The Rough Cut

After what seemed like a lifetime of drawing (around 6.5 weeks), I managed to finalise the drawn animation, ready for the rough cut crit, which took place on 20 May, a couple of weeks back. Luckily the feedback was all good, the only issue being the sound, which at that stage was very raw.

During the drawing process I found a lot of the shots quite challenging. This was largely due to the 3D-like pans, zooms and walkcycles that feature throughout. However, they form a big part of the concept of my animation and I wanted to set some challenges for myself, as well as create a style of animation that sets itself apart from what is seen in the wider pool of animation out there.

I used reference footage to get an idea of how a shot was going to work, however tried not to follow it too closely, trying to avoid a 'rotoscoped' effect that can happen when one relies on too much reference material.

I found the best method to come to my final cleaned up drawings was to start with keys and push on with inbetweening the whole film. I wasn't too concerned with small inconsistencies in the beggining, what was most important was the movement. Once I had a rough version of the whole film, I timed it out and inbetweened and cleaned up the drawings accordingly. I found that by doing this, it allowed me to manage my time and energy effectively, as well as produce a much more consistent set of drawings. Previous experience has taught me that it takes time to 'warm up', so by the time I had drawn my character a few hundred times over, I knew her through and through.

Hand drawn animation can be time consuming, but I very much enjoyed the tactility that it offered. Knowing the lengthiness of the traditional process, I ensured that I planned my time as effectively as possible, making myself a production schedule, detailing daily deadlines and landmarks. Although I didn't follow it religiously, it made me aware of how much time I had and kept me on my toes.

Below is a link to the rough cut of my animation. I am still tweaking the timing and the music is an extremely rough indication for the composer (Robert Ashbridge) I am working with, who is currently studying at the Royal College of Music.