Week 1-2 2D animation

My initial idea for my animation was to create an animation with a shape that would portray excitement, joy and the anticipation of both emotions. I considered a couple different ideas for shapes with rectangles and ovals, I think however the rectangle may work better as the shape could flow in loops like I discussed but also float with the light nature of confetti or paper and then still explode at the end just from a rectangle that shrinks and grows rather than a circle. I also made sure to consider how I need to implement the 12 principles within my animation and which ones would be most key into making a smooth and appealing animation that could be easily understood.

Initial version of my dancing shapes animation

Feedback to reflect upon:

After gaining feedback on my animation, I started to consider ways for me to implement my feedback into my work by adding secondary shapes, speeding up the explosive moment at the end and consider especially the staging of the shapes so that they don’t take the focus away from the main character shape and say as a secondary character.

Final Outcome:

Reflection: I had a lot of fun with this project, I enjoyed being able to experiment with 2D animation as a medium and play around with different shapes and movements. I feel like using only shapes made me have to focus on how you can express emotions using just shape language and colour and to not rely upon expressions or clear gesturing. For my animation, I decided that I wanted to portray a more excited and joyful shape, I focused a lot on arcs as an animation principal and used a lot of loops and flowing motion to reflect the way that I feel when I’m excited and try and find a way to show that giddy sense of joy. I later added in the idea of the confetti-like rectangle exploding to add another layer to the emotion which was closer to overwhelm and more intense excitement. Using a rectangle was almost chosen because I didn’t want to have to focus too heavily on my squash and stretch of the shape but as I developed my ideas for the emotion it felt like it was an effective choice as it felt more free and like it was floating through the wind like a scrap of paper or piece of confetti.  When animating my shape I always had wanted some secondary motion in the background hence the stars and I found they worked very well with the audio that I ended up choosing as they worked well with the beat of it and also adding another layer of motion and excitement. I also had the idea to have my main shape gradually lose and gain colour which I felt added to the idea of building excitement and anticipation. Working with my class feedback from the first watch and review, I added several secondary shapes to the background, it was hard initially to find a balance with the spacing so they wouldn’t come across as the primary shapes but I mapped out my arcs and it became a lot more manageable so this is something I will remember to do going forward in future projects to help with the flow of movement. I struggled a bit with the timing on my piece, especially with the explosion at the end but also somewhat with the first looping of my confetti rectangle. My peers recommended me having a faster explosion and therefore using less ease in and out for this section and working with the audio and adding an extra beat of movement in. Despite this feedback, I still struggled a bit to balance it out to make it feel faster and more in time yet for it to also flow smoothly, I feel that whilst I like how it turned out the timing of it could still be paced better. Overall, I quite like how my animation turned out and whilst there’s some parts of the pacing that I would adjust especially at the end I think it conveyed the emotion of excitement and building anticipation quite well.