08.09.25
Introduction to Animation
The aim of this session was to understand the basic fundamentals of animation and to create a simple bouncing ball experiment using Adobe Animate.
Some of the basic terminologies I had been introduced to are as follows:
- Frames per second.
This refers to the number of frames/pictures that make up a second of animation.
- Hand drawing/stop motion.
This refers to the different methods of creation of various types of animation, these being the main 2:
Drawing frames physically/digitally by hand or by using real in-hand figures, posing them frame by frame.
- And Juxtaposition.
Juxtoposition is the act of comparing two things side by side, such as frames of animation. This can be useful to see if two frames are either the same or vastly different.
Bouncing Ball experiment
I experimented in Adobe Animate using various tools, such as the move and shape tools, along with the onion skin tool, to create a short animation in the form of a GIF where 2 Bouncing balls pass one another.
Animating the first ball was slightly challenging as I tried to capture the movement of the pink ball, as the movement felt jittery and either too fast or too slow.
One piece of feedback I received was that the Pink ball was a bit stiff in terms of slowing down near the end, as it stops a bit too suddenly. I will adhere to this feedback and, in the future, try to animate the stopping motion more smoothly.
Final outcome:
I think the final outcome came out all right; however, as the second blue ball movement feels clean and smooth as it zips up and over the pink ball, stopping before darting back down out of frame.
In the future, I could use these techniques to create different types of movement other than bouncing a few balls, such as walk cycles or movement in objects such as cars or motors.
12.9.25
Principles of animation
The objectives of this task were to understand the 12 principles of animation and to create a facial animation.
The 12 principles of animation go as follows;
- Squash and stretch
When you draw objects or characters as if they were malleable soft objects, squashing and stretching them, giving weight and flexibility to the animation.
- Anticipation
Animating a wind-up before the actual movement begins can be used to prepare the audience for what is to come.
- Staging
Using the space on canvas less like a 2D space and more as an open 3D space, basing your shots on importance, highlighting a viewer's attention on what you want the viewer to see.
- straight ahead & pose to pose
This demonstrates two different ways of animating.
1. Drawing each frame one after the other.
or
2. Start with 2 or more keyframes and draw new ones in between frames.
- follow through & Overlapping Action
Drawing two different body parts or clothing separately from the main focus, either at different speeds, etc.
- Slow In and Slow Out
When you slowly accelerate a movement to top speed, then slowly decelerate to zero.
- Arc
To create movement that feels more human/alive and less robotic, as things in real life follow an Arc.
- Secondary Action
When animating a character or an object, adding an additional animation helps support the first one, giving more life to the movement.
- Timing
The number of frames relates to the speed of an object.
- Solid Drawing
Taking into account how characters look in a 3 Dimensional space.
- Appeal
Drawing a character with distinct shapes that give off personality without complicated line art.
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Using this knowledge, I created these animations using what I know. I created both a simple animation walk cycle.
I created these in Adobe Animate using the tools available to me. The most I used were the brush, move, layer, and onion skin tools. I had used around 2 references to give me an idea of how to create my own walk cycle.
The references I used for creating the walk cycle;
1.
siobhandeswardt. (2013). Animation, Walk Cycle. [online] Available at: https://siobhandeswardt.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/animation-walk-cycle/.
2.
Ward, C. (n.d.). Walk Cycle Inspiration. [online] School of Motion. Available at: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/walk-cycle-inspiration.
I did the same process when animating the facial expression, the only difference being that I used a different reference for the facial expression at the end.
The reference I used was from the facial expression.
1.
Reddit.com. (2024). Reddit - The heart of the internet. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/1hj1kp3/who_has_2nd_place_for_the_best_enel_face_in_the/ [Accessed 22 Sep. 2025].
I did, however, go into the properties in some of the layers and lowered the opacity so I could draw over them, like you see in my walk cycle.
Final Outcomes:
Walk Cycle;
Facial Expression;
I believe the overall movement looks surprisingly fluid; however, it can definitely be improved upon, such as the roughness being cleaned up, along with the walk cycle not being completely finished to my liking.
