My piece "Animated Child" is an animation incorporating pixilation of my hand. My concept for my piece was to have a character and I interact. As an animator and designer, when I make a new character, it's like creating life. In a deeper sense, I want my characters to become their own beings, or at least give this impression. In a way, my characters are like my children - except maybe a little more mouldable. I intended for my piece to be taken quite lightly, to be an enjoyable and playful thing to watch. I think I achieved this.
The visuals I'm quite happy with. I think they are strongest aspect of my work, especially the quality of the video and some parts of the animation. A weakness with the visuals is the occasional jerks in the animation. This was due to my camera not being in a very stable, and could have been avoided if I spent a little more time rigging my setup.
The sound effects made and recorded by me, and doing this was a valuable learning experience. The voice of the character was sound stock I used from a website called a1freesoundeffects.com. Which stated I could use the sounds for personal use. I'm fairly happy with the sound, but I think it could have been better. Weaknesses with the sound include volume; I should have recorded things closer than I did. Another weakness with sound is the voice of the character. In some parts it varies too much. In future I would record someone for the character to keep it consistent and to allow for more flexibility.
My biggest obstacle with this animation was definitely time. If I had planned everything sooner, I would have achieved everything I wanted to. Granted, I think conceptually the piece achieves what I intended. If this piece was to play in a gallery or exhibition, I would keep it on a small, intimate screen. I'd like my hand to be life-size or smaller. Also, I think I would keep a book near the screen where people could write or draw things, and make their own creations!
At the moment I'm presenting the animation online at my deviantART/vimeo. It's getting a lot of good feedback. As I'm heavily inspired by the online community and especially my online click, I think that this is also an important aspect of the work, and this is why I have choose to present it this way rather than in a real space.
