Crisis!

Whilst using the coursework guide as a checklist for putting things into final folders...i saw the requirements for the animation....I nearly cried. I don't know how i managed to miss the bold writing stating the only things the animation had to meet. Now im face with the dilemma of restarting and achieving something very mediocre and not properly finishing off other modules. Or leaving it how it is and risking it not being marked at all.

Final...Final...Cut...

Alrighty, i have decided not to do shadows. I have, however, added a green background. its slightly darker under the shelf to give it depth. I also chose the green colour to draw attention to the magnet and with that the motion itself. I'm happy with the end result and feel that it has a realistic movement to the actions involved. Next time i would add more scenes in and shadows. I feel i would, after getting to grips with the software, be able to handle a more ambitious animation and im now more aware of the time needed.

AND CUT!

I finished my animation today! After it crashed a good few times while i was trying to draw the magnet falling in different perspectives. However, through perseverance and a bit of cursing...I got the last few frames done! After the magnet 'crashes' to the floor the objects attached to it are flung off in different directions and finally come to land on top of the shelf. that is how i ended the animation. I am now considering putting in shadows. I think it would be highly taxing and would take up a lot of time but it would take the animation to the next level. It needs touching up but i will do this next week.

And...Action!

As planned i started my animation this week. it is now Wednesday and it is nearly finished! I started by drawing out each object. i thought this was going to be simple at first. but then i realized that I had to decide if I wanted it clean cut and made out of edited set shapes. Or if i wanted a more sketchy version. I played around with flash for a while experimenting with the tools. To make everything out of the shapes would give it a childlike effect to the objects and would make them look exaggerated. However, I felt this was going to be too clean cut and sterile. So to create my objects i opted for sketching them out with the paintbrush tool. I then rendered them to give depth and some realism.

The feel I wanted to give to the animation was simple, playful, energetic but had convincing realistic movement at the same time. The 3 words i chose were, Vigorous, magnetise and crash. To show this i would created a shelf and situated a nail, spoon, bolt and magnet on top of it. The magnet would start jumping from side to side becoming more vigorous, the other object would be effected in that they would bounce and be flung in the air. The magnet would then suddenly stop, and become magnetised. the object would then fly towards it causing it to crash down on the shelf.

When i started to animate i found that it was a fine line between the objects looking crazy and a convincing bouncing effect. With the use of the onion skin this was quickly overcome. The objects being made out of 'metal' made them very different to animate when compared to the bouncy ball in class. I firstly animated the shelf and the magnet, syncing them together i then then moved back to the beginning and animated the spoon in reaction to the magnet. I then repeated this with the nail and bolt. I had to make sure the all landed in accordance to their weight and the part they landed on.

I then went on to do a extreme close up. I felt the animation needed this to enhance the movement of the object and provide more interest. Approaching the end of the animation i came across an issue. The ending involves the magnet crashing to the floor, however in the current perspective the magnet would not 'lay down' properly. To get round this issue im going to have to draw each stage of the magnet falling down separately.

Coming to A Blog near you week of '05/12/2009'