I believe I need more practice in making a smooth facial expression and need to work on perhaps adding more in-between frames when creating a walk cycle to make it smoother and more fluid.
I think the most interesting principle I learned was the squash and stretch, along with secondary action. I definitely would like to carry out these actions a lot more in my future work, as well as the other 10 principles of animation.
15.9.25
Homework: sense of speed
This is a sense of speed animation I created using the knowledge from one of the previous lessons in this experiment.
I used various tools such as the brush and move tool.
I went for a humorous animation showing off the speed of a snail, creating an impact frame to show off its velocity.
I think it went well, and I hope to use the knowledge I learned creating this in future works of animation, such as running.
Final Outcome:
16.9.25
Intro to Audio Production EXERCISE
The objective of this lesson is to understand how original audio is created and to experiment with creating our own sounds.
Audio design is important to game/animation because of how it can change the mood and tone of a scene; it can also be used to add life to an area that normally would be silent. Additionally, Audio takes up to 50% of a game's content.
It can also be used for audio cues in video games, aiding players in many ways. Some examples of games that use audio cues are;
- Five Nights at Freddy's - to hear if an enemy is approaching or is at your door
- Rhythm Heaven - Listening to the beat to hit the notes/button at the right time
- UltraKill - To hear the audible cue for when to parry (a shine/ding sfx)
There are 3 main types of audio in Audio Production. These include;
- Foley - which is used to make sound effects using irl objects.
- Music - Used to set the mood and to be the game's OST or Score if it's for a film.
- ADR - Automated Dialogue Replacement, which is used for dubbing over a scene post-production, not done on set.
There are also different microphone types for recording audio with their own pickup patterns, which determine how far or close the mic will be able to pick up audio from; these microphones include;
- H2 Handy ZOOM Recorder
- Directional
- Long Range
A device used for connecting to microphones to record Audio
- RODE - NTGZ (Shotgun Mic)
- Directional
- Mid Range
- Requires 1 AAA Battery
Useful for interviews
- AKG D230 (Reporting Mic)
-Omnidirectional
- Close Range
Useful for interviews
- Rode Wireless Go (Lapel Mic)
- Omnidirectional
- podcast
Useful for podcasts
These microphones will require an XLR Cable to be connected, so do keep it in mind.
Using the knowledge of how different sounds are made, and a group I had been teamed up with, I were tasked with creating 5 Original Foley sounds, along with 2 takes of dialogue and 3 sounds from the environment.
These are all the sounds I did with my group:
5 ORIGINAL Foley Sounds;
Book Flipping
Key Jingle
Wrapping paper/fire sound
Metal girder
Broken VHS box scratch
Drawing/Swiping Sound
3 from the ENVIRONMENT;
Footsteps
Wind or Ruffling
2 Takes of dialogue;
Ali Take 1
Alaiter Take 1
I found this task very interesting and forced me to think differently and imagine what certain sounds could be instead of what they are, a lot of imaginative thought compared to other tasks, I believe.
I think the most difficult aspect of this, however, was trying to find a variety of objects to create different sounds, as some sounded a bit similar to each other, leading me to have to get creative.
I found the process went well, and I enjoyed finding what objects made an interesting sound when I hit or scratched them. I am quite satisfied with the final products of these sounds and how they feel when listening to them.
I definitely would love to use Foley sounds in some of my future works, such as creating perhaps cloth ruffling together or footsteps.
13.09.25
Introduction to sound editing - Theory and Adobe Audition
The objective of this lesson was to understand how to effectively apply audio editing in media production.
There are 4 ways of using audio in production
- Parallel - sound/music that matches the scene
Such as romantic music playing during a lovers' scene in a romantic comedy
- Contrapuntal - sound/music that doesn't match the scene
Such as Rock music during a sad scene
- Diagetic - Sound everyone can hear
Such as dialogue or footsteps
- Non-Diegetic - Sound characters cannot hear
Such as background music only present for the viewer to set the scene
I edited the sounds in Adobe Audition using various tools to increase the volume of the audio, along with the cut tool to shorten the audio, and experimented with the pitch filter to lower the pitch of my voice.Here is the final output;
I found this process very simple; however, trying to adjust the pitch was slightly troubling, as I didn't know where to open the tool, but I figured it out in the end.I think the final outcome is pretty good, but I feel like I could have adjusted the audio slightly to make my breathing less intrusive and audible, so I believe I'll need to work on audio mixing more to make good, clear sound design.
