#vcic

some matching icons of my favorite girls ♡

I was more scared than excited for this project. I don’t have much experience with creating moving image pieces, so I was unnerved yet excited at the possibility to be experimenting with a new medium.

While developing my ideas, I feel like a large part of my design decisions were constructed and informed by my research and previous knowledge. I’ve encountered and interacted with this story a fair bit in the past, which allows me for a deeper previous kowledge. This allowed me to explore the story with that previous knowledge. Moreover, my research and viewing of a variety of title sequences also inspired my work. However, what mostly influenced it was my research into ancient Egyptian art and stop motion. My whole character design and the way that the paper puppets are made was heavily influenced by the way that the Egyptians depicted characters in their frescos and paitnings. Another element that influenced my design decisions were chinese shadow puppets. I originally wanted make a film using the idea of Chinese shadow puppets, and contrast dark silhouettes against light. However, I then decided that backgrounds would accentuate the theme more than a plain white/light background. and would bring more significance to the story, as well as making it more aesthetically pleasing. I was originally also going to include more of the story, that is to say, introduce more of the main characters. Instead I decided to shoot it more like a prequel than a full story. My interpretation of the narrative really allows a connection with the full story, and directly leads to it.

Because I did stop motion, it was harder to edit and finetune the project after my two days of shooting. If there was anything dramatic I needed to change that involved a lot of editing and reshooting. Fortunately, all my imagery worked pretty well and there as no dramatic change that needed to be done. Most of my edits were realting to any jarring movements in the stop motion and in the typography of the title.

simplistic, organized style accurate reflected a similar message to what I was trying to communicate. I also experimented with adding a voice over or not, since I thought a narration might make it more understandable and title sequence like (kind of like a ‘Previously On ....’

Again, I feel like my time management was not the best, since I focused a lot on the final outcome instead of spreading out work. I was very focused on producing things and deveoping my project in time for tutorials, so a lot of my work was based around the final product instead of process  and research. However, I feel like I responded and reacted to feedback very appropriately, taking into account what was being said to me and then reflecting it back to my work. These edits mostly had to do with jarring moments in the clip and typography.

This unit has really aided in my understanding and ability to create a moving image product. My understand of AfterEffects has increased dramatically, and so has my ability to develop work in it. Moreover, I feel more adept in storyboarding and developing ideas for movies. My understanding of the story, and ancient Egyptian culture, has also increased. However, I still feel like I could use more practice in softwares and creating animations (rather than stop motion). I really want to develop my ability to illustrate and animate, so I’m excoted at future prospects of it.

Third Draft of my Stop Motion

Final Title Sequence