This project has definitely been the most challenging one so far, and for a number of reasons that I hadn’t first anticipated. I’m going to attempt to not be entirely negative but I really do think the memory of this project will have me waking up in a cold sweat for a good few months.
In week one, spirits were high and the creative juices were flowing almost immediately after receiving our copy of Dragons by Herbie. The planning got underway quickly and smoothly, the excitement for the new project alive and well. Within the first few hours we had already assigned the key roles for each member, as well as coming up with character designs and planning for the backgrounds. The following days of the week continued to have a steady output of planning work, with a storyboard having been drawn out by multiple group members and the designs starting to be drawn digitally by Jody. The level of productivity was encouraging and I really felt like the planning stages were successfully a collaborative effort – our group discussions were effective and enthusiastic, the project really seemed to be getting off the ground even in the very early stages! Fantastic! It is a shame, therefore, that week one will be the only week I can remember somewhat fondly.
As the next few weeks began to pass by, I think it’s safe to say that the productivity of my group got progressively weaker. My role as an animator kept me busy – other people’s roles required my work to be completed before they could make a start. This was probably one of the major downfalls of our group, because the way we had assigned roles meant that the workload for each person wasn’t very evenly shared, and some jobs such as editing required finished animations and backgrounds to be done first. As much as I’d like to use this flaw in our planning/delegation as an excuse for why we didn’t finish, I know that I was producing a steady output of animations that should have allowed other people to get started. The fact that they didn’t is an issue that is outside of my control.
To put is as professionally as I can, the interpersonal relations within the group in the final 2 weeks really started to show the signs of stress. Like, really showed it. A lot. It was bad. I felt like my voice wasn’t being listened to, most likely because my voice was asking people to actually do some work. This led to some hostility and the group was no longer working in a cohesive or even remotely well-functioning way. I think it is no secret that I have felt major frustrations towards some of my group members during this project. The level of work that was expected of me was quite disproportionate to the amount anybody else was prepared to do, and I feel like when I tried to ask for help it was not given to me in kindness or understanding of the situation. It would be unfair to say that I was not given any help, because there was some good work done by other group members within their originally assigned roles. Jody did especially well on coming up with character designs far quicker than I would have been able to so I admire him for that. Overall though, I think if given the chance to do the project again, the division and delegation of the work should have been thought about more realistically, and there should have been an insistence that you should be honest about how much work you will see yourself doing when discussing role assignment.
My role in the project was the main animator, and this was something I was enthusiastic about in the beginning of the project. A lot of my interests in film making as a whole lie in animation and I was keen to use this project as an opportunity to practice animating. I started off by using frame by frame animation, drawing each frame individually. This was as time consuming as anyone would imagine but it was a skill that I wanted to try to learn. One of the difficulties I had come across was that the dragon designs I had been given to work from often had some inconsistencies and therefore I wasn’t always sure of proportion and the way each dragon looked from alternative angles. The way I decided to try and overcome this was by creating a simple model out of Plasticine, so I could use it as a reference. I won’t claim to be a good sculptor.
Yes, it’s a very poorly made model on top of a toothpick holder, but it actually did help me in the process of drawing a head turn for this particular Big Blue Dragon. Having a 3D reference to draw from meant I kept the proportions more consistent when drawing from the various angles. I think there were limitations to the model, mainly because of the minimal effort that went into constructing it, but the method itself is something I would consider using in the future, because I did find it useful in animating this head shake:
Despite the temptation I have to write an entire blog post of complaints, I have to admit that a huge positive outcome has been the amount I’ve learned from this project. I think it’s a clear representation of the fact that you get back what you put into something. If you compare the first animations I did for this project against some of the later ones I made, there is a clear difference in style and composition, or at least I think there is. One could argue that this caused some inconsistency in the video as a whole, but I can’t help but find it positive to see a personal improvement in the animation. And let’s face it, our video didn’t even get finished, so how much of an issue can that really be?
The early animations I made for this project all had a static camera, and were generally all somewhere near the centre of the shot, this makes a lot of them somewhat boring to look at when compared to some later animations. The later animations differed to the early ones in the general quality of drawing – I used a tapered brush which I think made the drawings more interesting and stylish – as well as the drawings themselves having improved to outline a more complex set of features on each dragon. I also thought more about the composition of each shot, roughly using the rule of thirds to make them more pleasing to the eye. One thing I am really glad I learned how to do was mimicking the way a camera would move in a shot. I think the animation I made that uses this parallax movement is my most successful one, because it makes the shot more dynamic and engaging to look at. I enjoyed the fact that I was able to make the decisions that a cinematographer would make, as it means I have learned about another role outside of purely being the animator. I’m sure this was because my group wanted to give me lots of creative freedom and an opportunity to flourish within the class, and not because they couldn’t be bothered to give any input!
The large workload essentially forced me into getting lots of practice over the span of the project, and I’ve gained a lot more confidence in my understanding of the software (Adobe Animate), as well as some experience of animation as a whole. By some miracle, I still enjoy animating and learning about it, so this project has consolidated that animation is a big interest of mine. I still have a long way to go before I will be up to a standard that I’m proud of, and if I had the luxury of time and energy I would go back and implement what I have learned so far, but overall I am pleased with the work I produced for this project. I’m really disappointed that our video didn’t get finished as I really did work hard in my role. I look forward to future collaborations in which the work ethic and investment in the project is more evenly matched among group members. I also look forward to never animating a dragon ever again.
jrwolf 