Weekly Reflection for Client Project

1. Weekly Reflection

2. Week 1

3. Day 1
• Today marked the beginning of creating my animation. I decided that I would start the production in
chronological order, which according to my storyboard was a sequence focusing on a fox. The fox
would run towards the camera and pass it on the right, spraying mud onto the ‘lens’.
• The first step as according to my planning was to create a rough sketch of the frames. I would begin
my sketching out four important frames that wouldn’t be immediately connected to each other. This
would give me a rough idea of where I wanted the fox to be at different times in the sequence, thus
ensuring that the fox would stay on the correct course. This is a method that I found to be extremely
useful, as it prevented the need to make large alterations to the sequence to fix mistakes after I had
finished. I will use this technique in the other sequences I create as well. To follow this up, I sketched
the in-between frames. This brought the sequence up to 18 frames, each lasting 0.08 seconds. This
worked well to give the sequence a smooth look without it being two short, as the roughly two
second length (excluding the photo I plan to add) is about how long I want the shot to last.
• The sketches gave me a rough outline of the fox that allowed me to focus on getting the movements
correct rather than making it look good artistically. I was then able to refine the sketch by creating
separate layers that used a thicker brush to create a single smooth outline. The addition of colour
with shading worked well to support this more polished look. I performed this section for each frame
chronologically, adding both the more refined outline and the colour at the same time.
• Overall, I am happy with today’s progress. I believe that I made a solid start to my production which
has allowed me to lay down the groundworks for what the first shot will look like. With some
refinement and added detail, I think that this section of the animation will work well as the opening
piece to the video.

4. Day 2
• Once I was happy with the look of the fox, I went on to creating the background. I
began with a tree, which I carefully drew to ensure that the perspective made sense
with the fox’s run. Nothing in the background used a solid black outline, instead having
outlines made of a darker tone of the object’s main colour. For example, the tree had a
darker brown as its outline. This gives a clear distinction between he fox and the
background whilst also making the different features of the background blend into
each other more naturally. This was especially useful for drawing the grass, as the lack
of black made the blades more seamlessly overlap.
• In addition to the grass in the background I added some blades into the foreground. I
initially left this grass as still images, but I found that they looked extremely out of
place and made the animation seem more stationary. To fix this issue I had the blades
blow in the wind, a simple animation that ensures the sequence is full of movement
without drawing attention away from the fox.
• I am extremely happy with the finalised look of this shot. I believe that the progress
made today has worked wonders in making this first section of the animation set the
bar for the quality of the rest of the piece, and I am looking forward to continuing with
animating. One improvement I would make would be to have a title card and/or
transition at the end of the shot to give the whole production a more understandable
structure and to have this shot flow into the next smoothly. I believe that I will be able
to make these additions later in the project – for the time being, I want to ensure that I
have enough shots to cover everything I want to first.

5. Day 3
• Today I created a short animation featuring a small lizard
appearing from within a log. I started this section by
drawing said log, utilises a range of browns and other dark
colours to add texture to the drawing. By starting with the
log, I would be able to ensure that the lizard’s emergence
properly fit with the real-life photo I intended to use at the
end of the shot.
• Animating the lizard itself wasn’t too difficult, as a lot of it
was covered up by the log. This allowed me to focus on the
movement of the lizard’s legs to give the impression of it
grabbing at the log to pull itself forward. I used simple
colours to make each part of the lizard’s body identifiable.
• Whilst I am happy with the fluidity of this animation, it is
incredibly short in length and I am worried that it will feel
underwhelming when I add the life-image and text. With
more time, I would add additional frames to the animation
to lengthen it whilst still ensuring that it flows smoothly.

