D2: Justify the choices of animation technique for the frame rate and duration RESUBMISSION.

Justify the choice of technique for the frame rate and duration.

I decided that the frame rate for my animation should be 12 frames per second as I have been creating a very basic animation that does not need very fluent motion for it to be affective. If I had decided to animate at 24 frames per second, I would have needed to animate on 2s, therefore it was easier to create the animation at 12 frames per second. I did this so that I could save time in the animating of my animation. Other 2-D computer generated animations animate on 24 frames per second and they have a more fluent animation as they make smaller movements in the subject of the animation between the frames of the animation. To improve my animation further I could have used the animation technique of Squash and stretch to be able make the juggling balls look more realistic as they flew through the air. I also could have animated the juggler's arms moving as he juggled the balls in order to make it more realistic. I used 383 frames in my animation, however, if i had chosen to animated on 24 frames per second, it would've meant that my animation would have had 766 frames for the whole animation, but kept the animation the same.

The animation is also only 32 seconds long. I decided to make my animation this length as it is specified in the brief that the animation needs to be between 30-90 seconds. The brief also specifies that the animation will be used as a loading screen on the app and on the website, usually, when apps and website pages load, it does not take much longer than 30 seconds. Therefore, I made the animation this length so that it would fit the brief, but also be the best length so not to bore the audience while their app/web page is loading. Other loading screens for apps have an average length of 5 seconds. This length is a good length for a loading screen as it doesn't take very long for an app to load, however, these loading screens are not very good at introducing their target audience to what the app is about, therefore, I think that 32 seconds is a good length for an animation that introduces the target audience to what the app is about (the festival), and what the content of the app is about (the content of the festival).

The animation is longer than my pre-production materials would suggest that it would be as I underestimated how long the animation would be. As evidenced by my storyboard, I was supposed to create the 'musical wind' in one movement and have all three parts of the 'musical wind' portion of the animation be at once. However, I underestimated how long it would take for me to do that, therefore I continued the animation past where the storyboard ended so that I could reach the full time that it needed to be as said in the brief. To do this, I animated the three separate parts of the animation individually, and added some text at the end so that the loading screen of the animation would be introducing the festival.

When comparing my animation to this animation, it is easy to see how they differ; for starters, the movement in my animation in comparison to this animation is jagged and no smooth. As well as this, my animation is more interesting that this animation as it has a background and music, as well as other features such as the 'musical wind' that is in my animation. In terms of believability, this animation looks more realistic as the arms and facial expressions of the characters move as a normal person would when they juggle, whereas my character does not move. This animation is similar to my animation as they are both about someone juggling with three juggling balls. The frame rate appears to be a lot quicker in this animation in comparison to my animation as the movement is more fluent.

D1: Compare the different styles of animations across global cultures RESUBMISSION.

Compare digital animations from two different countries around the world. You should reference animation styles, characters, themes and narratives.

'Monsters, Inc' is an animated feature length film made by Pixar in 2001. It was produced in the United states by John Lasseter and was directed by Pete Docter. The film is about two monsters, 'Sully' played by John Goodman and 'Mike' played by Billy Crystal, who find a human child called 'Boo' and their adventures in trying to get 'Boo' home. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is a Japanese animated feature length film made in 2004. It was made by the animation  company Studio Ghibli, and was directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is about a young women called 'Sofie' who is cursed to look like an old lady by an evil witch, and her adventures with a young wizard called 'Howl'.

'Monsters, Inc' is an a 3D computer generated animation film, it was important that the animation was 3-dimensional as it allows for more detailed set locations and to give a better indication of texture. The more detailed texture allowed the animators to make the characters look as impressive as they could. Fur on characters such as 'Sully' were rendered in more detail and allowed for more lifelike looking humans like 'Boo'.

Western audiences often prefer computer generated animation as it is more fashionable and often prefer more detailed animation. Eastern audiences generally prefer traditional 2-dimensional animation as it is what they are used to. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is  2D hand drawn animation. The backgrounds are drawn it lots of detail but the characters and objects in the foreground are in less detail. It is obvious that the characters are human but they are not as lifelike as some 3D animation. The characters and objects that the characters interact with are drawn using basic shapes and lines and the colours and shading is not blended but distinctly separate, whereas the backgrounds look like paintings and are in great details.

