'Tricky' Animation Review

As a small exercise for myself I wanted to have a look at an animation we got shown in class called 'Tricky' by Jodie Ford and point out a lot of things I really enjoyed in the animation which I can use as inspiration for my animatic. I actually saw this animation a couple months prior to being shown in class and I must say it's one of my favourite student pieces I've seen so far. Below is the casebook link to the video for those who haven't watched it yet:

https://p17169141.wixsite.com/j-dmu2/final-year-project

Right off the bat I just want to say that I think the title is absolutely awesome and it contrasts with the background really well. I really love the subtle details in this shot too such as the dragon plush and the scribbled drawing under the box.

Another thing I want to point out is the character design. I really love the mask the character wears and I think its a great balance between uniqueness and simplicity. The colours of the character compliment the purply background too which sets the night-time theme really well.

I really enjoy the use of playing with negative space with the flashlight in this shot. I think the decision to add this in was really creative as it plays in well with the story of this animation and it experiments with the positive and negative space we were taught about in class in a fitting way.

I quite like how the animation also never really seems to be static, if you observe a few still frames you can still see a jittering effect from the characters outline making them seem more spirited. Although I wouldn't personally use this effect in my current project, it's stylistic approach can definitely be used in future projects.

The backgrounds are also worked around really efficiently, the sky is a really mesmerising dark purple with clouds which are only a few shades lighter and I love how they circle around the lamp-post to make sure that the audience focus on that object. Just subtle details like this can end up making an animation incredibly effective.

Lastly I can't stress how important the sound design is throughout this animation. Every small movement and action was incredibly well composed by Stephen Agate. The background music was very fitting to the mystery of the character and actions such as walking and screaming were very well executed. I think this goes to show how far the talent of two extraordinary people can go and really inspires me to collaborate more with other people in the media industry.

In conclusion, this animation is breathtaking. It has a really clear story without the use of dialogue and a really cool style which is something similar I want to follow. I think overall this gives me a good indication to what I'm looking for in my own work and honestly it's quite exciting to imagine myself achieving similar results to this.