Animation: Process and Production Evaluation

Animation: Process and Production, with 'The Other Side' studio brief has really allowed me to showcase the best of my abilities when it comes to practical work in animation. It has been a enjoyable experience from start to finish and the work produced, I feel is the best yet and while there is definitely still room for improvement I feel a lot of the issues I had from my previous module were addressed this time around. My time management, while still not perfect, has improved since the previous module, as I finished my animation a full week before the deadline allowing me time to go back and catch up on my documentation.  Documentation in this project has played a bigger part in this module than the last and thus required more attention. One thing I will take away from this module is the importance of documenting my production as I go along.

The Other Side has allowed me to showcase my knowledge of the animated medium and the things I have learned on the course so far. As a result the final animation produced is a step above my previous animation, addressing a lot of the issues pointed out by my lecturers and peers. However, while the final product I feel is satisfactory, showcasing a high standard of work, I do feel there are places where I cut corners to ensure I finished my work on time. For example, the opening shot, where the boy kicks the football, originally was supposed to be a frame-by-frame animation composited in After Effects. However in the final animation it was achieved using a tween with motion blur. While this was the easier option of the two I'm still happy with the final effect. Another area in which I took shortcuts was in the character's walk cycles, opting to only show them from the waist up to save time animating the legs moving.

An area I feel I could improve in is in the presentation of me pre-production work, specifically my storyboards and animatic. I produced my storyboards in a sketchbook, so the dimensions of the sketches were not consistent leading to the animatic having an inconsistent aspect ratio. My animatic, while I feel it got the job done, could have used more frames to make movements more clear when I was producing the animation. I used the same process of scanning in Keyframes which I had drawn in my sketchbook and drawing the in-betweens using a graphics tablet as I did on my previous animation, but I incorporated more hand drawn assets into the backgrounds and props to lend to the hand-made aesthetic, which is something I will carry over to future projects, as it allowed for an efficient and flexible workflow.

One area that I definitely feel needs to be addressed is my use of colour in my animation. This is the second animation I have produced for this course that I have struggled to find a coherent colour scheme. While I do feel for this animation, the lack of colour and sepia tone fits the tone and aesthetic I was going for (I was inspired by the works of Don Kenn after all) I really need to experiment more with colour and get to grips with colour theory.

A lot of the feedback I received towards my final animation was critical of the use of sound or lack of, with fellow peers suggesting there be a change in music when the animation takes a turn for the darker. Though by that time it was too late to implement the changes, for my next animation I will be taking suggestions for what to change during the development stages and documenting feedback more often on my blog. 

In conclusion this project has seen me grow and develop as an animator but there is still much to learn and room for improvement. While I do feel I stuck mostly to a style well within my comfort zone I will make an effort to produce something radically different for one of my future animations. I will also continue to add to my blog with more posts documenting development of my work.