In 'Monsters, Inc', the main characters are 'Sully' a large blue and purple monsters who has the physique similar to a bear. He works for the company 'Monsters Incorporated' as a 'Scarer', meaning his job is to collect 'scream energy' to power his city by scaring human children. At the beginning of the film, we see him as a tough character, however, the audience later learns that he is not as tough as he seams as not only do we see him scared and panicked, but we also see him compassionate and loving. Another important character in 'Monsters, Inc' is 'Mike Wazowski', he is a green one-eyed monster who has the approximate physique of an egg. At the beginning of the film we see him untrusting and unreliable, however, as the film develops er see him become more reliable and caring of 'Boo'. The protagonist in 'Howl's Moving Castle' is a young girl called 'Sofie' who is really insecure about the way she looks and who she is. As the film develops, 'Sofie' is magically transformed into and old lady and begins to lose her insecurities. With the help from 'Howl', as her spell is broken and her youth is returned, he insecurities disappear completely. The other main protagonist in 'Howl's Moving Castle' is the character 'Howl', a young wizard. He appears to be confident and unafraid, but we learn that he is actually terrified of people controlling him and that his fear comes from still having the heart of a child. The characters in western films are all driven by the plot and have a character arc, but the arc is a result of the story rather than what leads it. However, it is clear that in eastern animated films, the character arc is what drives the story through to its conclusion.

In 'Monsters, Inc' the narrative is character driven. All of the events occur because of decisions or actions that the characters decide to make. For example; 'Boo' gets stuck in the monster world because 'Randall' (the antagonist) decides to kidnap her and experiment his new machine on her. Whereas, the narrative of 'Howl's Moving Castle' is event driven. For example, 'Sofie' wandered into 'Howl's castle because she was cursed to be old and had to leave her home. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is very fast paced and doesn't fit easily into the three act structure, whereas 'Monsters, Inc' fits really easily into the three act structure.

Both films have themes about friendship, familial love, and not all monsters are horrible. Overall, the themes in 'Monsters, Inc' are simpler than the themes in 'Howl's Moving Castle' as it they are easy to spot and are simpler to explain to children and are good morals for children, whereas the themes in 'Howl's Moving Castle' are complex, but all based around love and how to love a monster. 'Monsters, Inc' impacts the audience through teaching the audience a lesson whereas 'Howl's Moving Castle' impacts the audience though asking them questions of love, and how to love.

In terms of mise-en-scene, the different shot types have more meaning in 'Howl's Moving Castle' than they do in 'Monsters Inc', and a lot more detail is placed in the meaning behind each and every shot. If we compare the mise-en-scene in the opening shot of each film, we will see how the different styles of animation create meaning differently.

When looking at the mise-en-scene in the opening shot of 'Monsters Inc', we can infer many obvious things about what the film might be about. We can infer from the colourful wallpaper and the toys, that this is a child's bedroom, we can also infer from the use of isolated darkness and warm light that it is night and that the child is in bed with a lamp. However the audience is unable to analyse the mise-en-scene at a deeper level as there is noting else in this opening shot that tells us anything about the film on a deeper level.

When analysing the mise-en-scene is the opening shot of 'Howl's Moving Castle, on an obvious level, the audience don't understand much of what is happening, they can infer from the darkness that it night, and from the mist that maybe the machine is on some moors; however, on a deeper level the audience are able to ask themselves lots of questions that will get them more excited about the rest of the film, for example, 'what is that machine?', "why is it on some mores'. As well as this, the use of the machine being out on it's own at time time of day, and hiding in the mist suggests that the machine (whatever it is) is an outsider to the society, or perhaps prefers to be alone, but then, 'why is the machine' hiding in the mist.

'Monsters Inc' uses mise-en-scene to talk to the audience on a surface level, whereas 'Howl's Moving Castle' uses mise-en-scene in order to talk to the audience on a deeper level.

M3: Optimise the content for use in the final animation RESUBMISSION.

Optimise the content for use in the final animation.

After showing the animation to some peers, I was shown some ways in which I could improve my animation so that it could be made better.

I optimised the frame rate as as I started it at 24 frames per second, but it was too jolty, so I changed the frame rate so that it would be 12 frames were second and this improved the animation.

