This documentary animation has been good and bad for me, motivation has been a challenge due to the pandemic and myself through this time. I have enjoyed this project because I’ve been able to do it about something I suffer from myself, as well as being an onlooker to someone I know who suffers from anxiety too. I get to ask questions and hear their responses to things I might suffer from, and hearing how they react, what they think, how it makes them feel.
Overall I’m very proud of what I was able to produce, under the current circumstances. I think the animation worked well, it had a soft feel even though it had a deep message, but then the m message turned into a positive one and a helpful one. I also think it explained what Anxiety is and what it can do, as I wanted it to be informative as well. I was able to do a good amount of research and experiments which proved to help me greatly as I progressed through making and adding to my film, and am proud of everything produced for this project.
My teacher suggested in feedback received that my animation could be in a colour that represent what my film is about which is Anxiety. I had never done it before so to do my whole animation in colour relation was a bit tom much pressure as I had. no idea where to start. I wanted to try this however because it something I would like to get to know, colours that relate to what I’m drawing or animating, it would look give and leave an effect. So I gave it a try on a small scene to see how I could have a dark background of blue and put my character half body into the correct shades of blue, it didn’t come out how it really wanted it to. I think the shades aren’t right, to me she looks more like I’ve made her blue skinned and make everything blue rather than it looking like its normal shades that are in blur shades. For a first try however it. could have been worse, so this is something I can try and look up some tutorials too.
So my teacher suggested some animation software for my iPad because I animate use a drawing software, draw each image separately and import them into Adobe Premiere. And I do need to use an animation software, this one is called Callipeg and being honest, I struggled with it a lot. I hated lots of this that I’m able to do on m y drawing software and not on this, there is not straight line tool, the lines are quite pixellated and not as smooth as my software, and I do like my symmetry and I’m struggling to be able to copy an eye for instance and paste it and move in place symmetrically. But I did see some different in the smoothness of animation, hopefully with practise I can watch some tutorials and try and figure out how to work everything and get better at using it and produce some more polished projects.
What has been the most useful digital skill that you have learned this term?
I found the 3D referencing skill to be the best thing I learned from this term, I think it’s the one that will help me most in the future. I like the idea of getting a plain 3D model as reference to characters, and building a surrounding that could be as big as needed. Personally I don’t think my modelling skills are up to scratch to be able to build everything needed all the time, so to find things on easy free websites is perfect. I really enjoyed making the scene once I had found what I needed. The drawing over the top was definitely long and time consuming, but easy enough to do and draw over to create the scene with designs, detail, characters over the 3D reference.
Aside from the workshops in class, where did you look for other support and inspiration and what did you find?
I found support in working in groups from my class, myself and a couple of friends would meet to discuss the work and see if we can help each other in any way. The inspiration was found usually in these groups using university rooms and equipment, looking for specific things we needed like free 3D websites for example, or tutorials on certain animations needed doing for modules. I was also able to find tutorials and download software for my Apple Mac at home. This meant I was able to download After Effects, and the DUIK extension and found the tutorial I needed to be able to make the DUIK character animation. As for the 3D referencing I was able to find websites that had lots of free 3D models for my scene. These were very helpful, I did make a few of the models myself using MAYA, like the bus stop, traffic lights.
How do you think you would like to develop your digital skills further? Think about how you like to animate, and what can support your practice the best.
How I plan to develop my skills further would be learning more and testing more 3D references, building more scenes and using them for small animations. I would also like to watch tutorials on 3D referencing and learn more about placing cameras and moving them. This would also allow me to start getting used to using TV paint and trying to get to grips with using it more regularly as an animating software. I need to improve the software I use as for now I use my iPad and pen, however due to the current circumstances and being entitled to free use of software, and being able to download it to my home computer, I have bought Astropad. This is an app for my iPad and computer, and allows me to use my iPad as a tablet, and work as if i’m working on the computer. So I can use TV paint with my iPad and pen. I’m drawing straight on to software which works much better now. This is something I want to continue to do as I’ve found it to be useful, however I do need practise with this. I will have to buy software after the free use runs out.
My final experiment is my chosen version of my experiments to include in my animation. Below is my process, experiments and research through making my final choice.
Research
Research on sound design from 3 chosen short Animations:
This version has my chosen background music moving along nicely with the interview. to make some music is not something I have access to making, not the way I have imagined the background music would need to be, this royalty free music I found was perfect for my animation theme, I think it does express the emotion that is in the animation.
YouTube. 2020. Dark Sad Thinking Background Instrumental | Royalty Free Music – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klSe_3Kw448. [Accessed 23 April 2020].
Experiment 2 (Original Sound Effects):
This version has the background music, and interview, but I kept my original sound effects that I had made and found and changed them around a bit, changed the timing because the scene was now animated, changed the volume level so everything can be heard, but the interviewee being the main thing, and got rid of sounds that were to much.
Experiment 3 (New Sound Effects):
For my third and final version, I decided to make my own sound effects, I made sound effects for heartbeats, I had two different paces of heartbeats in this scene, so I did 3 heartbeat experiments (below). For the breathing scene, I used my own breathing for this, I did about 20 seconds of different paced breaths. Finally for the arm pump, I used a half empty shower gel bottle, and held it upside down, and pressed it in and let it blow the air back out, this worked very well.
Heartbeat Experiments
Heartbeat 1: This was done using my iPad pen with a rubber cap against my USB wire box.
Heartbeat 2: This was done using my hands, and intertwined my fingers and held my palms apart, and hit them off each other top imitate a beating sound.
Heartbeat 3: This was done using my fingers hitting off a closed half bottle of fizzy drink and I moved my fingers up and down the bottle to change the pitch from low to high.
During the pandemic my motivation has been lacking, I’ve struggled to do as much as I could have been doing. I do feel I could have done more, but I’m slowing getting back into motion. I’ve been able to talk to my teachers, tutor and mentor, and have received some advise on what I can do to improve my work schedule and how I can make sure I complete thing in time for the new deadline due to needed to self isolate and stay at home.
In some of the feedback I was given, it was suggested that I try and use a different colour palette than the one I was using. I was trying to use real colours, colours that you would expect to see in real life. My character is based on my real interviewee and what they look like. This was because I wanted to tell her story, and for things be seen from her perspective. So I will attempt to try and use a type of “ANXIETY” colour palette on one scene and see what it looks like, I’m not to used to this so it might not look good at all in which case I will just switch back to my original colour palette which is just straight forward realistic colours.
I was able to find a colour palette on this site I looked on which was information all about good palettes for marketing. I found this blue one and Black one that I thought would express Anxiety best.
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