Animation Project

 

Reflection on the English / Technology Interdisciplinary Project

 

The project consists in an animation based on Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rusdie. It consists in being creative and trying out animation and learning more about it. The global context used for this project is Personal and Cultural Expression. The inquiry question is Communication requires collaboration and understanding of form, and the ability to adapt one’s message. For the animation I used the scene when Haroun drinks the wish water and wishes for the sun to shine again. I chose this scene since when I read the book I imagined a vision on how the animation could look, and I thought about that scene since I enjoyed that scene a lot. I think that in that scene it is shone a lot of movement and action. The importance on choosing a scene you like, will give you many ideas and will determine your vision for creating the animation.

 

For the process on making the animation I had to follow many steps for accomplishing a great result. First of all I needed to read the book carefully. The technique I used for understanding this book, was to write some notes about it and sometimes write some words I didn’t knew for afterwards search for their definitions. Once I read the book I had to decide a scene where it would fit well in the animation. Afterwards we had to make a design specification. It is all information needed for creating the animation and a organized planning for the final product. I wrote about the characters and objects that must appear and an idea of the animation as such. Once I had the idea I created a simple storyboard and some calculations on how many frames I needed to use for certain actions. This gave me more ideas and with that I could start creating the animatic in where it appear some important images from the scene used. I made them very detailed and I enjoyed the process of them. At the end I started to make the animation and to organized my times for being able to finish on time but not feeling pressured. It was a long process but it taught me many things. It was a fun process where I needed to use all of my creativity. Sometimes I did small action for finishing faster. I can say I did changed some things for them to look better. Once I finished the animation I had to add the music. I used video games music and action music for showing tension. For creating the animation I investigated about animations and some certain movements for having a better look. I asked myself many times about on how it would look better. I kept trying and trying for having a smoother result. At the end of the animation I noticed that the Haroun form the beginning was really drawn poorly and drew him again. The biggest change I made from my script to the animation was removing the plunge since I saw that it would be harder and more time consuming. For selecting more important information I took as reference the harder parts of the animation since I would spend more time in them.

 

I learned many things while making this project since I was able for learning how to make an animation form scratch. This helped me to being more creative and exploring new things. I always had liked animations and I always wanted tío make an animation where I could spend a lot of time an effort. I learned a lot about how specialized animators to an amazing effort for creating animations. I appreciated their works and learned on how hard is to make animation. What surprises me is that animators create entire movies. I think this wont help much in the future since I am not interested in dedicating my life on animations. But I am sure that I learned to organize my times and how when I do organize them I am able for creating amazing result.

 

I think the global context is relevant in this project since it talks about culture since the book is placed in India and written by an Indian author. I think it is important since we can se cultural differences and can learn from other cultures. On the other hand I can show my personal expression using creativity and creating a product with my knowledge. I expressed how I felt in the book and I tried to show that with tension. The statement of inquiry relates with the global context since we can see how I relieved the message of the book and how it can be  expressed with an animation. It relates with the global context since both try to communicate and show its importance and that everyone has different points of view. We can see the importance of language and literature with technology. We use different skills. In technology we learned how to make an animation and in English about the book and the message that it expresses. This project helped me expand my knowledge of interdisciplinary projects since they show how we can use different skills from totally different areas of knowledge.

 

For creating the animation I used mostly self-management skills since I organized well my time and most of the work it was made during the classes they gave us for the projects. And thinking skills since I was able to be creative, as well to comprehend  the book. The skill that was harder for me to reach research skills since I didn’t searched for things, but I was able to organize my ideas. The skill that would have helped me a lot would be communication skills since they could had helped me if I exchanged ideas with my classmates for having different points of view. The skill that I devolved was self-managing skills since I was able to make an objective of frames for each class and by not doing things very difficult but that at the end it would show my effort with ought exceeding. I was Opened minded since I was able to show different ideas by making a brain storm on what could look better for the final product. I would say that the skill that I developed the most was balanced since I was able to work when it was time to work and to have fun with friends when it was time for it.

 

I had a lot of fun creating this project since it was new for me. I feel proud about myself on what I had accomplished and happy because all the hard work did end well with and amazing result. I was nervous before the project since I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish. I do like my project and I would like to repeat it some time in the future. I feel happy of what I learned and I proved to myself the importance of managing time.