Animation 3

I have finished my third animation which is the final animation of Part 2. This animation was my most ambitious by far, and the story is more complex and challenging than anything I have created so far, but I am glad I took a risk and I think it has paid off. For this project, I looked at the genre of Film Noir, as it has a very particular style and characters that I thought I could explore in my own work. Several practitioners have influenced my work for this project including the cinematographer John Alton, the director Fritz Lang, and the comic book artist, Frank Miller. Each of these practitioners influenced me in different ways, from the lighting effects, to the use of colour, to the subject of the story. To accurately convey this period in film history, I also looked at slang for my script, and character designs.

The animation is not completely smooth and if I had more time to work on it there are several areas I would change, such as the close-up shots of the hands, the colouring and the glass shots. However, I think for three weeks of work that the animation is successful. I really enjoyed exploring the genre of film noir and it may be an area of cinema that I will return to looking at again one day as I find it so interesting.

Click here to watch my film noir animation!

Animation 2

I have just finished my second animation. The brief for this project was to create an animation based on factual material. I chose to focus on the subject of Classical Music and in particular the composer, J.S. Bach.

For this project, I looked at the work of Terry Gilliam and Bob Godfrey, and researched their styles to influence my own project. Inspired by their work, I used paper cut-outs and combined them with Photoshop animation.

The animation was a fact file about Bach and I used comedy to make the facts more entertaining. Simple facts such as the number of children he had and the number of pieces he composed were made more interesting my little visual symbols and jokes.

I am really happy with the animation as it flows quite well and smoothly while still allowing enough time for the audience to take in and enjoy the visuals and facts. When I showed this animation to my class, I was pleased with the number of people who found it funny and entertaining. I also liked using music this time in my work, as I think it makes the animation more engaging and works well with the movement and timing.

Click here to watch the animation

Animation 1

I have just finished my first animation in part 2. This animation was the first that I ever created on my own and I am really happy with the end result.

My animation is based around a young boy trying to go to sleep in his bedroom. However, he keeps imagining monsters under his bed. After checking under the bed to see what is there, the boy is able to go to sleep. At the end of the animation, the wardrobe door opens to reveal a monster’s face.

I hand-drew this animation and it was a very long and repetitive process. In the end, I hand-drew over 200 pages. I am quite happy with the quality of the animation but I think if I had more time, it would look better with more shading/colour.

Feedback about the project was quite positive and particularly the character of the boy was praised. The expressions and personality were really clear and I appreciated this feedback as it was something I had spent a lot of time on.

My favourite part of the animation is where the boy imagines different creatures under the bed. To show what the boy was thinking, I used a big thought bubble to fill the screen. In particular, I really like the movement with the spiders under the bed.

Click here to watch video