18.09.25
Stop Motion Animation
The objective of this lesson was to understand how stop motion animation works and how to create it ourselves in an experiment.
Stop motion is created when you use physical models or objects on a stage, taking pictures each frame to give the illusion of movement when played back. It differs from hand-drawn in that you use objects in your hand to manipulate rather than drawing them.
I create mine using the same principles of animation, moving the model slowly to give the impression of a big, scary, bulky monster. I limited the FPS and held on shots to emphasise certain action, like when he walks, to make it heavier and more impactful.
I also made a twist-juxtaposed ending with a stuffed animal using fast, snappy frames with a slow zoom in to give the nature of cute and fast.
I found the experience overall quite fun and enjoyable, especially moving the model in ways that I wanted. The sets were slightly lacking, but good for their purposes.
There were some issues that I had with the movements when I looked at the images in Premiere Pro, as they felt a bit too snappy with not enough in-between frames. If I were to do this process again, I most certainly need to work on improving my timing by taking more images with smaller movements in between each image.
However, even with this issue, I handled it by extending the frame or shortening it down in Premiere Pro to help aid against the fact, along with using audio to capture the feel I wanted to give off.
Final Outcome:
22.09.25
Animated Advert
For this task, I was paired with another student to create an animated advert for a product of our choice (e.g., food, item, etc.). The deadline was set for a week.
I first started by outlining a rough and quick storyboard. Storyboard is below;
Board 1:
Board 2:
Board 3:
Board 4:
Board 5:
Adobe Animate process;
Once I was happy with how the boards turned out and the general concept was clear enough, I then split the boards in two, giving the beginning part to my teammate while I got the ending. Parts.
This is my process for how it went when animating in Adobe Animate.
1. Box motion tween attempt.
Here, I tried to add a motion tween to make the hand pull out a piece of chicken from the box in front; however, I had a bit of struggle doing so and eventually scrapped the idea of it.
2. Soda and Chips Motion tween.
I attempted to add a motion tween to this scene here and was successful.
3. Ending frame of the animation.
The ending frame of the animation was heavily rushed to get it out by the deadline.
Final Outcome:
S.W.O.T Analysis:
Review:
Through the SWOT analysis feedback I was given, a common strength that was shown was that the animation was comedic and entertaining, with good use of cinematography.
However, the animation was quite inconsistent in some areas, and the design for the characters was lacking.
If the pacing in the animation had been slower and had perhaps more music playing, these problems would have been alleviated.
With this in mind, I definitely want to improve and take these into note when doing a future project, such as making actual, distinct character designs.
01.10.25
The Animation Process - Lessons from the Production of Dragon Ball Z
21.10.25
Animation Practitioner Analysis - Tadayoshi Yamamuro
Can I work in the animation industry?
21.10.25
Animating For Videogames
02.10.25
Original animation project - week 1
Valiant Stand
For this task, I, along with 2 others in were given a group project to create an animation with a selected soundtrack given to us. I began by brainstorming ideas to think of different options/ what the story would be about.
SOUNDTRACK GOES HERE
Next thing I made after gathering my thoughts was to create a short synopsis of what was going to happen in the animation. I wrote both the synopsis and the brainstorm I had while thinking of ideas for the animation in my notebook.
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The next thing that I did was draft out a storyboard to visualise what my concept/vision was for this project. I created 48 Boards, which were pretty rough but acceptable for what they were trying to convey.
Once I had done that, I took all the board images and compiled them into Premiere Pro as an animatic to get a grasp of the timing and length of the final product.t
Animatic export:
9.10.25
Original animation project - week 2
Valiant Stand
During this week, I made character model sheets. These are the ones I made for bot Noah and Traiton:
I did this to give a clear view of the characters' eyes so it would be easier to animate/draw.
This one was quick to draw out, and with that came some roughness to the design, but it still showed off what I wanted the character to look like.
