The Life of Death- A Review

The Life of Death: a review

Story:

The story of this short 2-D animated piece was about a spirit of Death of the forest slowly growing to love a beautiful doe and become friends with her, which she then has to teach Death that dying was essentially a part of life. Essentially, this story was to teach the viewer that even though Death is inevitable, as long as one makes their life a memorable one, it could be a happy one.

Process:

It appears as if this animation was made using Photoshop, evidenced by both the background, the look of the characters, and even the movement is somewhat similar to my own animation made primarily in photoshop. Perhaps Adobe Premiere was used to help finalize the project, as the quality of 'The Life of Death' was very well done for a student animation. It appears to have the flow of hand-drawn animations like that of Beauty and the Beast as well as the Lion King, with detail not only given to the characters, but to the entirety of the environment as well.

This story was told through the observant eyes of the viewers, watching a somewhat unusual tale of friendship unfold in front of them.

Elements I would take from this would be the ability to add detail to background, as well as having an outline, as it made everything feel smooth and flow easier, while this project could probably do better at attempting to move the Death character, as some scenes like at the beginning when he was floating, it felt a bit awkward when he moved.

Conclusion:

This was a well-created, student made project that I hope I can one day aspire to. This has movie quality and it drives me to try and create more beautiful animations. This project also reminded me of why I want to be an animator, to not only teach others a moral of the story, but because I want to give life lessons I've learned to others and inspire others to do the same.

"CGI 3D Animated Short HD: "The Life Of Death" - by Marsha Onderstijn." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.

A Midnight Flight- Behind the Scenes

The Entry

This animation would be the first time I would try my absolute best to get a Pixel at eMagine, I decided when the concept first came to paper. This would be the animation where I could show off what I've been learning for the past two years, and where I can finally show people that this is the career I want to follow. Chute, this small green dragon, would become my personal Mickey Mouse.

The Story Behind the Animation:

Chucho's story began as a sketch within a sketchbook, a single doodle that soon grew into two, then ten, and then a hundred different drawings of this same character. I just knew that I had to bring him to life, as he was the first character I kept drawing repeatedly. So I found an animation online called Reversal of the Heart, an animation revolving around dragons that I took inspiration from. The details of some scenes are actually my attempts to do the creator of Reversal of the Heart's own style of detailed backgrounds. So I decided that this animation, that I would hand draw frames and walk cycles and tests, would be a simple concept. This little dragon would wake up in his cave and decide to got out in the peaceful night in order to take flight, therefore, ' A Midnight Flight.'  I had always liked hand-drawn styles better than 3-D, despite the benefits given to 3-D animators. I also attempted to put in influence from Lilo and Stitch into my animation due to that movie being the reason I want to animate in the first place.

Beginning

It took a week to think of some good storyboards that would pass along to be able to show the scenes I wished to bring to life. So began the attempts of doing plenty of drawings and sketches and tests in order to ensure that everything I wanted to do was doable. Every movement of Chucho was hand-drawn, from his wing movements to his walk cycle to even his ability to blink. The colors of him came from the Slytherin logo from Harry Potter, which I thought would be not only a cool spin on the classic 'dragon',  but a nice little Easter Egg of the preferred house I would be in if I were in the Wizarding World (Unfortunately I'm a Hufflepuff). I created this in Photoshop, painted and drew the backgrounds within the program, some of the animation was done in After Effects, such as the moving when Chucho is flying. The music I gained from Youtube from a game named Ori and the Blind Forest, which i loved playing and felt that this track sounded like it would fit when the animation was made.

Editing

Editing I'm pretty sure one can assume that took awhile, especially in a file with multiple test renders, different animating styles, and even scenes that I had to cut to fit the time period allotted to me. There was well over fifty individual files within the Chucho folder I placed within my desktop, but I brought all of the frames together in After Effects, uploaded a cut version of the soundtrack, and did about 50 seconds of the 1:24 that the song actually was. After six rendering attempts, the project was complete, and I loved this cute little animation. "The Midnight Flight." was the best animation I had ever done before. 

What I learned

I learned about the fundamentals of animating in Photoshop, the benefits of After Effects, how to animate from first person POV, and even how to make a character look like they're flying. Basically, the entirety of the animation was new to me and I enjoy that it was so successful! I couldn't have done it without the assistance of Madison Redmond, Hannah Fales, and Hanna Brady; who helped me make better decisions while animating the project, like having a first person POV in the first place. If I had to do anything different, I would make animated leg movements for when Chucho was flying to make it look more natural. I would keep the type of scenes the same, but add more outlines and define characteristics for the animation background and character. I hope I can make my next animation smoother and better for next time, as well as improving my hand drawn skills for animation. I hope that next time, I can put more Disney-esque influence into the animation, like the old cartoons from the 20s, as I loved those when I was a kid. But I hope to continue down this road of improvement!