Will Anderson reflects on the first week of planning and producing his animation project. He created the beginning of a fight sequence showing characters' looks and abilities. He drew rough outlines, added color and shading, and finished one shot. Future shots will involve punching and a character with a flying plane. Careful planning of layers and motion helped capture momentum. Overall, he is happy with his progress but will add more movement.

1. Weekly Reflection
Will Anderson

2. Week 1 – Initial Plans + Proposal
How do you feel about writing your proposal?
I feel comfortable and prepared to write my proposal, as my initial plans as well as my own previous work have allowed me to fully look through my potential ideas, as
well as any limitations and issues I may face along the way. Additionally, I am excited to be fully planning out a project of my own ideas, as I feel like I am finally bringing
my work to life.
How did your mood board and influences inform your proposal?
My mood boards provided a rough idea of what techniques and features I could include in my production. By looking these over, I could use my proposal to go into
more depth about how doable they would be. Additionally, I was able to create a schedule for my work, outlining what I would be doing each week whilst going into
detail about each task. By looking over my influences, I was able to create my own ideas inspired by the different works and creators. This will allow me to create an
original product that utilises different techniques that multiple real life products use to appeal to their target demographics.
On top of creating mood boards, I also created mind maps so that I could explore different potential features that I could include in my project. This included colours,
themes, movements and also what other work I could do to accompany my animation e.g. still art. I found these mind maps useful for coming up with a definite idea for
my production.
What could you do to improve this work?
To improve my initial plans, I would add more images to my Creators mood board to make it more visually appealing, although I would make sure not to add too much
as to not make the text appear unimportant. Furthermore, I would ensure that I created all my mind maps using Bubbl.us, as unlike other mind-map website, Bubble.us
allows you to export your work, allowing for clearer images. To improve my Proposal I would add more statistical information to back up my claims about my target
audience. Whilst this is present in my Research slide, by adding some extra detail to my Proposal I would be able to further ensure that what I am stating is correct.
Additionally, I would add more research about the audio behind different openings, as this would help with both creating the intended tone as well as syncing the music
up with the visuals.
Do you think you have enough knowledge to proceed?
I believe I do, as I have plenty of my own previous work that I can use for reference and inspiration when creating my project on top of all the existent products and
techniques I have looked into through my Initial Plans. I believe that I have a good knowledge and plans regarding colour, backgrounds, character design, and –thanks
to my previous work with audio; sound mixing/editing.
What further research do you need to do?
Has your idea developed as you have worked on it? If so, how?
Throughout the creation of my own characters, their designs have gone through many changes in order to create appealing looks that complement the characters’
personalities. Additionally, the decision to add extra products such as posters and box-art has come up as I have researched existing products.

3. Week 2 & 3 – Pre-Production
• This largely entailed of creating character designs that I would potentially use in my animation. In order to show my
understanding of how different factors of a design are used, I created some slides to demonstrate how shapes and colours
are used in design. These slides go into depth about how colours and shapes on their own portray different factors as well as
how combining multiple shapes and colours can create different meanings within just a single or even multiple characters.
• What has worked well in your planning?
I believe that I have successfully shown off the different character designs I have created whilst also explaining why I have
included certain feature in them and what their intended meaning is. On each page which displays a design, I showed the
important colours that were used in their designs alongside them and added text explaining what this means in this design and
why I used it. To make sure I could go further in depth into my designs, I added extra slides after them which explain further what
choices I made.
I was also able to create a continency plan and a health & safety assessment, both of which allowed me to be more organised and
prepared for when the time came to being my production. Furthermore, I outlined the resources that I would be needing to
create my project as well as why I needed them. This included both software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and hardware, such as a
graphics tablet. Below the table I labelled how I was going to ensure that I have all these things as well as what skills and
techniques I have learned in my time working with them. This slide is useful for ensuring that I will be fully prepared for when I
need to begin animating.
I made sure to include planning regarding the side projects that I intended to work on alongside my main animation. These
visually show what I intend to create whilst the accompanying text weighs the pros and cons of creating something in this style as
well as why I chose these certain things.
The storyboard I created, although simple, helped to give me a rough idea of what I intent to include in my animation. Whilst
some changes may occur, the general idea will remain the same. This storyboard focuses on the basic look the different segments
in the animation as well as the movements I intend to use.