Overall, I think these sheets are ok for what they're meant to be; however, they can be improved by being cleaner and more consistent.
I also gave out the storyboard to all of the teammates that I am working with in this project. I split the 48 boards into 16, giving each member a specific part in the final outcome.
(I got the Ending section to animate while my two teammates got the Beginning and Middle)
During this week, my focus was on animating the ending section of this project, which I had partially finished by the end of the week.
These are screenshots of some of my work during the process.
1. Starting shot of the animation
2. Fur Flow Shot
Here I animated the fur on the Villain's back flowing in the windand they stared down the hero lying in front of them. I used around 6 six frames, copying them twice over to make it loop seamlessly.
3. Swaying arm/Impact frame 1
Before shaking violently with an Impact Frame.
I think I did pretty well during this week; however, some sections are a bit rough with animation and line art, but I can fix that, hopefully next week, when I'm hoping to have finished my part in the ending animation.
9.10.25
Original animation project - week 3
Valiant Stand
During this week, I continued work on the ending section I was working on last week. I then complete the animation the following Monday. Here is what I did during that process;
1. Impact frame 2
I believe it looks alright, but I could have improved this further by adding more anticipation keyframes before the impact to prepare the audience for the action.
I could have also added more frames to the impact frame *around 2 - 3 more) to really exaggerate the movement and create more of an explosive impact.
2. Glasses throw a smear
I also animated the hero tossing aside their glasses, throwing them far away.
I used a smear frame to indicate the speed of the glasses thrown.
After I had finished my Animation, I made a quick Rough cut using only my part of the animation.
Rough Cut 1 Here:
Taking this feedback into consideration, I created another rough cut of the animation, including only the ending segment that I had completed, as my other teammates had not finished theirs at the time.
Rough Cut 2 Here:
The Villain's hand is slowly moving downwards to grab the Hero, to give more clarity to what is happening.
And an animation of the Hero getting up after falling from the Villain's grasp, however, I think my lineart was pretty rough on this particular part, along with some inconsistencies.
I'll need to take that into consideration in the future.
Rough Cut 3 Here:
I think this cut looks a lot better with the added animation; however, it is still not finished, as my other teammates' animations have not been included yet.
I'm hoping they will have them ready and exported next Monday, so I can edit them thoroughly into the animation.
20.10.25
Original animation project - 20.10.25 to 21.10.25
Valiant Stand
The following Screening, where we show our final animation, will be on the 22nd of October.
However, we have 2 extra days to edit and finish off on some final things in the animation department, do last-minute SFX, etc.
Title card WIP shown here.
Valiant Stand - Final Cut 1:
The lighter purple underneath is the storyboard added for additional filler for sections with no animation.
The colour coding helped me keep track of each part/section in the animation to know which parts were animated by each team member.
There is roughly 30% missing from the beginning section (the part in red), and roughly around 80% missing for the middle section (the part in Yellow), while all sections in dark purple have been covered and animated in the ending section (the part in dark purple, which is also my section).
The animation files that they gave were shown to me today. I was unable to peer-review their work during the last 3 weeks week which may have caused sections to be unfinished, as I was unable to address their work and see how much we have completed.
I believe we could have communicated better during the animation process; however, some of it was due to the loss of files or no motivation to work.
Their animations were a bit short, so to keep them in time with the rest of the animation, I had to change the speed/duration of their clips.
However, I think the entire animation came out as well as it could, and I did my best to salvage it with editing and animating my part, along with filling the missing animated segments with the storyboards I had created for it.
But it could have been better with some consistency in the lineart and some more accurate model sheets showing off the characters better. For example, in one scene, the villain's horns are drawn quite differently from how they are supposed to look.
21.10.25
I created the title cards in Adobe Photoshop using the magic wand, gradient and bucket tool, along with the brush tool to make the line art.
I used the wagic wand tool specifically to select the inside of the writing to add a gradient using the gradient tool so it would not spill and stay neatly inside the line art.
I also added mine (along with other people's) characters/doodles to the beginning title card for a bit of fun.
I think they both look nice and introduce the animation that's about to play.
