Weekly Journal
Regular evaluation updates are required with every unit. Please remember
to take photos and get behind the scenes footage as you film. You might
find it easier if you note down a record of what you did each day in a diary
form.
Please use the following guidance to help you with each week.
Week 1
What research have you
completed this week and what
have you learned?
This week you researched stop motion animation
This week I have researched the different elements
that make an animation successful. My research
included looking at different animation techniques,
such as how 2D animation is mainly created with
paper and card materials. The objects within the
animation can only move up, down, left and right.
However, 3D animation involves a greater range of
movement. The materials can move in any direction
and there is much more you can do creatively with
3D animation. 3D animation can also be made with
almost any material. Popular examples include clay
(used in Claymation), toys and dolls, and even
humans.
I also researched the early pioneers of animation,
looking into the early examples of the art, such as
‘The Humpty Dumpty Circus’, which was released in
1898. This was the first example of stop-motion;
however, the actual footage has been lost to
history, and many believe the images we have are
from a toy set from the time. I then went on to look
at more modern examples of stop-motion, including
the favoured Wallace & Gromit animations. Another
popular animation is Henry Selick’s and Tim
Burton’s, The Nightmare Before Christmas. This
animation had a total of 109,440 frames and it took
120 workers and 20 sound stages to produce.
A key part of animation is the frame-rate. Also
known as frames per second (FPS), the frame-rate
is the number of frames shown on screen in a single
second of film. From my research I learned that
different media forms use different frame-rates. For
example, film often uses 24 FPS or sometimes even
48 FPS. Television often matches film or sometimes
uses 60 FPS. A high frame-rate often causes the
movement within the animation to appear
smoother, however it can sometimes be too fast. A

What materials did you consider
using and why?
How did the test animations
help you to choose the most
suitable material for your
animation? (provide screenshots
slow frame-rate can cause the animation to appear
jumpy.
Finally, I researched award winning animations,
such as Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse, which
won an Oscar for best feature length animation.
There is also an Oscar for best animated short film,
which this year was won by Bao. In the past
Aardman have been very successful in this category
with their Wallace & Gromit shorts. I researched the
views of critics on both Wallace & Gromit – The
Wrong Trousers and Spiderman: Into the Spider-
verse. Many of the reviews where positive, praising
the way clay was used in Wallace & Gromit to
present the emotions of characters who lacked in
dialogue. Critics felt that Spiderman: Into the
Spider-verse successfully delivered a sense of
nostalgia throughout with the use of comic book
style art.
For my primary research I chose three materials
and techniques that I could use for my animation
and experimented with them to create three, five
second animations. Each animation had the frame-
rate of 24 FPS, so to create five second animation
we needed 120 images. My first material was
drawing. I was interested in the idea that you can
edit or re-draw the image in between frames to
create the illusion of movement. This material
would allow me to easily include important
statistics in my animation, helping raise awareness
of my topic, homelessness.
My second technique was Stop-motion Object
Animation. This is a 3D style of animation that
involves moving an object slightly in between
frames. When all of the frames have been put
together it creates the illusion that the object is
moving. This material would allow me to include a
narrative in my work, sharing a story linked to
homelessness and approach the topic in a different
way.
My final technique was animating a human. To
produce an animation with this technique you have
to take images of a human and have them move
ever so slightly in between shots. When the frames
are played together it should once again create the
illusion of movement. In this case, with the right
frame-rate it should look as though the human is
simply moving as normal. This material would allow
me to give my animation a more personal touch,
using an actual person to convey the information
and story I want to share. As homelessness effects
people themselves, using an actual person could
help me solidify this message.
My first animation used the concept of adding
details to a drawing to create motion. My final
animation was a drawing of a flower growing. To
produce this illusion, I gradually drew the stem,
that show your practice
methods)
What did you learn from your
planning? How has it helped you
to progress your idea?
taking pictures as I added more on. Eventually I was
able to add leaves and draw the actual flower.