4. Week 2 & 3 – Pre-Production
• What things have you still got to work on?
I still need to further refine my storyboard, as although it shows what I intend
to do movement-wise, it doesn’t show any time stamps or colour. A way to
solve this problem whilst also adding more to what I have already created
would be to create an animatic, which would more accurately and clearly
portray the time stamps I intend to use.
Additionally, there were some character design explanations that I feel I could
add more detail to. Furthermore, there may be some characters that I end up
including in my final piece that I didn’t display here. To fix this, I can add their
designs and details about them into my pre-production in the time provided
to improve on previous work.

5. Week 2 & 3 – Pre-Production
• Have you got a production schedule? How useful do you think it will be?
I created a production schedule which outlines what I intend to do in each week of my
production. This schedule divides the time I have into either producing or editing. This will
ensure that I have plenty of time to do both. Furthermore, I have taken into consideration
that I may finish with time left over. I have included that I will use this time to create
additional work e.g. posters to accompany my main animation.
I made sure to add small details to my schedule to ensure that I add small details that will
make my product more professional e.g. smooth transitions. These small details will make
the final piece much better when added together.
This schedule, in conjunction with my contingency planning, ensures that I will be able to
complete my work even in the event of issues arising. This is done to detailing what I will do
to prevent and counteract these actions and well as showing that I fully intend to spend
time outside of college working on my project so that I can have it done in time to the
highest quality.

6. Week 2 & 3 – Pre-Production
• How often, if at all, will you review your planning production?
I fully intend to refer back to my initial plans, proposal,
experiments and pre-production when conducting my practical
work. This will ensure that I stick to what I intended to create in
the first place whilst also ensuring that my work reflects what
influenced it e.g. clothes designs.
It will be especially important to refer back to my character
designs and storyboard, as these will be the basic building blocks
of my production. Consistency in designs and movements is
imperative to create an appealing animation.

7. Week 2 & 3 – Pre-Production
• Has anything gone wrong because of poor planning before? Is anything likely to go
wrong now?
I have previously had issues with meeting deadlines for smaller work within the production
e.g. finishing a certain piece of an animation. This is due to creating weak and flexible
schedules. I have counteracted this by created a far more detailed schedule within my
proposal and pre-production to ensure that I finish each piece of the production within a
deadline.
In my music video project, I wasn’t able to start getting footage until quite late due to my
poor planning. In order to avoid this issue, I made sure to begin production as soon as
possible. Due to having all the resources required already prepared, I had no issue with
beginning whenever I wanted this time round. This is thanks to my Resources slide found in
my pre-production, which lists and explains what I will need.
As previously mentioned, the combination of my contingency planning, schedule and
health& safety risk assessment ensure that I am prepared for any counterable issue that
may arise. By ensuring that I can work from home, I counteracted the threat of not being
able to get into college. The only issue that may arise is if I somehow got extremely ill,
which I have no signs of.

8. Week 2 & 3 – Pre-Production
• What have you learned during the planning stages of this
work?
I have learned that due to my extended time with my own work,
I have a baseline of already having a good idea of what I intend
to create. Furthermore, I have learned how important it is to
have a strong and detailed schedule as well as contingency plan,
as these will allow me to finish my work in the allotted time by
simply following what I intend to do.

9. Daily Reflection – Week 1 Day 1
I began my production by deciding on a sequence
that I would focus my attention on. I decided that
this beginning sequence would be of characters
performing some combative actions with give an
initial impression of their looks and abilities. The
reason for starting here was that the movements
that I had planned here were some of the more
complex ones I indented to include, so by
beginning here I would be able to put all my
energy into ensuring they were as good as
possible. Additionally, this sequence takes place
somewhere in the middle of the animation, so by
beginning here I have a middle point already
decided on, making it easier to structure what I
create next.
I started this sequence by drawing a rough outline of the frames in the first shot of this sequence. This sketch allowed me to create a more refined
outline now that I had an idea of the frame for the images. I made sure to run the animation through whenever I added a new frame to check for
any inconsistencies or choppy animation. Once I had finished the defined outlines for the frames in the shot and I was happy with the look of the
animation, I added the basic colour to the images. By referring back to my pre-production, I was able to ensure that the colour theory in these
shots was consistent with what I had planned. Once I had finished the base colour, I decided on the location of a hypothetical light source and
added shading based on it. Adding shading not only makes the images look better, but also gives a better idea of motion as the shadows move with
the character, thus changing shape against the light. By working not only in college but also at home, I was able to finish an entire shot with all the
detail I intended to include. This included a background, which I added on once I had finished animating the character completely. As a means of
transitioning between the shot before this one to this, I added a part of the figure that I plan to use in the previous one to show a connection
between the two. Aditionally, this allows for a smooth transition that feels natural with what is occuring on screen.
The white here is used to show the
bullet’s momentum whilst also
acting as remnants of smoke left
from the gun’s barrel
The movement of the smoke and
lighting around the bullet over the
sequence show the suddenness and
power of the gun’s shot

