Unit 1 Initial Ideas #1

Birdie & Paper plane

I am unsure what will happen but the bird, whos friend is a paper plan, will go on a journey and neither character will talk the plane will be able to draw shapes in the sky by leaving a smoke trail. It will probable be created in Flash or After effects.

Unit 1 Developing Skills

Thought out the course I have learn and developed my animation skill. I have several different aniamtion techiques these include work in Flash, Pixilation, Hand-drawn and After-effects.

Swimming Fish








This fish was created and animated swimming across the page in flash. I found flash was simple to use when I was making the fish move across the page and moving the tail. I did this by using key frames and motion tweens.

Spinach and Ricotta Parcels








This was created in flash for when we were doing lip sinking tests, we recorded ourselves in garage band by mine said "Spinach and Ricotta Parcels" we than shaped the lips on the image to go with mouth movements my creating key shapes. This was hard but fun to create.

Push & Pull

I also created a push and pull hand-drawn sequence of 12 frames that could be repeated, with the help form Stuart Messinger making the figure stretch and change shape and a real body would. This was very tricky to drawn so for me personally I did not like this technique very much but I did enjoyed giving it a go.

Unit 1 Initial Ideas #2

The main inspiration for this idea was the song "Typical Time" by The View, which lead me to do the following sketches.



The 1st ideas for this animation came from doodling in my chemistry book whilst listen to the song.




The ideas is to have two figures in a boat going for a sail then one of them getting lost to then return at the end. I want it to be scruffy with mix medias and a paper cut out animation, I did try out hand Drawn put it was not the image I was looking for. I have looked into the having the characters as stick figures but that would not suit the type of animation that I am looking at so I have decided to have them wearing fisherman macs but they will still be faceless.

I have been very privilege because at our school we have the computer facilities and software that i have used and we have media technicians to help and support us as well as a teacher who knows everything about animation. We have also had animator coming in and talking to us about different techniques. All these factors have helped me with my initial ideas and how I have developed my work.

Unit 1. The Industry

In the media industry the animation sector only takes up a small fraction of the overall business. In the production pipeline the studio commissioning the production is at the top with directors these are the client, the ones to please, after that it is the animation house, like VFX, MPC, FrameStore CFC and CineSite. For a large film like one of the ‘Harry Potter’ films there would be more than one animation house doing the work each having different parts to work on, for competition and safety.

Within the animation houses there are seven main departments; these are Data Wrangling, which involves sorting, storing and data management, it is a good way to enter the industry; Prep is the clean up and removal of unwanted modern fixtures like light rigs or tracking makers and Roto-Scoping to separate objects from their background. Match Move is the foundation for all VFX 3D work as it matches and mirrors the live action, this invokes on-set surveys, tracking and taking detail of all aspects of the live action set. The Lighting department is used to create the same effects on the live action set and on the computer generated one, even though it is a technical job there is a certain amount of artistic understanding involved in the way the light behaves in the real world to make them image look real and beautiful. Art Department designs the finished look of for the characters, environment, effect and overall product designs, it also involves matte painting and 2D and 2.5D rendering.


Assets and Building Department is the creation of 3D models based on the concept of artwork or live reference, the asset then has to be rigged with muscles and texture creating the right look with hair, fur and colour. These assets can then be shared with gaming companies. Finally Composting is the last part of the animation process bringing all of the elements together. The original plates are combines with 3D creations, matte plates to give the impression that the imagery was all natural.


Stuart Messigner entered the animation business from school by doing arts course at university, then getting a job as a 2D animator and progressing to be a Special Effects Co-ordinator. Other useful ways of getting into the animation business is by being a Runner, Data Wrangling, Prep and Roto or by being a Match Mover.


Acceptable working practices for someone in the industry should be positive and enthusiastic to all work you are asked to do being creative and cooperative within your field remembering that you have to please the client, what they say is right.