ted's year 1 blog

THE PROCESS

I came into this project with an immense amount of joy and enthusiasm. This was my first ever real group project (not including the stop-motion rotation), and I was extremely eager to start working collaboratively to create something great and to push the boat out in ways I’d never done before.

I was rather nervous about the time limitations we were given – 30 seconds simply did not feel like enough time to convey a convincing story to an audience. So, as a result, as a group, we decided to base our idea generation around conveying a feeling rather than trying to tell a story with a distinct start, middle and end. This, and working with the word cloud provided to us, ultimately helped strengthen the quality of our final film as I believe if we attempted to tell any more of a story, the concept would have been lost on our audience, and there would have been less time to appreciate the animation itself.

Before we began our project, we discussed as a group what we would most like to take from this experience. I made a point to the group that I wanted to avoid making conventional animation as entering the “dream-like state” mentioned previously was something I wanted to attempt to understand, so that helped influence the decisions we made in our idea-generation process. Additionally, we discussed as a group the things we could do to exit our comfort zone- and for me, that was character designing and creating backgrounds. I have always been confident in drawing pre-designed characters but never as confident in making them myself. These goals were kept in the back of my mind throughout the creative process, and I tried to achieve them as much as I could.

I was the one to “assemble” the team, reaching out to people I admired and wanted to work with the most – and had never worked with before. Another important part of this project for me was stepping outside of my comfort zone socially and working with people I wasn’t entirely comfortable with, and this worked out to be a great bonding experience! Aemilia was my first choice as I had seen her art before and admired her style as well as her work ethic- and this was the same for Husna and Sofia. Each of them had such a unique and appealing style that I believed would elevate one another- and this worked out in our favour, with two people (Husna and I) specialising in 2D animation and two people (Aemilia and Sofia) specialising in stop-motion.

IDEA GENERATION

Once we had established what we wished to take away from this experience, we began brainstorming ideas for our film.

Most of the ideas surrounding this film were based on what we wanted to achieve personally rather than what would make for the best story. Ideas around the mediums we wanted to use, the feelings we wished to convey, and how those feelings could relate to our own personal lives. This is where we really solidified the idea that this was not a complex story with intimately detailed characters – rather than a person that the audience could ascribe themselves to.

The idea of materiality came up in this process as well, as Aemilia and Sofia really wanted to create a stop-motion set, so discussions about how we would integrate 2D and 3D together got the ball rolling. I had already done some work in combining 2D animation and 3D live-action footage in my A-Level Media Production coursework, so I was extremely happy to be able to give it another go in a project solely based around animation. For context on what kind of animation I had done before, here’s the aforementioned music video:

Ideas surrounding a feeling of being in an unfamiliar environment, feeling uncomfortable in your situation, and then shifting to a state of control and tranquillity kept coming up in our idea generation. We played around with the idea of “coming out of your shell”, perhaps with a character literally emerging from some sort of cocoon. However, it did not feel like there was much to work with in terms of fun animation (and it felt a little obvious), so it was inevitably scrapped.

The idea of a character feeling uncomfortable and overwhelmed in a situation seemed to stick with us, however. Coincidentally, several members of our team brought up the same animation as a point of reference- “HORNY” by Zhangir on Youtube. It follows the story of a jackalope troubled by his horns growing at his best friend. The themes surrounding stress and fear, and that having a physical impact on the protagonist, were extremely inspiring and something we decided we wanted to focus on in our piece.

Jumping off of this idea led us to decide that a main character going from an uncomfortable, unsafe environment to a more comforting and tranquil one would be a fun challenge given the time frame, but it would make for an interesting story and fun visuals. This, paired with the idea of incorporating both 2D and stop-motion animation, lead us to have a stop-motion character in a 2D environment and vice versa. This was the foundational idea of our animation that led us to our research and development of ideas.

RESEARCH AND IDEA DEVELOPMENT

We made the decision to create a Powerpoint to document all of the research we conducted over the course of the project. I believe this was very beneficial in allowing us to keep track of our ideas and bounce off one another easily. Below are some of my points surrounding inspirations from pieces of media I enjoy personally and how they could link to our own project:

Development of the Party Scene:

This Actually Happens A Lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WKfgbUkSug&t=40s&ab_channel=TomLaw

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish – A Colour Analysis

Moodboards

In hindsight, it would have been helpful to return to these initial research points, especially in the later stages of character design and composition. However, they still played an important part in the film’s production and were a useful resource to have as a backup in case I was feeling stuck or unsure of where to go next or what our intentions were to be.

We also spent some time looking at previous students’ work on the same project that we could find online and seeing what we thought could be improved and taken into account for our own work. One project that we discussed as a group was “The Girl and the Stars”, posted several years ago.

The animation itself was great, but we agreed as a group that the idea of having clear individual styles stitched together into one piece was not something we personally enjoyed. While, in this case, it worked for the plotline they were going for, we agreed that we would have to split the work up between us between scenes, as well as attempt to create a cohesive art style between us so the film could feel fluid and cohesive, rather than clearly created by four separate people working independently.

I immediately thought it would be good to begin storyboarding and roughing out my ideas, but I was quickly stopped in my tracks by Jess and told to slow down! This was frustrating at first as I was extremely eager to begin illustrating my ideas, but I believe this was a good call, and she suggested we create a character analysis for our main character in order to get to know him better and, therefore, contextualise the decisions he makes in our film. This was actually a very fun process as we came together as a group and had a great time deciding on arbitrary elements of our main character’s personality. You can read his full biography here:

Once we had established who our main character, Hughie, was, I was able to establish a solid logline and synopsis for our film.

“A man is at a house party and is surrounded by people partying hard and enjoying themselves. He is deeply uncomfortable and is slowly reaching his boiling point. It all comes to a peak when someone spills their drink on him, contaminating him with the colours of the party. That’s his last straw, and he barely has time to react to the events before he steps back and stumbles straight into the bathroom. He falls over, and as his vision adjusts to the new environment, he realises that the bathroom is strangely beautiful. The colours are warm and inviting, and the party noises begin to fade away. He collects himself and gets up to look through the window, taking in the colours and shapes of the street outside. He notices a spider/butterfly/something that encourages him to step out of the window- but the camera is cut off before we see the story’s conclusion. The final credits shot is of the bathroom interior, where a party-goer is banging on the door asking to get in, but no one is there.”

We also established a group logline: “A guy at a party gets overstimulated and stumbles into the bathroom for a moment of rest.“

Having these to hand was extremely useful as a reference, keeping us on track and ensuring we constantly maintained the original concept for our piece.

