flash

I did this in the animation workshop using Flash. I finally got my head around using this software and found creating this short animation relatively simple. I'm happy I used stop motion to do my final animation as I think the hand-made look with human error really suits the style of my animation, though I would in the future like to try doing something a little longer in Flash.

Finished animation

clip from animation

Heres some short clips from my animation. They run really quickly as they are only 10 frames per second. Hopefully once I've edited it it won't go so quickly.

Fonts - Before I edit my animation I need to think of the right font to use for my titles. I want something that is bold and very easy to read and also quite playful. I have looked at loads and so far i think Arial Rounded MT Bold is perfect because of its rounded edges which I think are very child friendly as they add interest to the font without taking away any readability.

shooting the animation

Above are some stills from my animation. I enjoyed shooting it though I did encounter a few problems. I did not use a light for the campfire as the other lighting made it impossible to see which was a shame. I found it difficult to get the lighting right and still am unhappy with the results. I wanted to create a night time atmosphere which was really difficult as it meant visibility would be limited and the quality of the image would be poor too as I would have had to use a really slow shutter speed with a low aperture. Also I found that the animals limited movement was difficult to work with-although I put wire in the animals, it wasn't strong enough to hold them in certain positions so I had to resort to making them like puppets using transparent thread. This thread wasn't as transparent as I'd hoped as it is visible in some shots. I don't particularly mind this as I think it adds to the childish, home-made feel. The close up shots worked well as I think you can see more of the details whereas some in some of the long shots it could perhaps be hard to see exactly what's happening. Hopefully once the background music and voice over is added it'll make more sense.