I feel that the story line is very simple and doesn’t create the kind of reaction that I would’ve wanted in the final outcome, yes it does create a minor reaction in audiences but when creating a film, I want to create a wow factor and I feel that my story line doesn’t ultimately do this. That is why for future references I have developed my story line further and thought of several ideas to make it better.
Such as a prison idea, the snowman is trapped inside this prison world, the globe, and can’t escape the harsh climate and temperatures the year has to offer him, he is forced to suffer these obstacles.
I researched other people’s story boards used for other films that I am interested in. I didn’t just look at animation storyboards but live action too to get an idea of the difference and see how I can relate them to my own work gaining knowledge into how to make a better storyboard.
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter
Back to the Future
Toy Story
I feel like I could do a better story board by taking more time in them. But sometimes when doing them I like to sketch them quickly and roughly to get the whole concept straight on the paper and then update them later making them visually better and more impressive,
Certain scenes in my final outcome I noticed were very stiff and constant, the leaves fell at the same speed as the apples. All the leaves fell at the exact same time, it looked stiff and didn’t flow with the animation. This isn’t a major problem because I feel that the music and sound makes up for any slip ups, however if I were to change anything it would be this.
My character, the Snowman, didn’t have much movement. Because it was my first time animating I felt that I wasn’t too sure on doing certain things and I didn’t want to mess up the final outcome by making the character move in awkward and weird ways and that is the reason I left him standing still. Next time I create something like this I feel that I will have to research further into character development and give my character more of a personality through movement. This is how I would’ve done it if I did give my character more movement:
Bouncing Snowman
Composition is a key thing when creating a film, I feel. I feel that the snow man in my film sitting in the middle of the screen may not be the best visually but I wanted to give off the look of the snow man being simple and still so I felt that he was placed well for what I was trying to accomplish. However, if I did give my snowman more of a personality I feel that the location of him being in the centre wouldn’t have worked. To create a great scene is all about the placement of the character compared to the background. I do feel like the placement of mine did work to an extent but another thing I would change was the character movement and this would’ve created a whole new composition together.
In my short film I wanted the colours to purposely be very bland and simple to represent certain seasons, pink for spring, green and red for summer, brown and yellow for autumn and then just white for winter. I felt that to give the snowman a hint of personality was to give him and orange carrot nose and create a fun visual experience for audiences and not just keep the film plain, boring and colourless, especially consisting my target audience of children ages 2-8.
Timing is everything in an animation. Meeting the points of movement in the character. Matching the movement up with the sound. All vital points to keep in mind when creating the animation. For example, in my animation how I matched up summer with the birds tweeting, it indicated to the audience that something is changing and changes what they are seeing in a way.
The Squish and stretch principle is also one to consider. It gives the character and scenes movement and personality and doesn’t make them stand stiff and still which seems boring to audiences.