Feedback for my cut out animation

The things that people liked most about the animation was that they way it had been designed with the fruit, it is similar to the game that I took inspiration from, but instead I used a hand that was able to be seen on screen so it looked as if you were looking down on someone playing the game. 

Some of the things that people said could be improved we’re the lighting as it is a little bit dark, I can agree with this as I know that it could do with being lit up. Also someone said that you could see where the paper joins together, I think is shows up because the paper that I used for my background got folded away, but I still decided to use it, so I could have used another piece of paper to avoid this.

 When I asked who the animation was aimed at the responses show that it is primarily aimed at everyone, which is a good thing. As I know that any future animations that I may make, I can look back at this one and know that this sort of animation appeals to everyone.

I lastly asked people to rate this animation on a scale from one to ten and the overall results show that it is rated at a 6.5, which is fair, as the issues with the lighting and the background lets it down.

Feedback for my 3D animation

These are the responses that I got back for my 3D animation.

The things that people liked most about the animation was that they way it had been designed with the food instead of using building blocks or drawings. I have to agree with these responses, as I thought that using food would be something different and a lot of thought went into what foods I could use.

Some of the things that people said could be improved we’re the lighting and the fact that it was a little bit out of focus, I agree with both of these things, it was a little bit dark and the final product did look a little grainy, so if I was to do this animation again, I would make sure that it was lit light enough and it was a bit more in focus.

When I asked who the animation was aimed at the responses show that it is primarily aimed at everyone, which is a good thing. As I know that any future animations that I may make, I can look back at this one and know that this sort of animation appeals to everyone.

I lastly asked people to rate this animation on a scale from one to ten and the overall results show that it is rated at a 7, which is fair, as the issues with the lighting and the focus of the animation its self lets it down.

3D animation - finished product

This is my 3D animation. 

What I like about it: the thing I like most about my animation is that I used food instead of drawn things and I think it makes it look just a little bit different to what normally would be used such as lego bricks or drawn on paper. Another thing that I like about it is the music that I chose to go with it, its the Green Day version of The Simpsons theme song and I think it fits well with my animation as it is more upbeat than the original.

What I don't like about it and what could be improved: the one thing I do not like about my animation is the background, because you can see where the sheets of paper all overlap. If I was to do this animation again I would make sure that I had a sheet of paper big enough that could be used for the background and not multiple pieces of A4 paper.

3D animation storyboards

The reason I have created a storyboard before I did my animation is so that it was an easier process and somethings could be changed if I wanted them to be. It has a column for the visual - these are just simple drawing of the frames that will be in the animation, they are usually added upon when you create it and this is what you will see in the animation itself.

Then there is a column describing what is going on in the scene - as this might not be clear to see or understand in the animation its self or from what is depicted in the visual, and a column for what the sound is going to be. This allows you to write in key pieces of information that might be forgotten when actually animating. 

Ninja Fruit Animation - finished product

This is my finished animation with the sound added.

What I like about it: I like the way that the background music fits with what is happening in the video, and also the sound effects. Also I like when it zooms out at the end from the phone.I also like the simplicity of the animation itself, even though it is simple, it looks quite effective.

What I don't like about it and what can be improved: Even though I like the sound and background music, I think it could do with improving and some bits being a bit louder than others and maybe a little bit more in synch. Also I think that the drawings could be a bit more bolder, so they stand out more when being animated. Also I think that lighting could be added, so it looks a bit brighter than it does, because it looks a bit dull and dark.

Cut out animation - development

This is my finished animation in Final Cut Express. I am adding my sound effects to it and then it will be a finished product.

Added sound so it matched the visual was more difficult than I thought it was going to be, it took a lot of moving around and cutting down to get it just right with the visual, but in the finished product I think that it lines up very well.

Cut out Animation - development

This is my animation in progress on iStopMotion, this is the title screen.

I was going to use a real hand, but I tried it and it didn't look as good as I thought it would, so I decided to use a cut out hand.

Cut out Animation - development

These are the drawings that are going to be in my animation, there are three of everything, as there will be shots of whole fruit and shots of fruit sliced in half in my animation. 

Cut out animation storyboards

The reason I have created a storyboard before I did my animation is so that it was an easier process and somethings could be changed if I wanted them to be. It has a column for the visual - these are just simple drawing of the frames that will be in the animation, they are usually added upon when you create it and this is what you will see in the animation itself.

Then there is a column describing what is going on in the scene - as this might not be clear to see or understand in the animation its self or from what is depicted in the visual, and a column for what the sound is going to be. This allows you to write in key pieces of information that might be forgotten when actually animating. 

Influential Animators

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc was an American animation studio that dominated animated TV in America for nearly four decades from the mid-to-late 20^th century.

Although it sounds like it was founded by a woman, it was actually two men: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

Hanna and Barbera were former MGM animation directors and formed Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1957.

They are the creators of Tom and Jerry and also produced characters such as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs.

During their dominated of American television they earned 8 Emmy awards, a Golden Globe and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

When smaller TV budgets appeared the quality of their animations began to decline. 

