My Concept for Do Frogs Have Spines? is a cheeky and stylized comic/game. My goal was to surprise the viewer, make them laugh and want to play the animation again. My target audience is young males, but also females, between 14 and 35. I imagine this animation being popular on sites such as E-baums World, for it is fashioned after that site’s popular The End of The World animation.
Do Frogs Have Spines? was inspired by a tree planter my sister once knew who didn’t understand that frogs had bones. Thus, thinking it wouldn’t hurt them he would catapult the animals with his planter’s shovel.
When I heard this story I was conflicted by both a sense of glee at its ridiculousness, and guilt at the sickness of the humour. To this day the story makes me laugh even while making my stomach churn. I wanted to inspire this same response from the viewer. Elements such as the puddle the frog turns into after being catapulted, and the subsequent “(splat!)”, I feel are effective towards this goal.
My favorite part of the telling of the original story was the way it built towards the ending: little hints that let you know where it was going, each making you want to hear the punch line more. I felt it was important for me to recreate this build, and it was with this in mind that I had the frog hop into the opening sequence to be followed by the play button that suggestively turned into a shovel.
Another element that was important to me was simplicity, both in visual images and in function. Concerning visual images: I had originally put a background in the animation, first as a drawing of grass, a lake and mountains, then as a photograph of the same. However, the bright colours made the frog disappear. I felt the contrast of the images against the white background was both more effective in the visual design, as well as for the overall simplistic intent of the animation.
Concerning simplicity of function: I wanted Do Frogs Have Spines? to be a very easy animation to follow so as to effectively tell the story. The ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ buttons are placed in the order I hope a viewer would select them for best comedic effect. Also, once the button’s responses are finished, the viewer is taken directly back to the “Do frogs have spines? Yes, No” frame. This way they aren’t interrupted in the story by having to search for the next option.
Likewise, I wanted the opening sequence to be accessible again with the idea in mind that a person would view the animation, laugh and call a friend over wanting to show it to them from the beginning. To make this option available, without overpowering the main image, I created the little fly button with its flapping wings.
For this process I redid each tutorial and referred to them throughout the process of creation. Slowly as the program became more understandable I became more adventurous with my ideas, resulting in efforts such as adding the Classic Motion Guide tween for the fly button’s entry.
However, some efforts would simply not take effect. I tried to change the ‘Play’ button- its colour and the result of down action- but neither directly editing the button or replacing it- would work. Any changes made button stop working, which was very frustrating.
Also, trying to create a tween for the shovel and frog simultaneously for the flip was very difficult. The handle of the shovel wouldn’t drop, and I was unsure of how to add two tweens to one object. Instead, I made the shovel a movie clip, and stop motioned it into position (while attempting to make the tweened frog match its movement). Though time consuming, I feel the result actually worked quite well with the rest of the animation.
The frog symbol would not shape shift into the splat, which was both disappointing and confusing.
Lastly, I did not like the sound effects I tried out. They seemed to make the whole animation too kitschy instead of simply funny. Instead I chose some fun, classic cartoon swing music. While this music matched excellently, the tutorial couldn’t help me to stop it from looping after returning to the first frame, and I couldn’t find an answer to my problem on the Internet. Some classmates tried to help as well, but none could understand why what had worked for their projects (methods they had been shown by Dwight) wouldn’t work for mine.
Overall I am happy with my resulting product, and proud of my accomplishment. All of my classmates who have seen my animation, and are essentially my target market, have had the desired reaction. I am very proud of how far I have come with this program that I once had thought I would never understand.
Acey
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