COP Final Evaluation

This context of practice module has been a great way to look at animation as not only a form of entertainment but also a medium to send a message, and has also given me the opportunity to analyse animation as a genre instead of just take it as is.

I approached this module with little knowledge about the context behind animation and I have learnt from lectures and seminars that there are many different layers and ideas behind it as a subject. As I didn't know much before starting this module, it allowed for me to be very open minded about the topics we looked at, however I decided that the topic 'how does animation construct our ideas of gender' was the most interesting out of the ones we were given. I really enjoyed researching different sources and looking at different animations in seminars that I may not have come across myself and I think that this has really opened up my ideas about animation and that it can come in so many different forms.

The practical side was really interesting as I was able to apply what I had been researching to this side of the module and even though the essay and research was my favourite part I still found this was really useful to allow myself to have a hands on experience with the topic. I  felt that in this part of the module I could have created a better animation as in the principles as my character could have moved more smoothly and it's all a little robotic. As I had researched a lot into Disney, it was easy for me to create a certain style with my animation and this wouldn't have worked as well without doing so. I can take from this that I definitely need to work on my practical skills in animation to make a more effective one, however I feel that this is something that will come with time. On the other hand, one of my strengths within this module was that I was able to managed my time very well with lots of time to tweak and go over my essay.

If I were to approach this module again I wouldn't pick another topic as I enjoyed looking at this one so much, however I think I would have spent a little bit more time working out my frames and inbetweens to get a smoother animation. I also may have liked to try a different medium such as stop motion or oil to create my animation as I might have played it safe by choosing to work digitally. Furthermore, what I can take from this module is that I need to experiment a little more with my mediums that I choose to use and this way I will get a better outcome and also everything I have learnt about the genders in animation and how they are portrayed. This has opened my eyes to the power that you have as an animator and should always consider the way that the audience can take it and how this may effect them.

COP Visual Response - Animation Evaluation

Here is my finished animation as visual response to COP1 called 'Sabella' :)

My aim was to create an animation that tackled the subject of gender in animation and how it is represented, so I wanted to play with the idea of Disney Princesses.

In this animation I have created my own Disney princess Sabella, and it shows her walking home to her cottage and once getting inside revealing her true self to the audience. I wanted my message in this animation to be series, however I still wanted it to have that quite comedic effect to it as well. I used a Disney soundtrack for the first part of my animation to really establish the atmosphere and late used a heavy metal track to show the funny side to things. 

Title Cards in Disney!

As part of my animation I wanted to spice it up and really make it feel like a Disney animation and when going to make titles I thought of just putting the plain white text on a black background but then I thought back to Disney's beautiful titles card that they use. I thought that it would be fun to recreate some of my own by using inspiration so below are a few title cards that I really liked.

Even though Disney still make modern title cards for the films I especially like the old technicolour animations as the style is much more appealing and magical to me. I have taken inspiration from a couple of their title cards and made my own which are shown below! It was really fun making these title cards and in the future I would like to make more if I get to make any more animations that are in this style.

More Progress!

So I am actually done with all of my scenes now and I am so relieved! All I have to do now is piece them all together and come up with my final animation. Below I have put a few line tests.

I had lots of fun animating these two scenes as they were meant to be comedic but also sending the message I wanted to get across about how gender is not something that can be defined by the way you look. These scenes worked really well I found, however if I were to do anything different I would make her corset throw a little quicker as if she put more effort into it. It seems to fly out of the way magically, but the animation is set in a magical world which might just save me! 

Progress and Line Tests!

I have been making very good progress with my visual response and overall I am very happy with my outcomes, I have really been focusing on trying to make my animation seem quite comedic and something I am going to have to really think about it the sound I am going to use. Below I have put a few line tests of a couple of scenes I feel I have almost completed so far.

Here is the first walk scene that I have created and I feel like this is progress in comparison to my last project where the walk scene was quite weak and didn't look very natural. My main weakness, however with this scene is the arms seem to move around too much and it is not very natural feeling. If I have time I want to go back and change this but with the deadline being near I'm not sure I will have time to do this.

This scene is one of my favourites as it is the reveal of her true identity, this was really fun to animate and I think I pulled it off quite well as I have never done anything like this before. I feel like there are too many frames when she goes to wipe her face at the very beginning so I might take a few out here to make it a little faster. 

Disney Framing

Before I start my storyboard I thought it would be a good idea to look at the ways Disney frame their scenes and use this as inspiration. I want to look at the more older examples of Disney films, as this is what I have talked about a lot in my essay.



The first example is from Alice in Wonderland and I really liked this shot as it shows the house in the distance and the character coming out of the forest as if revealing it to the audience. I also really like how the forest is in shadow and the house in the light as it makes it stand out even more. This would be a good shot to use for the first sight of the cottage in my own narrative as my character walks home.



I put in this example as it shows how Disney use a midshot but she is ever so slightly placed to the left of the frame so I will keep this in mind for my own midshots.



This shot I liked because it has a lot of depth to it and I think I would like to use a shot like this as one of my first shots of my character walking through the forest. I like how the trees frame the shot nicely almost encircling the characters.


Finally, this shot is going to be very important to look at as my narrative I want to follow involves my character looking in the mirror and changing from a Princess into something much different in society's eyes. I want to create a very similar look in my own animation and I feel it will be difficult to animate my character twice in one frame.

Disney Scenes - Research

Before going to create my storyboard I wanted to look at scenes that are from Disney films to inspire me and give me some ideas into backgrounds too. The first example I am looking at it is from Beauty and the Beast as this is one of my main inspirations that I want to look at for my colour palette so that my animation looks similar to a Disney animation. This example is very bright and uses lots of oranges, pinks and purples and I want to use these colours in my own cottage to reach a similar atmosphere.

The next example I want to look at is Aurora's cottage because there is lots of examples of different parts of the cottage. I wanted to look at this for inspiration into how my cottage will physically look and use the colour palette from the Beauty and the Beast example to make up my cottage. What I like about this example is the little details on the walls as wallpaper and the painted woos around the house. There is also trees inside the house which I like but I feel like this isn't something I will put in my own cottage as it doesn't really fit my narrative I want to follow. 

In this shot from Aurora's cottage I like the big rug on the floor and I'm going to take this and put it into my own backgrounds to animate on. I also like the use of lots of wood so I want to use this as well to make my cottage very old fashioned but still fitting into the Disney aesthetic.