For this brief we have been asked to develop a portfolio of work developed in relation to our SEESOW project. This post will include links to my A1 pitch which includes details on my concept, alongside technical and creative research and design elements. I will also include details of the production of my animation and the final animation itself.
As I have chosen to develop an interactive animation, the brief explains that choosing interaction based animation means a requirement of 3 short animations for its paths to become fully functional. However, it is not expected for us to produce this all, therefore we should focus on the initial animation from start to the first interaction. I aim to complete the first animation alongside details for development on the further animations that would complete the interactive path. If I have time I would love to develop rough animations for the rest of the path to give a more concise idea in relation to my research and pitch.
The below post includes my pitch, research, mood boards, concept development, element development, sketches, outlines and a rough animation:
In relation to the link above, we were provided with feedback from Jamie. I have attached mine below:
I was so pleased with the feedback received for A1 and have really taken into consideration Jamie’s preferences, especially in regards to the interaction that reveals the title for the page. Jamie expressed that he thinks I can push further than using roots to reveal the title of the next page. He also said that changing the options from “see” and “sow” to “need help” and “want to help” would be preferable as it is easier for users to understand. When developing a concept and pitching it to a client, listening to their feedback is important, and acting on their feedback is even more important, which is why I aim to adjust my animation concept slightly based on his ideas. There were many elements that Jamie praised, such as the concept in general, the use of interaction as well as the design and my own personal artistic flare. This was quite reassuring and encouraging, but I also really admired his constructive criticism and look to better my animation because of it.
Concept Development:
The brief for this task explained that when working on an ‘interactive’ style animation, to focus on the first initial animation in the sequence of interactive animations. For me, this would be the morph from map shape, to boot with the tree growing from the boot, revealing two interactive acorn’s stating “want to help” and “need help”.
To begin the development of this project, I went back to the animation file developed for my presentation pitch. This features a very basic animation that’s job was to express my concept more clearly. I used the existing animation and began adding additional frames to it, to make the initial morph from map to boot run more cohesively for the first stage of the interactive animation.
While I am developing the animation I am working in 15 fps, this will not be the final fps. I find it beneficial to watch back the animation as I go in slower fps in order to identify any mistakes or just to see things that need altering. As this is for a client, I want to ensure the highest quality of work.
I want to add the detail on the boot piece by piece, stitch by stitch. I am not entirely sure how I will achieve this other than through trial and error. One stitch per frame once the boot has been developed? One line per frame for the boot panels? Or will this be to jolty – maybe splitting the lines into two or three parts? All of the panels on one layer so they appear together – or will this be too much for one frame? Lots of questions that can only be answered by trying them out!
I started the paneling and stitching by trying a few different techniques and then adjusting as I went to see what looked best. In the end I settles with individual stitching per frame and adding the paneling lines in sections that flow from where the stitching ends, just to try and create a nice cohesive piece that doesnt appear too jolty – below I have attached a gif of the morph from map to boot, with the boots details included:
Before moving forward I wanted to consider colour for this part of the animation. As explained in my A1 work for this project, the background represents the background of the website. Jamie’s website has white backgrounds so I will be leaving the background as it is here. This will allow the final animation (if used on the website) to blend seamlessly into the site, creating a really nice cohesive user experience.
I spoke to Lawrence about bringing colour into this piece, obviously the fact that this morphs from one thing to another and detail is added in sections means that applying colour to this isn’t as straight forward as colouring it in. After discussing my ideas, we agreed that the best way to tackle the colour for this part of the animation would be to incorporate a “fade”.
To bring this fade to my concept I started by selecting the colours from my A1 designs and then adding inbetween shades that will help me to fade from one colour to another:
After this, I began applying it to my work, it took a lot of consideration and time but after some back and forth I am really really pleased with the outcome of this application of colour:
At first, when looking at the animation so far without colour, I was not sure if I likes the abruptness of the laces outline, I really think that the application of colour in pieces has completely changed this and it now looks like it is supposed to be, rather than looking like it was a mistake. I am glad I applied colour to this part at this stage because I feel it has saved me a lot of time. I think I would have tried to change the outline more than I did when looking at the final piece.
From here I began outlining the stages of tree growth mapped out in my A1 pitch. I plan to then develop in between frames allowing the sapling to seamlessly grow into a beautiful mature oak tree.
At this stage, the sapling becomes too big for the screen space, so I have added in a camera layer and hope to implement a slight zoom out, just to ensure that the animation stays within the frame. I used a couple of different sources to get a general idea of what to do to make this happen. Animating the camera
I started by adding a camera layer:
I then inserted a “peg” and then on the peg layer, I selected the frame where I wanted the movement to begin and added a key frame, then I added another key frame where I wanted the movement to end:
Next, I selected the transform tool and added a “side” view, when the side view is selected, you can see the black vertical line in the middle of the screen which represents the screen. With the yellow “<” which represents the camera. I want the screen to move away from the camera so using this view I will drag the screen into the desired position:
I selected the blue arrow and slid it to the left side, moving the camera further away from the screen to create a zoom out. I switched from the side view to the camera view to check placement. I may need to adjust this further at a later stage but it is good to have the foundations there now just so I can focus on the tree growth. I also stretched the zoom further, starting it earlier than originally placed:
Below I have attached an animated gif of where the animation stands right now:
I feel like the zoom could even start earlier as it seems to start quite randomly, but if done later it happens too abruptly. I want this animation to run really smoothly just to create the best possible outcome for Jamie. If this is to be on a website it needs to look like it belongs there so these reviews and slight adjustments are really important to me, especially at this stage.
