2. What – why you chose the subject
matter that you did
My created character is a Insane Asylum escaper called Rock.
The idea of this came from previous games I have played where the
characters have a similar style. The game that influenced me was
Borderlands 1 & 2. This is because 1 of the main characters is a huge
scary brute who uses his fists as weapons and is very physically large.
Personally I prefer to make characters without weapons because I feel
like they’re to many characters created with weapons and to few
without. I think this is what helped to make my character more unique.
I designed the character/animation in the way I did because I was trying
to create a threatening character which at the same time tells you his
background by the way he acts and looks. Personally I think I did not
create a interesting animation. I think this is because I found the
program difficult to use and spent a lot of time designing my character.
3. How – How you created the work and the
processes you used
For research for my animation I looked up a lot about technology development. Some of
the aspects in the technology development helped me when designing and creating my
animation. These aspects were: Character design, Style, Colour, Personalities, Character
themes/genre, Technical development, Programs and Processing chips. The main
aspects that were the most informative were Personalities, Themes/genres and
Programs. Personalities helped because style and colour both reflected on how a
characters personality can turn out to be. Researching about programs showed me how
programs have developed and how developing animations and designing characters can
be easier with a good level of skill. Because of program development it meant that detail
on animations and characters could be perfected more easier. Themes/genres helped me
when designing my character because it helped me to make my character more
identifiable to the certain theme/genre. This was important because the target audience
of the character is mainly based on the theme/genre of the character. This meant my
character was easily judged for what age group the character should be designed for. To
help get an idea of designing characters I used a website called HeroMachine. This is
where I created a character with assets provided by the website. Because there was not
a huge range of assets, it meant I could not be as open and have freedom when creating
my character. This was the only downside of the website.
4. How – How you created the work and the
processes you used
I started designing my character by getting a A4 piece of paper and then I drew a front
view, right side view, and a left side view of the character. Because I’m not extremely
confident in hand drawing I found this took most of my time and more effort than the
animation did. After it was drawn I used the scanner to transfer the drawing onto the
Mac. From there I used Photoshop to go over the drawing lines to make it more
neater. While using Photoshop it gave me the advantage of being able to add detail to
my character like shading and clothing detail. I then had to use the pen tool to
separately cut out the arms, legs, head and torso for animating. Once my character
was finished I used Adobe Flash to create my animation. I did not have enough time
to make a background at the time so I decided to get a background off the internet.
Once all my assets were added I then created my animation by creating a certain
amount of frames. The animation was run at 24fps so overall my target was 240
frames for a 10 second animation. I made the character move by adding key frames
to certain points in the timeline and then adding a classic tween. Once clicked on the
key frames I would set what I wanted the character or the background to do. My goal
was to make my character go through an urban environment and eventually lead onto
a basketball course where he would throw a basketball into the hoop. I got most of
this done except the bit where my character would throw the basketball. Overall with
more experience I think my animation would have been a lot more smoother and
longer.
5. Project overview – How did the project go?
In my opinion I feel the character I created was well
designed, unique, and had a good background story. The
animation on the other hand I think I could of made better if
I put more time into it, but unfortunately I put more time
into the character instead which made my animation quite
boring and unappealing. I think that I should of put less
concentration into my drawing and more into the animation
to make it more interesting. Because I’m not a confident
drawer I think its what held me back a lot when I was
drawing because I assumed everything I drew was not good
enough. Some challenges I found difficult was using the
flash animation program and getting used to where to put
key frames and tweens. I overcame this by experimenting
and trying to make the animation as smooth as possible.
6. Future Work – How you might improve
on the your completed work
If I was given the chance to re design my character and animation I
would make sure I put more hard work into the animation itself and
try to master the programs used so when I create my work it will be
at a higher standard. I would also try to use tools which will make
the character and animation more smooth and precise. Designing my
character is what took most of my time because I was less confident
in my drawing. I think that this unit has helped me to improve my
confidence in my drawing meaning next time I will not be wasting
too much time on character design and I can put more effort and
skill into the animation. I would also choose to spend time looking
into other characters and animations which would be similar to mine
so I could get some hints towards what makes a good character but
at the same time make my character unique.