6. Week 2

7. Day 1
• Today I completed my little owl animation, a process which involved sketching the general look
of the animation before reefing the look of the frames. To do this, I created an extra layer
dedicated to each frame. I then lowered the opacity of the sketch frames and used coloured
brushes to create more refined designs.
• I began by using a darkish brown to create the general outline of the owl in each frame, and
then used a lighter tone to fill it in using the bucket tool. A light cream colour worked well to
add detail to the feathers whilst also making the owl’s face more prominent. Using a smaller
brush, I used a light shade of brown to create patterns on the inside of the owl’s wings whilst
also adding extra texture to the owl’s face. This process was used for each frame, which I
completed chronologically.
• I am very happy with the finished look of this piece, as although there are only 11 frames, the
animation is smooth and lasts just as long as intended (roughly 1.7 seconds). I believe that I
was successful in showing the owl’s flight path and how the wings turn outwards to slow it
down. I realised that the way that I had the owl flying would cause it to land facing the opposite
direction to the picture that I planned to use with the animation, but I was able to solve this
issue by having the owl turn around on the glove. This actually helped to extend the duration of
the animation in a natural way.
• To improve on this animation I would add some movement to the glove, as little details such as
a small dip when the owl lands on it would help to make it feel more alive rather than just a
piece of the environment. Additionally, this would give the owl’s movement more weight.
Another issue that I spotted whilst making this shot was the large eyes, which are far bigger
that the real animal’s. This could lead to an issue when switching between the hand drawn owl
and the life image, although I will have to see if this is true when I actually add the image in
later.

8. Days 2 & 3
• I began a new animation today, this time focused on a bird eating a berry. This shot ended up being
made up of the most frames so far, consisting of 26 frames. This allowed me to decrease the duration
of each frame to 0.05 seconds instead of 0.08, making the animation flow more smoothly.
• Unlike the owl animation, this shot focuses more on the movement of the bird’s head rather than its
entire body. Whilst the owl was flying towards the glove, this bird is instead stationary and reaching
down to pick up a berry. I wanted to put more emphasis on how the head’s movement would affect
the outline of the body, with the front and back of the neck scrunching up differently depending on
where the head is. I feel that I was successful in doing this, as the skin and feathers appear to fold on
top of each other in a gradual and realistic way.
• To add a greater sense of movement to the animation, I decided to have the bird bite at the cherry a
bit before throwing it up into the air and catching it in its mouth. To make this seem less jarring, I
made sure to have the bird move its head downwards before launching the berry upwards to give
the overall movement a sense of build-up. I plan the edit the speed of this section of the shot in
Adobe Premiere to make the throwing of the berry have more momentum behind it.
• I used the same plan when creating this animation as I did for the previous ones – beginning by
sketching each frame with blue ink. This let me focus on getting the movements right rather than the
quality of the drawing. After the 26 frames were sketched, I began to recreate the drawings in higher
detail and with colour. I was only able to do the first 10 frames today, but I am extremely happy with
how they turned out. The minimalist art style used fits with the other shots of the animation whilst
still having enough detail to make the different features of the bird understandable. Additionally,
these details throw well between frames, meaning there is nothing suddenly added or taken away
between frames. The heavy use of blue in this birds design as well as its larger beak makes it contrast
heavily with the design of the owl, allowing the two to stand out despite them both being birds.
• A way to improve today’s work would be to ensure that the beak of the bird keeps a more consistent
shape in the later frames, as it starts to become more round as the animations goes on. Whilst this is
something I can fix when I recreate the later frames, having the beak be consistent in the sketches
would make this process easier.

9. Week 3

10. Day 1
• I began production on a new animated section today, the focus being on a small pod of penguins idle next to a body of water. I sketched the background and the body
of water on separate layers to the penguins to allow me to make edits to each more easily. This included moving the background/water upwards alongside 3 of the
penguins whilst one penguin moved down to give an impression of the camera moving down under the water. I created sketch layers in order to try out this technique
before dedicating too much time to it in case it wouldn’t work. The process of animating four separate creatures whilst also moving the camera was initially quiet time
consuming, although as I continued to make frames I was able to better understand how each frame should move, making the process more efficient. I was able to
sketch the first 13 frames today, and I plan to create more this Thursday.
• I am happy with how this shot has gone so far, as I feel that the planned cinematography is interesting and allows for a lot of dynamic movement. I feel that I have
been able to accurately depict the movement of the penguins, including more noticeable movements such as walking into the water as well as smaller things like
cleaning feathers.
• An issue that I faced with today’s work was time, as the large number of moving features of the animation required more time than my other pieces. The only solution
to this issue is to dedicate additional time to working on the shot to ensure that I have enough time for my other works.
• I believe that I made good progress today in setting the basic look of this shot, at least in regards to the penguins themselves. I am still unsure of how exactly I will give
the impression of the camera going underwater, an issue that I will try to tackle tomorrow.