For my second animation I used a small china cow
to create a short animation of the cow moving
across a table and spinning around before leaving
the shot. This was done by moving the cow ever so
slightly in between frames. At one point I sped him
up. To do this I had to move him a slightly longer
distance in between frames. To slow him down I just
moved him less.
My final animation was a human animation. I used
this technique to make a five second piece of my
friend as she put on a pair of headphones, a hat
and then went on to complete some basic dance
moves. To produce this animation, I had my friend
sit in from of the camera with the props beside her.
We established before starting, which actions she
would complete so that we could capture the
frames efficiently and with ease. When we shot the
frames, I would take a picture, check it without
moving my camera before telling my friend that she
could move ever so slightly. I would then take a
picture of her new position and repeat the process
until we had 120 shots.
From my planning was able to establish my final
idea for my animation, which I decided would be
produced using the human animation technique. I
found this style of animation the easiest and felt it
was the most suitable for my topic of homelessness
as it would allow me a great range of possible
actions in a short period of time and gives me a
great deal of movement.
By planning the materials, I decided I would use a
tripod to keep the camera and final animation
steady. This is something I had found to be an issue
with my practice animations as in my 2D flower
animation the camera became unsteady and the
animation appeared jumpy. I also decided to use a
whiteboard to share the statistics within my video,
as it allows me the opportunity to swap between
statistics easily.
My planning also helped me develop the smaller
details within my animation, such as planning the
lighting. This had an impact on when and how I
would film, as well as the location I would use. I
eventually concluded that as it is winter the sun
sets later. Therefore, I would film early in the day,
after sunrise, so that the lighting would remain as
consistent as possible. If needed I plan to use a
phone light to make the statistics, clear and visible.
Finally, my storyboards helped me to figure out how
many frames each stage of my animation would
need. With a frame-rate of 24 FPS I will need a total
of 720 Images. My storyboards helped me establish

Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
Week 2
How helpful did you find your
planning whilst photographing
your animation?
how much of each frame the actor and prop would
take up. By planning this in advance I won’t have to
spend time on the day of shooting organising it.
This should allow me to shoot both easily and
efficiently.
I am up to date.
None as I am up to date.
This week you produced your stop motion
animation
When planning my animation I created a series of
storyboards. This allowed me to plan the layout of
the piece in a visual way. On my storyboards I
included every time the shots changed, as well as
how many frames I needed for each shot. With a
frame rate of 24 FPS, I knew that I needed 720
images in total. The brief asked for a 30 second
animation, so I worked how long I wanted each shot
to last and then divided up the total frames
between the sections of animation. By doing this I
didn’t have to work out how many images I needed
while photographing. It also helped me avoid over
photographing in case I didn’t have enough. In the
end I had the exact amount of images needed, but
because my storyboards were a little unclear, I
mixed up the distribution of frames and therefore
the frame count is not the same as planned. I took
too many images of one shot near the end, so had
to divide up the remaining images between the last
two. In the end this worked successfully, but I had
to work out shots while photographing which I
wanted to avoid. To fix this in the future I will make
sure to check my storyboards are as clear as
possible.
I planned to film early in the day so that I could
maintain a consistent level of lighting. This worked
really well as I filmed just after sunrise and was
finished at midday.
Finally I used my script throughout photographing
to remind myself of what each shot and change
included. This allowed me to film efficiently as I
knew when the location would change and when I
had to start capturing a new set of images. I used
this alongside my storyboards and my script helped
a great deal when I got confused with my
storyboard. The script also included which statistics
I was using for each section of my animation as well
as more details surrounding the location and
positioning of my actor. This saved me a lot of time
when photographing as I had everything needed
ready.
However, I wish I had planned the exact locations in

What challenges did you face
with your chosen material? How
did you overcome these?
How did you ensure you met the
required frame rate?
Reading I would use beforehand as I had to spend
time looking for them on the day.
