The document provides an evaluation of the animated short "Jeremy the Monkey". It summarizes the technical and creative aspects of the animation. Technically, the walk cycle and parallax scrolling background were effective despite the jerky motion. Creatively, the character Jeremy displays human traits for humor. The animation was influenced by Jim Davis' exaggerated cartoon style and aims to appeal to teenagers through slapstick humor, surprising scenes, and colorful yet simple visuals.

1. ANIMATION - EVALUATION
‘JEREMY THE MONKEY’
Mel Ruvolo
Sunday, 29 June 14

2. Technical Quality
Walk Cycle
The walk cycle I created worked well in the sense that it was made in simple slide by slide animation
instead of a 3D structured animation.This makes it very jumpy but was the sketched theme i was
going for.
Parallax Scrolling
My three layer parallax scrolling background worked effectively with the walk cycle to create a well
structured scenery which also moved at a consistent speed to match my character Jeremy. It ran
smoothly as each layer had a different speed to separate the background from foreground.
Shot Types
I used a minimal amount of shots because it was a simple and short sequence. I repeated a long shot
of Jeremy in the setting of an island and also various close ups so that I could focus on detail and
enhance Jeremy’s facial features.
Snappy Motion
The snappy/ jerky motion does give it a slight amateur look, but I decided to purposely use this
theme to give the animation a sketched style to match with the background’s drawn features.
Sunday, 29 June 14

3. Creative Quality
Characterisation
From the portrayal of Jeremy the monkey in my animation he carry’s mainly human
characteristics, which was easy to create as he is shaped after a monkey.As he is the
main and only character in my animation there is no distraction from his actions
making him centre of attention and the humour of the sequencer.
Script
As it is such a short sequence which included no dialogue at all, a script was not
needed. Instead I created a storyboard to refer to.
Sunday, 29 June 14

4. Professional Influences and
Comparisons
James Davis is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the highly
successful comic strip Garfield, which has been published since 1978 and grew to
become the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. Davis's other comics
work includesTumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, U.S Acres and a strip about Mr. Potato
Head.
From Jim Davis’s artwork I have incorporated his over exaggerated facial features
used in his creating of Garfield.Although his comic strip’s are much neater that
JeremyThe Monkey, the idea of an animal having complete human characteristics
has really influenced my design.
I could have used After effects to create a more structure character with more
fluent features and movements like the Garfield cartoon. Using Photoshop I made
a slide by slide style animation which gave my character less soft features and
more of a scruffy and jolted style.
Sunday, 29 June 14

5. Appeal To Target Audience
When creating my animation I decided on aiming it toward people the same age as me, around 17 years old. I decided
this because I could understand what they would want to see in a short cartoon.While designing the animation I
realised that it could also be aimed at a younger audience because of the slapstick style action of my character ‘Jeremy
The Monkey’.
Humour
The main feature of humour that I have used is ‘Slapstick’ which includes clumsy foolish action such as falling over.Also
the fast and chopped scenes give the animation a surprising affect on the viewer.
Characters
Being a monkey my character carry’s human characteristics as well as that of a monkey, which relates him to the
audience in a comical way. It also becomes more interesting when the characters in an animation are animals and has
become very popular in children's cartoons.
Visuals
I have used very a simple and brief title and credit sequence keeping it a short compact animation, not letting it drag on
and become boring to the audience.This helps to keep the audiences attention throughout the sequence.Appealing to a
target audience aged 13-17 I have used colourful yet not over complicated visuals making easy to watch.
Sunday, 29 June 14

6. Software
Photoshop
In Photoshop I used a graphics tablet to firstly draw out the three slides for my parallax scrolling background
plus each slide that was needed for my characters walk cycle and animation.The process began by sketching
out the outline of the image followed by filling them with colour. I found that photoshop was the easiest
way to create my animation as I was familiar with the program, so the process wasn't too strenuous.
Final cut Express
After creating each part of my animation in Photoshop and exporting it as a mov. file I then imported it into
Final Cut Express to put each clip together as a complete sequence.With each layer of the background I
could effectively create a parallax scrolling background for the walk cycle. I used Final Cut Express because as
well as Photoshop I was familiar with the program and i knew how to utilise the features to create my
animation.
Sunday, 29 June 14