Jane also introduced us to a great animation—Night Club (1983) by Jonathan Hodgson. This had some fantastic stylistic animation that utilised straight-ahead rather than pose-to-pose animation, with a deliberate lack of volume as characters moved. This perfectly encapsulated a lot of the chaos and interpretive movement we were looking for, so it was a great addition to our research. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMen9FVdxPI&t=1s&ab_channel=MarianaVieira 

Sound Design Inspiration

While I was in no way capable of being able to produce music and sound design, I still wanted to help Aemilia find some inspiration for her work. I immediately thought of the song “Neuron Activator” from the indie first-person-shooter Cruelty Squad due to how horribly overstimulating it is, and how it makes the audience feel on constant edge. The song itself has a note that constantly sounds like it’s rising in pitch with no end, which is extremely unpleasant and scary to listen to. This was exactly the kind of experience Hughie would be having at this party, thus an excellent source of inspiration for Aemilia.

STORYBOARDING

Due to my and Husna’s similar skills, we decided to storyboard the first and second half of the piece separately so we could cover more ground and make changes more efficiently. I already had a pretty solid understanding of what the first half of the piece would look like, so I was tasked to create a working animatic.

First Animatic Idea

This was a good first draft to illustrate many of my ideas about the scene being overstimulating and our main character sticking out as much as possible. I attempted to set up the bathroom as being a pre-established environment that Hughie made the conscious choice to run to rather than stumbling in by accident. Many of the shots I established here were present in our final film, which was very validating!

I received criticism, however, that there were far too many quick cuts between scenes and that many of them were unnecessary and could be overwhelming for an audience with an already very overstimulating environment. This was very eye-opening to me as I really did not realise that this was such a present element in my work, but it was!

Second Animatic Idea

In this iteration, I tried to experiment with the “slop” (as we had dubbed it throughout the project) – alcohol, vomit, and other toxic substances. My comments at the time were:

“Was playing around with the vomit being pre-established by the guy next to him. Made it a gross green colour, and I love the idea of the drink behaving like acid, something we can add with sound effects? It literally sizzles his skin away; that’s how much he hates it. Had the moment of the guys above him so we could play around with obnoxious facial expressions, like the ones we saw in the film Jane recommended.”

Looking back, I realise how little we utilised the acidic nature of the drink, and that could have had a much larger impact on Hughie as well as other background characters. I believe it was very strong as a concept, but we simply forgot about it in execution, which is a disappointment.

First Animatic Version 2

This version of the animatic tried to focus on more grounded movements between Hughie and the character holding him, with it being a smooth motion from one interaction to another. However, this animatic suffered the same problem as the previous iterations, in there being far too many cuts between actions. The motions and compositions of the shots themselves were solid, but there was simply too much for the audience to digest, as well as there not being an establishing shot for the audience to take in before we were introduced to the main action of the film.

So, as a result, I enlisted the help of Aemilia to create a good establishing shot for the environment of the film. She has a very solid understanding of perspective (although she tried to argue otherwise) and was able to draft up a shot that greatly boosted the readability of the entire film.

In addition to this, on a day when I was not present in class, the group decided to change the ending of the animation, so rather than Hughie leaving the bathroom at the end of the film, he becomes comfortable and acquainted in the bathroom, and the film ends with him in a state of relaxation. While this was a nice idea, I had my concerns about the ending feeling complete, given the very short amount of time we had to work with.

These were Aemilia’s notes on the updated ending, V.S my comments on them:

I was very concerned with this new ending feeling satisfying to the audience, and whether or not it would make sense altogether. The cliffhanger of the original ending, with the interpretation of whether he ended up leaving the room, where he went, etc., felt much more interesting than reaching a state of calm within the bathroom, which I believed may fall flat and feel disappointing. In an attempt to win over my team on the original ending, I drafted up an animatic with the original, intended ending:

Original Ending Animatic

This new idea seemed to sway my teammates, who then agreed that this ending would be more impactful to an audience. However, my piece continued to struggle with the same issues surrounding quick cuts in action that felt too overwhelming for viewers. That, combined with the fact that Husna created a draft for the new ending and was lost on friends and tutors that we showed, we decided to continue with our original idea.

Original Ending Animatic Version 2

More updates on the animatic, with the help of Husna, helped make the shots feel much more seamless, and each shot felt as if it had a purpose. We decided to make the second shot a continuous tracking shot, with a cinematic slow-motion shot to add tension. The story was really taking shape, but there were still issues with the ending feeling cohesive and readable. Discussions with tutors showed us we still had more work to do in making something that felt resolved, with our character making their own decision and sticking with it. We discussed camera angles with Ben and how they influence the way a character is presented, and we came to the conclusion that a low-angle, central shot would make the ending feel cohesive and strong.

At the same time, Aemilia was developing the soundtrack and sound design, which helped make clear what needed to be timed correctly. I am thankful she did the audio when she did as if she didn’t, we would have had nothing to animate from later down the line!

Greenlit Animatic

Husna was able to really amp up the visuals of the second half by including some soft lighting to illustrate how beautiful the bathroom would be. This solidified the visual identity of our piece and, paired with the cliffhanger ending of someone knocking on the bathroom door, made the animatic feel complete and ready to be animated. This was just in time for the deadline and winter holidays and meant we could further plan our piece’s visuals over the break.

CHARACTER DESIGN

My time was almost exclusively taken up by creating the animatic, and therefore, I did not have as much time for character design as I would have liked. However, I was still able to draft up a few ideas of what Hughie could look like based on my own interpretations of his character.

There were lots of conflicting ideas surrounding how Hughie would look, as we all had different interpretations of him. It was a good exercise to be able to draw him out and visualise aspects of his character that we had discussed previously, and utelisign shape language for this process as well. The second pair of drawings used sharp lines vs. curved lines to see if that would influence his meek appearance. It was clear that I was going far too stylised in my work as my style clashed with some of the techniques my teammates used, but it was still a good exercise nonetheless.

Aemilia and I also did some sketches of the girl character, where we also discussed shape language and how that could impact her appearance. We decided a nice mix of curves and sharper lines would come across as feisty and confident but not outright evil or scary.

In hindsight, it would have been nice to have more of a role to play in the character-designing process. It is one element of my art that I believe I could improve, as I feel like I struggle with my characters looking the same and lacking originality. It was a good experience to be able to discuss my ideas with others and receive critiques about my proportions, scale, etc., so I am glad I pushed myself, even if it was only a little.

ENVIRONMENT DESIGN

Since we had decided to do a very even split of 2D environments and stop-motion environments, I decided to develop the party scene further to try and hit some of the marks based on our mood boards and original ideas.

I created a brief colour-pallette test to try and envision how Hughie could look in comparison to his surroundings, trying to make him stand out as much as possible while still not being unattractive in doing so. Having a cohesive palette of purples and blues surrounding Hughie, who does not fit into the same palette, seemed to stick out to me as a great idea.

This test was also very helpful as it opened our eyes to consider using alternative colours for Hughie’s palette, rather than a realistic colour palette. This was something we ended up including in Hughie’s final design, so it was a good springboard for Hughie’s character creation.

I also created an environment based on the sketch Aemilia provided for me in our storyboards, which made me realise that a disco ball would be unfit for a house party environment. A chandelier felt a lot more fitting for this environment, and I was able to develop my ideas about this being a dingy uni house with stains, family photos and other artefacts of human life- compared to a nightclub setting, which felt unfitting compared to the bathroom scene. This change also came about as I showed my extended family my animatic, and they all thought it was a nightclub rather than a house party. Creating this piece helped elevate the overall aesthetics of the scene and allowed me to experiment with lighting and colour palettes.

