My Finished Animation!

My Cell Animation
I finally finished my animation. The animation last for 29 seconds. I'm quite happy with the final results. However there are a few things which I wish I did differently. For example, I should of used a tripod to get an accurate shot of each frame. I'm extremely happy with how the colours of each frame work and how they move on to the next frame smoothly. And I'm glad I used stop motion and cell animation together in my animation. I think the 2 types of animations work quite well and also it makes the animation a bit different.


What I have learnt: Softwares...
Looking back I do think I should of added more scenes of dancing and looked a bit more into the movement, not only in the wing action but body movements. Because the animation was made up from a cell animation, it was much easier to produce my animation using Istopmotion and Imovie. Because it made it simpler to insert all the frames after editing the frames on photoshop and then adding the music. I know how to create movement using After Effects, but because I wanted to make a cell animation, I thought it'll be easier to just photograph each frame and produce it using Istopmotion and Imovie.


Final Outcome:
Overall I'm really happy with my final animation and I've loved doing Print to Pixel. I've learnt some valuable skills from this project and hope to carry on this type of graphics in future projects.

Here is a screen shot of me combining together all the scenes and the music. I had to adjust the timing of some of the scenes just so it could fit in the 20-30 second time margin. 

Final Scene: Baby Bird

These are the final few frames of my animation. Its the part of the storyboard where the 2 birds are joined by a baby bird. And when beside each other shows the colours of the brazilian flag. Using the same flying technique from frames I used before, I included the same manhood into my final few frames. Making it easier to finish. I first had to show the new bird into the animation, so I had to leave about 2.5 seconds for the bird to be shown then its goes onto the ending where the parents join the baby bird and the animation ends!


I found it very difficult deciding how to put the introductory credits, showing the title. Because I already had the song in the background go according to the timing of the frames. So by including an extra few seconds with the introduction credits, it ruined the timing of the birds dancing with the music. So in the end I decided to include the credits on to the actual animation, in the first scene as well as the end scene.


Here is my development, which shows my workings on the final few frames of my animation.....

This is the final outcome for the scene before the actual ending of the animation...

And this is the next scene straight after. Same principles however the bird parents joins the baby bird.

Scenes 1-6....

These are all the scenes from my storyboard done so far. I think its going quite well. I have roughly around 6 to 8 seconds left in my animation, which again is plenty of time to finish my final 2 scenes in my animation. I had to adjust the sound in the background from the last time i combined my scenes, because I had to keep the music in key so when the birds start dancing the music starts!!!

Scene 6- stop motion animation

I really like doing cell animation but find it too be a long process. So I thought I'll include another type of animation into the animation i'm doing presently. Mainly because I wanted to experiment with different types of animation but also see how they work together. So I tried out an stop motion animation using the software 'I can Animate', where a love heart is formed from being crippled up. I think it looks quite effective and is a good experiment.


I also think the scene which the stop motion heart is included in works well because the next scene will be more of a surprise in the storyboard.


Before I made my final piece I tested out an experiment without he crippled paper opening and closing. I found works quite well and then decided to include this type of animation into my actual animation. I had to however include the same background colour from the cell animation to make it match. So using photoshop, I first took the photographs of each frame and then edited the background with the colour of the sky in the cell animation.

I had to edit each photograph by replacing the background with the colour of all the frames used in the cell animation. It was such a long process but I was really happy with the final outcome.

My final piece.....

Scene 5 & 6 

I then tried matching it with the previous scene to see how the frames would look together. I think it goes quite well. 

Scene 5- There Love

The next scene included frames of the birds flying together upwards, where they are joined together in love. I found it difficult to figure how to include the heart shape in the animation, to show there love. However found when drawing the frames for the wing action, if they were held at a lower point of the frame it'll look like a heart. I next issue was how to colour the heart without effecting the colour of the 2 birds. I later resolved that problem by using the 'motion blur' tool on photoshop, which gave a neater blend with the colours. Instead of just block colours, of yellow, pink and green!


Here I've demonstrated my development by screen shots. Showing the main parts on how I come to making this scene.

I started by drawing when the wings join together and trying to figure out how to blend the colours so as the frames progress it'll turn pink and into the heart.

Because the screen first starts of pink, the heart which i'm making from hand, which open and closes, is going to start of as a full view of the heart and then closes gradually and then reopens again. 

This is the final outcome from all the frames used in scene 5 of my animation......

The purpose of the heart going inwards as the scene finishes, is because I have an idea of having the scene 6 not as cell animation, however in a stop motion type of animation. Where I will create a paper heart and have it unfolding, showing the whole of the heart to a tiny fold up of it and then unfolding itself back again to the show the heart. Then going on to scene 7!!

Scenes 1-4 together!!

