Adding Detail Back

I started to add the detail back in, and also the lipsync (which needs retiming slightly). I hope to have everything completed by next week.

There is a black squiggle in the middle of the animation that does not appear on the work surface, only on the exported file - I will sort this out shortly.

Sketch Animation

Realising I was drawing in too much detail I took a step back and animated everything in sketch form. I'm much happier with the animation now.


I've realised that when you animate you shouldn't dive straight into the detail as you won't focus on the actual movements and animation. From now on I will start off my animations much more simpler, with sketches rather than finished pictures.

Next I plan on sketching in the lip-syncing and then adding the detail back on.

Inbetweening

I started inbetweening so I would understand more how the characters were moving.

I took out the part where the male rodent was grabbing his ears as it stopped the animation flowly smoothly.

Animatic 2

I decided to change the characters to something smaller so I could include their whole bodies but not distract attention away from their faces.

I also made it so that the mother was reacting more to her son, rather than just watching him.

Animatic

A few weeks back I found a sound clip with emotion (as I love animating emotion) and drew some characters to match. I kept them from the waist-up so you could focus on their hands and face. I included a tie on one of the characters to add extra movement to the animation.

Proposal

Career Intentions


I enjoy quite a few different directions you could take with Animation: character design, layout design, digital painting, 2D character animation and storyboarding. I generally like anything that is to do with digital drawing or painting. For now however I think I would like to focus myself on 2D character animation as I think it is the career path I am most compatible with. I love bringing characters to life and in particular, dealing with emotions.  After leaving University I would like to start out in a small company to gain experience in a working environment before moving onto freelance after maybe a few years of work, or even joining up with a larger studio.

Skills


I possess knowledge of Photoshop, Painter, Flash, and After Effects. I am comfortable with designing and working to a commissioners brief as I currently work as a part-time illustrator, dealing with a variety of clients. I think the areas I need to gain a little more confidence in are animation and human/animal anatomy so I will spend plenty of time this year refining those skills.

Pipeline


I plan on making a series of short character animations; some with humans and some with animals. I will do a bit of planning for my third year film as well but will mainly focus on animation tests, as my third year film is something I would like to work on over the summer. As I work primarily by drawing, all of my animations will be in 2D on either Flash or Photoshop. I will finish the year with a showreel of hopefully between 1 and 2 minutes. I will be able to constantly edit this showreel over the summer and next year to improve it and make it good enough to send off to potential studios.

Introduction

My name is Jade and I'm currently in my second year of animation. For this project we have to create a show reel, demonstrating our skills in whatever specialism we chose.

I prefer 2D animation, layouts, painting backgrounds and storyboarding. 

This blog will document my progress in making the show reel.