For this assignment, we were asked to use the skills we had learned throughout the semester to create an animation of our choosing. Wanting to use puppet tools, anchor points, masks, and several other techniques and tools we had discussed in class, I came up with the idea of making a scene from a storybook come alive. I knew I wanted someone fishing and incorporate some kind of octopus tentacle in it, and slowly the scene came together until a story came from it. 

After creating more cartoonish styled projects in the semester, I wanted to change it up for this project. I ended up deciding to use an almost messy pen work look to it, like found in older classic children tales, hopefully adding to the illusion that a storybook was coming alive. Once the movements were decided on, I was able to work on timing, having each subject 'come to life' or start moving as they are first introduced in the text as they appeared. 

This was one of my most detailed animations yet, having so many moving parts that needed to be timed just right with one another. It ended up taking several compositions to organize them, loopOut cycles to keep movements smooth, easy ease to help the movements to become more lifelike and less rigid, and seeking the critiques of many individuals throughout the process. They were able to point out many aspects of the animation that could use improvement, 

The boat was easy enough to figure out, setting the position and the rotation on easy ease and repeating actions that don't quite meet, that way throughout the animation the rotation and position wouldn't always match up with the last dip in the water.

The tentacles gave more issues. Puppet tools were used, but it had to be edited several times to give it a more life like movement. The cat's swipe at it happened so fast that it didn't have a chance to draw attention to the cat before the strike, so in the final it's paw is extended and hovers in a threat before the actual strike. The transition between the full tentacle and the smear frame was also fixed for the final, instead of fading together, the height of the smear and the timing was more closely considered. 

After receiving feedback from several sources, which included adding to the cat, changing the position of the pole, the speed of the text showing and the pauses in it, the hints of tentacle during lulls in writing, and more, the final was able to be cleaned up and more visually pleasing and easier to follow.