Assignment 2 Write up

Lauren Willoughby

Project 2

The Disappearing Ninja/ 2/7/10

Synopsis: A ninja appears and becomes visible and starts walking. A swarm of kunai knives speeds toward the ninja, but right when the first comes near him, he because intangible and transparent and continues walking through the knives. The scene cuts to an artist imagining the ninja still walking and he disappears again and the dream bubble disappears.

Intent: I wanted again to create a fantasy and I thought a ninja would be something different and interesting. I made him able to disappear and become transparent since I know that while in dreams nothing makes since. Plus with the scene with the artist, I wanted to display a scene where sometimes fantasizing and dreaming can lead to new ideas for stories or art.

Main Idea: I wanted to come up with an interesting idea for a walking character and one that's common for a dream. My first thought was a superhero, but that sounded babyish so I settled on a ninja because that sounded more cooler, then I got the idea of him being able to disappear and other tricks. I just really wanted to use this character since I really enjoyed coming up with him and loved working on him.

Theme: I say I'd make the theme that dreams or fantasies can not only help someone escape for awhile, but they can often lead up to creative ideas and stories.

Main tension/strengths: One struggle was having to keep going back to fix-up and do touch-ups on my character before he was ready to be put into a walk cycle. Also I had trouble with using masks on the layers and it was hard to figure out how they work. I did enjoy making and coloring the character and putting him in a walk cycle and that turned out well, same with the effects that I used.

Problem areas: Mainly one problem was figuring out how to use the mask layers and it was really frustrating. I really want to learn how to do that properly.

Journal notes: I really wanted to figure how to use the mask tool for other things besides a blinking eye, but I ended up just leaving it at that. I just really want to figure out other ways to use it. Also I had to keep going back to do touch-ups for my character. That also was frustrating. Other than that, I did enjoy working on this animation. The walk cycle and the parenting layers went well though.