Where I could improve...

Throughout this project I have learnt a lot about what is to be expected from me as an animator and also what I can expect from the industry.

I have really enjoyed researching into different job roles and it made me realise that I would definitely want to start out as a generalist and then maybe move into specialised areas of animation. Although I have a short spot for all the work and detail that goes into a stop motion animation, there are other elements of the industry that definitely peek my interest.

Areas of Improvement.
Puppetry
Although altogether I am proud of my puppet, there are elements of it that could have been improved upon. His legs for example are very long and thin and the puppet struggled to support its own weight a lot during the animating process. If I had looked into more detail of puppets with similar design such as work by Tim Burton, then I may have been able to avoid this issue. When making puppets in the future I will put more time and thought into the size and weight of the puppet and consider how this could affect its design. Like the Beatle character in Kubo and the Two Strings, who's design didn't allow him to stand without a rig.
In order to be part of a team in the industry, everything has to work smoothly in each element of the puppet making and animating system, so if something can work in a more efficient way then I should have pushed it further instead of sticking to what I have known to work in the past.


Scripting and Story Boarding.
I wrote a basic script for the first time while working on this piece. I found it to be very useful when I got into the animation studio as I had a clear image in my head of how I wanted the puppet to look and move during certain parts of the filming. It was quite detailed and to the point but expressed enough of what the different persona's were feeling making it easy to follow and the process a lot faster.
I have never been a strong storyboard artist, I struggle to show how I imagine something to be in such a small area and I don't always know how I'd prefer my characters to move etc. However throughout this period, I have asked peoples opinions on how well my ideas translate through my storyboards and their feedback has been incredibly useful to me as a creator and story teller. This is a practice I will definitely repeat in projects to come as it has allowed me a lot more clarity.


Character Design.
After deciding that I will working with a creepy character, I knew straight away that I wanted it to be lanky with long limbs. However I wish I had pushed the character design more and tried more body types and ideas when looking at this character. I drew a lot of inspiration from pictures of vintages circuses online and saw one in particular that stuck out to me and pretty much lead to his final body type.