This is my last official post, and the final version of my animation project. Only 17 seconds long with a total of 208 frames. Please enjoy! This work was 100% made by me, so please don’t claim it as your own I worked really hard.

Looking back, there are a few spots I wish I had adjusted. For example if I had taken some more time, I could have made some scenes longer. The rain scene seems to pass by so quickly you almost don’t even realize that it happened! The entire ordeal is rather fast paced, but I like it like that.

I’m really really happy with how the space scene came out. I feel like it was the scene I was looking forward to making the most, so I took the most time animating it. I feel like you can visibly see that it’s more detailed and better taken care of. I enjoyed animating things interacting with the balloon the most, so those parts have slightly more detail. The birds nest is another good example of that, I spent a lot of time working on the scene when the nest falls off the Balloon. I also added small details for the rain and snow scenes. If you look really closely, you can see water running down and bouncing of the balloon in the rain. It was an unnecessary detail I decided to add that I’m really proud of. Another thing I did was have snow pile up on the balloon. I really enjoyed adding this component, but It actually ended up messing up the project! I accidentally added the snow onto the layer I had the balloon on, which meant I couldn’t erase the snow without erasing the balloon! I was so upset, because I really didn’t want to have to redo my beautiful red Balloon. I ended up very carefully erasing around the balloon, then going over in it’s original colors to fix it. So you might notice I slight change in the Balloon’s shape after the snow storm!

Thank you for following me on my animation adventure and following my story! Signing off for the final time,

~Naomi~

I am quite happy to say that I have officially finished my animation project. I won’t be posting it today, but rather as my final post tomorrow. I am very proud of the work I’ve gotten done, and the progress I’ve made. One of the things this project has done for me was inspire me as an artist to look into different art mediums such as 2D and 3D animation. I honestly love the world of art and they’re so many things that I want to explore and learn about! This project really helped me explore the world of animation, and maybe I’ll continue to explore animation outside of school and later pick up an animation profession!

note! This isn’t my art!!Credit to the artist!

I spent hours working, and even though the entire product only adds up to 17 seconds, I’m really proud of myself. This project took time, hard work, and dedication, the only thing I wish I could’ve done better was manage my time better. If I had started earlier, my project might look a bit more well done and I would’ve been less stressed as I worked. It really was a learning experience, this is helping me understand that when I have ample amount of time given to me, USE IT!!! In the future, I’ll definitely be using my time more wisely. Thanks for reading!! I hope everyone looks forward to my final product which will be posted tomorrow!

 

~Naomi~

Today, I decided that I was going to talk about what I’ve learned and am in the process of learning throughout this project. When I decided to do this project, I didn’t think it would be difficult at all. I was quite mistaken.

The first thing I want to talk about, is how I’m learning to work with the materials I’ve been given. We don’t always have a limitless amount of supplies being handed to us. As I mentioned previously, I was shocked when I discovered that the amount of frames I would be able to use was limited. My max amount of frames was 3. At first I didn’t realize that there was a simple solution, so I panicked.  When you’re on a time crunch and stressed, of course you’re gonna freak out. I’m happy that I calmed down and realized that I could use one frame for the background, One for the mid ground, and the last one for the foreground.  I’m learning how to work under pressure and keep a calm head, this project is also helping me learn how to work with restrictions.

Another thing I’m learning is the process of digital animation. I honestly thought that it was a very easy process. So I was pretty shocked when my HOURS of work resulted in NINE SECONDS of animation. I reminded of all the online artists on YouTube who do the same thing I’m doing, the only difference is that they have 10 minute animated pieces. If 9 seconds took that long I can’t even imagine 10 minutes worth of work.Don’t even get me started on MOVIES, those must take years of hard work and dedication. I now have a serious amount of respect for people in the animation business.

Those are the two things I wanted to talk about today. I’ll be giving an animation update tomorrow, so look forward to that. Thanks for sticking with me!