This was a beneficial experience, but I wish I had more time to develop more of the environment as I felt like I had to rush the backgrounds in the final piece. While less was more in this instance, environment design is something I want to improve as I continue this course.

Husna and I also discussed using gradient maps for our colouring, as keeping our tones consistent between shades would help create a more cohesive piece.

ANIMATION

After the break, it was time for production, which, on my part, went by rather smoothly.

Husna and I decided that it would be best if we divided our shots evenly between us, so we could prioritise both the background animation and the interaction between Hughie and our 2D characters. We decided that Husna’s skills in character animation would be perfect to animate the jock and the girl character, so I was assigned all other scenes in order to keep things even.

We colour-coordinated these shots based on how difficult it would be to animate without Sofia and Aemilia’s stop-motion animation (with the bright green shots being easiest, yellow being difficult but doable, and red being borderline impossible), but Aemilia assured us that she would make something Husna could work with right away. She stuck to this promise, and soon enough, we had lots of animation to work with to ensure Hughie correctly interacted with his surroundings.

Working on Adobe Photoshop for animation was a relatively easy skill to pick up, as I have years of experience in the programme already. I was pleasantly surprised with how simple it was to work with, and it meant I had access to a fantastic array of brushes and tools. Husna and I decided to stick to a brush stroke of around 15 pixels- however, I ended up accidentally straying from this at one point, which negatively impacted the overall visual appearance of our piece – a good lesson in checking my work and not getting too deep into a trance!

At the same time, Aemilia and Sofia were finishing up Hughie’s model, meaning I could have a crack at bringing him to life with his face- and I found this process surprisingly easy as well! I was happy to pick up this job, despite it being a larger one, as my teammates told me they enjoyed how I draw lively expressions on characters.

I started with the montage shot (the quick shots of the guy and girl talking, two guys smoking weed, and two guys shredding it up on the dance floor), which took me much longer than it should have. I was extremely thorough in my animation, which I believe is good practice, as a rule, but was far too much detail for a montage that only appears for a fraction of a second. I felt overwhelmed with the amount I had to do compared to how much I had gotten done, which is when Jess kindly reminded me that it was a bad idea to rough out a scene, line a scene, and then move on to the next. It was much smarter to rough out all of my scenes at once, and then go in for lineart after- meaning I was able to divide my workload to the more important and animation-heavy shots. This was a fantastic piece of advice and helped me with managing my stress about what needed to be done by when.

The first establishing shot was a lot of animation in a short amount of time, but I managed to make the piece feel as cohesive as possible by having each character move on a 12-frame loop. This meant the audience did not need to take in any new information and meant I could produce high-quality backgrounds relatively quickly. I struggled with the perspective of this shot, and, again, I enlisted Aemilia’s help to create something accurate and believable:

I managed to get pretty speedy at the animating process, taking around 30-45 minutes to complete a simple character loop. I also enlisted the help of Jess to animate the swinging chandelier in After Effects, which was a very rudimentary form of rigging – something I am very eager to get into in the next unit!

As Aemilia finished up with her sections of stop-motion animation, she then had the time to begin animating Hughie’s face. The pair of us came together and decided on an expression sheet for him, including several emotional states to help keep our styles consistent as we both picked up different shots.

I found it very difficult to animate the backgrounds of my shots without Husna’s animation to guide me. In the final days of the project, I had completely finished all of the shots I set out to make and was instead waiting on animations from both Husna and Sofia. Aemilia and I were in a tricky situation where we simply did not have much to do as they both tried to work on their shots, but we received their parts so last minute that we went from having nothing to do to being swamped with post-production.

This was a very fundamental problem with the wellbeing of our group- there was a clear lack of communication surrounding boundaries and what people could get done in a reasonable amount of time. There were an incredible amount of roadblocks as well- several of our team members got extremely ill very quickly. We discussed the importance of pulling your weight in a group environment – or admitting when you simply can’t- yet Aemilia and I ended up picking up a lot of extra work very last minute, which was an immense strain on the pair of us.

In one instance, Sofia provided us with the shot for the bathroom scene, where Hughie notices a fly escaping from the window. The storyboard she was provided prioritised the spiderweb, which took up more than half of the screen. However, the footage she took was completely misaligned and was not accurate to the storyboard whatsoever.

The shot I was given versus the storyboard – it simply would not have looked good if I drew the spiderweb over Hughie, as the priority of the screen would have been completely ruined.

So, in an attempt to be proactive in fixing problems rather than settling for a mediocre shot – I went through each frame and digitally repainted/remastered them so the shot would be more closely aligned with the original storyboard. I am extremely pleased with how well I carried this process out, considering I had never done it before, and several people mentioned that they could not tell it was digitally crafted at all!

This, however, took up a big chunk of the final day of this project and meant I could not focus on some of the other shots I needed to pick up from Husna. Allowing time for ourselves to make mistakes and get parts wrong would have been vital for the success of this project – these issues were absolutely manageable and fixable, but tensions rose as we were so unbelievably close to the deadline.

Due to so much of the 2D and 3D animation being provided so last minute, I was not able to create many of the special effects and colour-correcting that I initially wanted to implement. I was able to somewhat correct the orange overlay that Sofia could not fix in production, but I was stretched completely thin- I had to enlist the help of my partner, who was more confident in colour correction. However, I still feel like it could have used much more attention, and I am extremely disappointed with how little time I had to experiment with the features Adobe After Effects provided.

In the end, the final product was incredibly rushed, especially in the last few hours. Aemilia only had time to work on the sound the day of the deadline, and Husna only managed to get one shot done, which she gave to us only a few hours before the deadline. This was a huge stress on me as I had to do the editing and additional animation that Husna could not complete in time, and I am already a very anxious person – I was fully intending to have all of the work done the day before the deadline, but this just was not the case.

Afterthoughts and Reflections

This exceptionally turbulent project posed many challenges I had never encountered before. Once the project was submitted, we came together as a group to debrief and discuss the successes and issues we had with this project. Below are my thoughts, based on our discussion in said session: 

Honouring Original Intents 

Looking back at our initial ideas for this project after its completion, many elements of our final piece were not exactly how we originally envisioned.  

There was much less experimentation in the 2D animation than we originally intended. We could have experimented with different drawing styles and animation methods; we discussed as a group that having straight-ahead, experimental animation would have made for a more chaotic final piece, but when it came to animating, I worked to what I already knew well and ended up looking more consistent than what I would have liked. It could have been weirder, wackier and more dream-like.  While my work was still expressive, it was very standard to what I knew about animation, and this could have been down to the fact that I was tasked with learning a new drawing programme and had never animated to this scale before, so I stuck with what I knew as to not overwhelm myself with new ideas and concepts. This is an issue I must deal with in future projects, as sticking to our brief is more important than feeling comfortable in my work. 