When the duo was at MGM they were being funded $35,000 for 7 minutes of Tom and Jerry. But most of the TV networks were only paying $3,000 for 5 minutes of cartoon. At lower than a tenth of the budget the quality of the animations was very poor and adopted a limited animation style was brought forward with simple frame doubling and also the usage of simplified backgrounds and recycled animate sequences throughout episodes.

Walter Elias Disney (1901-1966) was an American business magnate, animator, cartoonist, producer, director, screenwriter, entrepreneur and voice actor and the founder of The Walt Disney Company.

Before Walt Disney became famous for making family friendly movies, he made adverts for a living.

Even thought it wasn’t his first animation, Walt Disney is probably most famous for his 1928 animation Steamboat Willie. It was a black and white film and was the first animation featuring Mickey Mouse. It was the first successful animated film and one of the first films to have synchronized sound.

After Steamboat Willie, Disney produced Silly Symphonies, they were a series of animated short subjects and they were produced by Walt Disney Productions. In total there were 75 Silly Symphonies and they were made between 1929 – 1939.

The Old Mill (1937) was a part of the Silly Symphonies. The Old Mill won the 1937 Academy Award for Best Short Subjects: Cartoons. This animation was first of its kind to use a Multiplane Camera. This was a special camera that was used to create depth into a scene, with was meant to give it the illusion that it was 3D. To create this, multiple players drawn on sheets of glass and it was filmed from the top so it was looking down on the sheets of glass.

In 1937 color was being added to film. One of Disney’s first colored animations was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This was the first full length animated feature film to be released in color. In addition to it being the first color animated film it was also the first film to use Rotoscoping; this is the process of capturing the motion. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs they used an actress dressed in a costume, filmed her doing the movement Snow White was going to do and then traced over the film in which she was moving so it could be animated. So this is why Snow White’s movements are a lot more fluid than the animals movements in the film.

The 1940’s film Fantasia, was another one of Walt Disney’s. this film was the first film to have stereophonic sound also known as Fantasound. Because the music in this film is very dramatic and orchestral Disney wanted to make it sound like a real orchestra was playing in the movie theatre. 

Even though lots of films had been made since the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia using the drawing technique. 2009 was the last time it was ever used for the film The Princess and the Frog. Since then mainly CGI has been used ever since the release of Toy Story in 1995.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. is an American film producer, television and also music. It was founded in 1923 by four brothers: Albert, Harry, Sam and Jack Warner.

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an in-house dvision of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American Animation. It is one of the most famous animation studios in American media history and it was responsible for the creation of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Some of the characters created include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner.

It was founded in 1933 by American film producer, Leon Schlesinger Studios which later became Warner Bros. Cartoons during the Golden Age of American Animation, and was an independent company which produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animations for release by Warner Bros. Pictures. In 1944 Leon Schlesinger sold the studio to Warner Bros. who carried on operating it as Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. until 1963. 

Proposal for animation

5/2/2014

Working title; Fruit Ninja. 

Medium to be used; the intended medium that is going to be used in my animation is going to be cut out animation. 

Intended audience; the intended audience for my animation is going to be people aged between 14 to 24, male and a female audience.

Indication of the style; it is going to be a advertisement for TV and will be family friendly and will also be funny and appeal to all people.

Summary of the content; It's going to start off like the Fruit Ninja game, with the wood panel background and then the fruit being thrown on from the bottom of the screen.

Length or size of the product; the length of my animation is going to be between 15 and 30 seconds long.

Dance animation

This is the animation I did using wooden mannequins. First we started out by looking for a song we could make our mannequins dance to and we decided on The Ketchup Song. We made our animation on iStopMotion. We first decided what we were going to do with our dance moves. Then we started to animate, moving the mannequins bit by bit. We had to double frame the sequence so it wouldn't go too quickly and also it would reach 12fps and reduce motion blur. After we finished the animation it was saved then imported into Final Cut and the music was added.

Stopmotion animation

Stop Motion

Stop motion animation consists of a series of pictures played at 12 frames per second. It creates the illusion that it is moving, its a trick of the eye. Animation is a process in which still images MOVE, each is shot on film one at a time and it shown at the rate of 24fps making the pictures appear to move.

Videos in the UK are shown at 25fps, and video in the US are shown at 29.97fps. 

Persistence of Vision

This is where our brain holds onto an image for a fraction of a second and if it sees a series of still images very quickly one after another, the images appear to move. 

The Moving Hand Theory

This is where we are tricked into seeing moving images at a rate of 12fps resulting in the FLICKER FUSION THRESHOLD. 

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The Process of what I did

First off I drew an brief storyboard of what was going to happen in my animation.

Then I started to draw out my animation on multiple pieces of A6 paper, making each one a little different from the one before, so the stickman's body gradually got bigger and bigger in each photo, until eventually it changed into a BANG and then two stickmen appear, and then the process was the same their bodies got bigger in each photo.

Then to actually create the animation I used iStopMotion. I lined up each piece of paper so it would look like the one before, it was only a little difficult at the paper wasn't all the same size. Then I captured each photograph twice. It only took about 5 minutes to capture all the frames and about 25 minutes to draw all my photographs.