Music by Andrey Rossi, sound effects from Pixabay
If you'd shown me this video in October and told me I'd made it, I would believe you. I'd be incredibly impressed by the actual animation, and stunned at how many things this video shows, but in terms of visual style and theme - it's exactly the kind of thing I pictured I'd make. I just didn't know I could make it.
I've learned consistently throughout this project, through various tutorials and experiences, some of which filled me with great joy and a sense of achievement. Many of my lessons came from spending hours trying to get an asset to do what I wanted using repeaters or effects, only to resort to duplicating the tiny part I need to change and building the motion frame by frame.
I wanted to represent the culture of the Caribbean and provide a sense of fun and adventure, and in doing this I feel I've met the brief. If I were to redo this project, I would almost certainly make more use of the Effects panel. Many times in this video I considered various built-in effects, but wanting to keep a minimalist style with simple shapes and a restrictive colour palette has meant avoiding, for the lack of a better term, fancy effects in favour of flowing transitions and geometric patterns.
Other things I would consider looking at would be the use of sound effects and textures. I'm not sure sound effects would be necessary for a movie's title sequence, but there's definitely scope for them here, and I had an idea of doing the entire thing stop-animated with paper, and I can't help but wonder how these assets would look with some paper textures over them and a hint of shadow, giving a more real-life look.
One thing I have struggled with recently is drawing the viewers attention to the important part of the screen, and I feel that I've achieved that well throughout. Even when I have used patterns with a lot of moving parts, I have considered what's important and given time and space to everything that requires it.
Overall, I'm proud of the final product. To get here I've grown in my abilities and my confidence. I've learned a variety of new techniques, I've made thousands of mistakes, and I've become less ashamed of using hidden cover-ups that designers talk about but are never actually visible.
Now would be a good time for a reference about this being a successful outing on my own quest for gold.