Planning
Koi and Lily Pads
Lotuses and Background
Heron Sketches
Storyboard
For my sketches, I made sure to draw all of the elements of my scenes. I tried to figure out how I planned to shade the lily pads as well as the koi before I began animating. I also tried to draw the koi in different positions to begin to understand how they swim. I also drew the heron several times to finalize my design for him. The storyboards helped me figure out my full scene arrangement as well as the movement of the heron throughout the animation.
Photographing
Heron Ruffling Feathers
Heron Base for Dialogue
Koi Swimming
Background
To avoid difficulty and repetition when drawing the animation, I drew all of the layers separately on sheets of paper. The animation was photographed with a top down camera. All of the photographs had to be edited substantially to help deal with contrast and color, as this is meant to be a black and white animation.
Editing
The After Effects timelines were quite intense for this project. Most images were imported as image sequences, but many images still had to be adjusted individually for still frames. Sound effects for this film were found on freesound.com and the voice acting had been recorded in person.
Credits
Aaron the Heron: Breiten Sundra
Animation and Editing: Ashley Wielgos
Sound Effects from freesound.com:
Wing Flap 1 by _stubb
Wings by 190175
Water Swirl 5, 7, 18 by InspectorJ
splash3 by Rocktopus
Lake shore waves by juskiddink