Project 1 - Autobiographical Animation

Autobiographical Animation - CLICK HERE 

The first project given to us was to create an autobiographical animation around a minute long, to express ourselves as individuals and give a little bit of information about our background and hobbies to our fellow students, as this was the first time we had all technically been in the same room at the same time, due to problems in induction week. Therefore I wanted to give the rest of the class an idea of what kind of person I am, without creating a run of the mill autobiography were I simply stated my likes and dislikes, how I spent my free time, etc.

The secondary goal of this project was to display what animating skills we were bringing to the course, and so I felt the best course of action was to create an animation using the same process and software I had become accustomed to using at college, which was to use a drawing tablet into Photoshop  and then piece the frames together into windows movie maker. Not the best nor the most efficient process in the world, but the one I had used with the limited resources available back home, and hopefully not one I will use exclusively throughout the year.

The inspiration for this project came from old cartoon I watched as a child, here is an example of one cartoon I drew inspiration from, I cannot remember every cartoon that gave me the ideas I had for the plot, as I have forgotten most and only remember small clips from watching them as a child.

Overall, I am pleased with the final animation. From a technical point of view, there are a few things I wish I had the time to correct. I could have had more frames per second to make it run smoother from one scene to another, but with the small time frame left for me to work with (The initial drawing of the character in various positions and backgrounds took longer than anticipated) I began to panic, and want to finish the scenes as fast as possible in order to begin work on another. Although there are some scenes where I am happy with the timing and rate of frames, for example the curtain pull mid way through, and the subsequent reaction from the sun, all of which added to a humorous moment. Another small improvement I could have done was to add sound to the animation. At the time I was focused on simply getting the basic movements and timing completed, and ignored the benefits audio could have done. Even simply adding a song, such as 'Uh! - Fujiya & Miyagi' ( A song I have used in a previous animation with great success) would have given the animation a sense of being more...alive.

Plot wise I am happy with it. I wanted it to be filled with my sense of humour, in order to keep the viewers entertained and fixed on the screen, and is something I believe I accomplished, while at the same time giving them some information on how I enjoy spending some of my days at home (Which doesn't usually involve me playing xbox with a miniature angel and demon resting on my shoulders...obviously). The only problem I found after feedback from the viewers was my drawing of a bin bag, which some misinterpreted for a stomach, although I personally do not see it, I will be sure to make a bin bag look less like a human organ in the future, perhaps making rubbish fall out of the bag and lying around it.