Animation - Adding textures.

After scanning in my initial artwork for the animation, I was slightly apprehensive as to how successfully this process would work. But once i begun adding texture, i started to come together pretty quickly. - really starting to like the way this is going, the mono print will make such a difference! 

• Scanned in a selection of my mono printed backgrounds, before converting to black and white.
• Using the quick selection tool to separate the texture - and merge with the drawing. - I would select the drawing layer - to get the specific set ion i wanted i.e., the face. - but then select cut, from the textures layer. Keeping each section of mono print separate and titles! - using the rubber to clean up any edges.
• creating each hand in a separate document layer - then adjusting the positioning in the animation layer. - Found this to be difficult. some of the hands were drawn at the wrong angle and were then altered digitally - would have saved time if spent more time checking they were accurate! took a while until i was happy with all the hands.
• to enahcne the textures i altered the levels and used the dodge and burn tools to lighten and darken certain areas. - It was important to make sure the textures used for each section are contrasting enough to stand apart from each other!
• duplicating and repeating layers - the trees - so they can be positioned differently over each hand. - so many trees can get a little confusing! trying to rename layers to organise is useful. - also colour co-ordinating the layers was really useful!
• Grouping the layers - allowed me to hide sections at a time - a lot easier to scroll through!
•  It was at this moment that i realised i had formatted wrong. i had to extend each part of my animation and create new pieces which became time consuming! however luckily the composition came together in the end. - i used my Wacom tablet to tweak areas of black, and fill in the rest of the extended image.
• I made sure that each aspect which i wanted to move is separated. Finals; 
• the people. 
• water - two different mono print textures to switch between,
• sky - panning
• eye opening
• eyeball moving
• hand switching between 4 positions.
• - So when i transited my image across to after effects - each layer will be easy to move.

After effects problems;

• after finally finishing the artwork - reaching a standard that i was happy with it was time to transfer the photoshop file across to after effects. Unfortunately this did not go quite to plan!
• initially the file was simply the wrong size - easily corrected. but when it came to transferring the image, my separated layers would not show up. instead it was one flattened image, - despite it being this way in photoshop. With some help from my peers i was thankfully able to rectify this problem! - saving each separated file as a document, then opening that document into after effects. this process took extra time that i do not feel i have at this point! but hopefully it will be fairly easy to move forward from this pint - i c an attempt to move my separated layers - following my story board time plan.

• I am slightly worried about the animation process, and am realising that i should have balanced my time more evenly between this and the prints, and perhaps simplified my animation. I missed after effects sessions due to being ill, and despite attending catch ups with mike, i still have struggled to understand and adapt my work to the process. More time spent practicing would have been hugely beneficial at this stage. - unexpected things always occur - like today! more time allows for error instead of last minute panic.