I did this so it would smoothly change and be more dramatic and professional-looking instead of just a quick cut.
I think these edits made the animation feel more whole and complete, and I am satisfied with how it looks.
This is the Final and Complete Cut:
Valiant Stand
22.10.25
Valiant Stand Evaluation
Our brief for this project was to make a 1-2 minute long animation using an OST that was handed to us by our Teacher in a group of 3.
It must include;
- 3 Audio Components
- At least 1 walking animation
- 1 head turn
- and 5 different shot sizes
The deadline was set for the 22nd of October, giving us around 3 weeks to complete it.
My initial response to this was intrigue and thoughts about how I could use the skills I have learned throughout the course so far (along with using knowledge from my previous years).
I thought about how I could imagine a setting/scenario with this Audio in mind, and how I could storyboard this and work together with my team to get the animation out in a way that I want.
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My idea changed a bit near the beginning of the project, mostly due to my teammates' guidance on certain things, such as changing the design of the main character slightly by adding a few lines to his design.
Additionally, some of my ideas and thought processes changed near the end of the project, such as cutting certain scenes due to time constraints.
One scene that was cut was a shot of a burning forest engulfed in flames; however at around the 3rd week, I added a short scene of the Hero throwing their glasses as the animation was not present beforehand.
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I believe I had some struggle outlining exactly what I wanted from the storyboard, making some things unclear. I also had some trouble animating certain shots, such as the hero being picked up by the villain, of certain poses being particularly difficult to draw.
However, I managed to overcome 1 these, that being drawing certain poses as I went for simpler posing, which I found more clearert and easier to draw.
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Looking back at my team, I believe 1 quality I could perhaps take to improve upon myself is animating subtle movement with characters.
By this, I am referring to one action a team member added to the animation in the mid-section of the animation, making the Villain's head turn in an arc motion before facing the Hero.
Another quality my teammates displayed was problem-solving in creating backgrounds using an outside tool to create their own reference.
This outside tool was a game called 'Minecraft' in which they randomly generated some terrain and took screenshots of specific spots to reference in creating a look for the castle that may sit in the final animation (as well as the surrounding area).
I thought it was a clever idea and was excited about the end result once he was done sketching out the surrounding area and castle.
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Looking at the final outcome, I believe some of the shortcomings from this piece are definitely the lack of animation in the middle section of the animation, where most of it had to be filled in with a storyboard to fill the gaps, just so the final product would make a bit of sense.
Other shortcomings include various things such as the lack of colour, inconsistent animation, some parts being too slow or long and etc.
I believe something I could have done to improve upon these aspects with my team was to communicate better.
So I wouldn't come off as if I was nagging, as I believe it lessened their workflow, and instead I should have trusted them a bit more and waited till a week had passed to ask about certain things, such as what they have done so far, doing this helps with their workload, as well as providing better direction.
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However, the general consensus of criticism that was given was that it was a bit too fast, there were no backgrounds, and it was difficult to understand, especially the middle section.
I think I agree with most of these arguments and will definitely try in future animations that I produce to adhere to these remarks and improve.
Some things I can do are by rewatching certain things multiple times to adjust the flow of the animation so that things are not too long or too short.
As well as making a collaborative style sheet that everyone has input into, so that everyone in the group knows how to draw things in a specific way, so that animation is consistent.
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In Conclusion, I believe this project went pretty well for the most part, but went slightly downhill near the end of the project, with many things being unfinished.
I think the general scope and theme I was trying to portray with the animation was lost that making it not as successful as I wanted it to be.
I think I worked pretty well wth this project, taking the time during my breaks to work on animating and creating storyboards for the project as well as editing and creating model sheets for the characters.
Although I do think that my other team member could have worked slightly more efficiently with their time, this could have been done, as I have stated previously, with better communication.
I think what I've learnt from this project is that I am pretty confident in terms of editing in Premiere Pro, and creating dynamic and unique camera shots
However, if there is something I should take forward from this project, it's that I need to spend more time to heighten my skills in animating and manage time much better and draw out better storyboards with either more annotation or more boards overall.
I also need to improve on group management, creating an in-depth schedule with timings for when things should be done and talking more to the group overall.