11. Day 2
• Today marked the continuation of my penguin animation, which began with the finishing off of the sketched frames. This involved
creating the visual of the camera going underwater as the primary penguin dove down into it, a technique that I initially found
tricky as I wasn’t sure how to position the water’s surface to create this effect. After a few trial and errors, I believe that I was able
to make the water realistically move over the screen to depict the ‘lens’ submerging. To improve the look of this camera
movement, I added bubbles underwater that appear when the camera begins to move downwards. This gives a more realistic look
for when the camera breaks through the surface. Additionally, I am happy with how the penguin transitions from being above
water to underneath, as the movement flows smoothly whilst splash particles depict it breaking through the water’s surface. I
believe that I was able to overcome the worry mentioned in yesterday’s reflection in regards to the aforementioned transition
underwater.
• A way to improve this animation would be to add a wake for when the penguin is beginning to move through the water. This
would create a more realistic look for the piece whilst also helping to emphasise the penguin’s forward motion. Additionally,
adding more detail underwater would help to ensure the end of the sequence doesn’t look under detailed. If I had a little more
time I would add a couple framed that show the penguin building up to its propulsion underwater, as its transition from breaking
through the surface to travelling towards the camera is quite abrupt.

12. Day 3
• I wanted to add a predator to my animation to ensure I had an animal that
appeals to the traditional young male demographic (according to my
research). I decided that a polar bear would fit this role as not only is it a well
known zoo/wildlife conservation predator, but its large and round frame
gives it heavy contrast with the birds I have included before it.
• The animation entails the bear shaking itself dry, an animation which I found
tricky to create due to the small and quick changes in the direction of the
bear’s movements. To ensure that it was easy to distinguish between the left
and right set of legs, I made the two further away from the camera a darker
grey/cream. I felt that it wasn’t too obvious what the bear was doing, so I
decided to add water particles to the animation, having them fling off the
bear’s fur into the air before dissipating. I am happy with how these added
particles improved the look of the animation, as on top of making the bear’s
movements more understandable, they move fluidly and the way they fade
off the screen gives the realistic impression of them dispersing.
• To improve on this animation I would add more movement to the
surrounding area, as due to the bear ,only taking up a small fraction of the
screen, the sequence appears a bit stationary.

13. Week 4

14. Day 1
• This week’s beginning marked the creation of the final segment of my
animation – a side-on shot of a bus travelling down a road. The
inclusion of this piece is to directly address the young-adult
demographic of York by informing them of the cheap and accessible
transport available to get to conservations in the area. Lines were a
heavy focus in this animation, as they can be used to give an idea of
the speed and direction of the bus's movement. One use of this was
on the bus’s wheels, where I used curved lines to show their spin.
• To give the bus more movement, I had its main body move up and
down in a cycle four frames long. Additionally, by having clouds and
grass move towards the left, I was able to give the impression of the
bus speeding along the road rather than staying still with some
moving wheels.
• Whilst I am overall happy with how this shot looks, I noticed an issue
where the top-right cloud has a bit of a jarring movement when the
4-frame cycle starts again. Adding a 5th frame to the cycle could fix
this issue if I draw the cloud closer to the right side of the screen to
simulate a ‘new’ cloud being passed by the bus. However, this could
cause issues in the bus’s animation as the spin of the wheels and the
movement of the chassis have been made in accordance to 4 frames.

