Alternative Techniques Evaluation

Alternative Techniques Evaluation

Having experimented with various techniques and aesthetics I have come to several realisations about the animation I was originally going to pursue.

First of all I have changed my mind on the photomontage style aesthetic as I feel that the use of photos was time consuming and limited my progression in art styles, which I feel I need more work. Rather than practising techniques that allowed me to have more creative expression I spent most of the time searching for the correct imagery to use in my animation. This problem could probably have been remedied easily by photographing my own assets but this is still limited to the equipment I have available and the things available to photograph.

Despite the negativity towards the technique I still feel that I have learnt valuable lessons about photomontage creation and using Adobe After Effects to create basic animations. Due to its interface and layout After Effects does not appeal to me and I think I would only use it for cut out animations, compiling footage and more corporate animations.

Since doing the Cinema 4D refresher I have re-familiarised myself with working in a 3D environment. Experimenting with this software recently has allowed me to realise its capabilities in emulating 2D visual effects. This can either be by creating scenes in a 3D environment and using them as reference in 2D software so that the proportions and perspective are correct or merely applying correct textures and making the 3D image appear 2D.

My new experiences with using stop motion animation techniques have proven very useful and have interested me greatly. Given the opportunity I would like to familiarise myself with these skills more in the future. Using the time lapse to create the cigarette rolling pixilation animation has helped me realise that using techniques such as this one can apply to 3D and 2D animation in a similar way to how the principles of animation (squash and stretch etc.) apply to other forms of animations. In the pixilation animation the translatable skill was the removal of in between frames helping to create a jerkier movement.

Overall this module has been an eye opening experience on how my workflow should change when working with new techniques and how my style of animation should change according to the medium I am using. I feel like this module has been one of my most organised in regards to producing work to a deadline and achieving personal goals, allowing me to create and work on other projects simultaneously as I follow working to a brief. By experimenting with new techniques I now have a much broader range of tools and by having these options I think that formulating ideas will be far less limited in scope helping me evolve to task which I had previously considered incredibly difficult.