10. Daily Reflection – Week 1 Days 2&3
• Today I began work on the second shot in the
sequence, which consisted of a character
punching towards the camera. This
animation worked very differently to the
previous one, as it required far more layers
to be involved in each frame. This was due to
the fists having to be drawn on separate
layers to the main body. My reason for doing
this was so I could add a blur effect to these
fist layers, which gave a better sense of
momentum than simply drawing motion
lines around the fists.
• For the basic drawing of the main body and
fists, I followed the same outline as in the
previous animation in day 1. To ensure that it
felt like the whole body was involved with
the punching movement, I made sure to have
the body move with each frame. I not only
made the general body move, but also
changed the positioning of the features on it
to give the impression of the arms moving at
different angles.
Whilst I found this shot particularly time consuming to create, I feel happy with the results.
The frames runs smoothly and naturally into one another and the character’s design is
recognisable in each frame. An issue that I ran into was that adding the blur effect to the fist
layers look a while to render, leading to me being forced to stop working on the animation at
regular intervals. However, I decided to take this time to rest my eyes and walk around in
order to not cause any minor injuries.
The fists are each created on separate layers to
allow me to blur each of them to different
amounts. This prevents each fist from looking
too similar whilst showing the different speeds
and motions of each independent fist.
The strong shadows used in
the drawing help to make it
more aesthetically pleasing.
Additionally, they help to
make certain features of the
drawing, such as the face,
stand out more to the
viewer.

11. Daily Reflection – Week 1 Day 4• The next animation that I planned to make
would involve two separate entities moving at
the same time. An issue that can arise in doing
this is that if the same layers are used to draw
both entities, they could appear to be moving
at the exact same rate, which in this scenario
would make the animation feel unpolished. To
avoid this, I used separate layers to animate the
different things. I first created all the
animations needed for the character, which
mainly consists of their clothes and hair moving
in the wind. I named these layers Frame 1,
Frame 2 etc. To animate the focus of this shot,
which is the plane flying around the person, I
created a separate group of layers that I would
name Plane 1, Plane 2 etc. This prevented any
confusion from arising if I ever needed to go
back and edit certain layers.
• Another challenge that I faced was making the
plane have a sense of powerful momentum.
Due to there not really being any background
to compare the object’s movement to, I had to
come p with another way to show its speed. To
do this, I added lighting and smoke behind its
engines which would alter in shape and size to
show how fast it was going in certain moments.
Furthermore, I included less frames once the
plane had flown past the person in order to
give it a sense of suddenly increasing in speed.
Here, the smoke and lighting changes appearance to show
the different stages of flight the plane is in. The way that
they disperse after the first frame show how this is a
sudden burst of speed.
Overall, I am happy with how this shot turned out. I feel that each
shot I have done so far has had its own unique feature which I
believe keeps the animation feeling fresh and interesting. The
background used is fitting to the character whilst not making it
difficult to make out the person’s design. An improvement that I
would make would be to add extra movement to the character’s
animation, as it appears a little too idle compared to the plane. A
way of doing this would be to add more movement to the hair.
By having the plane fly around the
character, it adds an extra dimension to the
animation, making it feel more realistic.