One change that was pointed out to me that the layer with the left hand arm is positioned on top of the layers with the juggling balls meaning that when they fly past it, some of the go in-front of the ball which looks weird. This was an easy change as all I had to do was to move the layer containing the left hand arm so that it was underneath the layers with the juggling balls in them. 

I rearranged my layers so that everything was in the right place, that meant that the the juggling balls are on top of the character, and he is in front of the background, and the wand and the 'musical wind' is above everything else.   

Another optimisation is that I removed several blank keyframes from the end of my animation that caused the exported version to be over a minute longer than the actual animation was supposed be. To do this I removed the blank key frames and then exported the video again. 

Another optimisation that I made was to change the colour of some of the background to make the animation stand out more and to make it more 'circus' themed. I did this through highlighting the different areas of the background and changing their colour with the Ink Bottle Tool. 

Test Plan:

Q	Aspect	Test	What will you change?
1	Length/ Run time	Show the Animation to someone.	Remove empty key frames as exported version was too long.
2	File Format	If picture is blurry.	Change the format width.
3	File Size	If loading time is too long.	Compress the file so that it will play at the appropriate length.
4	Frame Rate	If picture doesn’t look smooth.	Change frame rate.
5	Audience	Show to target audience.	Audience didn't like the run-time so this will be changed.
6	Content	Show to audience and compare to brief.	Audience didn't like the way the layers were arranged, so this will be changed
7	Text	Get someone else to proof read.	Fix any grammatical errors.

P5+P6: Create the content for the animation RESUBMISSION.

Create the content for the animation.

I have created the animation and exported it in two different file sizes, one for a mobile device and one to fit on a website. I did this as the brief specified that I needed to have the animation be compatible on a mobile/tablet app as well as for the website. I also included an easily recognisable character as the brief specified that I needed to have a character that would be able to be on all the other promotional material for the festival. As the festival is for street performers, musicians and circus performers, I made sure I incorporated all of these into my animation through different elements of the animation; for example, I chose for the background to be in a park as this would be a location in which street performers would perform. 

I created my main character in Adobe Animate using various different tools such as the oval tool, the rectangle tool and the brush tool. To create the head I arranged different shapes that I had created with the oval tool and the rectangle tool so that it appears in the shape of a quaver. The colours of these shapes are all black, using the fill and stroke tools I made the shapes black so that I would look like a quaver.  

Using the oval tool

Using the rectangle tool.

 To create the face of my character I used the oval tool to create different shaped ovals for the eyes in two different colours and layering them to create eyes. I also used the brush tool to draw the smile of my character.

Using the brush tool.

To create the body of my character I had to used a combination of the rectangle tool and the line tool. I then transformed the some of the rectangles to create the tie and used the lines to create the collar of his shirt.

Using the rectangle tool

Using the line tool.

 Then using the brush tool, I coloured in some of the shapes such as the short and the collar and parts of the belt.

Using the brush tool to fill in the areas that needed to be filled. 

 To create the legs I made a square using the rectangle tool and then drew in the gap between the legs using the line tool. Then using the brush tool I drew the part of the background that would be between his legs. Such as a dark green for the grass and a lighter green for the bush. When making the belt I used the rectangle tool to create the main buckle of the belt by having the main section of the buckle be the same colour as the background of the belt with the outline of the belt being a different colour to create the illusion that there is just an outline.

Then I used Vecteezy to find the Image that I want to have for my background.

Searching for the type of image that I want for my background.

 Then I had to download the image that I wanted from Vecteezy so that I could import it into Adobe Animate.

The image has downloaded from Vecteezy. 

Then I imported the image to the stage by going file>import>import to stage.

Import the image to the stage.

The imported background.

I created the arms in the same way that I made the body using the rectangle and the oval tools to create arms and hands, and using the brush tool to fill in sections that were missing of the shapes.

To create the juggling balls I used the oval tool to create a circular shape layered with an oval of a different colour to create the different segmented colour parts that are typical of juggling balls. I did this for each of the three different juggling balls.  When animating the juggling balls I had to rotate the balls so that the white 'stripe' was changing directions to give the balls the illusion that they were spinning though the air as they were being juggled.

