My idea was to have two inhuman people in a nondescript cave trying to figure out a weird floating gem. I mostly based my idea of the floating gem on the fact that I wanted to take the "wah-wah" sound we had made when we learned about sound recorders and audacity and incorporate it into the animation. I wanted the "space pirates" because I do not favor natural skin colors and they give me the opportunity to use oranges and pinks for skin and eyes. When they first touch the gem they turn into puppets, and this happens because I wanted something simple and funny. It was fun to be able to animate the puppet-esque mouths, and not have to worry about drawing legs for a while. I also wanted to do something that wasn't usual to my style. They shake it, and the female space pirate starts shrinking, and then the gem pops them back to normal. I made them throw it so that when it fell it had the unexpected fall of a feather and broke very easily upon hitting the ground. Then it was just coins and a portal with another gem formed, so that they could choose to repeat the cycle or not.
One animation principle I used was appeal. There is appeal in the design of the gem and the way it floats and sounds. My characters have appeal in their designs as well. Carlisle has bright hair and pink skin and is tall with a dark suit but bright sash. Her eye-patch is eye catching, but so is her eye because they are both warm colors beside a cool colored hair. Bean is short and has a blindfold with glowy eyes and orange skin with dark pink hair. The appeal in the characters is also their slightly coordinated color pallets. They both have orange, pink, purple, and blue in different shades on their bodies. There is anticipation in the animation as well. In the beginning when the gem is just floating, you anticipate something to happen, like a view change or a person to show up. The first explosion also makes anticipation grow because you don't know what the gem did after they poked it. Then when the gem breaks and it switches to a walk cycle you anticipate what the gem has turned into, since it was spewing smoke previously.
There is staging in the simple three tone and a gradient background I used. It shows that they are in a dark place. The dark place being a cave because of the shapes and the things hanging from the ceiling. There is also exaggeration in the way the puppets talk. Instead of simple mouth movements, an entire half of their head comes off to speak. Carlisle shrinking can also be seen as exaggeration because it is something you wouldn't expect but also something really extreme to make a point.
I think my puppet section went very well. I have gotten better at timing movement to sound since the beginning of this course and since they spoke by moving instead of lips I felt it was able to be seen fully. I also feel like I have better grasped key-framing. The gem was key-framed for almost the entire animation, and the shrinking Carlisle was also key-framed. I was not lost on how to do it and I kept a consistent speed with the movement for the most part during the animation. It is a huge improvement from my complete shunning of key-frames in the beginning of the course.
I need to better improve on figuring out how to add more to an animation. I have suffered the issue twice now where I have played out my entire story and still not gotten to the least amount of time it could be. I know my grade suffers from it, but I don't know what I could do to fix this. I feel I need to flesh out my stories more, or add more movements, or something. There is just a quality that is missing from my animations that is taking away from giving them length. I also need to better improve on making movements look smooth. I don't really understand how people do the quick flashy frame thing, but I know my constant arm moving would look a lot better if I did that.
This project taught me I need to leave more time to relearn things if I have not used a program for a while. I wanted to use camera work in this but I had gotten so used to Maya's camera that I could barely relearn Harmony's camera. I also learned that sometimes making things go your way just isn't going to happen and you're going to have to deal with it. I might revise the fact that my color layer decided to off-center itself a day before the project was due, but also it adds character. Overall, I think my strategy played out very well, I put most of my storyboard into action and that is what I wanted to do. I just wish my strategy had gotten me that last like 400 frames. I feel this project will leave a lasting impression on me. It has given me an overall feeling of accomplishment, but also some disappointment. I'm glad I finished on time and didn't give up hope, but I'm upset some things didn't turn out as envisioned and I'm mostly upset about my color layer because that is a huge mess-up. But I like my space pirates and I like my weird floating gem, and I like what this project has taught me.
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