PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT For my major project, I plan to deliver a positive message for of all people regardless of age belief or race. The message is to be who you are no matter the circumstance. I will be delivering my message in the form of an animation, with poetry being spoken along with it. My poetry, which I have titled Mask gives reasons why it is better to be who you are rather then trying to be someone youre not. I have planned to start creating some of my animation on Flash; I will then finish the rest of the animation on Adobe After Effects. I have chosen to use Adobe After Effect because I have some ideas for my animation that would be easier to animate on Adobe After Affect than it would be on Flash. For example, there is a part of the animation where I would like a human to transform into a stone. Crazy as it may sound, I honestly think that this would look quite amazing. Also since this is a short animation it would make more sense for me to use After Effect. I have researched many other professional works, and the one that really inspired me wasjosh Pykes FILL YOU IN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6j5VzCW2DQ Jason Peacock who is now a motion graphic designer at Venturethree produced the video for his final year project in Multimedia Design and Technology. Jason had produced the animation using Adobe After Effects cs3. When I first watched this piece of animation, it was very similar to what I had in mind. The more I watched it, the more ideas I began to develop for my own animation. Out of all the animation research that I have done, Jason Peacocks piece of work is the one that stands out for me the most. My reason for this is because it has been kept very simple but yet still entertaining to its audience. I would also like my animation to be simple but yet still be able to grab peoples attention, especially since Ive decided to deliver a positive message with it. Other animation that I have researched includes a music video for rapper, Common. The name of the music video is called LETS MOVE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHp49tPg6zo Unfortunately I was unable to find out the name of the illustrator for this video. But the reason why I was inspired by this video is because of its hand drawn illustration. The animation is extremely plain with no colour or movement to it. This inspired me to also keep my animation simple with no colour. As a child I watched many different cartoon programmes, but I was always especially infatuated when I would turn on a music channel and see an animation music video of a song I liked. For example Tupacs, DO FOR LOVE. But one thing I noticed was that there were hardly any animated music videos.

Also, I have watched many cartoon programmes (too many to name) and Ive noticed that the majority of them do not give out positive messages. This is one of the reasons why I have decided to try and deliver a positive message with my animation, along with some spoken words. The media is very well known for setting trends and encouraging people to conform, music artists have a certain amount of power in there hands towards the masses, from the news to music videos, the media is constantly giving us ideas of how we should look. Visual imagery can have a profound effect on the mind of the masses encouraging them to look or be a certain way, which may not have originally been their own. A lot of the time these imageries are used for someone elses and often fail to encourage individuals to be themselves. From the 19th century, cartoons to todays music videos there is often not enough encouragement for individuals to be themselves. Even Disney films such as Cinderella, which are aimed at kids, often have an effect on them later in life, driving them to look for that perfect gentleman in a fairy tale way. I would also like to add some music to the background of my animation; of course I would not make this a priority, but I do think it would help the vibrancy of my animation in quite a big way. Some of the skills that I feel I need to improve on would be my knowledge of After Effect and Flash., thoough I do think I will learn new skills as I create mty animation. Before making a finale decision on the poem that I chose for this animation piece, I thought of another one. My other poem also was about being yourself, but I was unable to think of an appropriate ending for it.

POEM NUMBER 1 My alarm goes beep as I wake up out my sleep, throw the covers off the sheet, get up, drop my feet on the carpet, quiick to the bath its about quarter past gotta move kind of fast, summers here at last got to meat the untorage fitting in is a must so cant forget my mask. Got it on tight, the real me is out of sight now I feel right .. Below are some rough sketches that I had done for my first poem. To the left is my character, very simply drawn, I purposely made the character simple so that it would be easier for me to animate on Flash. Below the character, is a bed with he/she sleeping on it. Beside this image is a birds eye view of a my chracter sleeping with an alarm clock beside the bed. Above the bed is (supposed to be) a birds eye view of feet on a carpet, as explained on my poem. To the bottom right, I tried to draw my chracter stuck in a box, this did not have anything to do with my first poem, but relates to the one I chose. MY CHOSEN POEM: take off the mask and be yourself, look in the mirror and see yourself, just be the norm, because theres nothing more beuitifull then anything in its natural form, if a storm was to form then that mask would fade out, so who are you going to play now, placed in a position where there seems to be no way out. Seeyou can only be yourself, you cant be no one else, even super man goes back to his original self. As a child I always felt that I had to blend in, spending all my cream just to be part of the team, tracksuits and new jeans, climber fits nikees, air max 90s and 95s but now Im more wise Ive realised that being a disguise is not the way to get by, I would rather be I, the truth you cant hide, because the proof is always there just look and you will find. It all will expose itsef in due time.

Below is a story board that I had drawn out for the poem. Each square eplains a line in the poem through an illustration. For my first scene I will have my character looking into the mirror, but instead of he or she seeing a reflection of himself, they will be looking at the word YOURSELF. I decided to do this because it is something that I have not seen been done before. I think it will work great with my animation. From my first scene I will have my character transform into a group of stones, as shown on the second square of my story board. The stones will be an example of something in its natural form, giving a clearer explanation of the line in my poem there is nothing more beautiful than anything in its natural form. Continuing from this, the stones will then transform into letters, forming the word storm, as seen on the second square. On my third scene I will have the storm hit the face of my character, this will cause his mask (that he will be wearing) to fade off his face. I will then go onto my next scene which I have tried to show on the fourth box. This scene explains the line on my poem placed in a position where there seems to be no way out to show this I will have my character trapped in a small glass room. On my fifth scene I will show superman transforming into kent clark , explaining that even superman goes back to his original self. I will then go on to show a squick scene of my character as a child. On this scene I will have he or she around some cool friends. The scene will then go on to show different brands of clothes and trainers, such air max trainers, nike tracksuits and armany jeans. On my final scen I will have my character walking alone with no mask on. Once the mask is taken off of my characters face, colour will then be added to the whole scene. This is supposed to show the happiness that originality can bring.