When creating the 'musical wind' section of the animation, I had to draw onto of each bit and extend the yellow section of the wind. For each frame I had to draw, using the brush tool, additional parts of the 'musical wind', so that over the course of many frames, the 'musical wind' grows. 

I drew the music wind using the brush tool on the wacom tablet.

I did the same thing using the brush tool to create the steve on the 'musical wind'.

When making the animation I used the onion skin feature so that I could track where the juggling ball was, so that I could know where to move it to in the next frame.

In making my animation I had to copy and paste the frames in the layer that I wished to animate, and then once I had paste the necessary frames, I had to move that part of the animation to where I wanted it.

When creating the magic wand in my animation, I created the wand using different sized rectangles using the rectangle tool. And I created the magical 'sparkles' using the PolyStar tool.

Then I moved the wand and the sparkles so that it would move like it was magically making the words appear in the sky.

Magic Wand making the words appear in the sky. 

I added music to the animation through exporting the animation twice, with different file sizes to support the different mediums that the animation will be viewed on. I exported the animations from Adobe Animate as MP4 files, and imported them into Final Cut Pro so that I could add music. I then added copyright free music from Youtube Audio Library, and then exported each version from Final Cut Pro as an H.264 file.



Create and edit the animation content in line with the plan.

This is me using the animation software to create my animation in Adobe Animate.

I created the animation in Adobe Animate. It took approximately 10 hours to complete. After the planning stage, the first thing that I had to do was to create the character in animate.

The character is a man with a music note (quaver) for a head. The character is made out of several; different vector shapes on different layers so that they could be individually moved. One layer being the head, another being the body, one the left arm, another the right... The different parts of the body were created on separate layers so that they could they could be moved if I desired them to. The different elements of the man were created with vector shapes such as squares and circles and lines. Some parts of the body, for example the hands and the area of background that is seen between the legs, I drew with the brush tool as the vector shapes could not give me the shape that I wanted.

 For the background, I used a copyright free image from 'Vecteezy'. But the whole picture did not fit in the stage, so I positioned it how I wanted it and used the 'Clip Content Outside of Stage' tool so that I would only see the part of the background that I wanted to use. Which made animating easier as I did not get confused about what part of the background was on the stage and that bit wasnt.

 For layers of the animation that don't move for the duration of the animation such as the background and the man with a music note for a head, I copied and pasted each individual frame for that layer for the duration of the animation (just over 31 seconds) which is about 372 frames of exactly the same thing on the stage for that layer.

 For the music notes that crawl up the stave, each different colour of notes had to be on different layers, meaning I had one layer for all the blue notes, another for the pink notes, etc... Each time I needed to input a new note of a particular colour, I had to add a new keyframe and copy what I had drawn for the past bit of the note and draw on top of it. The average number of frames it took to complete a music note was four.

When animating the juggling balls, I used the onion skins tool, so that I could see where the ball was in the previous frame so that I could judge where it could go in the next frame. For each ball, I animated the balls moving at different speeds as a real juggler would have the balls moving at slightly different speeds. To do this, I used a fewer number of frames to get from one hand to the other for a particular ball. Another thing I did to increase the believability of the juggling was to have the balls turn as they flew through the air to give the illusion that they were spinning. To do this I rotated the balls in a specific way so that they would like like they were turning.

For each new frame, I would copy the frame from before it, and would then position the duplicate ball with the arrow tool so that it is in the position that I want it to be in. Then copy this frame and paste it into the next frame and repeat this until I had the ball flying through the air.

When it came to creating the musical wind, I used a similar technique to animate it, but it was slightly different. I would copy each frame, and paste it into the next frame, But instead of using the arrow tool to move my object to where I wanted it, instead, I used the brush tool to continue the drawing that I was drawing so that I looked like the wind was growing and wrapping around the man with a music note for a head.

I did the same thing when I was drawing the Steve, copying and pasting the frames and then continuing the drawings that I was creating with the brush tool.

When it came to creating the music notes, I used the brush tool and drew one part of the note per frame so that it took me about 3-4 frames to draw the note depending on the type of the note.

Finally I exported the animation in two different format sizes so that I could have one exported version that was for a website, and one exported version that would be compatible for an app on a mobile device.