5th Draft- Moving Dummy

This is another stop motion photography animation that I created to experiment with the subject of animations. For this, I used a solid object as I would have more control over it's movement in each shot as opposed to a human seen in my 'Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk' draft. I used a tripod and lighting for this animation to keep it professional and neat, and I also used a backdrop so there wouldn't be distracting surroundings. I think all these aspects helped contribute to the animation's success, and I'm very pleased with the way it came out. The content is of an opposable dummy, which moves in different ways. Once again I didn't feel the need to storyboard this animation as I wasn't too sure about how flexible the model would have been, and also the movement is very limited so wouldn't have needed much planning anyway.
I don't feel the lack of planning detracted from the animation at all as it really wasn't necessary. One issue I did have which I didn't notice till completion, was that I kept getting in the way of the light when I altered the dummy so the lighting is slightly varied in the first few shots and a few were in shadow which I took out using Windows Movie Maker. I think I used the perfect amount of photographs between each movement, which was around 200, as the dummy itself as a character seems like it would move quite mechanically so I feel the jerkiness helped with the animation as a whole.
After creating this animation I feel that using a solid object for the content of the animations has it's perks and problems. A positive aspect is that the object doesn't move on it's own so you're certain that the only movement that occurs will be one that you've induced, so you have more control over the success of the piece. However although humans move slightly accidentally, you can also control their actions better as you can tell them what to do and get everything exactly how you want it rather than making do with the limitations of an inanimate object. Another negative is what I've previously stated, as when I moved the model I got in the way of the light etc, but with a human I wouldn't have to move away from the camera as the character would do it all for me so I could just focus on the actual animating process.
I've decided to create another animation using inanimate objects but perhaps with more movement so I'm not as limited in the animating process. I might combine objects and humans together for my final piece as then I can have a bit of both.

The frame rate for this animation was 10 frames per second (fps) which I think for this particular animation was perfect, although I did use several different rates until I found the right one. (Different rates video added at a later date)