LAUAN404 EVALUATION

At the start of this module I began investigating the various potential characters as well as making sure I understood what the brief was asking for. Having already been familiar with the Beano I was very excited to begin working on this task. This lead to me selecting the character Billy the Cat as I felt that I could make the most exciting and likeable character with this base that would be appropriate for the target audience.

 I feel that the design process for this character went particularly well and was one of my strengths within this module, as I believe that my design and colour choices worked well with the brief and appealed to the target audience (based of feedback from that age group), as well as my peers and tutors giving me positive feedback. I also believe that I learnt a lot through this process about dynamic poses and silhouettes for characters. I found creating the silhouettes to be quite difficult for my character as the design was bulky in some areas which made the design look less clean in areas.

One of the things I struggled with the most in this module was using Photoshop to animate more complex scenes. This was due to me not understand other software enough to feel confident using them and having problems with certain aspects within Photoshop (lack of smoothing tool and creating new layers when pasting). I solved most of these issues through rotoscoping, drawing within a separate software and taking advantage of Premiere pro. However, this has helped me learn that it is important to improve my understanding and skills within other programs to avoid this in the future. I also struggled with creating the armatures as my character was predominantly white which make it look dirty easily. When it came to creating a walk cycle with these armatures, I realized that my armatures legs were not the same length and did not bend easily, meaning I wasn’t able to create a walk cycle with my armature and had to use one of my peers’.

I believe that this was a very useful module that helped me learn more about various processes, as well as encouraging me to put my work out there and get feedback from others. I also really enjoyed this module as it was predominantly based around character design which is an area of the industry that I am particularly interested in, and this brief helped me learn more about it and how it should be presented within the industry.

Overall, I feel that I pushed myself a lot more within this module and stayed on top of my work quite well which helped me get everything done in time to a good level. I’m excited to learn more next year and continue improving my abilities with all the new information and skills I have learned through this module.

Billy The Cat Complete Animation

Here I have my finished animation for my character Billy the Cat. The story shows Billy hanging out with her friends when an announcement comes through the radio about a robbery at the bank. Billy springs into action and changes into her hero costume before jumping across rooftops and catching the robber. Overall, I feel like this was a successful piece with a variety of dynamic animations that help bring the character to life while still catering to the target audience.

Throw and Ending Pose

Here I have finished animating some more dynamic scene for my animation. The first is my character Billy throwing a fidget spinner, which will be added in with Premiere Pro so I can better control the rotation and scaling speed. I feel that this scene turned out really well and smooth.

The second scene is the ending pose my character does at the end of the animation to celebrate catching the shady guy. I feel that this also turned out really well and looks clean and well shaded.

Parkour Landing Complete

Here I have completed the rotoscope parkour roll landing for my animation. I feel that this is a successful piece that looks smooth, clean and is correctly proportioned. This will act as the main action shot within my animation.

Peer Review Feedback

Here are a list of notes I received during my feedback session:

- Walk cycle works
- Style very good
- Good timing
- Roll rotoscope looks good
- Animation looks very clean so far
- Motion lines and stills can be used to cheat animation
- Make sure i'm working in correct aspect ratio

This feedback has been very useful and will help guide me in completing my animation.

Animation Rough Cut 1 (1/2)

Here is a rough first cut for the first part of the animation. This shows a basic idea of what the title card will look like and has the characters animated without voice overs. I feel that this is looking good so far but would like to create more dynamic movement in the second half of my animation.