Evaluation

My starting points were doing research by taking photographs from games such as Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, images of samples or test pieces like a black sheet of paper sprinkled with white powered chalk, pictures from existing cartoons and animes like for instance, The Powerpuff Girls, sticking in pages from magazines and newspaper articles, internet images, pictures from yoghurt packaging, information of other cartoons and animes as well as researching animators like Craig McCracken and illustrators.

On the first day of using Macromedia Flash MX 2004, I was not used to the controls and tools that got me very confused. As the days go past, I have learned new techniques, know how to use the tools and controls as well as altering the music and song I have chosen so it goes in sync with the scenes of the animation.

The materials I used were a scanner, computer, sketchbook, magazines, newspapers, cling film, watercolours, paintbrushes, plastic cup, lucky stars, bow clip, yellow fluffy duck, two CD cases, felt tip pens, soft pastels, oil pastels, black paper, white powered chalk, spray fixative, glue stick, photocopier, scissor, coloured tissue papers, pen, pencil, rubber, pencil sharpener, black fine liner, graphite and so forth.

The animation is basically about two star characters named Simon and Stella, who were inspired from the Nintendo characters, Starfy and Starpy from the Densetsu no Starfy series. Simon and Stella encounter a butterfly who somehow flew up into outer space after being bored with its home planet, after it fainted in the vast emptiness of outer space, Simon must take it back to Earth before it is too late to save the fluttering insect.

It was successful, how the scenes were played smoothly with the song and I managed to find a way to scan things and objects from magazines, newspapers etc, manipulate them on Photoshop and upload them on Flash. If I want to do this again, I would do a new storyboard with a different plot and characters along with the main ones. My final outcome differs from my original idea because the idea is simple and random compared to my old ideas.

I chose to include the song “Untouchable (Single Mix)” by Girls Aloud in the animation because the music sounds like it is straight from outer space and the lyrics are quite fitting for the storyline of the cartoon. The vocals sounds robotic, computerized or futuristic which is one of the reasons why I picked this song. I previously wanted to add the album version in the cartoon but it’s too long and the computer doesn’t let me use it because it’s in a different format. It only plays on Windows computers or laptops. I also picked the Rainbow Road music from Mario Kart Wii because the tune sounds like it’s straight from outer space and it’s from one of my favourite games.

Before I started working on the animation, I drew two storyboards that didn’t work so well. The first one is about a cartoon version of myself crash landing on Venus and attempting to rescue a friendly alien from an active volcano. It was unoriginal and boring so I came up with another one. The second is a long story about Simon is going off on another mission and leaving his daughter, Stella, all alone in the starship. She gets out of her temporary home and ends up being a captive of an evil alien. This one was too long to animate so I chosen to create a new storyboard that is much shorter.

The hardest bits that I have encountered is figuring out how to do scenes that have a camera in them like if I was a director of a movie and fading in or out the scenes. I overcame them by adding more scenes, switching the order of how they go in slightly, tweaking them if they have minor mistakes and making them longer so they are in sync with the song.  

I could add extra scenes or repeat them in the animation to make it much longer, insert more chocolate stars in some of the scenes to make them more colourful, put in another music in the ending credits like “Outer Space” from Super Paper Mario or a song such as “Can’t Get Over” by September or “Crash Landing” by Route-1 feat. Jenny Frost, place in a couple of extra characters or just one, for instance an evil alien.     

I want to show this and my other work to people by putting them up in an exhibition and setting up the cartoon there, submit it on the Internet or send it to anyone by e-mail online.

The presentation and the display of my work like sticking the images and poster onto foam boards shows what my animation is about and it’s telling the story of what happens in the cartoon about Simon’s short adventure and quest of saving a butterfly from certain death in space.