~Naomi~

HEEELLOOOOOOOOOOO!! I’m really pleased to announce that I feel like I have surpassed the halfway point of my goal for this project

This is the progress I’ve made so far, it is only 9 seconds but I’m not planning on doing a long piece of animation. 9 seconds is actually two days of work! I managed to incorporate a lot of weather patterns like I was hoping to. I’ll be giving another update soon, because I’ll hopefully have finished the space scene I’m planning on adding. It’s the part I’m looking the most forward to animating, because of my love of aliens and all things extraterrestrial. I’m really really proud of this project and all the things I’ve been learning through the process. I’ll be going more into detail about everything I’ve learned in tomorrows post, so look forward to that! Thank you for sticking with me and following my journey!!!!!

 

~Naomi~

I was angry….but I managed to work around the issue!!

 

OK SO!! The Software I am using decided to betray me today.. I wasn’t aware that there was a premium version of this app that you could pay for. My original plan was to have 4 or more frames/layers to animate separate parts of the story. So it was rather upsetting to find out that without FlipaClip premium, I could only have a maximum of THREE frames. I was briefly freaking out because I thought that I wouldn’t be able to continue my project at all. Luckily, I figured out how to successfully work with three frame and still have my project look good! I have one frame for my background, One Frame for the balloon and it’s string, and the third frame is for things in front of and interacting with the balloon.

Things in my eyes are going rather smoothly, I currently have 44 frames, each frame has 3 layers. It’s rather exhausting, but really fun! I’m going to continue working really hard these next few days. I’m sadly sacrificing a few aspects of the story, I won’t be able to add extra balloons during the intro. I don’t have enough space, or energy sadly. Instead, I’m going to be incorporating a lot of weather patterns instead. I’ve added a rainstorm, and I want to incorporate snow animals, and of course OUTER SPACE!!! Those are thing I’ll be working on tomorrow so prepare for another update!! Thanks for reading!!

 

~Naomi~

AND SO IT FINALLY BEGINS!!!

All of my planning is finally finished and I’ve begun the animating process. I decided to start with the main thing that I want the viewers to look at, the Red Balloon. I’m doing a 12 fps, 720p Video. My favorite part of the project is that besides it’s string, the balloon won’t actually be moving. The background will be moving a lot, and things will interact with the balloon. I want the background movements to give the illusion that the balloon is moving around!

I’m aware that the string animation is a little choppy, and the string is not currently connected to the balloon. Please note a few things, I want to consider this a tester because no balloon moves like that. Also, I AM NOT  PROFESSIONAL!!! I am a grade 9 student who likes art, and is doing a project or school. If you’re looking for professional art, you can go somewhere else :).

MORE PLANS!

For the actual animation, there will most likely be 3-4 overlapping  frames. One for the Iconic Red Balloon, another frame for the background, and another frame for things interacting with the balloon(snow, rain, and bird nest). I’m considering adding an extra frame, and having the Balloon and string on separate frames instead.  I think that that could be really beneficial in making the animation look smother.

I’ll be giving another update tomorrow, so get ready!!

~Naomi~

Hello! So I did a brief sketch outline today of aspects I want in my story. Here they are!

IMAGE ABOVE! The balloon and their balloon family. I mentioned previously that the balloon would get lost from his family. I plan on incorporating a variety of different colors for the opening scene. Also!! to the right, you see the red balloon interacting with two different environments/ seasons. I decided to show an example of Spring and early fall. With the spring balloon, I have a bird interacting with the balloon. As mentioned in the previous post, I explained that I wanted to have the balloon get stuck somewhere and then have an animal interact with it. BUT!! If you have a keen eye, you might have noticed a fantasy creature hiding behind the spring balloon. Yes, it’s a fairy. Yes, it’s gonna be in the story. Why? Because it’s my story and I can add whatever I want. Anticipate an alien when the balloon in space! OK, let’s discuss the sketch that shows the balloon interacting with the Autumn Season.  I love the rain, so I really want to include rain and other weather patterns into this story. So please look forward to all of that!

IMAGE ABOVE! This is simply another season interaction drawing. A winter scape.

