'Late Again ...' Stop-Motion Animation

For my Unit 32 project, I had to research, plan, create and evaluate a Stop-Motion Animation. I worked with Jade Hodgson to plan and create a cut-out animation, and then personally edited the footage at the end to personalise it. We could have used any form of Stop-Motion Animation - Cut-out, Claymation or Pixilation - but we chose Cut-Out thinking it would be more interesting and potentially easier than the other options.

How wrong we were!

But anyway, here's what we came up with in the end. The footage was taken together - with us both filming and moving the characters. I have personally added in the border, the sound effects and the lighting alterations. We were trying to work to standards assimilating South Park and other professional cut-out animations - we tried to reflect this by using strong, block colours and simply designed characters. This, I am happy with. However, I'm not overly happy with the frame rate. Due to technical glitches (like cameras running out of battery and an absence of any form of artificial lighting!) the finished animation isn't as smooth and 'professional' as I was really aiming for. But hey ho. At least it's all done now!

Unit 33 - E4 Ident Project (2D Animation)

This is the finished Flash Animation (including sound) for my Unit 33 project. The project involved researching E4 Idents (as well as other channels with Idents) with the intentions of then creating my own Ident for the channel.

I created it using Adobe Flash CS3, ActionScript 2, and hand-drew each frame myself. The story is simple - two characters look outside (through window and door) to see flowers sprouting in their garden. All is well until one evil-looking flower starts to grow, which then proceeds to attack the character at the door. He escapes inside, and the plant splats against the door creating the E4 logo, before zooming to fill the screen ready to fade out at the end. I did have to edit the story slightly from what I had originally intended to do - the plant was supposed to grow vines and these would form the E4 logo, rather than the plant itself. However, I found this too tricky to achieve, and also felt the logo should realistically be purple in colour, rather than green, because the actual E4 logo is purple. So I decided to alter it to have the purple plant splat against the door, as this was easier to create but it also meant the logo would be the correct colour.

I have included two forms of audio with this clip - one being a 'splat' sound effect which I have carefully placed to ensure it fits with the impact of the plant in the video, and the other being a music file I have personally edited to include. The original track was 'Zambezi' created by 'The Piranhas', so it isn't my own file, but I have edited it before using it. I took the opening few seconds of the clip, altered it by slowing it down and expanding it, and then uploaded the sound file into Adobe Flash to include it as the backing track for the advert.

Overall, I am quite happy with my finished video. I have managed to stick to the deadlines with regards to production and upload, and believe it is of an accurate length for an Ident. My only criticism is that some sections aren't quite as fluent and smooth as I had been hoping for. But this comes down to a rush with regards to finishing it on time. Therefore, were I to work on this again, I would like to go back and smooth down the whole animation, adding in extra frames to make it look that little bit more professional and impressive. But other than that, it has turned out pretty close to how I hoped it would.

Unit 53 - Storyboard Project

This project involved researching and finally creating a storyboard, with an included character from a team-building exercise we took part in at the start of the year (this project being a 'Name the 100 Cartoons' quiz). The character I chose to work with was 'Kimba the White Lion', a cartoon character from an old anime. I had intended originally to work with a more 'scratchy' style of artwork - as I attempted to do on the image I made displayed above. This would have made for a more unique and original storyboard. However, time constraints meant I had to work as quickly as I could without worrying about altering the style of my artwork - it was more a case of simply getting it finished, rather than getting the style right. If I were to have more time to work on my storyboard, then I could have altered the style to fit with the 'scratchy' style I wanted, but as it is, time has run out. :/ Therefore, the end product doesn't completely match my original intentions - by the fact it isn't the style I was hoping for. But aside from the actual artistic style, everything else has worked out how I had hoped it would.


On the left is my finished hand-drawn version of the storyboard I ended with, which I have scanned in ready to recreate the digital version. It is a simple story; at an electronics store (near you) the show, 'Kimba the White Lion' is being shown on a flat-screen television. Kimba sees the TV, however. And jumps out. There's a girl in the store who is scared by this, but then Kimba gets scared at seeing the girl who is - once the shock wears off - incredibly excited. She chases Kimba through the store, but he escapes outside and runs off down the street. It has no violence or foul language, therefore it is suitable for a younger audience to view, and as Comic Strips are mostly targeted at young audiences, I have successfully created a storyboard to fit with my target audience.


On the right is my final digitally amended version of the storyboard. I have created this using PhotoShop CS3, after scanning in the original version to use as reference to redraw each box on a separate layer. I have added in text and a title - 'Kimba Encounters the Humans' and created a textured background to help bring the whole piece together using pre-installed brushes. I used a collection of 'Fractal' brushes for the background, and have used other techniques such as including gradients, paint and using the pen tool to get strong black outlines. My boxes are abstract and unusual, rather than simple square boxes. This is because I have tried to incorporate some of the different layout styles I researched to make my storyboard look more interesting. I had originally planned to use different fonts, as well. I researched into different styles but found when it came to putting them on my final storyboard, they weren't very easy to read. Therefore, I have stuck to a Comic-strip Classic - Comic Sans and am pleased with how it looks on my finished Storyboard.

I have successfully managed to meet the deadline of this project, although it has resulted in me altering the style of my storyboard from the one I wanted to a more simple, cartoonish style. This is the only problem I have encountered with regards to timing. I have learnt a variety of new skills on PhotoShop - prior to this, I had never been able to successfully use the Pen tool to create strong lines, and had simply struggled with the brush tool to make them as thick and straight as possible. This new skill will definitely be useful to me in the future.

Overall, I am very happy with my finished Storyboard, albeit without the artistic style I had intended. The only thing I would change is the style, and if I were to progress further and create the actual Comic Strip, it would have been good to make it Interactive, as well.

Unit 18 - Icons Project

For this project, I was asked to create 5 different Icons to replace five icons on the Apple iPhone. Each icon had to fit in with a specific genre, those genres being; Comedy, Horror, War, Fantasy and Sci-Fi.

The image on the right shows my finished icons actually in place on the iPhone.

I created them in PhotoShop using a graphics tablet. I saved them as .gif files suitable for web display, and made the backgrounds transparent so that only the icons would show up when placed on the iPhone.

I have tried - when designing - to make the colour schemes of each icon match the genre, and made sure to use images that can be immediately recognised for their genres. I believe I have managed to keep to my original intentions with regards to the designs of my five icons. They are the same in size, shape, colour and image as my initial drawings, which I am happy about. They have turned out pretty much how I expected them to and hoped they would. :)