While it was not my responsibility, we discussed as a group that Hughie could have been more fleshed out in his character design and transformations during the final film. While there was lots of experimentation on his design initially, his actual production was extremely quick, and it would have been nice to experiment further with his materiality. Aemilia and I incorporated some of the melting-face ideas we had in post-production, and a few shots illustrated this element of Hughie. However, they felt lacklustre- similarly to how conventionally animated the crowds were, Hughie’s design and animation were far too safe and generic. We could have pushed the boat out more and tried something new.  

Sticking to our storyboards and creating something visually appealing and believable was an interesting exercise. I believe we nailed many of the boards (my personal favourite is the shot of Hughie escaping the grasp of his jock friend, which was pretty much perfect compared to the boards), but some left a lot to be desired. For instance, the lighting of the second half of the piece (again, while not my responsibility) was very lacklustre compared to our storyboards. I feel we did not capture the same beauty we were going for and may have been too ambitious in the idea generation process. I was willing to make some lighting effects in post-production, yet I simply couldn’t due to time constraints (I will discuss my issues with post-production later), so the final product looks mediocre compared to the storyboards. However, I still think we did well keeping up with our boards, especially when I digitally altered Sofia’s shot to fit the board’s original intent. That was a particularly gruelling lesson in how important it is to stick to the storyboards we created, as they are the foundation of our animation and could not be changed unless necessary. 

Animation and Post-Production 

Due to time constraints, I did not have time to engage in the stop-motion portion of the piece. While it was established from the beginning that I would be working on 2D, it would have been fantastic to have more creative input on the set, Hughie’s design, and the overall visuals of the film’s second half.  Having a 2D artist present on the 3D portions of the film would have helped avoid many of the problems I had to counteract in post-production. 

For example, Sofia and Aemilia decided that for the shot when Hughie enters the bathroom from the party, they should shine a purple light through the bathroom door (so the light can reflect off Hughie to add to the transition’s believability) and add a crowd of people in post-production. However, this ended up being a waste of time as the purple light was not nearly as apparent as we would have liked, and I had to mask Hughie out in After-Effects, something that took me a while and left a lot to be desired visually. If I had been present in the studio at the time, I would have been able to point out the issues with masking in post-production, and using a green screen would have been much better for time-saving and organisation. 

Additionally, if I had been present when Sofia was filming the scene of Hughie interacting with the fly, I would have been able to let her know that she was not adhering to the storyboards we had created—something I had to fix in post-production that took me a significant amount of time. While I recognise it is not my responsibility to ‘watch over’ everyone else’s work, it would have been nice for this project due to the massive overlap between 2D and 3D animation. 

Many elements of the 2D animation left a lot to be desired and highlighted my issues with staying consistent in my work. The lineart of the 2D sections varied greatly between shots- we initially established that we would stick to a pixel size of 15. However, I unknowingly broke that rule in the first shot, and Husna and Aemilia also broke this rule. This is glaringly obvious to me in the final piece and has illustrated how important it is to establish a style guide with specific brushes (both size and texture) to avoid inconsistent animations.  

I believe our colour palette was very strong but inconsistent. I was stressed entering the production stage as I was very concerned about our lack of an established art style and colour palette. I did several test shots to demonstrate what our palette could be to stay consistent, but these took up too much time, and I felt the colours were rushed anyway. Jess informed me that I could work on tweaking my colours in After Effects, so I should focus on finishing the animation as soon as possible. While I am grateful for this advice as this kept me on track (and I would have run out of time if I tried putting off animating any more), I ended up doing a lot of random, inconsistent colour correction in post-production that did not follow a particular palette and varied slightly between shots. While this was not a big issue for my audience, I knew that my colour palette was not established from the beginning and added a layer of stress in my already completely rushed post-production stage. Thus, I am eager to enter my next project with a more clearly defined colour palette that I could use across my entire piece – and then colour correct as one entity rather than as I go along. 

The colour-grading stage was one of the weakest elements of our piece, and I am deeply frustrated that I did not have the time to experiment more in post-production. I had to enlist the help of my boyfriend, who is much more knowledgeable about colour-grading, to help clear up some of the most critical shots the night before the deadline. I feel like I learned nothing from this process, as I was trying to make it look presentable rather than good. Hughie’s colours in the party scene and the entire second half could have looked much more interesting if I had experimented with colour grading and changing the curves of the footage I was given. 

Many other post-production elements were utterly ignored- special effects, lighting, and making the transition between 2D and 3D look as clean as possible were all neglected due to time constraints. This was a profoundly frustrating inevitability, but due to my peers’ sheer lack of animation, I could not focus on the details, making for a mediocre final product. As this was my first time on a group project, as well as working in post-production in After Effects, this was a great lesson in allowing myself enough time to work on the final stages of production and making my boundaries clear to my peers about how much time I need to work. 

Organisation 

I am very pleased with how we decided to organise our shots so that more than one person could work on a scene simultaneously. This gave us more flexibility in the post-production process, as having everything as separate assets meant we could move elements around as we received more footage from our other members. If we had one person working solely on a scene, our work would look “stitched together” (like an exquisite corpse of animation!)  and less professional and seamless overall.  

I also believe we were correct in assigning both locations the same amount of time—the pacing felt rather consistent, considering the myriad of problems we had with timing and pacing in our storyboarding process. This also meant we had an equal split of 2D-oriented and stop-motion-oriented work, so the workload was rather evenly split.  

It also became clear to us during production that having a more established shot list, outlining each panel from our storyboard, who was doing what, and how much progress we had made on each scene would have been incredibly beneficial. I noticed another team had such a list, and they told me how helpful it was to keep track of each shot and to see how much of their work was completed (they ticked off a board if they had finished it)- it looked very gratifying to be able to tick shots off once they were complete. Considering I was stressed about the progress of my teammates and me, I think having an itemised list of what was done (perhaps with deadlines for when each section should be completed) would have helped our organisation and would have highlighted areas that my teammates were struggling in- thus helping to avoid last-minute animation. This would have also given us a better perspective on how the film would be shot and could have highlighted issues such as the green screen needed for the bathroom transition shot. 

So many of the issues in the production of our piece could have been solved by simply organising ourselves better and being more strict with adhering to our deadlines. While I did well in this, there was an apparent lack of initiative to get things done. I was of the attitude that “as long as I get my parts done, it will be okay,” which I now see as an unfair way to view this project. This has been a great experience in illustrating how important it is to work as a team and lift my fellow teammates rather than treat all of our work as separate. I could have been more of a team player and offered help to my teammates much more, as some team members struggled with opening up and asking for help. I am disappointed at this element of our final piece, but it was an important lesson to have to learn.

THE PROCESS

Our brief for our 2D Animation rotation was to create a 5-second animation between two or more ‘characters’ comprised of basic shapes that illustrate a change in emotion or expression. The brief was intentionally very loose as there were many different possible interpretations of this idea- it could be extremely abstract and dream-like. It could potentially disobey the 12 principles of animation that we learned about in class.

