The Completed Video:


The Presentation Slides:







Evaluation:
I think struggling to learn a new piece of software at the same time as trying to produce a new type of animation (commercial) could have been a great challenge, however with very few actual tutorials on how to use the software correctly, it was hard to efficiently learn and apply principles at the same time. Not knowing the limitations and use of the software (Flash CS4/5) beforehand, and how we would be able to use it thoroughly held back a lot of design and style decisions as well as the actual story of the animation. The software training course we went on helped with the very basics, and was the only real teaching we received for this course, whereas those who chose to work with Maya had several tutorials set up for modelling and rigging etc. 
Anyway, the actual group animation came together just in time, and I'm pretty pleased with the little story we managed to tell. Execution could have been better with a little more knowledge and training, but I did the best I could with what  had. The limitations in place for character design etc made it hard to put any real personal touches or style onto the piece so I feel design wise it's a little dull. In an ideal world this could have been done with the movement and animation, but with such limited knowledge was very hard to achieve.


Points of Learning:
  • Design restrictions of certain software applications.
  • Importance of using folders and naming conventions within a program.
  • Communication and organisation within a group based project.
  • Problem solving to accommodate software and knowledge limitations.
  • Producing a piece with a view to a target audience.

Producing the screenplay(s) and storyboards/animatics for this module has taught me a lot about the production methods used for getting an animation off the ground and onto the screen. Form working with different sounds and sources, and working towards a desired effect, to adapting and working around obstacles in screenplay writing and story-boarding said stories into a finished plot. All the while allowing for artistic license for producing the animation and remaining flexible throughout.

I'm glad I decided to change the original script, and resolve the ending, rather than leaving it 'more mysterious' and open, as I had originally intended. The new 'gag' ending may not have been what I was originally going for with following the Grickle style of storytelling, but has ended up more much complete and is quite a nice gag to boot, I think.

I've enjoyed creating this story so much, I'm hoping to produce a short stop motion along my ideas for it as I feel it'd be something fun to work on and now that I have gotten so involved in the story it'd be a shame not to do something further with it while it's all still fresh in my head!

As this module draws to a close, I feel I can take away a couple of new badges on my belt: learning about screenplay writing and the format for it and a little more about film theory and shots etc. I'm hoping to put this into practice one my zombie stop-motion that I'm still working on the story to, which I may get around to animating one day!


And here it is with most of the frames improved a little, this could be the final one depending on time, I'm pretty happy with it, even if some parts are a little hodge podge, but that's what animatics are all about isn't it? There are several other things I'd like to add if I get time such as some more sounds etc, but this will do for now :)

A few added sounds and some improved frames hopefully make it all a bit clearer!
I have done all my previous animatics and such in iMovie, which was pretty easy to use and did the job nicely, but I felt I should move onto something a bit more professional so I set about  making this one in Adobe Premiere, and it's not going too bad. Little bit of trouble when exporting it and keeping the file size down but I'm getting there I think. anyway, an improved animatic will be up in a bit.