Animation Self Evaluation

For my final project I had to a stop motion animation either with drawings, clay or paper cut outs. After researching all three types extensively I chose clay as even though it’s the most awkward it would provide the best outcome for what I wanted to do as it’s the only one that occupies a three dimensional space.

Unlike the previous animations I had done this one had to be planned out thoroughly with a storyboard, which helped a lot because going in I already knew what shots to do and how ones to frame them.  However I completely misjudged the time that this would take especially make the set and character as that took the longest, also some more preparation would have been at good idea as I found something’s I had wanted to do weren't possible either because of technical limitations or lack of experience and its clear some shots are missing that are meant to be there.

The biggest improvement I would like to make is making the characters bigger for smoother movement as right now they are quite stiff and shuffle instead of walking because their legs are too short. Also the sound isn't that great as there were barely any stock sounds that I could find so I had to mostly use ones I had recorded myself and because of that they are also quiet.

This project has really provided me with a lot experience that I could apply the next time I do something similar, and I would have to say my greatest strength was being able to adapt and go around or solve the numerous problems that arose throughout production.  

Pre-Production - Story synopsis

Final Animation Story Synopsis

Title: Clod.

Run-time:  approximately 1 minute.

Story: “Clod” is a top secret gene experiment and consists of dozens of different animal DNA in hopes to create a formula for the perfect chewing gum. It is generally of a docile nature but the vigorous and cruel tests that’s have been run on him have taken their toll as one scientist is about to find out when he wakes up the beast early from its slumber.  

Pre-Production - The characters and props.

Pre-Production - Storyboard

Final Animation - Clod

Drawn Animation Evaluation

Drawn animation is one, if not the most popular type of animation especially in the early days. The main reason for this is that is fairly cheap in comparison to claymation for instance as you only need some pens and paper, and you don’t need an expensive set because you can just draw it. Also it can be about anything you can think and the laws of physics don’t apply so you can make things happen that you couldn’t with other types of animation.
 It does however have some draw backs as well like being extremely time consuming especially if it very detailed because each frame has to be drawn separately, and so you could end up using thousands of pieces of paper if you want to make a long animation. The process of animating can be very tedious too as you have to make sure each frame lines up with the last and have to be careful not to nudge it out of place, even more so is you are dealing with little cut out pieces. It would probably be best to colour it in on the computer so that all the colours and shades remain the same not like when you colour by hand especially with pens and the shading is different every time; with this you also run more risk of leaving small areas uncoloured.