The Classical Elements: Finished Animating at Last

You heard me correctly, I have finished my animation. Well, animating my 20 seconds. I still need to add sound and a title sequence.

Finished 20 Seconds of Animation

I can't tell you how happy I am now that I've finished animating this. I was starting to get fed up with seeing candles, especially since I had to animate all their facial expressions twice (never going to live that down, Mac). Despite all my problems, I think I've done a good job, especially as this has been my first real attempt at using video layers/creating a digital animation. Looking back at it now, I think this would have been a lot easier to animate using After Effects, as there isn't a great deal of movement on my character's part. Had I have been shown how to use the program sooner, I might have considered using that over Photoshop as I don't think I have used the video layers to their full potential, and in the end my project was getting incredibly awkward to work with due to how many different layers I had. 

Those Layers Though

It definitely would have been easier to produce in another program looking back at it now, or at least using a combination of programs. Having said this, I'm glad I decided to produce the animation digitally in Photoshop, as I have been able to experience using video layers properly (well...) and now I know what I am able to produce using them.

I think my main strength of the animation is the part where my male candle jumps towards the female. I think I have been able to demonstrate good use of squash and stretch, as well as exaggeration to make the jump sequence more "realistic". Other than this, there isn't really many other examples of the principles of animation in my animation, but then again because of my story line there wasn't really much opportunity for me to include them. If I had been given more time (length of animation-wise), I think it would have been nice to try and include more of them, for instance more secondary action and anticipation, especially with the jump sequence. However, I am happy with what I have produced, especially the hand at the beginning. I love that hand. 

Now that I have finished, I am looking forward to hearing what people have to say about my animation in the final critique on Tuesday. It will be nice to hear other's opinions considering it is my first real time using Photoshop to animate, as well as using colour in an animation. It will also be interesting to see what improvements I can make, but before I am given any feedback I want to try and add a title sequence, as well as try and record some sound effects so I will be able to receive comments about these features too.