15. Day 2
• I started to add the still images and overlaying text to my animations today,
starting with the bus shot. As I had no still image to add to this section, I simply
implemented the text above the moving bus. To create the text, I downloaded a
custom font from the internet and edited it in Photoshop. These edits included
giving the text a black colour whilst also adding a white back-drop to accentuate it.
I had initially tried red text, but I found this to be to jarring compared to the black
and white images that I was using elsewhere in the animation, where this style of
text would also be present.
• I used the phrase; ‘Low-cost, accessible transport’ as a means of appealing to the
young adult demographic, as many don’t have access to their own vehicle and
likely don’t have an excess of money to throw around.
• In order to prevent the text from feeling stagnant, I made it so that each letter
appeared in succession. To do this, I created each letter on a separate layer, each
of which would appear one-by-one in the upcoming frames, adding to the letters
already shown.
• I continued this technique with the next two shots, the little owl and the lizard. As I
did have still images for these shots, I began the process by deciding where I could
best fit these pictures into the animations. I came to the belief that the images
worked best at the end of each shot, and so added them to each section
respectively. I added an additional hand-drawn frame into the owl animation to
have it better flow into the still image, as its position on the screen was a little to
the left of where it should have been. Adding the text for both of these shots
followed the same technique as used for the bus shot.
• In the owl animation, I used the phrase ‘Learn about a whole new world of animals’
to appeal to young people’s desire to learn new things. Additionally, I decided to
use this phrase with the owl animation due to the animal’s common association
with knowledge and wisdom. As for the lizard, I used the phrase ‘Explore a variety
of habitats’. I did this to appeal again to people’s want to learn about new things,
and the word ‘Explore’ makes the task appear more exciting.

16. Day 3
• Today I continued the process of adding life-images and text. The next shot that I
worked on was the toucan, where I chose to implement the life-image near the
beginning of the animation. I did this to give a bit more variety to the placement
of these images, as I felt that if they were all at the end then the animation would
become too predictable and uninteresting. The phrase ‘See a different side of
York’ doesn’t particularly correlate with the animal, but I chose to specifically
mention York to ensure that the audience of the city knows that this video is
directed at them.
• For the penguin animation, I implemented the life-image right at the start, before
any actual animation. I made this decision to ensure that the movement of the
penguin going underwater wouldn’t be interrupted. The text reads ‘Discover a
huge range of exotic animals’, a phrase which is less to do with the audience and
more to just show off how many fascinating animals these conservations have.
The next and final shot worked on was the polar bear. I decided that I would need
to place the life-image before the polar bear starts to shake, as interrupting this
sequence would make its shaking more jarring as opposed to a natural fluid
movement. As mentioned in my research and planning, I want this animation to
mention the endangered species of the world as well as how the audience can
help in protection efforts. I decided that a polar bear would be the perfect animal
for this due to its well-known endangerment. With this in mind, I added the
phrase ‘Lend your hand to help endangered species’. I specifically used the word
‘your’ in order to directly address the audience and make them feel that we want
them specifically to help, making them feel more attached to the idea.

17. Day 4
• Today I focused on refining my animation to ensure that it would be of the best
quality I could get it to.
• I added a title to the first shot of the animation to give the video a stronger
structure whilst also making it immediately obvious to the audience what the
video will be about. To create this title, I downloaded a custom font off Dafont
and edited it in Photoshop, adding backdrops and colour effects. Whilst I
experimented with using the textures of a fox over the text, I believe that a
simple orange tone works better to give the text a more prominent aesthetic.
Additionally, the orange still fits with the fox’s colour scheme. I added a few
frames to the end of the fox animation in which it goes off screen. With the
blades of grass still moving, I used the tweening tool to have the title-card fade
onto the screen before fading off. This would be followed by the transition
between this shot and the bus shot that I previously created.
• After exporting each shot as MP4s, I added them into a Premiere file. I put each
shot in its general position in the animation before altering their speeds in order
to give them a good balance of duration on screen and fluidity between frames.
Doing this involved cutting each shot into separate bits so that I could alter the
text sections and animation sections separately.
• I proceeded to add a copyright free song to the animation that I downloaded
from Bensounds. I simply dragged this song onto the animation timeline and
edited the end so that the song would die down at the same time as the
animation comes to an end. I had to ensure that there wasn’t an abrupt change
in the song’s tune an volume, so I took a few attempts to find a good spot to
add the ending to. After watching the whole animation through to ensure I was
happy with it, I exported the video and thus ended my production.
• Overall, I feel that I was able to get a lot done today. I am happy that I was able
to get the animation finished before the end of college and feel that the
resulting animation is of good quality. My only issue is that I feel that more
transitions between shots would have allowed the animation to flow more
smoothly, something that I would have definitely done had I had more time.