These are all the scenes combined so far. I went back to scenes 2 and 3 and edited parts of it again, because there were slight errors with how they were edited on photoshop when adding colour. I believe the animation so far is going quite well i'm especially pleased because the music in the background goes well with each scenes. I have around 12 seconds left for my animation, leaving plenty of time for me to add the other scenes.

Scene 4: The Dancing

The music in the background is now out to kick in, so I've got to start drawing the scenes where the dancing will begin. I found it quite difficult to figure out what dance movements should be included in the animation. Because I didn't want to make it hard for myself because I might of messed up the animation. So basically I drew simple arm movements, in this case wing movements as well as leg movements, which go from left to right and up and down. I tested this to see if it would work and it did! Here is the prototype I first did before making the actual dancing part of the animation.

Because it worked I then applied it to my animation, however this is the first dance movements to kick in with the music. There will be more dance movements as the scenes progress.  Here is the development however of this scene, but in colour.

This is the final outcome of Scene 4:

Scenes 1-3 together!!

These are all the scenes I've done so far. I think the timing and the animation itself goes really well. Just a few things which I can edited later, however the basics is there!

Scene 3: Bird Landing/ 2nd Bird

I've started experimenting the next frames of my animation. Where the bird joins a female bird on the tree branch. I had to test the movement of when the bird which was originally flying in the air, flies down towards the bird on the tree branch.

I found I had to keep the bird wings moving however lower the bird gradually when drawing it. Which made it fluent as the bird flies low towards the branch. So theres 4 frames of the birds wings moving, however another 4 frames just under, which is repeated 5 more times!! 

It was such a long process however I believe the end result is quite good. There were a few mistakes, for instance the last frame just as the bird researches the branch. It wasn't edited properly on photoshop, because i found the other frames in it to be more neater however the last frame is really bold and untidy. 

Here is the development of this frame as well as all the frames combined, from when it started flying gin the air, then slowly flying down and then flying towards the other bird on the branch!! I also included the soundtrack, which I found goes well according to the frames. At the moment the frames go up to 13 seconds, leaving me 17seconds to make the rest of my animation.

Here is a quick sketch of testing how the bird would land on a branch. I found by sketching it, it really helped me when drawing it in the actual animation. 

Here are prints screens of the process I went through to make my animation. Showing that I did in istopmotion and imovie. The reason I used these softwares it because its so much simpler to use in-comparison to Adobe After Effects!

Here's an example of one of the frames in the animation. I wanted the animation to look different, so instead of making the surroundings all perfect, i wanted there just to be main focuses. For example in this   frame, the 2 birds and the Branch!!!

More animation research.....

I wanted to research more animations on tropical birds. I came across this really useful animation of a bird not only landing but dancing!! I love it because the dances moves are quite simple which I intended to do originally for my own animation, but it still looks really effective and funny.

I wanted to find how to draw a bird at different angels. I came across this video of a guy showing us how to draw a bird. I found it really useful and then using this example, I incorporated it into my own style.

Scenes 1-2 together!

This the animation so far. I put the 2 set frames together to test whether the animation is going smoothly. I found there are a few jumps with the movement however seeing as this is a test, I can go back to this later and adjust it. 

I included my soundtrack and found the timing of these frames with the music go well. The music finished just at the point of where my next few frames would begin. 

Scene 2: The bird notices something or someone??

I started on the next few frames, where i experimented the bird flying down from the sky. I found it quite difficult to make the movement go smoothly. At first I thought the drawings I drew of each frame looked quite odd however when i edited them on photoshop, adding colour etc it made it look slightly better.

Here are 2 snapshots which are included in the frames. Just basically showing the difference from where it started and where the frame ended. 

Final outcome scene 2

This is the final animation which was done using imovie. I not entirely happy with how the end product looks because it doesn't flow well. However this is an experiment, so atleast now i know where to work on, when making my actual final animation, where all the frames are joined together! 

My Animation Development: Scene 1 - With Sound & Text

I then finally tried included my chosen song into the animation of my first frame. I also included some text which includes the name of the animation and who produced it.


Here is the song I have to include into my animation, if you would like to listen to it again. I started listening to the song again constantly, so I could remind myself what movements I should be looking for in my animation. After all, my animation includes a lot of movement because its a dance carnival with tropical birds.

FINAL OUTCOME SCENE 1

Scene 1: FLYING

I then edited the original animation by adding colour and making it more cartoon like. I found the colours very effective and brings the animation alive.

Using the 'Threshold' tool on photoshop I was able to make the original picture in black and white, making it easier to add the colours. 

I used bright colours to make it fun looking. I think when all the different elements are combined it looks really effective. I then applied the colours on each frame and then made the animation again using Imovie. I found it much easier to do on IMovie then on Adobe After Effects.

2x frame: 

2 frame:

2 frame:

2x frame:

2x frame:

I did 2 of these frames altogether, so it didn't look like I just duplicated the frame. I wanted to make the wing action different, so it shows a different movement as it flows.