I chose to try and animate a human for my final
animation. This gave me the possibility of moving
either the camera, the actor or both. I had much
more freedom with movement and could create a
realistic animation. However, originally I planned to
move the camera away from the actor rather than
have the actor move away. The camera was on a
tripod but the ground was uneven. Therefore the
final animation appears jumpy as there was too
much difference between images. This makes It
slightly hard to read the statistic on the whiteboard.
Later on I decided to try have the actor move
towards the camera and keep the camera
stationary. When doing this I took the images in
between steps and it created the illusion that the
actor moved forwards without actually walking. This
looked a little too animated and as though the actor
was unrealistic. To do this better I should have
taken the images of the actor as they stepped
closer to create the illusion that they are actually
walking towards the camera. Or I could have found
a much smoother way to move the camera so that
it had the same effect but was less jumpy.
Another challenge I faced was having my actor sit
as still as possible. We took the images in a very
public place and some of the time the actor was
stood up, therefore, she moved without realising it
and the images could appear very different from
one another. My actor also had a range of facial
expressions as the images where taken, some of
them more positive than others and sometimes
caught mid sentence. This looked odd in the final
animation and sometimes drew the attention away
from the statistic shown. To fix this I could have
ensure my actor was away from distractions so that
she wouldn’t react in anyway. I could have also
spent some time making sure my actor was
comfortable in her position so that she could stay
still for a long period of time.
The required frame-rate was 24 FPS. The required
length for the animation was 30 seconds so the
total number of images needed was 720. To ensure
I was consistently using the frame-rate of 24 FPS, I
worked out how many seconds I wanted each
section of my animation to last. I then multiplied
that by 24 and took the exact amount of images
needed to make that up. However, towards the end
of filming I confused how many I needed as my
storyboards where unclear so simply had to divide
the remaining images between two shots. I ended
up having to take 95 and 96 images. 95 cannot be
divided by 24, so therefore I
Was one image short of the frame-rate in that
section of animation?

How happy are you with your
final product? Provide analysis of
the successes and failures you
feel you had
How much work did you
complete outside of the lessons?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
At the end of my video I included a clip that was not
animated and therefore I did not calculate a frame-
rate.
My final product was not as successful as I’d hoped.
I feel the mixture of jumpy and oddly smooth
animation do not work well together and take away
the seriousness and impact I was hoping it would
have. The topic of homelessness is a very serious
one and therefore if the animation does not reflect
this the message doesn’t get communicated as
clearly.
However I feel I was successful In the way I shared
statistics within my animation. The use of the
whiteboard makes it clear and is a simple way to
view them. It allows me to change them around
easily. I think the statistics I chose where
appropriate for the animation and topic, focussing
on England as an area.
Towards the end of my video I had the images
slowly fade from colour to black and white. I think I
was able to execute this very well, with the effect
happening gradually so that you almost don’t
realise it is happening.
When working on future projects, I want to make
sure my planning is as clear as possible so that It
can aid my actual shoot much more. If I am
prepared in advance I should find it easier to
execute my ideas and face little challenge when it
comes to the actual shots. This will include small
details such as how I move objects and the camera
so that they create my desired effect. This should
also help me succeed first time so that I don’t have
to worry about re-filming or photographing things.
I took the entirety of my images outside of lessons,
taking the majority of a day to ensure I had
everything I needed. This allowed me more time in
the lessons to use programmes such Adobe
Premiere Pro and Photoshop, which I cannot use
outside of lessons.
I also did some of my planning outside of lessons,
gathering materials needed and checking over my
plan for the day of the shoot. I made sure my plan
to use a whiteboard worked well and that I would be
able to execute my plan, rather than having to find
a new way to do it on the day.
While photographing I also took the time to move
my images from my SD Card to my USB Stick so
that I wouldn’t have to take time to do it in class.
I am on track for this week
None as I am up to date