Conclusion

I feel that my final production was very minimal and I feel that I could have done a lot better if I had had a lot more time and tuition on the subject. Overall my idea was solid and I felt that it was a promising project but I feel like my lack of skills have let me down and due to poor time management my project suffered severely.

I have learnt a lot from animating using flash but I can now appreciate how long it does take to form a good solid animation that also plays with perspectives and 3d elements. In the future I think I will be more committed to the development of my animation skills and apply a lot more development time to the project itself.

I have also had a number of technical set backs which have hindered the narrative and overall quality of my piece. These set backs were very hard to avoid and my piece severely suffered for it. I could not borrow a functioning dv video camera from the university and when I did manage to source one else where I could not find the correct software at uni or at home to capture the footage that I needed from the camera.

Third idea

Bellow is some examples of the style of animation I want to create. My idea is to have a little character that emerges from the computer and starts to mess around with the system files on the computer when the user is away from the computer. I kind of toy story ish take on “gremlins” that live in the computer that mess around hide/corrupt files. To combat this little “gremlin” I am thinking there will also be a kind of caretaker that will try and correct what this other character has done so it will be a kind of good and bad or devil and angle type battle going on within the computer.

idea re-think

After experimenting with different animations and expressions with 3d studio max I have unfortunately decided I do not have enough time or the skill required to create the animation I would like. So I am reconsidering my approach to the brief and have decided that it would be better for me to create an animation using a piece of software that I am more confident with. I.e. Adobe Flash. This will allow me to concentrate on the content of my animation rather than doing something complex badly I will b able to do something easy to a higher standard.

textures and objects

Here are some examples of textures I would like to use for the design of my box character.

Test animation

here is a short clip of my attempt of messing around with the facial expressions of my box character.



this was a lot harder than i originally thought it was going to be. but i feel it was effective in conveying a sense of emotion and personality with in the character.

idea selection

Out of the two ideas I have had for this project I have decided to start developing the second one with the box characters as I feel that it has much more depth and personality to it. It also conveys a nice narrative and a kind of classic boy meets girl theme to it that I find interesting as a short story to develop.

second idea storyboard

This storyboard for my second idea I have had has more of a narrative to it rather than just conveying aspects of an object and it characteristics. In the above images is the beginning of the story where a box character unfolds from a shelf in a crowded warehouse. He then begins to wonder around the warehouse searching for something and the camera then zooms in fro a close up of the characters face looking unhappy.


The character then begins to smile and look up towards something, he then reaches up and pulls another box down from the shelf. The other box begins to unfold and it is a girl box. They then wonder hand in had through the warehouse there is then a close up of the two of them from each others point of view spinning around the warehouse performing a type of spiralling dance.


Suddenly the door to the warehouse begins to open and a shadow of someone looking into the warehouse from the door emerges and the two box characters quickly fold up and land in the middle of the floor facing each other smiling.