I was initially very concerned about my ability to complete this project as I had never used Blender before and had some nasty expectations of it for its 2D animation features. I, unfortunately, struggle from a very weak attention span, and if the solution to a technical problem is not immediately obvious to me, it becomes extremely frustrating and hard to get myself into a good workflow. I was worried Blender would be too much for me to wrap my head around, but I still attempted to go into the project with a positive mindset despite my preconceptions.

I had already conducted my own independent research on the 12 principles of animation in the past and had been unintentionally incorporating them into my work for years. It was very gratifying to have explanations provided to the many conventions I had seen in animation in the past and to go back to the absolute basics of how things are done, consolidating my knowledge greatly.

For this project, we were tasked with utilising visual and emotional language to convey messages to our audience. We were encouraged to think visually about the emotions that we were starting with and how those can be represented through shapes. This was a very helpful exercise not only for this project but for the future in trying to present ideas that are hard to put into words. I immediately got started in designing my “characters” and planning out how they would interact.

It was a very fun experience sketching out various concepts of differing sizes and shapes of characters, and what that could convey in terms of shape language. I opted against doing something more abstract as I felt I would have been overwhelmed with all of the new information to take in on Blender- so I opted for shapes I could easily replicate and attribute emotions.

I found these shapes fit a fun, playful dynamic contrast (short and tall, slow and fast, etc) and would be easy to work with. I personally enjoy making fun and upbeat animations as it is not only fun to watch but fun to animate. It was clear that my emotional shift would be from downtrodden to happy, so it was simply a case of figuring out how I would achieve that. The larger shape’s appearance lent itself very well to being a sadder-looking character, so I quickly was able to establish the emotions and emotional shift these shapes would go through.

With my shapes chosen, I was able to keyframe out the key movements between my two characters, as seen below.

Once again, I struggled with the time limitations given to me and would need to shave off as many frames as I could as I entered the lineart stage. While I was happy with the movements themselves, I felt as if these shapes were not clear enough indicators of emotional states, and therefore, I decided to play around with the environment to further indicate this idea.

I decided to rely on the gloomy background effects of the second image, as well as sound effects, to further indicate the emotional shift between the characters. In hindsight, this was a bad decision as the emotions should have been communicable from the animation alone. However, due to time restraints, I had to press on with what I had created so far and thus lined and coloured my work.

Blender was extremely beneficial in this process thanks to its ability to recolour lineart and detect gaps when colouring. I was able to separate all of my assets into layers, thus avoiding overlapping issues or visual errors when the characters connected. I was pleasantly surprised with the features that Blender offered for a free programme, so I will be keeping it in the back of my mind for future projects.

This exercise was very helpful to me in realising just how long 2D animation takes. It incentivised me to be efficient with my linework and to not spend too much time on details, as I simply would not have had enough time to complete the whole piece if I had been too particular about my work.

Version 1

Luckily, I was able to wrap my head around Blender relatively quickly and provide this animation for peer review. I received some valuable feedback about my work which I not only took forward in this project, but other pieces as well.

One piece of feedback that I found particularly valuable was that I needed to cut on as the pink character jumped off-screen. The individual frame of the blue character looking up would have been effective if there was more time held on them for the audience to digest the moment, but due to time constrictions, it would have made more sense if the cut was between two shots of the pink character on screen. While I did not think this would make much of a difference at the time, it overall improved the look of my final piece greatly.

A member of my class picked up that I had an issue with the order of my layers meaning the blue character’s lineart was overlapping the pink character. This was an easy fix but helped make the final piece cleaner and more professional. Additionally, there were some minor issues with the volume of the pink character- while this style of animation tends to not pay too much attention to volume and scale, I still wanted the piece to look consistent, so I adjusted some of the volumes of frames accordingly.

Finally, as I had expected, there were issues in understanding the emotional shift between my characters from my peers. This cemented the fact that I had to work on a soundscape and background that would lend to the emotional shift, and I believe it did, in fact, help the final appearance of the project. The concept of the “Potato Audience” became very apparent in this piece as I showed some members of my family, and they did not understand the motion at all, cementing this concept as being very much so true and something to greatly consider in future projects.

Version 2

The changes I made to this version were small but overall improved the visual appeal and coherence of the piece. The addition of sound effects added character and humour and created a much more cohesive conclusion to the emotional shift, and were relatively quick to add in post-production. The addition of the shadow was done within Blender, which was a challenge to wrap my head around successfully but was worth it in my opinion. It may not have been a necessary addition, but it was a good exercise in trying something new in an unfamiliar software, and I believe it strengthened my understanding of Blender just a little more. The shadow grounded these characters in a real space, which helped make the camera shift and jumping motions feel more believable.

The background may not have helped the emotions feel as obvious in the beginning, but it definitely aided in the end of the piece. I felt I could have been more experimental with the background itself (this was the main issue that my peers fed back to me about) rather than it being a still image, but it felt like a tricky balance to hit to make something interesting without taking away from the main actions. I received feedback from my peers saying that the background could have interacted with the characters more to indicate how they are feeling, which I definitely agree with.

Reflections

I am very pleased with my ability to pick up new software, considering how hard it has proven to be in the past. I believe I paced myself well in trying new things while keeping myself from getting overwhelmed, and I believe I was proactive in my problem-solving when things inevitably went wrong. I felt I was thrown in the deep end a little with the learning curve of Blender, but I am pleasantly surprised with how well I fared and how smooth my animation was as a result.

I think my concept was acceptable but left something to be desired in its transformation. Considering the issues I encountered in the previous rotation with entering a “dream-like state”, I feel like I could have been more experimental with my ideas rather than having these shapes just move around the screen. I have a lot of work to do in thinking outside of the box in conventional animation styles, but I believe this is something I can only improve on with time.

In an ideal world, it would have been great to have the animation loop infinitely, however, that would have meant reworking all of the movement entirely and would not have been attainable given our two-week timeframe. Once again, I ran over the allotted timeframe, which was not a problem, considering this was just an introductory session, but it definitely will become more of an issue later down the line.

However, all things considered, I think my use of design, shape, exaggeration and the 12 principles of animation were good and well-executed to make a simple yet charming piece.

THE PROCESS

Our brief for our Animatics rotation was to create a 30-second working animatic loosely based on one of the four prompts provided to us. They were:

• A group of bank robbers rushes out with bags of cash, ready for their grand escape – only to discover that their getaway car won’t start! Panic follows as they frantically figure out their next move, with the clock ticking and the sirens getting closer. 
• Two friends meet up for coffee, but when the bill arrives, the real battle begins. 
• A flight is delayed, and a couple gets into a heated argument with the airline’s customer service. 
• Whatever you like, so long as it includes some form of transformation.

I was extremely excited to begin this rotation as I have always had an interest in creating storyboards and animatics- I feel like I already have a somewhat solid understanding of how to portray movement and emotion to an audience, as most of my personal art is very character-driven. I enjoy experimenting with different shot types, angles, perspectives and other techniques, as I already have a good foundational understanding of character animation (essentially, I know how to draw characters quickly and confidently, meaning I wouldn’t have to focus on making them look okay!).

