Animation preparation

I had two weeks for my animation elective. At the beginning of these two weeks we were given a brief 'I walked in the door and...' , we could make any sort of animation based on this brief, absolutely anything! Our imaginations could run wild, that's the great thing about animation!

I decided to go with the first thing that popped into my head. I brainstormed a bit and chose an idea that seemed the most appealing... my dough man character! We all know him from my previous blogs! I've grown attached to my little dough man, we've been through a lot together haha!

Firstly, I had to plan out all the movements using tracing paper, then transfer the finished images back to the paper and then cut out the figures and add details. I drew everything by hand so it took quite some time and work to achieve the result, was lots of fun though! I ended up with a lot of little dough men doing different actions and of course to add on to this I had to cut things like props such as the door for example. I then had to take lots of photos of the set up scene moving items slightly that needed to move in the video. My animation is done using the stop motion method.

Here are some photo's of my work and preparation to achieve my final result:

These are some of the tracings I did. The first draft of my figures. I hung them on the wall to help me piece together my story. My wall eventually started looking quite busy and like an animation itself.

 

 

 

These are all my cut outs. Each motion had to be drawn twice and cut out separately. It's time consuming but it's worth it in the end when you get all excited about piecing together your final result.

 

My favourite scene in my animation are probably the falling scenes. I'm quite happy with how they turned out! The short sound effects really add to the video too. I decided sound effects would add more to the video rather than trying to find a song that suited my animation. I find the man scream pretty funny!! It's unexpected and loud and hopefully makes the viewer smile a little!

Along with these I have a sketchbook that I continued from last semester. In it I put all my tracings, directions and plans, scripts and storyboards.

All very busy!