12. Daily Reflection – Week 2 Day 1
• I wanted my next shot to have an interesting
transition from the previous shot. This would
need to be well animated whilst making sense
in the context of the characters. I decided that
a good way of doing this would be to involve
metallic clackers and rotating spheres, things
with are representative of their respective
characters. I wanted the clackers to clash
together, covering most of the screen. This
would allow me to make a change in the
background which wouldn’t appear too
jarring. As the clackers bounce off each other,
then transform into rotating spheres. This,
alongside the changed background, give a
clear idea that the focus is changing to a
different character. Upon these spheres
appearing, pink lighting is shown. This lighting
moves independently to the rest of the
animation. I added this lighting in as a
representation of what these spheres do as
well as acting as a way of showing a clear
difference between the spheres and the
clackers. The character themselves moves
onto the screen from below before
disappearing off to the right. The lighting and
spheres still act in this time.
As the drawing of the character involved in this shot is a close-up
of their face, I decided to add extra detail to improve the quality
of the artwork. I am happy with how this entire shot turned out,
and I enjoy the transition between the previous shot and this
one. If I have enough time, I will add similar transitions to the
other shots in this sequence to ensure it is as fluid as possible.
Shading is used to make the hair appear to move with
the spinning motion of the spheres. This helps to give
an idea of how the spheres are moving as well as to
show the character’s connection to them.
The grittier darker pink around the spheres move with
each frame, showing the spinning motion of the balls. This
also helps to show a greater different between the balls
and the clackers previously seen.

13. Daily Reflection – Week 2 Day 2 & 3For this part of the sequence, I actually remade the animation
completely on the second day of working on it. This was because
although I was happy with the actual animation, I wanted to change
the character’s design in order to make it look better. This mainly
entailed ensuring that the character looked more similar from
different perspectives. Additionally, I made slight changes to their
design, so making these changes was necessary to keep the look
consistent with the design in my pre-production. Similar to the
punching animation I previously created, this shot utlisises a fist
travelling towards the screen. However, this time round the there
was a visual representation of the fist being attached to the body,
whilst the previous punching animation simply showed them as
separate entities. This meant that I had a direct method of showing
the motion of the fist instead of having to add a significant amount
of blur as I did before. I also utilised the technique used in the
shooting animation for showing a sudden burst of speed – the
smoke/shockwave ring. Although its presence is only brief, I found it
very useful in my shooting animation for representing the bullet’s
path of flight. In order to have it seem less powerful that a bullet
being fired, I shortened the duration that I would use the
shockwave when adding it to this animation. I am happy with how
the fist’s motion turned out, although I would have added more
blur to it If I were to improve it, as I think a slight amount would
have made it seem more authentic.
As a way of transitioning to the next shot, I added an opening zipper when the fist makes impact with the screen. This opens t
reveal the background that I plan to use in the next shot. I had trouble finding a good duration for this bit of animation, as I
wanted it to be quick enough for it not to take away from the fast motion of the sequence whilst not occurring so fast that it’s
barely noticeable. I believe that I found a duration that works well in this situation, although the end of the unzipping animatio
seems a bit too quick compared to the first part of it. A solution to this would be to add additional frames to the last part of th
unzipping, as I could always speed up the animation in adobe premiere if need be.
Here is an example of the slight change in character design.
Although the changes aren’t too major, it is important to keep
the character designs consistent with what I created in the pre-
production.
The shockwave and blur used to show motion in the
animation. I added the blur behind the fist as a wy
to show where it had previously been. To improve
on this, I would slightly blur the fist itself to
represent air resistance acting on it.
One of the outlines used in my animation. The
heavy use of black in the air creates a strong
contrast between the blue hair and the
background.
One of the frames of the opening
zipper. The green background will act
as the background for the next shot,
and the unzipping transition acts as a
smooth way to cut between shots.

14. Daily Reflection – Week 2 Day 4

15. Daily Reflection – Week 3 Day 1
This week began the creation of a new sequence, one that I had been eager to do
since I had planned it out in my storyboard. This sequence involved two people
facing off against each other, allowing me to create some interesting movements.
I followed the same creation outline as I had for my previous sequence, beginning
with the general sketch of what I wanted to create.
I divided this sequence into two main bits, the first of which I made today. This
involved the main antagonist and his ability charging towards the ‘camera’. In
order to display the intense motion of this movement, I added in some pink
lighting once I had finished the main drawing. This gave a sense of direction as
well as power in the movement. Furthermore, the use of pink for this lighting
provides strong contrast with the black and yellow of the ability’s design, making
it stand out amongst the colours. I used a faded brush with a lower opacity for
the lighting so that it didn’t completely block out the main aspect of the
animation. Additionally, this weaker opacity makes it seem more like it is actually
lighting instead of a physical object. I plan to add powerful SFX to make this
animation even more bombastic.
Inspired by my previous cuts, I made sure to have the screen get split in two in
this shot to allow for a smooth transition to the next part of the sequence.