So I have finally reached the end of my project, its been a pretty full on 8 weeks and I think I can safely say that I have put 100 percent into it. Overall I am really very happy with my final piece I think that its suits the song incredibly well and I have been pretty successful in creating a well illustrated and animated piece.
Time Management
Time wise I would have loved to have a couple more weeks to polish some little niggles that bother me but considering the nature and time fame of my project I think that my outcome is pretty well made. I have really enjoyed making this project and until the last week I haven't really been stressed or pressurised. I took the project at my own pace, took a great deal of enjoyment from using my hands and many physical elements to make my project.
Illustrating and Making
Though I did enjoy drawing out my characters using Illustrator (as I normally do) I took a great deal of pleasure in getting to delve into the collage aspect to my designs. I forgot how much I enjoyed using papers and physical elements to create and its for this reason that I loved making my backgrounds. I think I got more and more ambitious with each of my backgrounds (the cave is my favourite) and my animation has certainly benefited from the use of the handmade. Throughout many of my previous projects I have spoken about making things look handmade - and although I do draw by hand and I maintain that you can generate handmade things using the digital - previous results haven't been as satisfying. I think this project has finally enabled me to synthesise the perfect balance between the handmade and the digital which in turn has meant that I am a lot happier with my outcome. From a visual perspective using physical and real time elements integrates a fantastic sense of texture that I would never have been able to achieve using purely digital means. From my artistic perspective actually drawing things out and making scenes and backgrounds has given me more creative control. I like to think its allowed me to put a little bit of myself into the project as well!
Printing the characters was a practical choice to combine the digital and the hand. It meant that if I needed to I could reprint various aspects and swap in new ones I could do so with a simple reprint. Throughout the illustration process I had to think in terms of limbs since it was imperative to how they would move. Separating them out onto print sheets meant that I could keep all the animals together and simultaneously conserve card. Im very glad that optimal print settings on my home printer produced a good quality print since it saved time and meant that I could add bits if I needed to. Cutting them out was actually a pretty relaxing process if fiddly and I am glad that I acquired new sharper and smaller scissors before I cut them out which helped me get more precise lines.
The Motion
I can't understate the importance of good technological tools, my own little studio was integral to capturing my characters and backgrounds alike. It meant that I had full control over my lighting and that I could work at any time of the day. As well as this it also helped to ensure and maintain a professional quality which was important not only because I wanted everything to look as good as possible but also because due to the nature of stop motion any change in lighting, any change in colour - any lapse in anything would affect a large batch of photographs that would be hard to rectify.
The cable release meant that I could stay near to my characters ( since my set-up was situated on the ground) without having to continuously get up to touch the camera which also helped to eliminate camera shake.
The blue screen was the handiest element that I utilised and it cut a lot of my stop motion time in half because I was able to stop motion my characters on the spot, one at a time. This meant that I could devote my focus to one animal at a time and not have to worry about any background movement. I divided my key movements into 2 categories per animal walking and sitting which provided very clear sequences that were more than enough when taken into After Effects.
After Effects
Using the Keylit 1.2 effect to get rid of the blue screen was pretty much the most complicated thing I did in AE. Other than that and possibly the overall timing of my piece (which was fiddly but not hard) everything else was actually pretty straight forward and I only really needed the basic transform tools. Adding in the music notes was the most time consuming part since I had to do two versions (black and white) and was incredibly monotonous. Despite this it was fun to see it all come together and piecing it into one was very satisfying. Its amazing how much of a difference adding music to the piece made, timing the segments to the song finally showed me that it was all going to work. Granted it was pretty late in the day to have this realisation but it was hard for me to see how it was all going to work until I put the music in so pheww!
Target Audience and Purpose
I am confident that my finished piece will appeal to my target audience (the band) since I think I have been successful in my attempts to narrate the song. I am pretty happy that it displays my design skills so its purpose as a polished portfolio piece has also arguably been achieved.
Distribution
I have uploaded my video to Youtube and intend to now send it to the band, I also intend to place it on my website and use it as a key piece to advertise myself.
All in all I am happy with what I have made and am content that I have made something that narrates the song, shows of my visual skill and also works as a portfolio piece that displays a varied style to that of my normal creations. Overall I feel like I have achieved what I have set out to do and fully answered my brief.
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