Early in the module, in week two, I learnt about perspective and rule of thirds. The rule of thirds has helped me set my scenes and know where exactly to place certain assets within those scenes. The perspective also helped me in creating backgrounds that showed depth and realism. In week seven I learnt about techniques including squash and stretch and anticipation. These techniques were very beneficial when I was creating short animations about balls of different weights falling on a hard surface. I had researched more in depth about squash and stretch and all the 12 principles of animation when reading the book ‘The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation’ written by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.
Not everything worked so well throughout the module however. In week four I studied colour. I had chosen a thumbnail of the previous week to add colour to, using only monochromatic tones. I did struggle with this exercise as I felt that I didn’t have enough colours to separate a lot of the aspects of the thumbnail apart and too many assets clashed with very similar colours blending together.
In terms of creative teamwork, I learnt that communication is essential. Working with new people is hard, but I soon learnt that everyone was very open and friendly. I learnt how important it was to talk with each other about and make sure everyone understood and knew what part they were working on. If there isn’t enough communication, ideas may not be fulfilled or understood.
If I were to start this module again, I would do more concept work and maybe focus on more idea generation. I had done concept sketches for earlier group work which were focused on a different world from the one I had chosen to do my animation on. While these earlier concepts were still important and served as a great learning experience, I would have liked to have done more concepts for the final world animation.
To improve my animation practice I need to study more human anatomy. There were many scenes in my animation depicting character poses. I had researched and used the help of a walk cycle reference from ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’, written by Richard Williams. The crouching poses however were more difficult and time consuming and if I study more about human anatomy, that could improve my animating practice.
If I were to change anything, I would look at the face illustrations for my animation. In some scenes I am happy with the look of the character’s face, but in other scenes I’m not quite as satisfied. If I had more time, I would redo the face illustrations in these scenes, looking at more references and trying to keep more continuity across the animation.
I would keep my backgrounds used in the animation. I implemented one-point perspective into some of the backgrounds and I think it works perfectly in showing the depth of the environment and adding realism to the scene. I believe the pale blue colour palette adds atmosphere to the scenes and portrays how cold the environment is hopefully getting that across to the viewer.