Fat Buoy Swim

So this is the final product of the group sea project, which we named Fat Buoy Swim

For this group project, we initially decided upon somewhat of a democracy in terms of roles in which each would play. It was apparent early on that myself, Jordan and Harry all have very similar interests in terms of what we wanted our jobs to be within the project. However this wasn't a problem, as we all quickly agreed that we would aim to do a 2D piece for the 1 minute and 5 seconds of animation. 

Having decided on the basic method in which we planned to animate, our next goal was to achieve a common sense of style, that we could all work towards. We knew that if we did something hand drawn, that we would all have not only be able to draw in the same style, but enjoy what we were drawing. Throughout our research, we came across a style of traditional Chinese ink art, which was loose, and very basic in terms of colour. It was agreed that we would want to work to a loose style, as it is somewhat easier and faster to animate, which was very important for the success of our animation as we had the smallest group, and the longest sound file to work with.

I feel it is also very important to note that we agreed early on that having such a short piece of animation, that we would find it hard to have the audience relate emotionally to any of the characters, so we decided to create a very humorous piece rather than a very serious one. For me, I think this is where myself, and possibly the others hugely benefited, as it was much more enjoyable finding playful ways of injecting as much humor possibly to every aspect of the animation, rather than trying to make a short piece incredibly sad or striking. It enabled us to have a lot of fun while we animated, constantly adding ideas as we were going, even in the later stages of animating and compositing. We also included music to the scene to help generate laughter, which I think only appeals to a certain younger age group, such as our peers. 

Overall Im extremely pleased with the way we ended the production and the final result. Although we started slow, I feel we finished with an absolute bang, working 15 hour days for the last few weeks made up for lost time, as we were able to finish everything. Im very pleased with how it turned out, even if it only seems to appeal to the younger audience. Our team all worked really well together by the end, and I feel as though we have all learned a great deal.