Final Charity Animation

When I had completed my animation, I remember that I wanted to place a place filter on top to add the cutout effect that I wanted to create.

I tried to over lay a paper texture, but it just muted the colours of my animation which I did not want to happen. So I changed the opacity of the layer till you could just tell there was a paper effect. I did try and change the colour levels of the animation, however again this just muted the colours. So I just had the paper filter over the top.

For the music, I originally just wanted just to have the sound of the waves. I did go out and record my own sound, however it was too windy and all you come hear was the wind blowing over the mike. So I got the sound from http://www.freesfx.co.uk/ I then thought to add music, just to add something to my animation. At first I had cheery music, to match the animation style. But after discussing with my tutor decided to go with something more melancholy due to the seriousness of the message of the video. The music was taken from http://www.bensound.com/

Charity Tester animations

Above is a tester animation of what my finished animation could look like when done. I drew the balloon in photoshop then using After Effects to animate it moving. A method that I will use for my final animation.

Above is a tester animation of waves. I thought to try and figure out how to animate waves before starting my final animation. Though I understand how to animate waves crashing on to the beach. I know that in the future that the actual wave needs to be further away from the beach.

Observational Drawings for charity animation

Because I wanted to include the wildlife and animals that are affected by balloon litter. I thought it would be best to do observational drawings of them, so when I come to draw them for my final animation they will look the way they are suppose to look. Even though my animation will have a cartoon feel to it, I still want the wildlife to be recognisable.
The wildlife that will be included in the animation will be a turtle, a whale (its tail), a seagull, a dolphin and a cow.

As I wanted to show the damage that balloon litter has on the wildlife, with out being too graphical, as it will be shown to children but still get the message across. I though of showing x-rays of the animals (the dolphin and the cow), showing that the balloon and sky lantern litter can get into the wildlife’s stomachs and kill them.

More Concept Art for charity animation

The concept art above are just experimentation and development on the different colouring styles of what my charity animation could look like. I wanted to add a paper texture to the animation due to it being digital cut out. And with this texture decided to make my animation more eye catching by changing the colour levels.

Above is testers, on different colouring styles and out lines. I wanted
to see which one look the best as just having the black outline made the image look too harsh. I decided to go with number four as it looked the most aesthetically pleasing, and the outline wasn’t as harsh as the black bold out line. Plus the shading makes the image more interesting to look at.

EDIT:

After getting my primary research, I decided to try and redraw some concept art. Which I think looks better than the previous ones. The waves and water look the way that they should and the image generally is better and more pleasing to look at.

Primary Source for Charity Animation

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Above is a slide show of the primary source imagery that I collected. I needed to know how the waves moved and looked. How the light bounced off of the surface. I will also use these photo as references when I am animating and designing my final animation

Above is a video of me dropping a deflated balloon into some water. I did this as I didn’t know if a deflated balloon made a splash when dropped into water. I found out that it didn’t, that the balloon just lands and cause ripples. Which will come in handy when I start animating.

Charity Animatic

My finished animatic for my charity animation. Though there are a few timing issues that need to be addressed. Such as leaving enough time for children to read the text. As well as some spelling mistakes. When I sent this to the Marine Conservational Society, they were happy with it, though they did have some critiques. They mention the timing and spelling, like I have. But also that there logo was stretched at the end and told me the font that they tend to use, which was myriad pro.

Charity Animation Storyboard

First Try

I found it hard to try and create a story board for my animation. This was mostly due to perhaps the time frame of the animation. I thought that the animation that to be no longer than 60 seconds, and I found it hard to fit in everything I wanted in those 60 seconds.

Second Try

I wanted to include a balloon floating and deflating and showing the damage that balloons and sky lanterns do to the wild life. I wanted to also include some alternatives that are provided on the website that you can do/use instead of letting go of balloons.

Third Try

It took me three tries to get my storyboard right, to a point that I am happy with. After talking to my tutor, it does not matter about long the animation is. As long as you get the message across that you are trying to portray.

I also emailed back the charity in the hope for more resent information concerning balloon litter as the information that was available on the website was a few years dated. They did get back to me with more recent data that I would be able to include in my animation.

AND 315 Inspiration and Concept Art

After choosing the charity that I wanted to do I did some research on their website:

http://www.mcsuk.org/what_we_do/Clean+seas+and+beaches/Campaigns+and+policy/Don’t+let+go+-+balloons+and+sky+lanterns

as well on there children section:

http://www.mcsuk.org/coolseas/

In the hopes of figuring out how I was going to do this animation. I realised that I wanted to do a 2D animation, perhaps even a 2D digital cutout animation.

So I looked at some existing digital cutout animations that linked with educating the public or informing them.

The Children of the Holocaust is what seems to be digital cutout animation. Based on true stories of those who lived though WW2. I remember seeing this during the summer and fell in love with the animation. I enjoyed how the animation helped with the visuals of the story.

This digital cutout animation is promoting a don’t drink and drive awareness campaign. I like the simplicity of the animation, how the drawn elements were done in photoshop then animated in After Effects. A method that I may try for my animation. This animation is fun to watch and portrays an important message.

https://vimeo.com/45657669

This one is one of my favourites cutout animations for educational uses, as though it doesn’t have that much animation present in the video. It has a clean animation style. Thats looks good and helps show what the message of the animation is about.

After researching other animations I decided to do some quick concept art to sent to the Marine Conservational Society, when I ask if I could do an animation to promote their Don’t Let Go campaign, for free.

I got a reply back after a few days with permission, and a request to use the animation as a learning tool in schools and for children.

AND 315 – Intro and choosing a charity

For this animation module, we were required to research an area where animation could be used for either educational, campaigning, therapeutic or informative purposes, and should be between 30 – 60 seconds.

We are asked to choice a charity to create the animation for and get in touch with them.

There was a number of different charities, including Greenpeace and Age UK. I wanted to do something that I am passionate about, such as litter. To persuade people not to drop litter, and that you will be fined if you do.

It was suggested that I try and pick a local charity to get in touch. Though it is not an local charity, the Marine Conservation Society has a on going project to stop balloon litter. And as I live on the coast, this is something I am passionate about.

CBBC Short Competition

This live brief wasn’t originally in the module guide, but was given to use by our tutor. And offered us a chance to work with a stop-motion animation company in creating a animated short for their new show Scream Street. I thought this would be a great chance of getting some credible experience to put in my PED and creative CV. A the brief was to create a 20 panel storyboard or 1 minute animatic about two of the shows characters.

I had many different ideas for what my short could be. But I decided on the idea of the characters, Dig and Lulu, having a game of chase. Dig is chasing Lulu, and Lulu not looking where she is going knocks into a skull. A snake comes out of the skulls and argues with Lulu. Dig is forgotten about as the two argue. Soon he gets bored and decides to creep up on Lulu and lick her, then runs away. Lulu annoyed chases after him, the snake forgotten. The snake then rolls its eyes and goes back into the skull.

My plan is to crate an animatic of my idea as, I feel that I can include a lot more in an animatic than I could with the 20 panel limited given to the story board.

EDIT: Unfortunately, I didn’t make the top list. Though I did enjoy creating the animatic.