I am using Adobe Flash to put my Photoshop frames together. For the background I am animation one section of sea grass then duplicating it on the screen for fasted animating and I can concentrate on the smoothness. This will help me gain the realistic sense of movement and ultimately make my animation look professional which is my desired outcome. I have used a soft brush on photoshop then made the spines of the seagrass. This matches with my pastel and soft style I am aiming for.
With the same animation being played over it will look like the current. This will make it more believable as a realistic animation.
Story Boarding Act 1 (Introduce Character):
In act one I am going to introduce my character. The character will be shown to of a sweet nature and sneeze to show it's innocence.
Act 2 (Problem/Danger):
Suddenly in Act 2, an anchor will fall and rip up some of the vital seagrass which will leave the seahorse helpless and the background will change from pastel to quite dark,
Act 3 (Solution):
Act 3 will be when the National Marine Aquarium comes to help the seahorse in it's time of need as a diver will come and plant new seagrass.
The animal I have chosen to draw is the spiny seahorse as it is unique and is probably one of the animals who needs the seagrass the most.
I found a video on YouTube of a Spiny Seahorse to see how the spines move with it. It also helps with the gill, fin and eye movement. Not only does it help research with the animal but also the way the environment moves around the creature.
Using Premiere pro I can import a PNG of light marks to resemble the water rippling.
I am thinking of using Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash and Photoshop to create my animation as I would like to try a new animating style. Also looking at other animations made in this style it is a lot smoother and it can be imported into flash to make the game.
I have started to design my character on Photoshop CC. With realistic colours I will be creating a soft image that will move from one side of the screen to the other to grab on to some seagrass. My character will be realistic to the Spiny seahorse but also hold a cartoon like style.
I used some images from Google and made a sketch of my seahorse. I tried to use images of British Spiny seahorses which are fairly yellow.
I included quite big spines as the spiny seahorses are more known for having a lot of them.
I coloured in my seahorse with the same colour as the base of some of the images I found on Google. I then selected the field and added some shading using the eyedropper tool on the darker and lighter parts of the images.
I added the spines by following my sketched and then highlighting them to create a soft gradient to a blue/grey which is following the spines of the real Spiny seahorses. At this point I also added the shading of the groves in the Seahorse. This gives my character depth and a realistic look.
I the used more shading and blending to create a few more spines one the body. I also added some red shading under the eye like the seahorse in the picture. I started to blend my spines to the body of my seahorse to make it more real and less like spines have been glued on to the body.
The seahorse now has depth and the body has been shaped to the plate/skeleton of the seahorse. I am liking the way my seahorse is turning out however I would like to add more realistic effects. Also I need to add more to the tail of my seahorse and maybe include some more spines in the body of my Spiny seahorse.
I've added the final touches to my seahorse. I will be adding the other fin soon. I believe that my Seahorse looks cute yet realistic to appeal to the younger views but keep to what the seahorse looks like.
Seagrass (Background)
Seagrass or Eel grass is known for the long thin spines.
I started on the background with pastel colours and used a soft brush with 50% opacity to create the sea grass. I am working in layers so then I can make the background seagrass move.
I've added more seagrass so then my Seahorse can emerge. Using the different layers I can put my seahorse behind them and also make each layer move.
Production
I am using Adobe Flash to put my Photoshop frames together. For the background I am animation one section of sea grass then duplicating it on the screen for fasted animating and I can concentrate on the smoothness. This will help me gain the realistic sense of movement and ultimately make my animation look professional which is my desired outcome. I have used a soft brush on photoshop then made the spines of the seagrass. This matches with my pastel and soft style I am aiming for.
