Final Animation and a Few Reflections

Here's the final version of my animation! Nothing else to be done with it now bar present it to the tutors in Monday! Changed little since the last version. Added a vignette, it's barely noticeable in the finished version and not sure if I would bother to add one to another animation unless I thought it would really benefit the piece. As for the dying thing I added to panning shot, I think it worked well as it showed the futility of life in that thicket of pillars. How harsh it is and how difficult it is to survive there (though not impossible) It also showed the passage of time quite nicely.

Another note on that panning shot that myself and my tutor noticed is that when the 5 computers were placed side by side (in the exhibition i took part in) it would have been great to see the character move from one computer to the other. As if the 5 computers were his one long path. Something to note for some future work.
Something else to note in reflection is that I should have pushed myself more to try something new. Something I didn't understand. sometimes I get so focused on a finished product that I forget i'm still in SCHOOL and it's about learning new skills more than anything. That's why during summer I want to learn what's so fantastic about Flash. I'm going to make my new project a Flash project. I'll create a style that's suited to it. After my tutor being so adiment about us using it this year and the visiting lecturer Jason Tamagatchi also saying how useful it is, I want to see what all the fuss is about. And I might be late to the game but I have the time over summer now to get stuck in. Having said that it's not like I ever made backdrops in chalks and animated frame by frame on top on top of that before. But I UNDERSTOOD the process. So perhaps something that will present more challenges next time.
Also I think my research needs work... But I'm not too bad at it. I enjoyed watching films this semester to achieve a good research base. But I think i can still improve at it. I can always improve. Perhaps broaden my horizons.. Look at more than just films/ animations. Painting, SCULPTURE, architecture, comics that sort of craic.

Still not done!

So here's a few experiments I did with the end title. I wanted to reflect what had happened in the animation preceeding it and better the composition of the ending frame. The text is now more in line with the seat and the text is smaller so that it is not more dominant over the image. I have decided to use the last version as it shows what happened in the animation (that is) one ariving to the end destenation before the other, it's better composed than the rest as all the text is in a line with the seat and it doesn't take away from the imagery. I also added the ease to make it seem a little more natural.

Version 01 of Animated Short Less Travelled

So here it is the first version of my animation. I WILL be going back over the next few days to add more such as: 

• Shadows characters (just to give them a bit of weight)
• Giving more depth to the animation by pulling characters forward and adding Camera Blur
• Moving the camera more. The camera is static for a lot of the shots and the shots where it moves even only very slightly come to life a lot more. 
• Adjusting the audio levels. I need the music at the beginning to be more audible and the music there after to be less audible.
• Add some sound effects like wind,crowd noise in the village, foot steps, perhaps small pants/ groans from the main characters. 
• And change type at the end. Also that shot needs to be composed better.
• and so on an so forth

YAY! But still so much work to do! Oh well could be worse I suppose, I could have exams to do!! hahahahahahahahahahahaha I'm happy.

Tired

Make no mistake.. animating is hard. and tiring and I've been sitting here for 8 hours and I'm hungry so once I saw my drawings were getting crap and ridiculous looking I decided it's time to go home and get FOOD. Anyway this is what I did this morning when I was still fresh. Camera lens blur for the win!

Another Shot Preview

This is the very end shot of my animation. Just thought I'd upload it and say that I'm very nearly done a basic animation. My aim is that by next Monday I'll have an animation I COULD presents but not with any of the spit and shine I would like it to have. That's what next week will be for. Wether finishing off the basic first version runs into next week or not I WILL have time to go back and polish up the whole thing. Finally caught up with where I want to be on my timetable and all. In fact very slightly ahead of it.
Think I will change the type in this again. Not to happy with how it looks as of right now. I liked what I originally had but I'm kind of sick of it and need a change.
The clothes moving in the wind was something I thought of half way through animating and I'm glad I've included it so much now. It just means an image is never still and therefore boring.

shot Preview

A shot I am proud of! Loads of help from Richard William’s book Animators Survival Kit. God I love that book.

15 Second Folio

Just a quick 15 second folio of what I see as the best work I have done so far. Including life drawing, background work, finished and unfinished work. 

If interested most of these finished animations are on my blog somewhere or else on my website: colm-connaughton.com