2d Animation

For this unit we were asked to design, plan and create a short 2d Animation film and had to be at around 1 minute in length. Firstly we created a blog and we posted our favourite examples of 2d animation and analyse them, I posted a link about a guy who narrates (maybe his childhood, or someone elses) as he goes along and draws also as he goes along. We then used a website called Time Toast to create a timeline of the history of 2d animation and how it has developed over time and how the increase in better technology has changed the way we make 2d animation.

We then had to research Lumiere Brothers, William Horner, Emile Reynaud and Joseph Plateau which were really the pioneers of 2d animation when it comes to early development which shaped the way we see the world today, an example of a creation is a Zoetrope which was designed by Emile Reynaud. We then analysed in depth different examples of use of 2d for example video games, TV shows, Commercials etc and compared early animation to animation we use today.

After then we started planning our 2d animation, first we started with a mind map and just brainstormed all ideas no matter how silly they seemed then from those ideas we chose one idea that we liked and made another mind map but just focusing on that one idea and expanded on it until we had a good idea of what we wanted to do. We had the idea but now we just had to plan how the animation would plan out so we made a rough storyboard of how the animation would go. After than was we ready to start making the final 2d animation, with time constraints we decided that making a pilot and reviewing it would take too long so we just relied on our pre-preduction work.

For my 2d animation I decided that the characters would have a bright, colourful simple design and it would be simply animated because I am not very equipped in the art department. Also I didn’t want to make my animation too long because I like the idea of making a short story and to have a beginning, middle and end. I’m going to focus more on making a shorter film but use a higher fps so it looks smoother, and more dynamic rather than spend ages making a long film with a complicated storyline and make cut backs on the animation due to time constraints.

My Idea One of the ideas I came up with on my brainstorm was the idea of taking a feature length film

and cutting it down into bitesize chunks, just showing the main points of the plot and and the ending. It would appeal to people to who have already seen the film and to people who haven’t seen seen it yet but can’t be bothered to watch it or pay for the extreme cinema costs. So I went through and listed some of my favourite films/actors and cut them down to decide which film I wanted to animate, I’ve decided that I would like to do an animation of Napoleon Dynamite because it’s a film which is suitable for almost all ages and there are some key parts in the which people will recognise.

I’m might not re-record the voices of what the characters and just use cut out voice clips from the film and sync them in with the animation. Like I said I’m not the best drawer in the world so the animation will be limited, I might just do stick men but with a head of a cartoon Tom Hanks so we know which character is which. After I have created and edited and polished it off I’m going to present my proposal and animation to a focus group who will then give me feedback and different changes I can make to the animation to make it better, after which I will evaluate my own animation.

Re-assessment of Idea Although I designed my idea for the animation to be simple in design and

animation I still had difficulties drawing and designing my characters because of my lack of drawing skills, so I’ve made another mind map and come up with another idea for my animation which will have a simpler storyline, simpler animation and simpler design. To compensate for this change I am going to make my animation with a higher frames per second so the animation looks more fluid, I still want my animation to be quite colourful and vivid though.

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