This animation shows how i could potentially animate an animal for this project. This example shows a simplistic drawing of a small fox walking from one side to the other. This was useful in helping me get more experience with working in Adobe Animate and producing a looping animation. This example also gave me more experience with the workflow from illustrator to animate. Whilst this is a very simple animation with nothing else in the scene it gives me further ideas of what i could achieve with my final animation. It also helps me with determining how long a time period it would take to create a professional looking animation.

As you can see from these examples i have been researching a number of different art styles that could be applied to a project such as mine. The main aspects that i found appealing of these various illustrations is the way in which they use colour. This would be very important in my project as this will initially grab the attention of the viewer and intrigue them to continue exploring my work. The simplicity that is used in these illustrations is also very appealing to me as this lend itself better to being animated. The use of animation is how i intend to encourage people to invest their time in learning about MS, therefore making the development of a simple yet visually appealing character incredibly important to the success of the project. These characters each offer a different illustration style but i feel that all of them would be suitable to portray a message such as the awareness for MS. The illustration will have to have to include enough features to make the art subject obvious to the user so i should be aware to not oversimplify the drawing if I were to take influence from these examples. The character with the umbrella is a good example of how i could make an effective, aesthetically appealing illustration that will fit the purpose of this project. This example is not accurate when comparing to a real person but nonetheless is impressive in how it stands in for a human character. It has enough identifiable features for the audience to focus on which will be an effective tool when animation is considered. The use of colour on this example is good as they all compliment one another to form a coherent illustration. The way in which shading has been applied to the character’s hair is a nice touch that adds an extra layer of depth, enhancing the illustration further.

These example illustrations show how I could use animals to portray my message to users of the website. This would offer me more creative control over what i can draw due to what id find most suitable for this project. These examples of illustrations show a number of of different ways that i could portray these animals. All of these offer a visually appealing portrayal of their respective animals with each of them featuring enough characteristics that make it easy for the audience to identify the subject matter. For example i find the illustration of the stag very effective. This is because allow being very simple in it’s construction it comes together to make a cohesive, visually stunning design. I like how very simple shapes have been used to construct the face of the stag, with only a few blocks of colour to differentiate the face from the body of the animal. I also like the colour pallet used in this piece of illustration as the selected colours compliment one another very nicely whilst taking care to make the colours reflect the real life counterparts of the animal such as the antlers and ears. Like the examples of people illustrations these characters would also lend themselves nicely to animation as they do not consist of too many elements which would lead to a simpler animation experience. This would also allow me to develop the project further, perhaps through the creation of more animation or interactive elements for the user to explore.

What type of illustration to use for this project?

This project will be most successful by capturing the audience’s attention firstly with a vibrant and professional art style and then holding their attention with animation and other interactive elements. However, in order for this project to be considered a success the message of the project would have to be passed onto the audience effectively. The main way in which i would have to do this is by making the animation and other elements impactful. This would mean that with a high impact website i will have a greater chance of people spreading this project, and therefore awareness for MS, through word of mouth and social media. To achieve this impact on my audience i have to consider what kind of character to include in my animations. If i were to include a nonhuman character such as an animal then i worry that the audience may distance themselves from the message that i am trying to portray through the animations. As several animated films and tv shows have shown, a highly emotional story can be told and achieved through the use of animal animations. However i question whether the audience is likely to associate the problems portrayed in that animation to their real lives. I believe that with the use of a human character, the animation’s message will be more likely to impact the audience on a personal level and therefore they would also be more likely to share the campaign.

I created this animation as an experiment to test and explore some animation techniques within Adobe Animate. As this is a new tool to me, this task helped me in getting to grips with the software. This exercise allowed me to produce simple animation with a very simple character. The character creation wasn’t a very important aspect in this task. I drew a simple character that would provide me with the opportunity to experiment with the various new techniques that Adobe Animate would give me access to. Within this exercise I used motion tweens to animate the arms and legs and also simulate the characters jump. This was very simple animation but provided me with enough movement to explore further animation skills. I also experimented with shape tweens with the mouth of the character. This was effective in making a smooth animation that changes the characters expression. This will be an effective technique in my project as it will be a vital way in which to portray a character’s emotion. If this is accompanied with a voice over then shape tweens will be effective at complementing the emotion portrayed in the voice over. With this animation I gave more thought to easing in and out for particular aspects. This is a new technique to me and this experiment gave me an opportunity to consider how i could use easing effectively in order to achieve a fluid animation and providing a pleasant viewing experience for the viewer. Overall, this experiment animation was very helpful in giving me a basic understanding of the animation process i would have to undertake by using Adobe Animate. It also gave me a platform to develop the animation and improve and build upon it in order to make the audience’s viewing experience more engaging and natural.

Why is Adobe Animate the right tool for this project?

Adobe Animate, formally known as Adobe Flash, allows the user to create animation for html As this project will have animation embedded in the webpage itself Adobe Animate will be the most appropriate tool to make engaging, eye catching animation.  This software would be more appropriate than After Effects as the finished animation will not have to be inserted into the webpage as an external video. It will also give me the option to add interactive animation to the website which could be useful in encouraging audience engagement with the subject matter. Adobe Animate offers a large amount of control over the animation and will allow me to produce fluent and impactful animation that will invite and encourage the user to find out more about MS. As this is a tool that i have not previously used before Animate offers me an opportunity to explore new software and also expand my knowledge of animation techniques that will make my work appear more professional and engaging.

Using Easing

This series of images shows how a circle animates over five frames when moving down from one point to another. Through the use of the onion tool we can demonstrate how the object moves on varying types of easing. Easing can make an animation appear more natural and fluid. These examples show easing at the extreme end of each spectrum. When easing in you can see from the example images that the frames are mostly at the beginning of the animation. This makes the animation appear slower to begin with and then speeds up towards the end. Easing out does the opposite of this and speeds up the beginning and slowing the end of the animation. By using easing effectively the user can produce a more fluid looking animation by making movement look less robotic and more natural. This is effective with character animation in particular as it simulates how velocity would effect an object in reality, therefore appearing more natural to the viewer.