Applied Animation- The National Autistic Society

For the Applied Animation brief in this module I have decided to form a group with Ally and Kate and we are going to be focusing on the The National Autistic Society brief. I have began researching and we have discussed how we are going to approach the brief.  we are going to do a 20 second animation each on the effects of autism on different people. I think I am going to focus on the idea of sensory overload that is common in people with autism. I have done some research and discussed this with Kate and Ally and we have agreed that we would like to take a more abstract approach to this task. I am really excited to try and achieve what I want to convey, especially because we want to use more traditional media like water colours and other paints and pastels in this brief. I think using different textures as well as media will lend itself a lot to trying to convey the idea of sensory overload. 
I have researched and watched videos about how different people experience autism and it has given me a few ideas about how it effects their lives. I have gathered that sound and light is a main effect that can become very overwhelming for people with autism so I think this would be a good thing to emphasise in the animation.

Blind Date finished animation

Today i adding finishing touches to my animation and also added in sound. I think the sounds I choose work really well in finishing off the animation and adding that extra touch of humour. Overall I am really proud of my animation because I have never animated digitally before and I was quite scared of doing digital animation before this module. The finished animation is below;

Pixilation

I had a few ideas for my pixilation study task; first of all I thought of having people slide down banisters  or maybe having a naruto style fight scene, but eventually I decided to use my other idea which was of someone murdering someone else and hiding the body. I planned the storyboard that I have attached below. I used Kate and Tom as my actors and instructed them on how to act and when to pause so i could take the photos. I had them have an argument that got so heated that Tom beat kate to death with a stick and then dragged her body down the corridor to find somewhere to hide her. I thought it would be funny if he were to just put her in the lift and press the button to let someone else discover her. I found directing the pixilation really fun and I loved watching it all come together in the end and experimenting with different types of movements. If I were to do it again I would make sure to remember to take photos of some of the shots as they pan round corners etc, because I think the sudden cuts in my pixilation take away from the flow of it. There were also a few shots that were hard to get, for example when putting Kate in the lift she had to move very quickly or the door would close and I wouldnt be able to get the shot; however I am really pleased with the final outcome and think the story line is quite funny and works well.

Blind Date- Animatic

Below is the animatic for my Blind Date animation. I think i need to fix the timing on a few places but doing this really helped me envision what my final animation will look like. I think i will change it a bit for the final animation, such as trying to make some shots look more dynamic, and I have changed the date getting squished by a foot into him being sliced in half by the automatic doors of the supermarket when he finally makes his escape.

Make Em Laugh Final Crit

Today we were split into small groups for our final critique for the process and production brief.  I enjoyed doing the critique in the smaller groups because it meant it was easier to get your point across and to ask questions about your work to your peers. The people in my group gave me some great ideas on what I could do to improve my animation. For example, I wasn't sure about one of my shots because I thought it would be too boring and long as it was; they gave me the idea of making the light of the outdoors shine on the date as he is making his escape so it can fade and transition into the next shot where he has made it outside. I think this is a really good idea that will make the scene more dynamic and interesting. They also gave me ideas for what I could do to make my animation funnier- like adding in a date family for my date that are waving him off as he goes on his adventure, or at the end when he gets sliced in half by the doors, perhaps he could put his sunglasses back on as a sign that hes not completely dead yet. They also gave me advice on how to make my animation look better, like makng the doors at the end transparent so its more obvious what they are. The feedback about my backgrounds was good and they seemed to like my date character and the choice of audio i told them i was planning to use. Overall it was a really helpful critique that gave me lots of new ideas and allowed me to get a feel of what others were doing and help them too.

Make Em Laugh Final Shots

For my last few shots of my animation i have ran into a few problems. The 5th scene is too long as the tiny date has to run all the way along the supermarket aisle and i think it might look too boring and last too long. To fix this i might add a transition to the next shot because he is running towards the bright white door, so i think a white fade might look good here and make the scene more dynamic.
For the final shot -the dates death scene- I have designed another background that shows the aisle the date has just escaped from. I am also in the process of making a door with a transparent effect so you can see the background through them and so its obvious what they actually are. I also did this because I want the date to be sliced in half so you can see his 'organs' through the transparent door- I think this will make the animation more funny. To help me with figuring out what this scene might look like Mat showed me a scene from the film 'Thir13en Ghosts' where one of the characters gets chopped in half by a sliding door. I think I will take the expressions seen in this film and try to apply it to my blind date.