However, I was quite nervous about creating my own plotline as I do not have as much experience in this area, and I was worried about creating something boring or obvious. For this reason, I opted to go for one of the pre-set briefs, as I wanted my sequence to feel deliberate and pre-established rather than requiring a lot of context to understand. I also already had a solid understanding of Adobe Animate, a software which works well for creating animatics, so I knew my traditional storyboards would work more as a guide for my digital work.

As I had heard from other groups about this rotation, I went into the experience with a solid idea of what I wanted to create already – the airport brief immediately stood out to me as I would be able to create a high-energy running sequence, which felt like a fun challenge. After sketching out some rough designs for the characters in my piece, I was able to sketch out my ideas on the sticky notes provided to us by Izzy. (I actually had a lot more concept sketches to show, including of the kids and the old lady seen at the end of the piece, but they were unfortunately lost. This, for me, was a lesson in organisation and making sure I document absolutely EVERYTHING, even if I do not end up needing it later on.)

We had discussed ideas around shape language and how that communicates to an audience, so I tried to keep this in mind as I worked. The mother character was largely constructed of triangles, as she was fast, aggressive and rushed. The father character was more loosely based around circular shapes, as he was meant to be a laid-back, pathetic character being dragged along by his wife. The kids were then an amalgamation of the two, taking after their mother and father.

Making these storyboards by hand was a greatly beneficial process as, much like the stop-motion rotation, I was able to physically see my work in front of me rather than on a screen. Moving around shots on the table and discussing with my peers made me realise what shots were missing and what could be improved to help the clarity of my shots. Creating these frames felt very natural and intuitive to me, as I can draw characters quickly, I was able to focus less on the details and more on the general composition and emotion in each frame.

After a quick refresher on Adobe Premiere Pro, I was able to import my frames onto a timeline experiment with timings and see what felt rushed, unfinished, or underdeveloped. This illustrated that my video was much longer than the allowed time and that the changes I wished to make would be much quicker to be made digitally.

I realised several frames needed much more development and did not read to an audience, and it was much more difficult to time things correctly than I initially thought. So, I spent time converting these frames into digital drawings on Adobe Animate so I could create a higher-quality final piece.

I also implemented sound effects, which completely elevated the animatic as a whole. I was able to implement comedic timings and really play on the exaggerated movements and characters(especially in the final scene), and I believe it grounded the piece in reality. I was able to include many scenes I did not realise were necessary (like the cutaway airport board in the last scene and the transition to inside the window in the first scene) to further increase clarity and adhere to the “Potato Audience”! I always made sure to keep this idea in mind and to check with my friends and family if things conveyed well, and what could be improved. This is something I have always held very important in my animations, and I will continue to keep this attitude moving forward- I was always very aware that *I* knew what was going on in my animatic because *I* made it, so that may not be the case for everyone else!

To keep myself organised, I made an itemised list of every sound I would need for this project and kept adding to it as I was animating. I kept my files as organised as I could, and this was very helpful and kept my workflow as efficient as possible.

Version 1

The feedback I received from my peers in Group B was not as beneficial as I hoped it would be – my group was not particularly vocal about any issues or problems they had with the piece as a whole. However, I did receive feedback stating that I could focus on the reveal of the mother character a lot more; rather than her appearing in the car, I could have drawn out her reveal for a lot longer with some more interesting shots. This is something I changed in my most recent iteration, and I believe it greatly improved her presence as being scary and dominant. Amping up the contrast at the beginning of the mother overworking herself and the father slacking off, utilising acting and performance, could further characterise them as being a comedic duo.

I was advised by Izzy that I could try and shorten my animatic in a significant way – 55 seconds was a lot more than my intended timing, which, in a commercial setting, would cause lots of problems for lots of different reasons. After much deliberation on what could be considered “dead weight” to the overall animatic, I realised that I could shave off a lot of time by removing the entire second half of the animatic and changing the catalyst of the big reveal from being a slow, old lady, to a simple aeroplane announcement board. This still maintained the comedic reveal, just in a more streamlined fashion.

Going over the animatic again with fresh eyes was very beneficial as it allowed me to escape the tunnel vision I had been in during production. Going back to shots and realising they could be greatly improved to further enhance the emotion and impact on an audience was extremely revealing, such as in this first shot compared to my remastered version:

This was very eye-opening and proved to be a good lesson in taking time to revisit my work and seeing things from a different perspective. As I have never been in a creative environment like this before, I had previously never thought twice about the composition in my work and simply made what I thought was right- so coming back to this shot and realising how much it needed improving was quite revealing.

Version 2

Being made to axe such a significant part of my original story was a hard decision to make, but ultimately a very beneficial one. Linking back to the advice Chris gave us about not being precious with our work, I made the decision to remove a part of my piece that I was very attached to personally. While it did not shave down the final time by much, it was a lot of content to rework and a difficult balance to try and maintain the same level of humour and timing as the original. Several corners had to be cut, speeding up the transitions between shots and the time movements took to be completed. This may have proved an issue if I was to animate this completely. However, this was beneficial to the final piece as it got me closer to the initial timing that was required while still being high quality.

Sound design continued to play a big part in this piece- the fast-paced nature of almost all of the movement would be, in my opinion, completely lost without the addition of sound. I, once again, wanted to record my own sound for this piece but did not have the time. I feel like sound design is often underappreciated in animation and is considered something you could quickly do at the last minute, but I know, at least for myself, that is not the case. I would need to dedicate a lot of time to creating something high-quality and to learn the software and processes necessary for good sound design.

Reflections

I believe the idea I chose was far too ambitious for the timeframe we were given. 30 seconds to portray that much information was a struggle, and I ended up not completing the goal I set out to create. However, the animatic itself I believe was of high quality, and the timing issue could be ignored as this was just an introduction to animatics as a whole, but correct timing should be at the forefront of my mind for my next project.

This project was a great experience in trying to look at animation from a larger scope than just making smooth movements. Considering the pacing, composition and emotion of each shot on an intimate level meant I had a greater appreciation for the animation I consume personally, and I was encouraged to go into future projects with the passion to make something great rather than just acceptable. Each storyboard I made had to be deliberate and have a purpose, and I was advised by a friend that “if it doesn’t look good in the storyboard, it definitely won’t look good in animation.” That meant that every frame had to be extremely carefully considered, which was a good exercise for me as I tend to rush through things very quickly.

I am happy with my ability to create cohesive characters within a short time frame, but I am still slightly unsure if all the decisions the characters made read to an audience. My lack of feedback from my class meant I was in the dark on whether things made sense or not, as I have learned I cannot trust my own opinion on my work. I gave it my best go, however, which is all I can do!

If I had more time to work on this piece, it would have been great to include the mother’s anger getting progressively more intense as the journey continued, perhaps encountering hard traffic or the children being annoying. This would have made for a great boiling point to be reached and could even make the audience sympathise with the mother a lot more. I may return to this project in the future to further develop the relationships between these characters and how that, in turn, leads to more comedic moments between them.

