Finishing maps and networks

 

I had to begin quickly, because I realised that I´d have to do quite a lot of work in not much time. The first thing I tested it on was on the Aral sea. I thought about what the colour should be. I thought a light blue could make quite a classic ghost colour but I didn´t really like it too much. I then found an option I had not seen before, a way to make a gradient pen. I did several swatches as shown below, but in the end I decided on the red and blue one.

In the video below I was testing out things. At the very beginning I have the first frames just blue, and then I decided on the gradient. I then ended up using this as part of my final. 

A screenshot from much later on where I was working on the fish. I drew everything by hand with my pen on the ipad.

A video from when I started on Bolivia. The Jaguar was the first animal I did for it.

When I had done a couple of animals for each place I decided I should have a universal length for all of them. They were all three around 40 or 50 frames, so I decided on 50 frames per video. I then worked with this length in mind. 

I didn't have the time to do all the animals I would have wanted for Madagascar and Bolivia but in the end I don´t think it was so far off. I didn´t have time to add audio either, but maybe I´ll do that later, just for myself.

Here are the final videos (I had to put them on Youtube to get them on the website):

All in all I am actually quite happy with how they turned out. It was quite a lot of work to animate so many little creatures on 150 frame, and to try to get their movement to look real, whilst also looking ghostly. I think I achieved what I wanted with this project. I´m also happy with the colour choice I made and the occasional haunting white eyes I drew on some of the creatures. I wanted it to feel like they could sense our presence, watching them. I think it worked out nicely. 

I´m also quite impressed that we all made such good quality work during a pandemic. I must admit sometimes it´s not easy at all to get motivated and towards the end I was quite tired of this project. I managed to finish it though and so I am happy with myself.

The only thing to do now is the publication.