During the production of my graduation film, I not only improved my animation skills, but also experienced what it was like to complete a larger stop-motion project independently for the first time. Compared to my previous projects, this film required me to manage many different tasks at the same time, including animation, communication, sound, and post-production. I also needed to follow my own production schedule and keep the whole project moving forward.
For this project, I completed almost all parts of the production by myself, including character design, set design, puppet making, animation, and post-production. I continued using clay stop-motion with a multi-plane and down-shot setup because I wanted to further develop the visual style I explored in my earlier work. During filming, I also became more confident using animation principles to create smoother movement and better timing.
Besides the animation itself, I became much more involved in other parts of the production process. For example, I contacted a composer myself to create original music for the film. During this process, I needed to communicate about timing and make changes to the animatic so the music could match the character performance and rhythm of the film better. I also recorded and created some of the sound effects by myself, which helped me understand how important sound is in character animation.
In addition, I independently contacted a voice actor and organised the recording process. This experience helped me improve my communication and project management skills. During post-production, I used After Effects to clean up and edit the animation. Some shots needed frame-by-frame retouching to remove dirt, rigs, or unwanted marks from filming. Although this process was very time-consuming, it helped me understand the importance of post-production in stop-motion animation.
At the same time, I realised that completing an animation project independently is not only about technical skills, but also about organisation and time management. During production, I had to balance animation, sound design, music communication, post-production, and essay writing at the same time. To keep everything on schedule, I created my own timeline and adjusted it when necessary. This experience taught me how to work under pressure and manage a full animation workflow more independently.
Through this graduation project, I not only improved my stop-motion and character animation skills, but also became more confident in my ability to complete a full animation project by myself. From the early idea development to filming, communication, and post-production, this experience made me feel closer to becoming a professional animator in the future.
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