You Are Here: Final Animation

Train Strike

Authors own

This is my 30 second animation that explores the evolution of the name of the street that we today call Cannon Street. It is a visual piece, with no narrative, just experimentation of transitions, sound, insinuated actions and style. 

I find the most successful components of this animation to be the switch between two styles to give the viewer some indication of the environment they are being introduced to. Also, the insinuation of movement in the arches that pass the flame as it flickers out to make way for the incoming train. I do wish I could have done more with the sound, creating a mix that explored all of the interesting audible recordings I made. I also feel as though the flame could have been developed more, but because of my very basic knowledge of After Effects I was not able to create anything more elaborate in the time I had to complete this project. For future projects, I will make sure I put some time aside to explore software I haven't tried out yet that may come in handy in the production stage. 

Title Sequence: 'Kiss the Girls' Final Animation

Authors own

This is the final outcome for my title sequence made for the thriller Kiss the Girls. What I enjoy the most about this piece is its strong sense of style and atmosphere. I feel the sound and simplistic appearance compliments the complex, haunting nature of the themes explored in the film itself. However, one thing I'm not too happy with this the mask section of the sequence. The text that insinuates a tear drop is too ridged and the movement needs to be reworked. Also, as the mask fades away and is covered by loads of lip prints the outline of the mask can still be seen long after, a silly mistake done in Flash on my part.

I made almost everything using Flash, I drew everything on Flash, animated on Flash and added the typography on Flash. I used iMovie to add in the flashes into negative colour at the beginning and add in the sound. The sound is actually my voice. I looked into the nursery rhyme and reworked its melody and lyrics (only slightly), keeping the same rhythm, just slowing it down. Then I layered the sounds of water droplets over the top of my vocals, to represent the idea of water placed in the film. I recorded and put together all sound components in GarageBand. 

Metamorphosis: Final Animation

Authors own

This is the final animation of my story, which I entitled 'Gregory's Soul' that explores the concept of metamorphosis through life, death and the spirit world. Overall, I am pleased with my outcome as it evokes the emotions I was aiming to strike in the viewers. I think the choices I made during production, e.g.  choosing to make it in black and white, the music I chose, the idea of inverting the tones once we entered the spirit world, were the prime reasons the mood of the piece was so well received. If I were to improve this animation I would of taken care to include more frames and movement, as in some places it does seem a little static and incomprehensible. However, these are points I can take on board and carry forward for my next animated projects. In order to avoid this happening in future projects I could make animatics before I start final production, making sure all transitions and keyframes work accordingly. 

I made the animation by hand using a lightbox to aid me. I then scanned each image into Flash and put them into sequence.The inverted colour frames where scanned into Photoshop, where I edited them and then imported them into Flash. Once this was done I add fade out transitions and small movements, such as blinking and the bug sprat entrance, using Flash. I then exported the file into iMovie where I added a glowing effect on the second half of the animation and included rolling credits at the end. 

I was surprised at just how time consuming the animation process is and how much there is to consider. In order to help my future animations, creating a check list would really help make things run more smoothly. 

Metamorphosis: Title Card

Title card development

Photo is authors own

I really enjoyed this part of the project as I was able to focus my attention on what the animation was all about and try to portray that in one still image. I was working with the idea of foreshadowing, and how I could use that term literally. I worked with a few different view points and also thought about how I could produce visual meaning behind the shadow cast by Gregory as he prepares to get into bed. The last image on the page seen above is my final design, which I believe to be effective. The large shadow cast by Gregory creates a daunting atmosphere, as it haunts the space, towering over him. I included a mouth on the shadow to suggest it being a separate entity, although a part of Gregory, just as death will be.

Final 'New' Poster

I made some adjustments to the poster to make it look more presentable. I used Photoshop to cut the main image out and placed it on a clean, white background in Illustrator. Here I reapplied the music stave to the image and added text that was neater and placed in a more balanced position to the rest of the design.

The process of using Adobe definitely aided the final presentation of my poster, plus it completed tasks fast, helping time keeping. I was glad that I was still able to use my hand drawn design too, as it personalises something that could otherwise look quite cold. Because I photographed the original design instead of scanning it there is some discolouration to the "E", which does bring the quality of the image down. However, I do believe that the message trying to be communicated is still graspable.

'New' Poster

 This is a photo of my final poster.

This is a photo of the idea generation for my poster from my sketch book.

(All images are authors own)

I found the the generating of ideas for my poster very easy as I already had a concept set out from working with the film to work with. I decided to go with 3D type of the word 'New' that casted a shadow that shaped out the word 'Old'. I then pasted the word 'New' onto a music stave to represent the connection the film had with new things within music. The decision to make 'New' 3D was to represent the current 3D movement in film, bringing its font into present time, which then casts a shadow that spells 'old'. This is supposed to represent that everything that is new is foreshadowed by the old and, in turn, is some kind of reincarnation of the old. I felt as though this poster idea was the strongest in metaphorically communicating my ideas on the word new and what our film was about. However, because I did the poster by hand there were some problems with colour smudging and text not being level on the page. If I were to change anything about the poster I would make sure I gridded the page properly and to avoid smudging, perhaps used a program like illustrator to create the final outcome. 

The task to create a poster was one that I very much enjoyed. It started to make me think more about the audience and what may or may not work in trying to attract attention or effectively communicate something visually. I feel that the poster has strong visual communication, but I don't know if it would stand out in a high street for example. Although, the use of red for the word new, situated at the centre of the poster and dragging upwards to the top of the page, which is sat in a white space my work in turning a few heads.