Georgina Whiteley conducted three experiments with digital animation techniques. In the first experiment, she animated twinkling stars by layering single block stars and crossed stars to create a flashing effect. In the second experiment, she animated an orca swimming by copying and rotating layers to create frames of smooth motion with splashes. In the third experiment, she animated a deer running by drawing frames as silhouettes on separate layers and sliding a background. She reflected that she will include the twinkling star effect, smooth character animation techniques, and moving background in her final product.

1. Experiments
Georgina Whiteley

2. Process – Experiment One
First I drew a
background
Of a night sky using
the pencil tool. I
also added a
horizon line using a
dark purple.
To add more to the
background I added
mountains with
different shades of
purple to portray
distance.
Then, I added
simple one block
stars by using a very
light purple and
arranged them to
make them look like
stars.
On another layer, I
added more blocks
on each side of the
star to make them
into crosses.
I made sure to
separate these into
layers to animate
the stars shifting
from a single block
to a cross.
Then, I made a new slide,
one having the crosses on
and the other having them
off, to portray a twinkling
effect. The delay was set
to 0.2 so the flashing
wasn’t aggressive.

3. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
• I liked how the flash worked when the delay was set to 0.2, it made the
transitions quick enough but not aggressive.
• In my final product I will use this flashing technique, except maybe more
detailed instead of a very simple animation of stars.

4. Process – Experiment Two
First, I drew the
background, adding
an ocean, a sunset
and some clouds.
Then, I drew the
first Orca in the
centre to get the
proportions correct,
as well as adding
some splashes.
Then I copied the
layer, rotated it and
turned down the
opacity to go over it
on another layer to
make it less blurry.
This left me with
another frame to
animate the orca. I
repeated this until I
had all the frames I
needed, adding the
splashes each time.
I did the all on
separate layers and
animated it by
hiding all the others
and only allowing
one to be shown
per frame.
I set the timeline to
0 seconds in order
for the movement
to be smooth. In
each frame I un-hid
a layer and re-hid
the one before it.

5. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
• In my final product I will animate chracters like the orca so they have a
smooth motion.
• In addition, I will include small details such as the splashes in this instance
to make the overall animation more believable.
• To Improve I would work more on perspective, as the orca it is a little off.
This will help make the world more immersive.

6. Process – Experiment Three
Before animating, I
drew the
background that
would slide across
the screen, so it’s
1200 x 80 instead of
120 x 80.
I then implemented
this into my 120 x
80 canvas and
animated it so it
would slide along,
using 63 frames so
the deer animation
would loop.
I then drew the first
deer as a silhouette,
shading the further
legs in a darker
colour to make the
animation clearer.
I coped the layer
and lowered the
opacity to use it as
a base for drawing
the next frame.
I did each new
frame on a new
layer, only showing
one per frame in
order to animate.
Finally, I set the
delay speed to 0
seconds so the deer
runs quickly and the
sliding of the
background is
smooth.

7. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
• I really liked the way the background moved and will definitely use that in
my final product.
• I also will use the galloping of the deer animation in my final product,
though refine it a bit so it looks more cohesive and realistic as I wasn’t too
happy with the final run cycle in this experiment.
• To do this I may work on a slightly larger canvas to give more room for
limbs moving and such when drawing a run cycle.