Jute animation

Jute Animation                                                                                                                 08/11/22

Figure 1: Jute field: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute_cultivation

Jute is one of Dundee's main exports and industries.  It is widely used vegetation because of its ability to be turned into threads which can be used to make strengthened bags and sacks, and is usually grown during the rainy parts of the year.  It is then harvested in the autumn when the flowers have been shed and the plant has turned brown and dry.  It will be a focal point of my film as one of my shooting locations, Cox's Stack, is a monument of the city's Jute industry.  To represent this, I will feature an animation of a stem of jute growing up the tower, which is fitting because of how tall the plant is known to grow (between 8 and 12 feet high).  

This is my footage of me creating the Jute animation in TV Paint.  This whole process of simply drawing and animating the outline of the animation has taken me five days in total and that's not including the process of colouring and shading all the keyframes and the inbetweens.  This process has really taught me the importance of sticking to the animation process regardless of how long the process takes, and how important it is to pay attention to details.  I've also learned the importance of cleaning up the footage because of the inevitable rough edges and quality that will come from the first drafts and how I will need to adhere to feedback from more experienced animators.  

This is the finished animation without colours or shading which will be part of an animation projection.

Here is the latest attempt to add the jute animation to some live-action footage.   The first attempt is with a drone shot from a channel called "Roam and Remote", and the second attempt is with a still photograph.  Of the two attempts, I came to the realisation that I will need to animate my scenes in unison with the camera movement.  In other words, if the camera is moving in live-action, I will need to move the camera in animation.  I had some struggles with After Effects in that I couldn't find the matte function that the video needed to work, and I also found that using the low-angle still shot will contribute to a sense of height.  I also found that the unsynchronised movement of the drone and the animation made the shot feel just off and unimpressive.