Overall, I am pleased with the amount of fun I had on this project and the clean, quality look of the finished piece. Many things are left to be desired with the story, but considering I struggle with telling convincing and compelling stories, I believe I did a good job of making something cohesive and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of storyboarding, sound design and character creation, which put me in high spirits for my next rotation!

THE PROCESS

Our brief for our Stop-Motion rotation was to create a functioning, manipulable cardboard puppet loosely influenced by the traditional Japanese Bunraku theatre puppet, to be controlled by hand via wooden dowels between 2-3 people. 

This was the first task I was ever given in this course, so naturally I was extremely excited and motivated to start creating- and it was especially exciting to be working in a group environment. I had never worked creatively with other people before, so I went into the experience with a very open mind and willingness to communicate with my team to produce a great end product. I had also done some reading beforehand so knew the kind of product we were aiming to create, and this research proved very useful in the long run.

After some discussion within our group, we settled on creating a bird, as we agreed its range of motion is much easier to control by 2-3 people compared to some of the other animals we considered, such as a cat – with wings, body, and head to be controlled by hand, and the feet and jaw to be self-standing and able to be manipulated via animation wire. We also decided that the focus of our puppet should be on its’ characterisation and creating humour and emotion through movement – as our skillset would lend itself to a more charming and light-hearted design, rather than a realistic, “serious” one. 

We assigned each major limb of the puppet to individuals within our group, and as I had already envisioned how the wings would be controlled, I was naturally assigned to make them. I spent the rest of the lesson creating a small prototype of the wing mechanics, which would be controlled by the “wing bone” and would guide the feathers via some string. (Pictured below)

The final design for the wings was loosely based on this concept – the largest “bone” of the wings was the one to be manipulated by hand, and the rivets between each section meant that when the wing bone was pulled, the rest of the feathers and connecting bones moved with it. 

The materials I used (cardboard, cocktail sticks, and string) were extremely beneficial in this process as they were flexible, malleable and surprisingly sturdy as well. The bones could handle a great deal of strain and could be bent quite a significant amount without any sign of breaking. As well as this, I opted to use cardboard with different textures (mainly Amazon boxes, meaning this was a bird from the Amazon!) as I believe this made the wings more visually interesting and played into its “cheap”, cardboard design quite a bit. 

The head and jaw of the bird were created by my teammate Gab, who created a makeshift hinge for the lower jaw from a cocktail stick – meaning it could be manipulated without the need for a wooden dowel. This was a good move in terms of streamlining the animation process, making the area less cluttered, and easier to maintain. Our team made the conscious decision to not include a face in our final design as we believe that opened more opportunities for showing his character and emotions in more interesting ways. Relying on facial expressions for conveying character felt like an unjust way to represent his character – we made him extremely posable and able to convey a great deal of emotion from his body movement alone. 

His body is comprised of three main sections – the head, the “neck”, and the body. We simply attached these components together with some animation wire and hot glue, meaning he was not fixed at any level and could move freely at any time. This was a very useful decision as during the animation process, we were able to illustrate to one another our ideas for poses easily and quickly. However, him not being able to hold a pose on his own meant someone ALWAYS had to hold him up, which made sense for the brief, but required a great deal of upper arm strength! It also meant that it took a lot of effort to keep him still in between frames, but that was to be expected. We also made the decision to cover his entire body in layers of “feathers” to conceal the three main parts that he was made from, to add volume to his figure and to further characterise him. This was a long process and meant we had to come in for an extra day to film some quick test shots, however, it greatly improved his look and was well worth the time spent. This also gave me some time to further get to know my teammates.

Test Shots

To ensure we were prepared for the week of filming, my teammate Gab and I (as well as some friends from other groups who were interested) came in to film some quick test shots. They were extremely beneficial as they allowed us to get accustomed to using the puppet, and being in the stop-motion space in general.

Test One:

Our first animation test was a quick loop demonstrating our puppet’s wingspan and range of motion. I quickly drafted my idea to ensure everyone was on the same page about the puppet’s movements. I believe this first test was very successful and highlighted the strengths, as well as the limitations of the puppet we created, as well as our creative process. 

The puppet itself had a fantastic range of movement that allowed for some striking silhouettes and visual imagery. Controlling the wings, head, and body was a surprisingly easy process, and it allowed us to work effectively as a team (as illustrated above) and discuss ideas quickly and efficiently through the puppet’s movement. However, several times, the wooden dowels controlling the wings, head, and body broke and required some quick-fixing with black duct tape. While this was an issue at the time this was simply the nature of the material that we were working with, so we did our best to combat this wherever possible. 

The experience also highlighted several issues with our setup, our puppet and our technique. For example, we did not take enough care in moving around the camera – and we did not take the proper precautions to ensure the camera was secure on the ground. As a result, it is obvious the camera moves around 3 different times in this animation – while it is not noticeable, it was a flaw that we intended to fix for our final animation. We also combatted this issue during filming by utilising the drawing tool to outline the silhouette of the first frame, to then return the puppet to its original position again. 

Another minor issue was that our puppet was cut off slightly when he was fully outstretched – something that could have been solved by establishing how high his form would be BEFORE setting up the camera and establishing the framing. This was an issue we fixed in subsequent animations and was, therefore, a good learning experience for us. 

Test Two:

This was a much more complex animation that took around an hour to complete, with three of us controlling the puppet and one person taking the frames. All of the issues we encountered in our first test we aimed to avoid in this animation, and we were quite successful in this process. 

We only ended up hitting the camera once in this process so the animation was much smoother and cohesive. In addition, we fortified the wooden dowels holding him up with duct tape so we did not encounter any issues of him breaking mid-sequence. 

We quickly entered the appropriate roles for this performance, with Gabby taking the role of director as she was able to see the onionskin better than myself, and Salem and Esther holding up the puppet. It was relatively seamless and we worked well as a team in establishing where he would be moving, and we worked entirely spontaneously, without a pre-established plan. 

Overall, I am very pleased with this animation and the steps we took to minimize the risks and issues involved in filming. 

TRANSFORMATION  

Our prompt was to make our puppet go through a “significant transformation” and to explore the idea of materiality with our puppet. Considering the amount of movement and personality able to be expressed with our puppet thanks to its design, I began to explore different transformations that would be striking and visually appealing. 

At the same time, in class, we experimented with the technique of replacement animation- which allowed me to think about creating animation from pre-made shapes and moving them around on screen. 

 I thoroughly enjoyed this method of animation and found it more suited to my skillsets, and I immediately knew that I wanted to incorporate this style of animation within my final project. So, I created some sketches of our puppet being “electrocuted” in a cartoony, slap-stick style shot, inspired by animations like Fantastic Mr Fox. This was a key element for us for our final animation as it allowed for a smooth transition between one transformation and the next, and was visually impressive as well.  

After sketching out some ideas and conferring with my teammates we agreed this was a great way to incorporate a smooth transition between transformations as well as look very interesting and striking (no pun intended) as well. 

