Ronnie Leah, BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester.

  Reflective Statement For Major Project Overall I am really pleased with the outcome of the animation. This is mainly due to me feeling that I was able to include everything I set out to do, all the way from the beginning of Premise. It has been a very long process, with different routes taken in order to bring me to the final product. At times I felt I had set myself a far too large goal to achieve and was unsure that I was able to complete the project within the timeframe. However I kept going and I am proud to say I completed everything to the best of my ability. I believe the key to succeeding in the completion of this project was good time management. Had I not completed certain section in time for the next then I would have run out of time nearer the end of the project.  At the end of the Minor project, I had completed the redesign of my animation story and characters and applied my ideas to create a Pre-viz which depicted the events of the second iteration of the animatic. I th

 Today I was able to finally put all of the render together in Premiere Pro. Below is the version with not audio. The animation itself had been planned out shot by shot so that It would simply slot together and flow between shots. I did however have to alter the speed of certain shots as they were either too quick or too slow. I also added in the slice effect for the Samurai, which I did by finding an effect on YouTube and keying out the grey screen.  Overall I am really happy with the animation, especially with how much I had to complete in order to get to the final product. I think its clear that my animation skills improved, based upon the quality of animation slowly improving throughout the animation. If it had more time I would have loved to smooth out certain shots so that they transitioned a bit cleaner, however I would not want to ruin the rhythm of the fight. I really enjoy the animation knowing all that I had to go through in order to get to where I am. Its really cool to see

 Today I continued rendering the final part of the animation. Due to the lighting used as well as how close the camera gets to the characters, the following scenes took the longest to render compared to the rest of the animation. This threw me off a bit as the time I wanted to use for the art of was slightly taken up by rendering.  For this shot I made use of the Dutch angle to frame both the character in the scene. I could also use the Shinto shrine and bridge to frame both the characters in the shot.  I really like this shot as it neatly shows both characters actions, without overloading the audience with information. This is something I definitely had to learn to overcome since animating the beginning of the animation. When two objects move at the exact time it looks unnatural. Its good to have characters move one by one at their own pace.  I added in this shot after the initial stages of the animation were completed as It seemed like the Samurai just teleported to a new position. T

 Today I continued rendering the second half of the animation.  This is one of my favourite shots of the animation as I feel like I conveyed the fluidity of the characters movements really well. The idea was to emphasis that the Cyberpunk character is more interested in obtaining the item, therefore any opportunity to get it, it will take. This leaves it vulnerable for an attack which the Samurai takes advantage of. However due to its inhumane reflexes the Cyberpunk character is able to block the attack in time. 

 Today I continued rendering the second section of the animation Below shows a clearer shot of the Japanese Palace in the background. I am really pleased with how it turned out and feel it adds a completely different mood to the shots when compared to the first section of the animation. If I had enough time to redo the first half of the animation I would go back and add in more buildings in the background now that I have seen how effective it could look. At least I was able to include the building for this section of the animation. I was also able to use the Shinto Shrine behind the character to help frame up this shot.  The sequence in which the Samurai trips the Cyberpunk character over while it is distracted is one of my favourite parts of the animation. This scene replaced the Cyberpunk character sweep kicking the Samurai. Although it was awkward to animate at first, I kept changing tiny parts of it until it looked more natural. I think its a really nice sequence of events which ke

 Today I continued rendering the animation. I really like this shot as you can really see all of the effort put into texturing the characters.  I had now completed all of the first section of rendering. Now I had to prepare the second environment which contained the stairs which lead up to the Japanese Palace.  I had made the decision to return the palace back to its black and white look, just like my drawings. This way it could look shrouded in darkness in the background. Although I like the textures I had made for the Palace, I understood that It would be a lot harder on the renderer.  One of the main plot points I had yet to address was the the fire which is engulfing the Japanese Palace. In the story the Samurai has been betrayed and what is left of his world is set on fire. This is quite a bit plot point in the animation so I knew I couldn't just skip it. After thinking it over I remembered Maya has a content browser full of premade objects and effects. As I was running out of

 Today I continued... rendering In this shot I took advantage of the white hillside to really shine a spotlight on the two characters. The reflection of the white on the floor, back onto the characters creates a more striking shot.  I still wanted to include remnants of the cyberpunk world in the background. I only did this however when it did not take away from the shot. I really liked the composition I drew in Minor, however was unable to use it as I removed the shot. I decided to add it into this shot instead.  For some shots I used the lights coming from the cyberpunk world to frame the character of interest.  Its a subtle detail which can be used to help balance a shot out.  I like how the hard horizon line points to the character in this shot  This is one of the shots I added in after watching back the animation blocking out as the original version did not transition to the next shot very smoothly. It was a very simple shot to add and offers more context as to what is happening i