Final Animation

My final animation was based around my chosen article, in which, a study explained how nurturing transgender children improved their mental health and well being. Which, however obvious it may be, was the only positive articles I could find surrounding the topic of transgender issues. I was so set on doing an article about those who are transgender because it's a very personal topic for me, as I am transgender, and I wanted my animation to have a more personal touch rather than it be about any old random news story.

The animation itself was compromised of 44 hand drawn frames, all of which where drawn out in pencil, fine liner and then coloured in with pen, before scanning everything onto the computer and putting all of my images into flash. From there, I set each frame to be a little longer, stretching everything out so that the animation would be easy to read, and set everything to 12 frames per second. I was not initially going to lengthen my animation, however I got a second opinion once my animation was 'compete' and found that others found it hard to read, as my animation is quite text heavy, so from there I slowed everything down, thus solving the problem. I did considering using one of the techniques we learnt during the first few weeks of our brief, but then decided against it as, to convey the message I wanted, any other form of animation would be too jerky for my liking as I wanted my animation to have smooth transitions into each sentence to keep the audience from losing interest.

Initial artist research for my animators played heavily into my final animation, as I wanted my animation to be more traditional in its styling, whilst also keeping everything within the brief of our animation having to be stop motion. My main point of interest was the entire Studio Ghibli franchise, as they used to work primarily with hand drawn frames that they would then string together. And although Walt Disney did this, I feel that Studio Ghibli was more organic in their approach as they kept the practise for longer, and have not yet gone completely digital, like Disney have done.

The point of reference for styling my drawings was my own, as I couldn't find any interest within any other's work, especially for what I wanted to do with my piece. The piece itself is meant to be aimed at a younger audience, and is meant to be more educational than story telling, as my article was based on a study rather than a story. It's also a good way of getting the point of the article across, without being too pushy or like an 'informational slideshow'. The styling itself was very 'cutesy' and simple, with basic characters that are easy to notice and distinguish between.

colouring is also a big part of the animation, as the main character doesn't adhere to any colours usually considered 'male' or 'female', really solidifying the fact that this character is in fact, transgender, without it being pushed into the audience's faces. The opposing groups of characters are also colour sensitive, as the group that pushes 'Alfie' away are all in cold, darker toned colours, whilst also fitting into the pastel aesthetic of the animation, and the welcoming group are all lightly coloured, with brighter and warmer colours. This link to colour, could also be linked to the fact that being transgender is a spectrum, much like colours fit onto a spectrum, and although it isn't the forefront idea, it's an idea that I chose to link together subtly throughout the animation. Even if it's one that has to be pointed out rather than obviously shown.

I encountered a few problems when making my animation as the whole hand drawing process was quite stressful and ordered, there were a few times when I got my frames mixed up, therefore messing the entire thing up, and there was also a moment where I hadn't scanned all of my frames and had to rush around getting tat done. Eventually, everything worked out. However, looking back on my animation, I see many things I would like to change, such as the amount of drawn frames within the animation as, despite me not wanting it to be, the animation is still quite jittery and stilted, so if I were to go through the process again, I would draw out more frames, and possibly give more detail to each scene.

Conclusively, I really like how my animation turned out, I don't think it would have been as good without all of my previous experimentation, and the research really helped get what I wanted from the piece. Which was to convey a message about how being kind to transgender people, really helps them, and that acceptance is all that is needed.

My video won't upload on here, so here it is on youtube.