First day-

For the first day I was partnered up into a group. The group that I was partnered up with thankfully was some of my friends which really helped as I knew them and felt comfortable to speak my thoughts. Our first task was to go out and get different things that was listed in the class such as-

 

• Something colourful
• Something beginning with U
• A pet
• A weird shape
• Something that made us laugh
• Something that we thought looked cool
• Teamwork
• A meme

This was really fun, going around Belfast and the campus exploring more and talking to more of people in my class this really built my confidence and helped me to use my imagination more.

Week 1-

In class we came up with a name for our group and we chose happy hippos but I don’t think we used it in the end, we then presented our ideas to the class. After we started designing ideas for our chosen world which for our world we have decided door world. Our idea was that the character opens door and goes into various dimensions.

Week 2-

This week in class we talked more in our groups about our ideas. We did another task going out of the classroom to find symmetrical objects to use for our ideas which was fun. We then came back to the classroom and started sketching our own ideas of what we thought the world would look like ourselves rather than a group.

We also did composition and perspective. I found this task confusing and did need to ask some people for help which thankfully they were kind enough to give a helping hand but I still did not understand fully. I would like to try doing this more, I might ask my lecturer to help me

 

Week 3-

This week we switched around some people in groups so that way some people are in the same group they were in before and some have changed to others. I’m now in breakfast world which I’m glad about as some of my friends are in this group which makes me feel more comfortable and not as shy. I’m glad we did change into some groups as this really helps to talk to more people in the course that I haven’t talked to yet. I think it will be difficult to come up with new ideas for this world as the people who were previously in this group have already came up with most things but I’m hoping I can give something for them to add to the world. Today we also were taught about using tones, for example tones help you distinguish different parts of an object.

 

Week 4-

This week I changed groups, I’m now in Vampire, Cowboy world. I’m fascinated by this world as I get to use my imagination more than the other groups I was previously in. The recent people that were in the group have already came up with characters which look phenomenal. We are now deciding on scenery and more about the atmosphere of the world for the characters to explore in scenes as we got carried away making characters when we didn’t need to. But we have came up with some ideas such as the world is a western sort of style which we thought of using the idea of a saloon which would be misleading on the outside but different on the inside around the back. We thought about this because the vampires are being tracked and hunted by cowboys. We then thought that we wanted the building to look like a church but more like the Cologne Cathedral but smaller as we liked the gothic dark aesthetic look which we thought would give off more of a vampire setting once you look at it. We also thought this would be a good setting as we thought that the cowboys wouldn’t go into a church so it would be the perfect hiding spot to live and make up revenge plans against the cowboys. I drew some building ideas such as the saloon that I got inspiration from on Pinterest, the Cologne Cathedral which I got inspiration off chrome. We have been keeping track on the discord group server which I saw that someone in the group has drawn storyboards for the inspirations which look amazing!

This week we were also given templates to use to colour in by using colours of certain emotions for mine I did jealousy and fear. I looked up colour boards on Pinterest I used the colours based in the boards. The purple one I’ve created is the emotions fear and the green Jealousy. 

                  

Week 5-

Character design-

This week we were given a task to draw 3 different body types so for this task we were given Marilyn Monroe, a Viking and a man from around 1900s. We were told to draw them out with shapes we think they would be made of which helps us to break down the body types. We were also given random shapes and were told to make them into anything we saw.

 

                                        

 

Week 6 & 7-

These 2 weeks we have been in our groups discussing more on what we would want out worlds environments and characters to be.                                           

Week 8-

Sand bag and bouncing balls-

We were given classwork to draw a sandbag jumping, exaggerating its movements and as a wizard.

           

We then were given a task to create balls bouncing on Krita. I’ve enjoyed making this and seeing the animation come together. We were needed to make 3 different balls bouncing. I wanted to make one of the balls light so it would bounce more like a tennis ball, the second ball to be bouncy but a bit heavier so it didn’t bounce as much and finally a ball that was heavy like a bowling ball that didn’t bounce much as the last 2. I loved doing this task and experimenting on what would work best, finding out more about Krita and getting more practice.

