The final animation

Here is our final animation. Unfortunately when showcasing it we had a few technical difficulties. However, Lois (luckily) filmed it on her phone. But please excuse the laughing as another group were in the room filming theirs.

The biggest part I played in the making of this animation was the making of the models and choosing the sound effects and putting them into the animation.

A review of another animation

Emma and Rhodri did their animation on an issue which not many people think about but is slowly happening which is why I liked it.
Their animation looked at how robots could take our jobs.
It was a funny, light hearted animation, but the message was clear.
They used Sir Alan Sugar's voice as the robots voice to fire the employees which was a different and funny idea.
Emma pointed out how she changed the colour of the buttons on the robot to make it look like they were lighting up. I have watched it since and now she has pointed that out I can see and it is a lovely touch. 
 I also liked the sound effects used in the animation. The sound of the factory gave it life and made it seem more real. 
 

click here to take you too Emma's blog to see the animation
 

How important is sound in animation?

"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotions" - Michael Geisler

Sound effects in animations are important as they give life to the characters in the animations. It makes it easier for the audience to connect emotionally when there is a soundtrack or sound effects throughout.

We listened to a short clip of an animation without actually watching the animation itself to see if we could guess what was happening. As a class we worked out what happened in the animation.

Likewise watching a favourite animation, like the simpsons for example, would be incredibly boring without sound.

Our task today was to create a five minute podcast of our own radio show, using a theme song and creating 'animating discussions' using a programme called Audacity.
I found the programme quite confusing to use at first! It does take time.
Below is our podcast. Not quite five minutes!

The process of our animation

Over the last few weeks we have been given different tips and lessons in animations, such as what software to use, how to make clay models, the importance of story boarding etc.
Our final task was to create an animation which could be used to explain something in an educational context. In our groups we brainstormed different ideas, and the one idea which stood out for my group was the 'cycle of life'. Something everyone can relate too. A baby growing up, finding love, marrying, having children and then dying, but the cycle continuing.

The first step of our process in making our very own stop-motion animation was to make a storyboard of our animation. This helped us to keep to the time frame of 2 minutes and kept us focussed.













After we had decided on our story, we began to think about what music we would use. We wanted this animation to tug at the heartstrings, so decided on a very uplifting song called 'on my way - Rusted Root' which people may recognise from the film Matilda.

The next task was to actually create our models.



This took us quite a while to do but was worth it when completed.
We followed the advice given to us on model making, making sure the legs were quite stumpy so they could stand and be moved easily. Also the faces were kept simple so facial expressions could be changed easily.






Then it came to filming our animation.
We used ZU3D software. After previous sessions using this it became quite easy to use.
However we soon learnt a lot of patience is needed when making an animation.
To film 40 seconds it took us two hours, as each movement of the model has to be small to have the correct effect.




Once we had finished filming we then added our sound effects.