Here is my final version of my Space Zoo animation, after finishing the rough animation and colouring. This is the opening scene to the Space Zoo project which features no music or sound effects.

Throughout my experience in Animation Studio, I thoroughly enjoyed it for the first part of the year with the rest of the year group and lecturers. At the start of the semester I found the topics shapes, forms and character designs enlightening with how fictional characters and drawings can be made up of shapes and lines. Made by basic shapes like circles, triangles and squares for facial structure and the personality of the character for being child like, strong or sharp to display what kind of character is like along with personality.

What I think worked well in this course was the use of storyboards and colour theory. For storyboards I can identify and imagine what is happening in the sequence when it came to closeups, different perspective’s and the runtime of each scene when it includes a significant character in the scene or landscapes that viewed for a slow motion view. For colour theory it was clear to understand about the monochromic, analogous or complementary schemes with landscapes or character’s palette. It is also quite useful to use the colour wheel on ‘Abode Colour’ to find straightforward colour schemes.

I had experienced teamwork from different groups each week at the beginning of the module with their themes of stories, concept art of characters and colour schemes. It was fascinating and new to me, switching each week with different people and listening to their ideas they had came up with within their world design. I must admit it was a great way for introductions and a useful tool for communication while getting to know the others in first year by learning their names, birthdays and favourite animated movies. It was also great to see their art skills and drawings within the course of animation this semester. Although switching each week made it more confusing and complicated for each task when final decisions had to be made for choosing one’s group from switching each week to the next as well as picking the final plot line or characters design and colour included with our world project .

If I had to restart the module again in this year, I would consider adding more concept art and designs before onto the final design. I would choose this topic to get a practise on character designs by going for different looks, shapes and outfits based on the characters personality and appearance. To improve my animation skills I think I would need to get more references such as movement practises than still images for this module, so I can get the idea by looking in front of me than sticking to an image in my head.

Throughout this year, I would expect to keep my sketchbook to draw out characters or practising techniques of drawing 2D or 3D art rather on my laptop/drawing tablet.  I find it more simpler to have my drawings sketched on paper by pencil than using a laptop/tablet as it more digital and a little bit hard to make 2D or 3D arts. If I were to change anything about what I had done this semester, it would be to spend more time watching videos on animation and follow experts on their techniques of their animation so I may get the habit of their skills put into my own work.

Week 12 included me presenting my WIP to the class and team members on what I have been doing. I am still in the rough animation process of the opening of the project and and hope to get it done before the Christmas holidays.

One to one feedback was held on Thursday 2nd December which included me and the lecturer Alec to review my animation progress for the next two weeks before submission of my work. He gave me some points on my work and said it was excellent for the hard work put into it.

There was no problems with the group, software or the animation itself, everything was grand.

This week, I took time in developing my rough animation from using the examples and using the poses from my animatic to start on my rough animation. It was difficult but I was only able to do a bit from my animation project Space Zoo. I had watched examples on blackboard which were suggested by Alec who showed us a range of animators on Twitter.

This week I have learnt on animatics and how they are between animation and storyboards. Using Krita I have done my part for the space zoo opening using frame by frame of my storyboards and made it into a animatic. It was enjoyable doing it this week making us a step closer into space zoo animation.

Version 2 of my animatic 18/11/21

This week I had been reviewed by Alec and Sarah on my last animatic. I made improvements on the frames, made it slower and added an effect (Zoom Transition) on one scene from my animatic using after effects. 

For this week’s class, I have practised and made an animation of a Flour Sack jumping  similar to the ball animation from the previous week using Krita.

I also worked on a storyboard for one particular scene from our space zoo idea sequence from my sketchbook. I also added sketches of new characters with old ones that I think would be perfect for the Space Zoo idea.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

This week we had learned about the Animation, the principles and ball animation. I have read and watched the tutorials online blackboard and read Advancing backwards to 1940’s by Richard Williams animator survival guide. I looked at the 12 principles of animation and tell the difference between 1’s,2’s and 3’s of animation and budget.

This week I had done three ball animations using adobe animate and krita. Using adobe animate was difficult as it was frame by frame. Using krita was a breeze for the other two animations and watched a YouTuber called BoroCG for help.