Below I have some screenshots of the process of doing the bouncing balls. I started off with drawing the floor, adding another layer. I then started drawing the bouncing balls. I used onion skins to help me know where I drew the last ball to make sure it lined up properly. I then stretched the balls to make it look like the balls were falling faster, then squishing when they had impact on the floor.

Haunted House story- Ella, Naomi, Leon, Miller and Jessie

I’ve lost track at this point but what has happened recently I’ve moved groups for the final time, I found the idea of ‘haunted house’ intriguing. We were given a task to come together and to discuss what we wanted to create for this project. Our idea was to have our character a female, around the age of 20 years old. We wanted the start of the story to be her inside her house looking through the attic, finding her mother’s old things in boxes. She would then go over to the boxes and have a look through them to find ancient books, spellbooks to be exact. She falls asleep while reading the books she found, to then wake up to walk through her house. She enters the kitchen, opens the fridge to find the food spoiled. Then she walks over to the sink, turns the tap on and finds the water a horrid colour. She looks out the window at the sink, looks away then looks back again to see red beady eyes looking back at her. This frightens her and causes her to run out of the kitchen. While she is running down the corridor of her house she then gets pulled into a painting.

For our idea of the beady eyes, we wanted them to be the eyes of voodoo dolls.

Ella’s part was the start of a wide view of the house, inside the attic and reading the books.

Naomi’s part of the story was when our character woke up, walking out of the room she is currently in.

Leon’s part was our character walking down the corridor and through doorways to the kitchen, walking inside the kitchen to the fridge, opening it.

My part was when the fridge was opening to our character finding the rotten food, walking to the sink to find the disgusting tap water, seeing the beady eyes and running away from the scene.

Miller’s part for the final part of the story was of our character running down the corridor and being grabbed by a mysterious creature in the paintings.

Ella, Naomi made the characters designs for what we wanted the character to look like and clothing.

Leon created the voodoo doll designs and the colour pallets.

 

Reflection-

Overall, throughout doing 2d animation I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t feel so nervous anymore as I did start which I’m so glad about as I didn’t think I would settle in somewhere new so quickly, but the lecturers have been so much help, and the Uni has been so welcoming. I definitely think that my drawings have gotten better, and I’ve learned so much about Krita and gained so many skills too!.

In our animatics I definitely think it turned out better than expected we were nervous about drawing the character as it would look different in each shot but the final product turned out amazing. The reason I think it turned out so well with drawing the character so many times was because since we had a reference, we tried out best to match it, the backgrounds were different in most shots so it didn’t matter too much if they looked drastically different.

I think it was different for all of us as since we all created different scenes there were some parts that needed fixed more than others. We did chat together as a group with our draft animatic talking about what we thought needed fixed from eachother such as the lines of the drawings to be thinner as they were too thick and didnt look quite right. Which we fixed up for our final animatic.

I have got more confident with many things such as talking in front of the class when doing presentations I still get so nervous but when I’m actually talking for a while it doesn’t feel so bad as everyone in the classroom is so kind and I think to myself that they are also probably feeling nervous which helps me feel better as I’m not the only one. I’ve learned to talk in groups more which has helped my communication and teamworking skills. This has helped me as I can say my ideas and not worry about them being silly as the groups I’ve been in since we have started have all said that my ideas are important and aren’t silly at all which has made me feel more comfortable. With creative teamwork I’ve learned to listen more about people ideas as they are just as excited to explain their creations as i am which i really enjoy.

If I were to restart the module I would try do more designs and think more and think more of the idea, draw out drafts to make sure its what im going for. I would of gotten the work done faster on the week we were given it so I don’t have to rush around so much, I would also choose a world i really liked at the start of the weeks and stick with it so I wasn’t getting confused with different ones. I would of done all of this differently as i would be more organized instead of trying to get everything done at once and would have less stress.

I would need to practice using Krita more, getting the fundamentals of animation itself and with the software I’m using. I would also practice drawing and sketches when I could or take time out of my day to do more.

I was given feedback like I said about the fridge I was told to fix the fridge to make it look more like a fridge rather than it looking more like cupboards. For this i drew food and shelves inside to make it look more like a Fidge.

I kept most of the scenes the same, same story line but fixed it up a bit like to see the character better or to see what is going on in that scene better.