Overall, it would have been better if I captured the area in different perspectives/angles, the road itself, the houses but yet again the light within the weather would have enabled me to capture more and would have even went in depth of making various sketches on behalf of the scenery. For the secondary research, apart the photos of the setting obtained by others, the focal point I wanted to investigate before the making project was the trait I wanted to use for the second character even though he has the athletic style to the main character Terry, I want to portray him in way that involves more movement most notably parkour and instead of being shown as determined and humble as Terry, he is the cheeky type of person that wants prove to people that he is better or in other words arrogant.

Speaking of parkour on behalf of secondary research, I went in depth of exploring several images of people performing parkour in various poses, what type of clothes they wear, the types of location, how it is portrayed in movies, TV shows, internet videos and even the founder of parkour himself – David Belle. Of all the research within the category, decided to focus more on looking at parkour attires worn to perform most of which including tracksuits, type of facial masks and hoodies enabling me to create a couple sketches on behalf. I then looked in further on video clips especially how they are portrayed in certain movies for example, the movie 007 Casino Royale. Additionally, the reason why looked at the video was because of how it included a chase between two characters even though there would other types I would have made research on. With the other research gathered, I thought it would a good idea to create a storyboard for the project as an idea of what the story would be about by creating scenes in order to include those that I need in my project so before doing so, I gathered some examples of storyboard images some of which have been annotated in each scene. For my project, my goal is to able make sure that each scene is well done from the scenes I sketched from the storyboard even though there were some that were had to altered and removed in the making however it permitted me to be able to make the animation longer than the project I did last year by adding more better improved frames for both the characters although some of the Terry’s (the main character) frames were recycled from the previous animation. Furthermore, the audience I want to aim the work towards are those that are into animations that is made to transport an amount intensity to the mix and for those getting into learning how to animate or want further amplify their skills using the particular software, they can get a little inspiration to then create their own work by applying a dynamic style to it.

Even though I did recycle most of the frames from my previous work on the main character Terry, the main focus was on the second character and the background thus I decided to experiment within the project. First of all, I had to make sure the background of the animation were drawn to match the researches technically the primary source photos that I’ve gathered however on the scene itself, it took a while to be able to create the perfect setting due to not aligning with the character, the dimensions of house and the disproportion of it. Furthermore, the best part was putting the second character in gesture and to do so, I made a exploration on various poses in parkour such as the vault pose where it involves the performer swinging the legs across the object as the hands holds the object for example a short fence which in terms of framework was new to me the make thus taking many trials and errors to pull it off with the character of course. When it comes to practical skills, within the software there’s a tool that allowed me adjust the brackets of my previous frames already done within the timeline which is called ‘Onion Skin’ and with it had helped me to get the ideal frames even though most of the time the proportions could be off at times.

From my last project, which looked short and incomplete, I feel like I’ve certain improvements with piece with framework and managed to make the animation itself much longer in terms of the duration which was than the previous but unfortunately due to time constraints, I still wasn’t able finalize the touches to work by add line and color to get the full detail and still did a lot of cutaways which I promised myself I wouldn’t do. Moreover, my strengths more so lie on how long the and the reason why is because of the idea to create a storyboard containing scenes some of which were changed and cut in the making as every animation piece requires the use of storyboarding marking the first time I have ever done so. Even though it looks like it’s in its work in progress stage, I’ll have to present the piece as it is but in the only way I would do make it slightly better is to add sound to it showing that it’s near in completion.

If I were to have the extra time in my piece, I’ll again add the outlining for literally each frames of the animation before adding the color to it just for the best advance to my project, redeem myself to get rid of the cutaways the scenes to try and add couple more frames in certain scenes and improve some frames to avoid any deformity. In conclusion, I have learnt a lot from not only again using the software, but being capable to make the duration longer even though the animation turned out unfinished during the process. Before doing so, I’ve learnt from rationale, the mind map including the ideas, gathering sources in my PowerPoint presentation and my project question.