Sk-etchbook

Shaun Knowles
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Evaluation

After producing my first animatic and receiving feedback I decided not to develop the Idea further as I was told it was a bit simple. After thinking about it I decided I didn’t like where it was going either and I also thought the style looked too much like a children’s animation.

The next idea I started to develop was one with less narrative, it was just to be two simple characters interacting with each other. I decided against this idea shortly after starting because I didn’t like the way it looked either.

I originally decided to produce my piece in Flash because I have more interest in the web design side of Digital Media so spending as much time using and developing my flash skills is important to my personal development. I did consider using Maya as it would be interesting however I like the diverse forms of expression and styles available to the 2D animator. Partly because of this and partly inspired by the Animation Unlimited films I moved onto my third route. I already have a sound understanding of Flash and knew in my previous two animation attempts I was not exploiting this. I also wanted to make something with a more personal approach, concentrating more on the creative expression and less on the technicalities of producing an animation.

I thought about styles and artists I admired first, the first things were the Lemony Snicket credits (Todd Hemker) & Tim Burton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUx8Jf8F7Ks
http://www.yellowshed.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIgfFqgAY0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQcBKUPm8o

So I came up with a short little story:

Once Upon a time…
There was a hill…
Upon the hill there was a well…
And in the well there did dwell…
A little Troll…
Then one day down it fell…
With an almighty thud the electricity bill…
So his home he had to sell…
The poor old troll he left the well.

I wanted it to have that eerie feeling of wrongness, then went about hand drawing the characters. I was originally going to have the animation narrated but struggled getting the recordings right so used music & sound effects instead. This doesn’t communicate the narrative perfectly but gives the general feel I was aiming for.

I haven’t applied any Squash & Stretch because it didn’t suit this style but I have applied examples of Timing and Motion, Anticipation and Staging throughout the animation. As for the emotional interaction I’ve shown the fear on the Troll by using eye, mouth & arm movements. The bill was going to growl and shake about to be scary but I decided this was unnecessary and used weight & movement to imply dominance.

I’m happy with my final work, there are a few areas where the animation can be improved and the animation is longer then required however as I was using software I already have some experience with rather than learning a new one I thought I should try to produce a more elaborate piece of animation.