Jan 13th - None
Jan 10th - None
Jan 27th - Got my backgrounds and some models done, the backgrounds were printed and my models were drawn and cut by myself.
3rd Feb - Got more models finished, almost at the stage to do animating and audio producing.
10th Feb - I animated for the first time and finalised some models. I have a few seconds of animation done, setting up the scene and story for t.
17th Feb - I did not get much done...
24th Feb - Sorted out the audio for my animation, got clips of knife sounds as well as screams and impact noises.
3rd March - Got in gear and added 17 seconds of animation to the sequence, as a result the project is nearly done (with animating anyhow).
I placed the eye seen in this shot on top of the closed one drawn on, it seems as if the eye has opened before it disappears again once it closes.
The knife was placed a lot closer to the camera than the face, in order for it to have more of an intimidating effect, and show the knife's threat.
The shadow before the face is the blood shedding from the body, shown to be a reflection so then it's an indication not a direct shown image of blood. However it still adds to the tension of the scene and also consistently keeps the drama.
A close up shot of the knife gives the same effect on the blade as before, giving it the illusion of impending doom. The knife (now covered in blood), now shows the result of it's insertion to the victim's body, the cold metal steel now stained by blood.
The shaky camera effect at this scene is to show the effect of the adrenaline and shock of the moment, being stabbed repeatedly dizzies the character accordingly.
10th March - Implemented audio to some parts, have a general idea of what sounds will be played and at what point in the animation.
17th March - I was absent to this lesson unfortunately.
24th March - Added some audio to the animation made sure that there is ambient music to follow the scene and story of the clip. You can see below that I've been adding sound effect, music and I have the video alongside to go by.
Evaluation
I feel that the production went well, I produced a title sequence starting a bit of a story, giving a bit of history to what's going on, I have also made the animation, using drawings and cut-outs, the clip is now finished and I feel that not much has to be made to improved. The only thing I'd probably improve would be the variation of shots, since most of them are close-up, however since it's close up it makes it tense and fits the genre the clip fits under.
Many skills can be learnt from this project, I feel that using new software was tricky at first. You can't ever anticipate what it will be like, all the settings and commands and the purpose of the software, but soon I got the grips of software like Audition, iMovie and Premiere.
Time research wasn't that difficult, I simply researched traits from characters already daunting and eerie and implemented them into my animation. This goes the same for idea generations for that time, I feel all I needed to generate was simply the background and environment of where the characters were going to be in, which I did, a dark gloomy room.
Proposal writing wasn't too difficult, I simply considered everything that needed to be considered when proposing an animation idea, and noted it down, including materials, copyright and plot summary.
Planning was a process that took longer than expected, I took everything into account and planned my models (drawings and cut-outs), the backgrounds, the music, the sound effect and the titles. I feel they were all planned effectively and were implemented fine, they all work as they should.
When it came to key stages of development, I must admit I was very behind, I was still planning my drawings and we were weeks into production. So one day I decided to step up my game and actually get to animating, I only got three seconds done but it was a start.
When we had the next session I upped the ante and got twenty seconds done in that one lesson, using everything I had at my disposal, then the animation was done and I had to add audio. Adding audio was a lot easier than animating, and I found that it was done in no time, the same can be said when I had to add titles to the sequence.
The sequence I think plays out well, the beginning shows how one of the siblings has changed, and the memories that she holds dear are now nothing anymore, all gone. The scene were she stabs her brother is implied, since nothing is really shown, but I feel that the message comes across well. The delusion of the older sibling is present and there's clearly something else going on in the back-story of the sequence.
I feel the sound effects were good, the echo effect on some of the sounds (laughter, grunts) makes the atmosphere they're in more believable as a setting.
The ending, with the laughter and the knife dropping, shows that the older sibling has hit an all-time low and can't possibly recover from what she's done. She's not one to go back on what she's done, her brother is gone, but she didn't what she "had to do" in her own delusional mind.
Overall I feel that if I were to do anything different, it would probably be the story, I could use the same models. Maybe though if I were to edit how they were to react to the story that would then be tweaked, it could be more realistic.
Compared to professionals in the animation industry, I'm pretty sure that my stuff does not compare to that sort of content. In terms of actual animation, it's very sub-par what I've made, but I feel that I have potential, it could be a lot, lot worse.
My plot is very simple compared to better producers, also I feel that if I brush up some techniques and some methods for animation then I'll progress in animations overall. By watching more professional content I can come to the conclusion that they'll be useful for inspiration.
But as an animation that is intended to be fictional I feel it does the job pretty well in my opinion, I feel it went great and I learned a lot through it all.
