Risk Assesment

I am only using a computer to create my animation therefore I have limited hazards although using a computer can be harmful to health, including staining eyes and damaging the back due to seat position and posture. I will need to make sure I sit at least 30cm from the screen when animating and to be eye level with the laptop. Also stress is an issue I have assessed because I have found that regular breaks are essential to relieve this stress and also to maximise productivity. I will be taking regular breaks from looking at the screen every 30 minutes. By sitting with a straight back I should be able to achieve this. I have assessed the risk as being low in the short term and low to medium as a long time effect that it can have on eyes and posture. I have researched the solution to help me conduct my animation safely.
 I have researched correct posture and computer station safety practice.

AUDIO

I mixed my audio within premier pro by cutting and moving different parts of the song. I did this partly to take out explicit content but also to attempt to make the music flow better with the animation. This is important to the continuity of the clip. The music is titled "Saukrates- Father Time" and i have achieved permission to use an edited version of the track. I have edited it myself and the track has come to 2 minutes long from the original 3.20 I am happy with how I have edited it. I do not need to record or source any extra audio because I am creating a music video.

Edit And Evalutation

Evalutation

Through my editing process i have discovered ways in which i can improve my animation technically. I have definitley progressed in skill throughout the animation process. The edit I am doing includes me clipping together many different clips but keeping the same rough structure so it achieves what I want. I have noticed during my edit that some clips are too long and become boring i will fix this by either speeding up the clip of adding more assets and frames to make it longer. The method i choose depends on the type and length of clip I am using. I have been ajusting size, shape and movement of clips through key frames on after effects and I have realised that it is not ideal to do this after i have made a sequence. The clips are easier to manipulate before they are exported as a mov. Overall my edit has gone well and i have learned how to improve from it. I think I will get a decent result from my edit

Rough cut and review

I did this rough cut to test my animation techniques and ideas. I have learnt from this and have been given feedback to develop my idea. I now have a clearer view of how the animation could turn out and also estimated a time frame to do it in (4 weeks) First i realised that i would need to add a lot more footage for the video to feel complete. I anticipated this because it is a rough cut although i think i underestimated the speed of the animation and realised quickly that one long shot for a video gets boring pretty quickly. I will need to change the speed of animation and also include many more smaller clips and shots from different angles. I didn't learn form feedback that the assets I have created are stylistically consistent which is important but the animation of them is a little rigid. I plan to fix this by developing my skills with different techniques on Adobe After Effects. I also realised how much of an improvement i could make if I times the animation to the music more effectively. This is what I will try and focus on as well as developing my idea

Letter to Capitol Hill Music

Asset Log Sheets

Shot Logging Sheets

SCENE 1

SCENE 2

SCENE 3

SCENE 4

 SCENE 5

 SCENE 6

Story Board Scans

Animation Script

SAUKRATES Father Time Animation music video (final animation)

Animation Test

I decided to test my animation method with a shot that I was sure i was going to use. I decided on the pirate disk jockey scene which creates the letter 'A'
 To animation I used key frames and used the arms as the moving parts as well as the disk.

In my test I decided to keep the movement quite simple and to experiment with speeds. Each key frame in this screen shot is a different postion of movement for the left arm only. I realised i needed a lot more key frames closer together to achieve the speed of the movement I wanted for my animation. This was done by adding more keyframes and placing them closer together
 

P2Further animation comparison

TRANSFORMERS linking to Pokemon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Wars.
Transformers is based on humans working together with humans, which is similar how Star Wars, Pokemon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are made. This helps create more of a connection with the audience by having human characters that interact with other non human characters. All these shows have a similar target audience and aim there shows and films at teenagers, especially males

P2 Top rated shows on Cartoon Network

Top rated Cartoon Network shows.
 Ed, Edd And Eddy 
Genre- Comedy
Target Audience- 8-17
Style- Very stylised in a simple drawn animation. quite rough and limited colours are used. Focuses on 3 boys who are friends and get up to lots of adventures. it is one of those programmes that older audiences like to watch because it was a cartoon they grew up with.

Adventure Time
Genre-  Comedy, Adventure
Target Audience- 10-16
Style- 2D animation.
Content-fantasy cartoon where anything is possible. The 2 main characters, Fin (the hero) and Jake the 32 year old magical shapeshifting dog. This programme appeals to just about all ages because of its use of humour. Combining childish remarks and jokes with subtle humour aimed more towards older generation. The content is very bright and colourful. They live in the candy kingdom which is full of candy people. They go on adventures that usually involve some kind of monster but there is a real strange aspect to the show, some people suggest it is full of subliminal messages. Which only boosts the interest in the show.

