LO3: Final Animation★

https://youtu.be/zVafa4wQWdU

LO2:Production Plan★

 

LO1: Practicing Software★

Testing Animation

Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/AqFHCVaA3zs

Report

Cel animation is a type of animation that involves hand drawn/ painted backgrounds, which are then placed under clear plastic sheets called cels, which subjects are painted on to. Pictures are then took of each frame and then played together in a sequence. A studio that has used this 

technique of animation is Disney, famous for their children’s animated films, such as Bambi and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Materials that are required for this type of animation include cels, cel paint, a camera, and editing software to put things in to a sequence. This method is really good if you want detailed and intricate backgrounds, as it doesn’t have to be re drawn. This means that the hand drawn backgrounds can include more detail than most other methods. However, this method is also very time consuming; you have to draw each frame by hand with no option to simply copy and paste, and you also have to wait for all the paint to dry. It also isn’t sustainable. Authentic Disney cells sell for thousands of pounds, but they are extremely hard to preserve, with the paint chipping and the plastic yellowing over time. Another limitation that makes cel animation hard is the fact that it is obsolete due to advances in technology, which means tat finding an editing software to make it can be hard. 

Stop motion is another technique that could be used, which involves taking pictures of physical objects and moving them slightly in between shots. Aardman is a studio that uses this method, 

using clay models in their films and series’s like Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. Materials hat are needed to complete a stop motion animation is the models, a camera, and of course, an editing software to put it all together. A common one for stop motion is Adobe Premiere Elements. An advantage of this style of animation is that it is great for beginners, as there are even mobile apps that can help you create stop motion animations. It does not involve any drawing and if you simply use figurines, it can be very easy. However there are limitations. It can be very time consuming and expensive. The Shaun the Sheep Movie, which was in production for 2 years, and costed $25 million to produce. 

2D animation is another form of animation that can be used. 2D animation means creating movement in a 2 dimensional space. This is typically done digitally, involving each frame being drawn. Dream works is a studio that has used this method. The 1998 film Prince of Egypt and 

other fils such as Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. The tools that are needed for this style of animation is some form of device to draw on, such as a drawing tablet, as well as the software to do so. You would also need editing software. A common one for this type of animation is Adobe Animate. This technique of animation is good because it is less time consuming and more cost effective than some other types of himation, including 3D animation. However, it has the limitation of all being digital. Things can corrupt or get deleted with no way to recover which can be very inconvenient an add more time on to production. 

LO1: Unit Requirements★

The animation MUST be 2-5 minutes long. 

The animation MUST be digital. 

It has to be for an original narrative/ concept.

No stick men. Characters must be 2 or 3d. 

It may be a complete narrative or the start of a longer narrative. 

Ideally 25 FPS. 

LO3: Production Schedules★

 

LO3: Evaluation Justification of Frame Rates and Duration★

I used 13FPS for my animation, for 2 reasons.

One is that my animation, being a cartoon, required me to re-draw characters, backgrounds, etc. on each frame. This made it so that about 10 seconds of footage took around an hour to produce. As I was working with a deadline, this meant that it would be quicker to produce, while still looking smooth.

Any more than15FPS, however, caused issues in the process. Even making tiny movements from one frame to the next, the movements would still happen far too quickly, and the only way to combat this was by having each frame repeat itself at least once. Even if it was at 15FPS, this would produce the safe effect as an animation with a 7.5FPS, which was too choppy and not ideal. It looked unpolished and would not appeal to audiences.

The duration of my animation is just over 2 minutes. This is because the animation is designed to be posted on social medias like TikTok that only allow short form content. I thought that by making it under 3 minutes, this would maximize the amount of people who would watch it on platforms like TikTok, because although you can have up to ten minutes, people lose interest and scroll past if it is too long. It also follows the conventions of a web series, because it is ideal for watching on mobile devices and it is also shorter than a conventional TV cartoon.

LO3: Optimising the Animation

Optimization is the act of making a product the most effective for the situation. In the case of an animation, this means the act of correcting and changing things in a way that will make the product more effective in being well-received by audiences. 

In order to optimize my animation, I colored over lines that were not supposed to be there, which was from either a sketch that was supposed to be erased, or where I had rested my hand while  

using the stylus. This caused there to be lines that appeared irregularly on certain frames, which made the animation look poor quality and even buggy. By correcting the issue, I was able to make the animation look of better quality and therefore is nicer to watch and more enjoyable  for my target audience. This was also something that testers asked me to change. 

I also got feedback to say that there was some frames that were from another scene or blank frames that were appearing in the animation. I went back through and deleted any of these scenes, but the issue was still happening. I rendered the animation again and it seemed to make the issue go away. This ensured that the animation looked more of a professional quality, but it also made the storyline less confusing when parts of other scenes were flashing up. This then made the product more enjoyable for audiences. 

It is important to save assets as lossless png files because this ensures that the overall aesthetic of the animation is not taken away and so that the final product can be rendered as high quality when it is put in to an editing software. 

My animation was created in 15FPS, which is enough to make the whole animation look smooth, but it is also not too high of a frame rate, because going higher than this requires lots of skill and experience, and is also a lot more advanced and time consuming on any platform, including Animation Desk, but also Adobe Animate, Blender, etc. Because of this, it was likely that I could not make it look as good as it could be, deterring audiences.

This is a screenshot of the rendering box on animation desk. This was important to do so that the animation looked smooth and movement and animations didn't look choppy and poor quality. 

I also exported my animation from animation desk, straight to my photos as a video. This is because this method is lossless and ensures that the animation remains in a high quality. On top of this, it means that it is ideal when opening the animation in an editing software or uploading to the internet, especially with platforms like TikTok where you can only upload video files from camera roll. 

This is the way that I did this.