Audio

Using Audacity, I downloaded sounds from Youtube and Freesound.org and opened them up like this:

I then selected the part of the track I wanted to use, exported it and added it to my Photoshop timeline, positioning it in the right place.

I decided to use simple sound effects because I wanted to emphasise the action in the animation, and the sound effects help describe what's happening through the story.

The reason I didn't add imagery or specific sounds for the cloud was because I didn't want to narrow down the reasons why someone could be depressed. ChildLine are open to solving any issues, so I thought adding specific imagery and phrases would narrow that down, whereas now the audience can use their imagination and relate to the film in their own way.

After all of the improvements and applying audio, here is my final piece.



Overall, I think I've done well with this piece. The main point I would improve is the sound of the cloud. While I believe I made the right choice of the type of sound to use, I could have chosen a better crowd sound effect/smoke machine that go better together; Watching it back now, I wonder if it's easy to depict where the sound is coming from.
However, I'm happy with the movements and design of the animation, and I think it puts my point across well with the dramatic ending.

Improvements In My Animation

After receiving the feedback for my animation, I have taken on board some of the points made by my tutor and piers and made some changed to my film, such as:

The cloud. They suggested that although the movement of the lines are smooth and life-like, it should look more like a cloud. I acknowledged this and added another layer behind the cloud of a faded black/grey colour, to give the cloud a gassy feel.

The original

Final Cloud

It was also suggested that I add some imagery or text into the cloud at certain points to show that it's my characters thoughts, rather then just a cloud. This will imply to the audience what is wrong with my character; which will allow me to explore the issues that suicidal teenagers might be facing; giving my animation more context and reason behind it.
However after considering this, I decided the imagery would put too much in the image, so the viewer won't know where to look. I will use the audio as a tool to communicate why the cloud is there.

Another improvement suggested was to draw out the ChildLine logo at the end, or at least make it look neater. These were a couple of alternatives that I tried:

The logo taken from the internet, with a transparent background, so it could fit neatly on my black background.

My drawn out logo - which I traced from the original (above)

Out of these, I prefer the logo which I drew myself, because it gives the logo a sketched feel to it, which works well with the rest of my animation.
This version gives the logo a neater, painted look, which makes the logo slightly quirky but it's still faithful to the original design.

After watching my animation again after the final crit, I noticed that the walk cycle wasn't quite accurate. The feet was the main problem, I realised he was walking on his toes rather then through his heels, which was giving the animation a strange limp.

Original

Current

After I re-did the feet, the walk flows more smoothly.

Now that I've made these improvements to my campaign, I will find the audio to finish this piece off, and bring it to life.