 Regular Show
Genre- Comedy, Adventure
Target Audience- 10-16
Style- quite simplistic 2D animation.
Content-The Regular Show follows Mortigey and Rigby who are a pair of friends who work on a park. They often get into trouble and subsequently out of it. The shows humour is aimed towards a younger teenage audience. It is also based around adventure and their adventures often come at disapproval to their boss Benson
TRENDS
All of these programmes follow some loose trends, In all of them the proagonists are 2 or 3 friends. (excluding Jake the dog) These characters are not flawless superheros but more relatable, sometimes slow, awkward and unsuccesful. However this is what makes them loveable. They oftern get into difficult situations that the viewer ends up willing them to succeed in. This is what creates a real connection and commitment to the characters. All of these shows are aimed toward roughly the same target audience and are made to be comedic. In the amazing world of Gumball a


Feature Film 

Frozen
Genre- Comedy, adventure
Style- 3D CG animation
Target Audience- Family
Content-  Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

Dispicable Me 
Genre- Comedy
Style- CG animation
Trget Audience- 12-18 
Content A evil genius called Gru who has an army of minions who he as employed to do a heist. He plans to steal the moon. Although his plans are all changed when 3 little girls come into his life. They become more attatched to each other and the girls see him as a potential dad. It is a story that is heart warming and also funny. With the minions becoming very quotable and funny characters.

Action sheet 1

Character shape sheet

P2 Character silhouette, Facial expressions and Action sheet

Here you can see the basic outline or silhouette for my character Perry. The design reflects the personality and the physical attributes of Perry. The character is made for an action adventure show and this is why i have designed him with solid straight lines and sharp corners to show the dynamic characteristics of the character and the show. Also he is a teenage boy so i have included clothing such as a hoodie and jeans to make it relatable to the target audience which is a teenage male audience. Also the head of the character is large which is in keeping with a cartoon style i am trying to achieve, by having a large head the facial expressions and speech of the character are emphasised so therefore easily read and understood.

Side view

Action Sheet 1

Expression sheet

shilloet of character

Octonauts, Pokemon, T.M.N.T and Adventure Time character design analysis

Octonauts
The facial expessions of this character are very simple and happy looking. It is important it has this simplistic style because it is aimed at a young Cbeebies audience. The character is a primary colour which is also suitable for this audience. It is comprised of a few simple shapes and clearly represents a turtle

Pokemon
The style is very typical of pokemon. It incorporated lots of highlights and has a 3d look. This character is instantly regognisable becasue of the style. The eyes are typical of this kind of aniamtion.
The colour blue reflects its powers. It has water based powers.

TMNT
These characters are very dymanicaly shaped with muscular bodies and straight edges. This gives them an aggresive style which is suited to what they do, they are fighters. They have human like features and are more the shape of humans than turtles. Which makes they're personalities more relatable to the target audience

Adventure Time
The turtle princess in adventure time is quite a passive character and it is reflected in the illustration. Relatively small arms and legs with a big body and blonde hair. She is very simply drawn and uses a few colours without any self shading. This workd for the target audience because they are used to the simple colouring of adventure time.

Initial Planning

The form of animation i am planning  is an abstract music video. Using the track 'Saukrates- Father Time' The video will be 2 minutes long so the video will be shorter than the music track. This means that i can choose good parts of the track that would would for a video. I need to match the style of music to the style of animation whilst making it entertaining and relevant to the genre and artist.

I have chosen to use part After Effects Vector animation and partly stop motion. I have chosen these forms because the music track is quite varied in the beat pattern and the music is quite different to what i have heard before so i think a more abstract approach to the animation is appropriate. Saukrate's other videos are quite abstract and don't follow a specific narrative. They include conventions of the hip hop genre and i will try to include some of these recognisable styles within my video.

The genre is sbastract animation because it doesn't follow a specific narrative but it does reflect the style of the music. This is important to make the video related to the music which will increase awareness of the video as well as the artist and the music. I hope to create something that is different and unusual but also reflects the genre and the artist. The music sticks to an old school style of hip hop and i think this should be reflected in the music video by using imagery associated with it.

P2. Peer Idea Feedback sheet

Representation And Ethics In Animation

The writer of the article believes that cultural stereotypes are being used and the it is all to common place in modern day animation. He points out that the main characters are white Americans. Even one character that is born and raised in Rio still has this white American accent. This is demonstrating a cliched idea used in many big budget animation films.

Whereas other characters in the film are vioced by non-white actors. these charcters parts on the whole are usually involving singing and dancing. Actors like Will-i-am (African American) and Bruno Mars (Mixed Race Hawaiin) are used for side kick and comical characters.  it seems the trend that African American voice actors are used as the butt of jokes and the less influential characters. Also British characters are used for the villians which the writer believes  is an all too overused representation in film.

PEPs are a concept talked about by Da Costa stands for Problem Contexts, Entertainment Contexts and Performance Contexts. It involves the idea that black people and other genotypes are used as characters who are exceptional. Who for example will strive to make others happy or to be extraordinary.

Da Costa thinks we end up with social stereotypes in animation for different reasons. One being the time frame that animations need to be completed in. Because of the long extensive animation process it means there may not be much time for sophisticated character development. So it is naturally forced into conventional stereo types because they are simple to understand and can resonate with the audience. Also to widen the customer base of the animation companies feel obliged to put in many different racial representations. Sometimes without much ethical sensitivity.