ANIMATION IN KRITA 3 – Let’s Animate The Ball – YouTube

For our 6th week in animation studio it was out studies week to catch up on anything I had missed or needed to fix. I had a one to one session with Alec Parkin at 10:20am where he had asked me questions about the lecture and if I had any problems or questions on my mind. It went well and there was no problems whatsoever.

I took this day to do research for Tuesday’s class on the group presentation on American animation on Stop-motion styles throughout the decades from the late 1980’s. I later drawn more creatures for the Space Zoo idea for Thursdays class. I had just started reading the homework on Week 7’s ball animation and videos using photoshop or adobe animate.

For week 5, I had remained in the same group from the past week which involves the Space Zoo idea. It was fun coming up with new ideas and the backgrounds with the others in the group. This week we had focused colour, now it is character design where we had to design character designs for our chosen characters, do expressions, colour scheme and their descriptions. I watched week 5’s video and viewed the PowerPoint on the different expressions, shapes and descriptions of characters.

Design Characters 1st Character and references

Alexandra

Alexandra is a fun loving character who is the main protagonist. She is brave, loyal and loves being curious. She is an extrovert and wants to travel outside her world which she does but soon discovers the truth and wonder from her world.

Age: 22

Alias: 1284

Sex: Female

Race: Mixed Native American/ Brazilian

Eye Colour: Chestnut

Hair Colour: Blackish Brown

Skin Colour: Brown

Habits: Likes to flick her hair

Health: Fully healthy

Hobbies:  Exercises, hunts, likes helping others and exploring

Greatest Flaw: Rushes into things without thinking

Best Quality: Has the biggest heart on emphasizing with others

Phobia: Afraid of losing others and crab/spider like creatures

Talent/Skills: Strong when lifting others/Team Player/leader and Hunt

Character’s Goals in Life:

To escape her fake world and go back to her ascendants origin known as earth.

To help her newfound friends and family revolt against their captors.

How confident is the character?

Fully confident in herself and others.

Does the character seem ruled by emotions?

Yes, as she uses her heart other than her brain.

2nd Character and reference

Maka

Maka is Alexandra’s older brother who loves to stay within their hometown and doesn’t want to leave. He is an introvert and always overthinks situations where he is often placed as the leader. He is smart and caring for his sister when trying to protect her from dangers outside their world. He follows her wherever she goes when she needs his help and crave and create objects with his bare hands.

Age: 24

Alias: 1283

Sex: Male

Race: Mixed Native American/Brazilian

Eye Colour: Chestnut

Hair Colour: Blackish Brown

Skin Colour: Brown

Habits: Likes to fidget with his weapons

Health: Fully healthy

Hobbies: Likes craving into wood, cooking, exercises and helping others

Greatest Flaw: Thinks too much but doesn’t act in time

Best Quality: Is quite smarter than the people at his home

Phobia: Afraid of losing others and hurting himself unlike his sister

Talent/Skills:

Can make a plan

Be a team leader

Make wood stuff and fire

Character’s Goals in Life:

To stay home and look after his sister

To help his newfound friends and family revolt against their captors.

How confident is the character?

Self- confident in himself as he is able to doubt himself and his thoughts

Does the character seem ruled by emotions?

When facing anxiety but other times no.

3rd Character and reference

Zadra

Zadra is the main antagonist of the space zoo who is in control of the entire system and would destroy anyone in her way and complete her collection of taking lesser species to fill her zoo. She is an introvert but can become very aggressive when things don’t go her way in the zoo.

Age: Unknown

Alias: High Security/Mistress/ Co- manager/highness

Sex: Female

Race: Abreithon

Eye Colour: Purple and blue

Hair Colour: Grey

Skin Colour: White and blue lines

Habits: Tapping with her fingers

Health: Fully healthy

Hobbies: Likes to watch, observe, destroy and take from other planets.

Greatest Flaw: Too arrogant and thinks everything should be perfect like her

Best Quality: Likes to style

Phobia: Losing her clients/ humans and other species revolting back and destroying her zoo.

Talent/Skills:

Telekinesis/ Hair moves for a defensive tactic/leader/ uses her mouth to tear her enemies apart

Character’s Goals in Life: Run the space zoo forever/ not let one human or other species from leaving or causing a revolution.

How confident is the character? Fully confident in herself

Does the character seem ruled by emotions? Not much as she doesn’t want to look like a mess.