We established a rough outline of what our puppet would be doing and decided between us that the idea of him being in a café, (utilising the café soundscape provided) and accidentally prodding a plug socket and electrocuting himself in the process. We would then modify the puppet to appear charred and burnt and end with him dramatically falling over in a slapstick, cartoony style. 

This idea, however, was (according to Chris) “too obvious” of a storyline, and not a significant enough transformation. It was clear we were thinking too much about the story and the gag rather than exploring the concept of materiality – so we changed our approach and tried to think of ways we could change and reinvent him. 

Personally, I struggled a lot with trying to get into the “dream-like” state that Chris was discussing regarding shooting our stop-motion puppets. I am a very literal person- I like visual humour in pieces of media, and I also enjoy cartoons like Tom and Jerry for their visual gags as well. It took a great deal of effort to take myself out of this mindset and into a dream-like state to explore different transformations for this task, and in hindsight, I could argue the transformations our puppet ended up going through were still very literal and linear – but the important thing is that I tried my best! 

After receiving feedback from Chris, we began to brainstorm different, more abstract transformations our puppet could go through, with less regard for HOW he transforms and more for what. 

The first idea that stuck out the most was the idea of shuffling all of the limbs in the bird’s body, inspired by Gravity Falls’ Bill Cipher, the epitome of weird and abstract. A sketch of this concept can be seen in the top left-hand side of the left image.

Part of my inspiration for these transformations was something discussed in Ainslie Henderson’s Stems stop-motion piece, as he discusses the “inherent sadness” there is to stop-motion puppets, as they exist to fill a single role and nothing else. This was a concept I wished to capture in our animation, as not only did our puppet look extremely sad in general, but I felt the same feeling as we began to sculpt and capture our footage. His existence was forced upon by us, and he was being contorted and destroyed beyond repair for the sake of our amusement. We were playing God, and after discussing this concept with my teammates, we decided to make that a key element in our final piece. The catalyst for the transformations would be brought upon by a human via the technique of pixilation, as a cruel yet funny piece that provokes thought about this puppet and the place he has in the world.   

Our second idea for a transformation was to break down our puppet into his most basic shapes – circles, triangles, and squares. The thought process behind this was to try and turn him into something so abstract he was barely recognisable as a bird so we could then transform him into something entirely new and different.  I sketched out the idea and established his basic shapes so I could then rearrange them into a new animal- and a bunny stood out as being the most attainable based on the shapes we were working with. 

This meant we could use the Rostrum camera for the second half of our shooting, which was significantly easier and allowed for a lot more movement, and time to discuss ideas during filming. The shapes being on a flat plane was not only convenient but allowed for more delicate changes between frames, and meant we were not limited by time in any way.

Once our idea had been greenlit by Chris, we were able to begin filming. Throughout this process, essentially all of the work was divided between myself and my teammate Gabby, as we had a third member (and a fourth, but he was moved to a different class on the first day!), but she did not attend any the meetups we organised to film. Having this much work divided between us was a challenge, but we were lucky enough to receive a lot of help from our friends, so this project would have been impossible without them!

Working on the top-down rostrum camera was by far the most fun part of the experience, as it was the joys of stop-motion without nearly as much physical exertion. By the end of the process, we were all exhausted from hunching over a table for several hours at a time, and I ended up suffering some bad back problems as a result. Making sure we had time for breaks and to look after ourselves was a hard lesson to learn but definitely a necessary one.

Reflections

This project was a fantastic introduction to the course as a whole and gave me insights into various skills and animation processes.

In terms of the puppet itself – I believe, given the circumstances, I worked very well in my team, both as a leader and as a team player. At the beginning of the project, it was difficult to get my teammates motivated to work together (I think this was because we had never spoken before, and it was our first day of university!), so I attempted to get the ball rolling, which was a scary thing to have to do, but overall very beneficial to the final project itself. I believe we made some smart decisions in how we decided to approach this project by making allowances for ourselves being new to the medium and focusing on movement that was attainable yet still visually appealing. Keeping our scope small by making a puppet that could be very easily controlled while still experimenting and pushing the boat out with the more high-concept wings meant we didn’t overwork ourselves but still managed to create something great rather than good.

It was a disappointment to have a member of our team not give the same energy and enthusiasm that Gabby and I put into the project, but that only motivated us further to create something good despite the odds being against us. Gabby and I worked fantastically as a team, and I felt like we were on the same page about so much of our puppet’s construction and animation. Working on the multiplane camera with her was an extremely satisfying experience as we were able to discuss ideas on the fly that overall improved the production as a whole. Having additional help from Esther and Salem was also motivating, as being a part of a creative group driven by passion and a love for animating was very rewarding.

Exploring the concept of materiality was very interesting and rather cathartic for me. Chris’ first piece of advice to our group was to not be ‘precious’ about our art, making us rip up some of our own drawings in an attempt to prove this point. While this was a tough pill to swallow, I realise now how beneficial this was to our process, considering our puppet was made from cardboard. It was very cathartic to be able to rip him apart, be rough with his construction, to not focus on details, but rather on the bigger picture. Cardboard as a medium was extremely durable and created a very interesting visual appeal, but meant I was forced out of my comfort zone to create something new and different. As I had never done stop-motion animation before, being able to be physical with the puppet and see it in real life rather than a screen gave me a greater understanding of weight, exaggeration and consistency which I am very grateful for.

Getting into the ‘dreamlike state’ that Chris was aiming for was something I struggled with greatly. I find it extremely difficult to be abstract with my ideas (something I found challenging in my later work, too) as my mind simply is not wired in that kind of way. It was interesting to try a new perspective in creating art, but ultimately, I still feel like we were too linear and obvious in our approach, and, as a result, I will try to approach my next project with a more open mind.

One thing I would change given a chance is the lighting and editing of the second half of the piece – as I had never even set up a camera before this, it took so long to get the camera and lights to look presentable, but it still left a lot to be desired. The lights we ended up using were battery-powered and, as a result, slowly ran out of charge as we were filming, which was a disappointment and meant the piece progressively got darker as we worked. I attempted to counteract this in post-production (as well as attempting some colour correction) but my lack of knowledge on the subject meant the final piece looked unprofessional and strange. I also think the setup of this part of the film was very rushed as we had a very limited amount of time to work, and, as a result, the backdrop looks messy and unpolished.

I also would have loved to have been able to record my own sound effects, specifically for some cardboard rustling. The sounds I used took a long time to find online and were not exactly what I was looking for, but due to time restraints, I simply could not record my own. For future projects, I would love to be able to do this myself, so it will be in the front of my mind for my next piece.

Overall, I am pleased with my ability to jump into a completely new project with enthusiasm, and the positive momentum that working on this piece provided me served me well in my future projects. I believe that considering I had never performed any of the techniques we worked on in this project (stop-motion, pixelation, puppet-making, filming on a set, etc), the end product was clear and visually appealing, as well as very informative on many of the processes that come with stop-motion animating as a whole.