Week 3: Adobe Flash Tutorial

I have continued with the flash tutorials within lesson. I have created a rolling ball within today's lesson. I have kept screenshots from the tutorial which I will add to my skills audit which is also on this blog. I learnt how to create a simple ball animation. This is the process which I went through to create the ball animation.
- I firstly started by creating the ball (Insert- New Symbol) with the shape tool. I then dragged this into the 'scene' where the animation is created.
-I positioned the ball within the first position within the animation, once the ball is positioned I selected keyframe 25 along the timeline.
- I then positioned the ball at the end position, which is where the animation will end.
-For the ball to be animated both selected keyframes 1 and 25 need to be selected and highlighted. A black strip appeared to show they are highlighted in the timeline.
- The properties panel at the bottom of the screen has options for the ball to be animated. I selected- Tween: Motion, Rotate: Clock wise 3 times.
-Once I had set these settings I pressed the Enter button and the animation would play.
I am currently updating my Skills Audit document which will display my skills learnt within Adobe Flash from this tutorial.
Through this first Flash tutorial I have gained the skill of motion tweening. I feel confident within using this skill in Adobe Flash. But I believe I will need to experiment with this technique a couple more times before I apply it to my own animation. As this is a skill which I will be using within my animation as it seems simple but effective. Therefore I can use this technique in many different ways within the animation.

Week 3: Initial Ideas for Animation & Animation Worksheet Completed

I have completed the 2D Animation worksheet. I have a written report into the history of animation, a PowerPoint presentation presenting a creative timeline and I have also planned my initial and final idea for my own 2D Animation. I had 3 initial ideas for my animation and I have created 3 mind maps representing these ideas.
Initial Idea 1: The idea for this animation is developing my PowerPoint timeline presentation. I would develop this by animating the different aspects within the slides. The way in which this would appeal to the target audience of 14-16 year olds is by the bold and bright colours used. This will therefore be eye catching to view. Shown below is my intial idea 1 mind map.

Initial Idea 2- Final Idea: The theme within this idea is a old fashioned 'music chart inspired countdown', using this format to present the history of animation. The reason why this will appeal to the target audience is because of theme used, as music is a main interest for the audience. Therefore by incorporating the time period of the animation history as an effect with the music theme will show the history in an interesting way. The voice over used will use a similar script to those used on radio and TV chart shows. This will be a familiar concept to the audience and will interest them. Shown below is my initial idea 2 mind map.

Initial Idea 3: My last initial idea consists of a flip book inspired timeline. The content will be shown within a flip book template and the pages will be seen turning alternately. The colours within this idea are similar to those in my 1st idea, with bright bold colours which appeal to the audience. The reason why this concept will appeal to the target audience is because it is a fun and creative way of presenting and reading information. The image below shows my mind map for this idea.

I have also created 3 storyboards, one for each idea. Within these I have included the layout of the animation (slide by slide), along with an explanation of the movement and sound used. Through creating these storyboards I have visually presented my ideas and how I would layout the history of animation. I have also written a justification of my final idea for my 60 second animation. I have justified the different aspects of why my final idea (initial idea 2), will appeal to the target audience with the different aspects included.
Overall, through completing this worksheet I have gained knowledge in the area of animation history. Through using different resources such as books and the Internet to help me write a report on the history. I have learnt a lot about the devices and development in terms of animation through completing this worksheet.

2D Animation: Tasks 1 & 2 Completed

I have now completed task 1 and 2 on the 2D Animation worksheet. I have created an investigation report into the history of 2D Animation. This has documented the development of history in terms of animation, including the different devices used from the start of the animation history. From researching into the history of animation I have gained a lot of knowledge. In terms of how animation began, the different devices and how the history of film is linked to the different devices used for animation.
I have visually represented my investigation report within a PowerPoint presentation. I have creatively designed the presentation, by adding a film strip along the side with the date in history, this then moves down as the PowerPoint goes along.

Page from my PowerPoint Timeline

Page from my PowerPoint Timeline

The images above show 2 pages from my timeline in PowerPoint. I have decided place the titles and images within the film strip down the side. The writing to the right of the film strip matches to the image and title. 

I have started to brainstorm my initial ideas for my 60 second animation. This will represent the history of animation. I have created an initial idea mind map and a mind map for my 1st Idea. This includes: The Layout, Colours, Characters and Content. I will continue to create the mind maps and storyboard these. I will then choose a final idea and write a justification about why I have chosen this idea. I have researched and brainstormed the interests of the target audience of 14-16 year olds. This is important as the animation I am creating needs to appeal to the target audience, therefore the different aspects within the animation need to relate to the audience.

