Critical Reflection Essay

 For my A2 production, I decided to create a music video, with my chosen medium being 2D

animation. I went with a narrative, story-based structure for the video, and went through the

processes of designing characters, storyboarding, animating and editing to produce the end

product. The song I chose was a Japanese hip-hop song (“One W Nine Five”), because I liked

the relaxed tone of it, and I built the video’s story around its vibe rather than its lyrics or beat. It

took many listens and a lot of visualising before I had a concrete structure to go off of. Once I

had a good grasp of the idea, I got to work on character design and storyboarding in my

sketchbook. After that came the arduous process of animating each storyboard panel on a free

software program called FireAlpaca, converting the short sequences into GIFs, and editing them

together in Premier Pro. Finally, after adding audio and text in Windows Clipchamp, I completed

the video.

In terms of branding, the fact that the video is animated already gives it a brand. However, the

animation I used in most of the video is very simple and minimalist, with more focus on the

action than props and backgrounds. However, colour is used where necessary. I added colour in

the ending sequence to signify that the mundane part of the day (getting ready, waiting for the

friend to arrive) is over, and the fun, creative part of the day (colour) is brought on by the friend’s

arrival.

Apart from the aforementioned aspects of branding, the use of motifs (such as the skateboard)

and consistent character design (exaggerated size of dreadlocks) create a sense of familiarity in

the viewer.

My product engages with the audience, first and foremost, with the music that it uses. The

bass-heavy track isn’t so slow that it bores the listener, but not so distracting that it takes away

from the visuals that accompany it.

The subject matter is relatable to viewers (the monotony of getting up every morning, the

anticipation of what the day could bring), keeping them engaged with the content.

The brevity of the shots themselves keeps a fast pace for the audience (in the age of the

attention economy, holding the audience’s attention span means you have to condense content

to keep them engaged.), and not all of the shots focus on the character, giving them other things

to look at.

The frame rate is another factor that engages the audience. At 8 frames per second for most of

the video, the animation is fast enough to keep the audience alert, but still has a janky,

stop-motion animation quality to it. It feels like the halfway point between completely fluid motion

and the flow of reading a comic book.

My research on similar media certainly informed my creative decisions for this music video,

especially “My Neighbours the Yamadas”. It is unlike many Western and Western-inspired

animated films, because it doesn’t have the same intricate details. However, the lack of detail in

the background and character design isn’t a detriment to the storytelling. It adds charm and

character to the film, making it memorable and unique. I decided to take a minimalistic approach

to the character design, props and background of my video. The subject matter was relatable

and mundane, and therefore didn’t need flashy, detailed animation. The mediocrity of the

actions demanded a simplistic art style, in which actions were recognisable, the bare minimum.

However, towards the end of the video, I wanted to contrast the boredom of waiting for the

friend with the excitement of the meetup. Here, I drew inspiration from 90s/2000s shows like

“Downtown”, “6Teen” and “The Boondocks” by adding colour (lots of it) and a fisheye lens to

create a POV shot of the wall being spray-painted. The fisheye lens was a nod to 90s-00s

hip-hop music videos, and the skater aesthetic that was prevalent at that time.

I faced quite a few difficulties in the process of making this video, the first being time

management. I take coursework-heavy subjects, so balancing my time with production, the blog

and my other classes was difficult. The second thing was the learning curve that came with

animating something of this length. I mostly had experience with digital art (static images) and

comics before I started working on this project, the most I had animated was a few blinks here,

a walk cycle there. I had the theoretical knowledge of how to go about a video, but I wasn’t

prepared for how taxing and monotonous it would be. The third challenge I faced was dealing

with Premier Pro. I had watched some YouTube tutorials on how to use the software, but

nothing could have prepared me for how glitchy it was. I had to divide my video into two parts

because the software kept deleting frames. I also had to save my work every few minutes in

case of the app crashing.

There were a lot of positives that came out of this project, too. With each sequence that I

animated, I became faster, more efficient, and overall, a much better animator than I was at the

beginning of the assignment. I have a clearer understanding of how to manage my time as an

animator, and of the importance of having a team (animators in studios never work alone, it’s

more like a production line). I’ve found that I’m better at character animation than background,

and that I really don’t like using colour. It’s tedious. Most of all, I’ve learned that despite the

continuous, painstaking nature of 2D animation as a medium, the end result is worth the hard

work. Every second of footage is precious, and beautiful.