Badger Animation

Finally the last project for this academic year. And as with some of my other projects, there were some technical glitches experienced, namely that for some reason the software crashed successively and I ended up with near complete projects continually being wiped from my hard drive. 

Alas, the computer hiccoughs may have won the battle, but it was I who triumphed in the end, though it was not the greatest victory ever. Anyways. My last project, the badger.

This piece roughly follows the 3-act structure, the opening consisting of two sequences: the testing positive for bovine tuberculosis and the badgers peacefully foraging for bugs in a field.  The peace is disrupted when the dog catches wind of them, drawing the farmer's awareness to their existence. Following this the farmer sets traps for them which the fall prey to upon there return. Unfortunately for the badgers, the farmer was expecting them, and he comes along with his gun, scaring them off and into some of his snares. They manage to escape to their sett, and the farmer can do nothing but retreat.

A short time passes as move into the final act and the badgers are still reassuring themselves in their burrow. But the farmer is back, and this time he's traded in his gun for a slurry tanker. The badgers are buried alive. For those that didn't live to make it back to die in the sett, the farmer takes with him and ditches the carcasses at the side of the road as make believe road kill. 

The music for me really makes this animation work. Without the sounds which I feel fit really well with the piece, the same depth and atmosphere of peace, aprehension etc. would not have been achieved. 

Flow Final Outcome

As this project didn't have any pre-production work behind it, somehow I felt a little detached from it and feel that as a piece it is a bit weak. That could be because I know what's gone into it was a lot less than the previous crime project, although it did at least have some foundation grounded in my research of similar projects.Although, I think that the music really helped add depth and atmosphere.

All the same, I really like how this piece turned out.

As an associational experimental piece, there isn't any real structure present that I can talk about, save for that the opening and ending clock sandwich it all together to form the idea of being a complete piece.

Crime Awareness Animation

After working and a lot of stumbling (there were some technical issues with hardware in that my tablet literally fell apart on me during animating), I finally managed to complete this project. Despite being complete, I had to axe a section that I had previously planned to include in the storyboarding stage. Clearly this is an indication of time issues and speed of working, which for me is generally slow. I anticipate this will improve with time and practise. Also, it is a case of anticipating more from myself than what I can do in the time frame outlined.

Additionally I would like to say that the scenes present need more frames to smooth out the movement, but doing so at the time would only have lead to missing the deadline and affecting the next project. This is further proved by the majority of movement being toward the edges of the frame, rather than taking centre stage. Although, doing so may have sated my perfectionist streak that raises its head from time to time.

Glitches aside, I really enjoyed this project and for the most part I'm both pleased and amused by the overall outcome.