2D Group Experimental Animation

 Experimental Animation

2D Group Experimental Animation 

When paired with classmates Kirstie Brunning and Joe Davey, we decided to base our project around a caveman attempting to start a fire. ​


We searched through many different magazines to find appropriate textures and visuals that would suit our caveman and found multiple choices. 

We started with a rock texture, but quickly decided against it. A wet otter's fur was then used for the clothing. We used smooth pebbles to mimic the colour of flesh and a rougher rock to represent dirty, muddy feet.

To emphasize expression and personality in our mostly silent animation, we used thick eyebrows to act as our character's facial expressions, allowing simplicity to inform the audience on the context of the character's emotion.

We also insisted upon our character's arms to be maneuverable in order to convey our story line in an easily follow-able manner. We used minuscule amounts of bluetac to achieve this and the results are just as we hoped for.

Manipulating the limbs of the character was exceptionally difficult as the flimsy paper constantly resisted movement and required delicate pressure - too much and the movement would come across as jerky and unnatural, too little pressure would result in the character not completing its cycle of movement quick enough. 

We debated having multiple angles of our character to elevate our animation but ultimately omitted this as we thought it was an unnecessary addition when our animation already looked very effective without it.

Adding sound effects to this animation was relatively simple. I used Media Enconder to gather and edit my audio clips and place them on the video timeline. As I was completing this stage of our animation, I continuously sent various versions of the outcome to the rest of the group, and they gave helpful feedback that elevated the final outcome greatly.




I had originally thought that loud music and quite sound effects would be what our group would have liked to hear, but listened to feedback and adjusted the audio levels until the sound effects were heard just as much as the music. I also loved the suggestion to lower the music volume and increase the sound of the blazing fire right as the lyrics of the music shout 'FIRE'.

I struggled with the sound effects suddenly starting in the video, and to fix this I faded the audio in the beginning and the end for a natural effect.

Working with this group was an incredible collaborative experience with quick creation and incredible results. While editing the sequence, I sent multiple versions of our animation for feedback which made our sequence better each time. Between music selection, audio choices and timing, we worked together to finish the piece in a way we all liked. After feedback outside of our group, we worked one more time to adjust the music levels and the result is definitely the best version we could have made.





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