IMAGE ABOVE! SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE SCENE! Let me just start with this, this story isn’t supposed to be realistic. I mean it’s about a balloon going on an adventure and eventually ends up in outer space. Don’t worry, you guys are gonna love this story. I have so many ideas that I plan on bringing to life! I’ll be updating you on my progress very soon, so stay tuned!

 

~Naomi~

Hello! I’m exposing my animation idea to give you something to look forward to. So in my previous post, I revealed that I would be animating a story about a balloon. Like I said, I know it sounds weird, but I have high hopes for this project. So, let us get the explaining started!

 

My plan is to successfully animate the journey of a balloon, it sounds simplistic because it is. BUT, simplistic doesn’t mean lazy. Something can be simplistic and still hold a lot of meaning and value behind it.

My favorite part about this idea is that I don’t actually have to move the main balloon in the story. I want to focus on a busy moving background, but the focal point will always be the red balloon. You’ll get to experience the balloon interacting with it’s surroundings and the world around it, things like the seasons changing. As I’m writing thing this a million ideas are swirling through my head, so I’ll just spit a few out now.

 

I think I’ll introduce the story with the red balloon being separated from the rest of his balloon family.

I definitely want to showcase the four seasons.

The Balloon getting caught on something (probably a tree) and some form of animal building a home on it.

BALLOON IN OUTER SPACE!!! it’s happening you can’t stop me!

The balloon’s ultimate demise(maybe)

And I have many other ideas! Stay tuned. So I hope you guys are excited for the future of this project! Keep looking for updates!

 

~Naomi~

 I FINALLY FOUND GOOD FREE ANIMATION SOFTWARE!!!

The software is called FlipaClip it’s a mobile app. Actually, when i was in grade 8, one of my friends used this app for her animation project! I already know the basics of this app, and I’ve been practicing here and there.

 

Furthermore,  I think i finally know what I actually want to animate. At first, I was going to animate a little story some cute little demon boys discovering their powers, and playing around. I then realized that I lack the artistic capabilities to animate cute little demon boys. So that plan was scrapped. I had one other idea, a balloon. Now I know what you’re thinking. A BALLOON?!!? WHAT COULD YOU DO WITH A BaLlOoN!? My friend, chill. I have a really cool idea that incorporates a lot of background movement and a really fun story about a journey. I’m not gonna expose my idea, because it’s a surprise DUH. So stay tuned cause they’re gonna be a crap ton of updates coming your way.

 

-THANKS FOR READING–STAY TUNED-

~Naomi~

I decided to group together a list of Pros and Cons for each project, that way I can compare the two ideas.

Topic 1: Knitting

PROS

• My Grandmother Knits so i already have a teacher
• I could begin knitting myself clothing

CONS

• It’s very time consuming
• My  Grandmother is left handed so her teaching me would be difficult because i’m right handed
• I already tried knitting once and gave up

RESOURCES

• Yarn and/wool
• A Teacher

RESEARCH NEEDED

• Knitting tutorials for beginners

Topic 2: Animation

PROS

• I have some background  experience in animation
• I really enjoy digital and visual arts
• I want to consider pursuing animation for a career in the future
• It’s actually fun

CONS

• I don’t have a personal device that I can work off
• A lot of animation software costs money

RESOURCES

• Online animation websites
• Online tutorials

RESEARCH NEEDED

• free online animation websites
• animation tools
• online tutorials

My Decision

After looking at my list of pros and cons I’ve decided to explore the animation project as opposed to the knitting project. I personally feel that the animation project has more appeal to me.

My Goal

At the end of this project, my goal is to have successfully created and have animated a short story with my own original story line and characters.

Challanges

After putting together my plan, I noticed a few issues. I don’t have a drawing tablet, which would make this project a million times easier. I don’t have full time access to a personal computer or device, unfortunately my phone is quite broken and my laptop lacks space to download software. My final issue will be finding good 2D animation software that doesn’t cost money.

Final Thoughts

I’ve finally decided on a project!! Yay! I’m really excited to get started on my animation project, but I still have a crap ton of work to do…but I know I can finish it! Thank you for continuing to follow me on my adventure!

 

~~Naomi~~