Friday, November 16, 2012
1.
Do
you follow your plan or specifications? Do you have to change your plan or
specifications? Why?
Yes, I followed my specifications as I am in the process of
creating the 5 sand animations about 5 stories from 5 countries which is one of
my personal project specifications. Right now I have created 2 of the 5 sand
animations which I have created based on the previously made storyboards with
some changes. The first sand animation is the story of ‘The Three Fishes’ taken
from Bali, Indonesia. The second is the story of ‘The Rabbit Who Crossed the
Sea’ from Japan. Another specification that I am following by creating these
first two sand animations is that the duration of the movie is 5-10 minutes
long. Based on these first 2 sand animations, it takes a far longer time to
tell the story with sand animation than I had expected. This means that each
movie is over 10 minutes long, and so, for my final product I will need to be
careful about time, and make sure that I can create the sand animations as
close to under 10 minutes as possible and do editing so that the specification
for time is met. Based on these 5 sand animations, I can then pick the story
that I not only feel most comfortable with and that I feel I can create quite a
good movie with but also the story which is the shortest to tell so that I can
do my best to meet the 10 minute specification. Aside from this, through the 2
sand animations, I am also learning more about working with the sand and am
moving towards the specification of meeting the chosen animation principles as
one of my specifications. I am also moving towards the goal of using 10 of the
hand movements recorded in my research. This is harder to meet then it seems
because when you are creating the sand animation itself, you do not always
think of the specific hand movements that you are using but you focus more on
the scenes that you have to create and keeping the sand animation flowing.
Right now I am not sure if the specifications of the animation principles and
10 hand movements is met and this will depend on the final product, if it fits
the mentioned specifications.
So far I am following my planning by “practicing creating two
sand animations based on the storyboards created an make changes as
necessary”. I have followed my
planning in that respect, however, I have not followed the planning time wise.
I was supposed to create my first two sand animations on November 2, 2012, but
it is now already November 16. By this day I am supposed to already be finished
with creating all 5 of my sand animations. The reason for this is other things
have come up in regards to school assignments. Also, it took time for me to
become comfortable with creating the sand animation. Because of the changes in
time planning, I will have to move the planning back, in order to still meet
the final deadline of the product submission, on December 7, 2012. I will
therefore most probably spend less time editing as there isn’t so much to edit
in creating a sand animation because the main peace is the sand animation video
itself and so the editing will focus more on adding music, title and credits. I
can also spend less time on the final product. I had planned to continue
working on the final sand animation from November 20 to 30, giving me over a
week. I can shorten the time though, as before creating my final sand
animation, I will have practiced all 5 sand animations and only need to improve
one of the sand animations. Despite it still being possible for me to meet the
final product deadline, I should try better to follow my planning so that I
won’t be pressed for time near to the deadline.
2.
What
has been the success and struggles? What could be done differently next time if
I do it again or for the next steps?
The success has been successfully completing the stories and I
do feel that they flow quite well especially when I have edited them possibly
with the edition of voiceover or text so that it is easier for the viewer to
follow along. Sand animation examples that I found in my research do not have
voiceover and rely on the animation itself, however I do think that voiceover
will help my sand animation to be understood better. A struggle that I faced is
in remembering what the scenes are that I have planned in my storyboard and
what are the scene hand movements and transitions that I need to use. In my
research, I learned that one of the most important things in creating sand
animation is concentration. I have learned that this is true as it is hard to
concentrate on the hand movements that have to be made as well as the story
line. It is hard to make sure that everything flows and sometimes I hesitate.
Next time, in creating the 3 other sand animations and the final product, I
need to be more ready by knowing the storyboard and storyline and the hand
movements and shapes that I want to create better in order for the story to
follow and so that as much as possible I do not hesitate. Something else that I
struggle with is creating satisfactory pictures. I need to create pictures
which are more appealing and of a better quality so that my sand animation
product will be satisfactory. With some more practice and if I hesitate less, I
will be able to have a more satisfactory product. This is what I will do
differently in creating the rest of the sand animations.
3.
What's
next? Do I need to change the next plan? Why? What should I prepare?
Next,
I need to make the other 3 sand animations before I start working on my final
product. I do not need to change the steps of the plan, as they are necessary
to achieve the desired product and help to fulfill the specifications. I do need to adjust my plan in terms of
time and try to catch up with the original planning with the focus of finishing
my product by the due date of December 7, 2012. What I should prepare next is
to learn the stories and storyboards better so that I will hesitate less and
the animation will flow better as well as take less time to create.