Week 2: 2D Animation Investigation and Flash Skills Audit Introduction

I have now completed all of my research into the history of animation. Including the key developments and inventors within animation.  From researching I have used different resources such as the Internet and books. I find that the research gained from the film and animation books is more reliable than the information from the Internet. Therefore this is the most reliable resource which I could use for my future work. The reason why I found books a more reliable resource is because the books and internet presented different information. This was in the form of dates in relation to devices in animation history. The internet stated one date and the book stated a different date. Therefore I decided to use the date and information from the book. I will reference correctly the resources I have used within this investigation exercise.
From this research I have written up my investigation report documenting the history of animation. This documents the main developments within the history of animation from the beginning. I have highlighted the main devices used within the history, the inventors, developers and techniques used. From researching into the animation history I have learnt a lot about how animation begun and the theory behind 'The Persistence of Vision', which started the creation and development of Animation.
I have nearly completed the written investigation showing the history of animation. I need to research into two more techniques used which include: Rotoscoping and Games animation. Once I have completed this document I can start my visual timeline which I have decided to create in PowerPoint. I will create a PowerPoint document showing my information on the History of Animation as a timeline.
I have also started to think about my initial ideas for my own 60 second animation created in Flash. This needs to show the history of animation and appeal to the target audience of 14-16 year olds. I will start mind mapping initial ideas for this and create 3 initial ideas for this animation.
Introduction to Flash and Skills Audit
I was also introduced to Adobe Flash Professional. This was introduction for me to see where tools and panels are located within Flash. This has helped me as I am now aware of the different tools which I will be using to create my 2D Animation. I was also shown how to create a basic animation, this allowed me to see how the frames work with the timeline. In order for me to document my knowledge and skills I have learnt I have been asked to create a Skills Audit. This is a table which shows the knowledge/skills gained, the date and how this will help me within future Flash work. I have started to create this skills audit with the skills learnt from the initial introduction to Adobe Flash.

Week 1: 2D Animation Worksheet

I started the 2D Animation Investigation worksheet yesterday. I have been continuing with this today and I have completed the research stage of taking notes and finding secondary research about the history of Animation for task 1. I have used different resources such as the Internet, books from the library and online books to take notes from. As I was unable to take books out of the library, I found an online version of Encyclopaedia Britannica via a link from Chichester Library website. This helped me a lot, as I was able to type in ‘Animation History’ and the chapter from the book itself was found easily. This helped me in understanding the earlier history of animation. The type of facts that I found about animation include:

·         Original and Developed Devices, such as: Edison's Kinetoscope: This was a wooden booth with a key hole, which was looked through to see light reflecting images onto a screen rotated by a motor inside. I have found dates, the inventor and purpose of these devices in relation to the creation of 2D Animation.

Edison's Kinetoscope

·         Techniques Used: Traditional Animation: Flick Book and Rotoscoping.  Which were original techniques used at the start of creation of animation.

           Original Drawings for a Flick Book

·         Inventors: History about the inventors of these devices which helped with the creation of animation. These include, Walt Disney and Lumiere Brothers. 

I gained a lot of knowledge from researching into the history of animation. I have learnt about the original devices, who invented them and how these developed over time.
I have completed the notes and research for these points, although I would like to gain more information from resources such as more books. This is because I believe the secondary information in books is more reliable than information from the Internet.

Therefore I will start to write up my Investigative Report on the history of animation with the information I have gathered so far. Although, I have also written the names of useful books from the library and I can take more notes from these books and more importantly check that the information found from the Internet is correct and relevant. When I have completed the investigative report I can then start to create my visual timeline of the history of 2D Animation.

Week 1: 2D Animation Investigation

I have started my 2D Animation Investigation exercise. This worksheet includes the Research Stage with secondary information, presenting my research and the planning stage. This worksheet will lead to creating a 60 second animation aimed at 14-16 year olds. This animation will show my knowledge in terms of Animation history.
Research carried out: I have carried out research into the history of Animation. I have been asked to create a visual timeline showing the history from my initial research. In terms of creating a visual timeline, I will create this in either, PowerPoint or Photoshop.
I am also carrying out research into the Audience of 14-16 year olds. Researching into their profile, including: hobbies, interests, TV and Films they also like. This will help me in understanding my target audience and the audience I am creating my animation for. For the final task I am starting to plan my ideas for my 60 second animation. This will include 3 initial ideas and my planning documents including: mindmaps, storyboards and justification of final idea.