You can see the first three stages of tree growth here as layed out in my pitch for A1. I have stretched each of the three drawing so far over a few frames, I would like to incorporate an additional 2 frames between each of these stages. I am not sure how it will turn out because I would like the leaves to grow from one image to the other but I am not sure how complex this would be to do and I am beginning to run out of time. So I feel I wont have much more opportunities for revision as I continue this assignment.
Now I am just working on inbetweens for these first few stages of tree growth, using the onion skin as a guide. I started by developing a middle ground for what I already had, I will the adjust the frame position and add more inbetweens either side to try and continue with the existing smooth and seamless appearance:
As I have been developing this animation, I have been viewing it as I go in 15fps, but it was set to 24fps on downloads:
You can see from the tree growth above rthat this is a little too fast and I knew this was too fast for what I wanted to begin with but didn’t intend on changing it until it was really necessary. I have now changed the animation to 15 fps, adjusted the length of the zoom out to begin after the first few frames and I have moved the tree growth forward, to begin around 53 frames rather than 60:
I think that it is looking really clean so far, I am looking to add another 4 frames to the beginning of the tree growth too so this will bring down the speed of this element, making it less jolty and hopefully tie the piece together making it really clean and cohesive as it runs through.
You can see in my timeline here the changes stated above, I have also split the animation to leave spaces for the inbetween frames I would like to incorporate. I also added a couple of frames prior to the existing tree growth, this is just to make it a little more gradual when it appears on screen:
After adding some more frames inbetween the key frames, I am very happy with how it is coming along. In an ideal world I would like even more frames in this section as it feels like it is over too soon. However, I am keeping in mind that I have another two stages of tree growth to apply to this animation, I am hopeful that this will make the tree growth feel more complete, I have attached where I am at so far:
After this, I continued the development of tree growth from a sapling to a young oak,I decided to use the colour layer and a watercolour pencil tool, with three shades of green to create a similar effect to that of work developed for A1. I did the same for the Mature oak and then started working on the inbetween frames, trying to clean up the transition more.
Before inbetweens with full colour applied:
After adding inbetween frames:
I would really like to add another frame or two from sapling to young oak stages, I still feel that the change is quite abrupt but as I am running out of time this may not be something that I am able to achieve. I would like to focus on getting the interactive acorns included on the animation before considering any changes or additions to the product I have developed so far.
I started by taking my A1 design as reference into toon boom and drawing the outline, adding and selecting colours for the acorn:
Final animation – 12 FPS 90 Frames, full colour “SEE, SOW” text ANIMATED GIF:
Final animation – 12 FPS 90 Frames, full colour “SEE, SOW” text MOV FILE:
Originally I wanted to develop three versions on this animation, one as above stating “see, sow” as the interactive options. One as “Help, Helper” and one as “Need help, Want to help”. Unfortunately I ran out of time to do this, which is a shame as I wanted to really express the diversity of this animation concept. The main appeal of it for me is that is was pitched as customisable not just for each post code but for the clients desires. Jamie mentioned that using a different set of words that was more direct and understandable for new users would be preferable and I totally agree with this. I wanted to keep “See, Sow” as a visual because there is beauty behind the simplicity of it. So although I am pleased with how it looks at this stage, I know there will be a level of disappointment that I did not follow through with his feedback when I stated previously in this post that it was something I really wanted to incorporate.
Overall I am happy with the outcome of this task. I believe I have followed my concept well and used Jamie’s feedback for A1 to my advantage. I really enjoyed the freedom and my personal progression with this task as a whole and I feel I have developed a professional, industry standard animation that both myself, and the client would be happy with. There were definatley some obsticles to overcome that were not apparent when developing the initial idea and I believe that through trial and error and making proactive adjustments only ended up elevating my concept, whilst following exactly what Jamie wanted and expected from me for the animation stage.
I think that because the brief stated for interactive animations to focus on the initial animation within the sequence of interactions, this allowed me to really direct my focus on the quality of the first interactive animation. Because of this, I couldn’t be more happy with the standard of work depicted within this animation. However, I would have liked to add in a few more frames to make certain elements of the morphing and growing stages more seamless. I didn’t quite get the animation to where I wanted but I feel that the focus on the quality of the animation really elevates what I have so I am not too worried about this. As a product that I would approach Jamie with, I am sure there would be revisions after this stage in order to curate a product that the client was 100% happy with.
Overcoming various issues and pushing forwards, whilst not letting them get me down or hold me back from my vision only adds to my integrity as an animator. I think that it was a huge learning curve, to create something for a real world client with an amazing and inspired idea, and even in the difficult stages, I still really enjoyed the process and am really pleased with the outcome of the task as a whole. I learnt to bounce ideas off of peers and lecturers in order to have a well rounded outcome so although I did this alone, I feel that the final outcome was a collaboration. I also have a lot more confidence in myself thanks to this assignment, as I was not held back by things I didn’t know such as camera movements. I was very forward with figuring this out independently and I believe it came out extremely well. I look forward to working on things like this in the future, I love Jamie’s vision for SEESOW and hope the best for the company in the future.
Digital Animation 