INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE PLAY: EVALUATION
For my class ‘Introduction to Creative Play, I was asked to create small, animated projects, with each lesson focusing on a different medium and time constraint whilst giving our imaginations free reign in terms of subject matter. The aim is to play with the idea of what animation can be and learn to play with different ideas, techniques and materials. Much as a child will use their imagination whilst playing with different toys and environments. The purpose of this project is to give us young adult animators that same sense of imaginative play and widen our horizons in terms of the possibilities within our work. The freedom to play can often be lost over time as children move through life into adulthood.
For the first lesson, I worked with a group to come up with, draw concept art, and pitch an idea for an animated short film. Being given a choice of six conflicts to choose from. These were: conflict & resolution, tension & release, mystery & revelation, losses & gains, setbacks & comebacks and peaks & troughs. My group chose the conflict of tension & release. We brainstormed a scenario where a character is hunted down by a monster in a spaceship. With this, we started sketching out Ideas for the characters. To make our hypothetical audience get invested in our main protagonists, a cat and a dog. One person did the concept art for the cat and dog, and I did the monster’s design, drawing a robotic being with a white mask like face and a body of wire arms. I was proud of my work here overall. Not only for my artistic contributions to story and character concepts but also for my ability to bounce off and work with a team.
The next lesson, we were given the activity to drawing a person or animal in the style of iconic pieces of animation by selecting a style and a subject via a spinning wheel website. Drawing the pieces within a time limit of a few minutes. The two style studies I created in the time were a T-Rex drawn in the style of the film Akira (1988) and a Skunk drawn in the art style of Spirited Away (2001). I'm proud of both. I'm especially proud of the Akira style T-Rex for the shading and detail I drew. This was a useful exercise as it encourages you to look more closely and analyse the work of different artists working in different genres. To break down the elements that make up the whole and to understand/appreciate those parts.
The lesson after that, we were given the task to rig and animate a 2d puppet character. We used the pre-made assets based on the character Finn from Adventure Time. On Adobe Premiere Pro, we separated each piece of Finn’s body into layers, connected or ‘parented’ those parts into a puppet rigg and animated it using a walk cycle chart as reference.
The process of learning was complicated at first due to the pace of the lesson and not having used After Effects in a while - so I wasn't able to make an entire animation in the lesson. I am happy I was able to gain an understanding of how to rig and animate a puppet in After Effects. I really do want to experiment with this method of animation more in the future so I can become more fluent using After Effects.
For my final project, I was tasked with a brief to make a short animation that was under a minute in length. After brainstorming a few ideas for stories, I decided on the story of a toy falling off a bed of a child who would then encounter a monster under the bed. I made concept art and a bullet point synopsis. I was proud of the story idea I was able to come up with. It is simple for a film that could fit into a minute, yet still has substance to it such as its creepier style/tone and its intriguing twist on the “monster under the bed” trope. Unfortunately, due to being busy with other artistic projects, I was unable to complete the short in the intended time. However, on a second attempt once I had this synopsis, I drew two pages of storyboards for the film. I originally had an idea for an opening establishing shot of the entire bedroom, but I eventually scrapped this idea to make the story more streamlined. Ultimately, I knew, due to the limited deadline I had, I would simply make a short animation test for the toy doll character.
With the storyboards done, I set about making a puppet for my character, the doll. First, creating several prototypes from black card paper. I first drew blueprints of the doll and its proportions, broke those down into individual body parts and cut those parts out of white card paper to use as a guide to cut out Individual parts for each puppet. I ultimately created two prototypes with articulated points on their middle, legs, arms and neck. Using black split pins to attach each limb to the body. I also briefly experimented with making the puppet black in colour and having the details of it such as the outline and face painted in white. Ultimately though, I opted to have the final puppet be made of greyish periwinkle card paper, as it would stand out better against a black background.
After the puppet was done, I made a background using a sheet of black card. Shading it and giving it texture with a BH pencil. I wanted to use charcoal to add further texture to the piece. However, I discovered I didn’t have any drawing charcoal in my home. If I had more time and known where to find it, I would’ve bought more charcoal before starting the background. Also, when I went to film my piece, I realised the details I had drawn onto the background elements like the teddy bear head didn't show up on the screen, even in the somewhat bright film lighting I was working with. If I Were to do this again, I would perhaps cut the background pieces out of a card paper that was a different colour, such as dark grey.
After this, I then went into the stop motion studio at my campus and animated the animation test with one of the tripod cameras and shot the film using the program Dragon Frame. I then exported the film as an mp4, saved the film on a USB and added titles and credits using Adobe Premiere Pro. Overall, I am proud of how the test came out. I think I managed to breathe a lot of life and character into the doll puppet and the movements conveyed the doll's personality well.
Overall, while I did have some setbacks, this was a rewarding and fun project for me. Working with a diverse range of materials, formats and art styles was not only engaging but helped me gain a better understanding of what materials I was most comfortable with using for animation, which turned out to be stop motion. I particularly enjoyed animating with the Lego and vinyl minifigures and with paper cut outs. These mediums I felt were the most intuitive for me to use and play around with.
Along with this, I found it surprisingly easy to work with a group. It was rewarding to come up with ideas to bounce off others whilst in turn, taking on board other people’s vision and ideas. I felt working with others in this way only strengthened my creative process and the projects we were working on.
Also, through the various timed exercises, such as the Lego minifigure animation in particular, this project helped me relearn and remember that sense of play and the joy and freedom there was to be found when working with different artistic mediums - without the constraints of adult sensibilities such as the fixation on making the piece perfect or high quality.
And along with all this, I was able to brush up on my skills with not just traditional mediums such as pencil on paper and stop motion animation, but also digital programmes such as Stop-Motion for iPhone, Adobe After Effects, Dragon Frame, and Adobe Premiere Pro.









