How I Created My Animation

Planning Process:
Before I could even start to create my animation and models, I had to research and plan more into it. This consisted of mindmapping a few different ideas that I could use and resort to if I changed my mind at anypoint on what i wanted to base it on. I also had to research into what models i would use/make and how i could make them to have the effect of looking realistic, i drawn a few ideas on paper before i started to make them with clay. I also researched into the soundtracks that i could feature in my animation, i came up with about two or three which are listed in my 'Animation Ideas' blog post. I also had to download and covert my soundtrack so that it was ready to use and edit in when it came to making my animation.

Production Process:
After i had done all my planning and research I could start to create my models. I took the sample models that i had previously drawn out on paper and used them as a guideline whilst i was creating the actual clay models. This took me a few lesson to create them as i wanted them as detailed as i could get them so it would give my animation a realistic effect. I started with making the sunflower head, then the stem and then the butterfly and the grass. I would say that most difficult part of creating the models was making the sunflower as i had to be precise and carefull with the petals.
When it came to making my actual animation all i needed was a mac computer and a working camera. I started off by attaching a plain white A3 piece of paper as the background, I used this so that you couldn't see the table in the background of it, on that I then started by adding a little piece of grass at the bottom of the page and snapshotted it and repeated that until the grass was all along the bottom of the page; when played back this makes it look like its growing on the page. I then adding a little piece of the stem each time clicking the camera and repeated that also, i did the same all the way up the stem until the sunflower head appeared. I then slowly moved the butterfly all around the page, after each movement I made i clicked the camera icon to take the image of it and repeated so until i eventually moved it off the page. I then started to roll the grass ip each time so that it looked like it was dissapearing and did the same with the stem. When it was just the sunflower head left on the page i squished up into a ball and rolled it off the screen. I then exported it from iStopMotion and into my documents. It took me upto four+ lessons to create my models and one lesson to create the animation in.

Editing Process:
After I had created my animation, i then imported it into MovieMaker so that I could edit in the opening and ending credits along with my soundtrack. I chose to go with the soundtrack 'Seaside by The Kooks' it took me one lesson to do all the editing in.