Mouse Metamorphosis SWOT analysis

Metamorphosis: 

Whilst in college, we were assigned a task to introduce us to the process of morphing an animal into a machine. This was something I was very excited about as I have always loved the idea of metamorphosis. My initial ideas for a metamorphoses consisted mostly of small animals. This was because I wanted to focus on my animation itself and the process that the animal would undergo to morph into a piece of machinery. By choosing a small, compact animal I would be able to work with short limbs and this also gave me ideas about what I could morph the animal into.

I thought about a snake turning into a hosepipe, as well as turning a snail into a lightbulb but in the end I decided to morph a mouse into a computer mouse. I chose this because the morph itself would offer an interesting transition from animal to object, for example I designed it so that the mouses ears would fold down over it's face to form buttons while it's nose moved up between it's ears to form into the middle button.

in addition, the mouses tail resembled the computer mouses cord. What made it more interesting was that the computer mouses cord was attached at the front of the PC mouse whereas the tail of a mouse is obviously at the other end of its body. This meant I could shrink the tail and make it appear as if it was going through it's body and out through it's mouth.

Evaluation: I was pleased with the outcome of the metamorphosis but if I had to make changes I would concentrate mostly on the movement of the head as it changed. I would also perhaps show the animal struggling halfway through the transformation, almost as if it had become stuck in it's hybrid state temporarily before continuing to morph completely.

There are a lot of ways to portray metamorphosis and it looks like an uncomfortable process (Werewolf transformations are a famous example) I could have used this idea by making the mouse expand or become a boneless lump before being sucked back into it's new appearance or maybe it would cease it's walk cycle and move unnaturally before assuming another shape. 

Strengths- I had become more accustomed to animating in photoshop at this point which made the process easier. I also planned out my metamorphosis thoroughly before attempting to colour or outline the pencil drawing frames.

Weaknesses- Time management, it was an exceptionally time consuming process to both draw and colour the transformation and so I sometimes got behind schedule.

Opportunities- One of my first ever animations was made successfully and so I have gained confidence in myself and my abilities to use Photoshop as mor ethan just a painting programme. 

Threats- Unless the metamorphosis was planned out from start to finish beforehand then it would have been so difficult to interpret the mouses movement.