After having a hard work for the whole trimester, now is the time to conclude everything about what I have done and get from this course.
Back to the very beginning of this course, at first, my intention was to do the whole opening for my original project, The Owl's Case, which is the final project for the course Character Design II. The whole project, in my word, means finishing everything from storyboarding to compositing. It is a very hard work as I also have projects from other course and there are limits in time. However, I think it is better to expect higher than what I can do, so I make this as my goal at the beginning of the course.
What I have planned for the course is managed step by step. As I already have my characters and story, I start this course with searching for a song for my opening, which is not so difficult to do. It just takes time to find the best song for the project. After that, I will continue with the storyboarding process. I roughly draw what I have in mind on paper. Then, after I finished the storyboard, I will continue to the process of making an animatic storyboard. The layout design process will also be done during this process. I used Photoshop to draw footages and then edit them in Flash. I chose Flash instead of After Effect here because Flash is a lot faster in previewing works. Therefore, it is good for doing a rough edit that does not focus much on quality. After that, I export this Flash work to After Effect to finished up in a better quality. Then I will do the backgrounds, using Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet to draw. Next will be the animation line test which will be done in Flash as it can be easily animated, and fast in previewing. Then I will export those line tests to Photoshop to clean them up. After finishing the cleaning process, it is time to color with Photoshop, and then export all of them to After Effect to finish everything up.
There is not much change as my works continue. Most things go according to plan except for the change of goal because of the time limit. In the end, I can make it to finishing all of the backgrounds, which is my new goal. There is one little problem that I encountered during the process. When I start working on the backgrounds, I found out that I haven’t got a style for my background yet. Therefore, I had to go through the research process before continuing.
What I have learned from this course is that it takes even more time than I expected to make one and a half minute animation. Moreover, it is even harder to do so if I have to also finish other project. Other than those, I learned how to work on my own, and how to organize the process. My storyboarding skill is also improved as I was using it in the process. I know more about which is worked, and which is not. I also learned techniques in using Photoshop, Flash, and After Effect which make my working speed goes faster. Finally, this course is a good chance for me to experience the process.
Even though this trimester is ended, I plan to continue this project until it is completely finished. All development will be posted on the blog as usual.
Finally, below is the zip file that contains everything I have done in this course which includes still storyboard, animatic storyboard, backgrounds, and final statement of the course. You may click and download it.
