For my second assignment in DES703 I opted to work solo and produce a short story animation. I wanted to push myself and the brief further to force myself to learn the principals and complex animation techniques. My number one goal this year is to make sure I can create a well-made portfolio at the end of my degree to engage in animation related job opportunities once I graduate.
My first week was spent brainstorming my idea, designing my characters, choosing my desired medium and producing a very short storyboard to get across the story I was trying to tell. I opted to push myself in a direction I wasn't totally confident in and do 2D hand-drawn animation rather than using a rig like in my previous assignment. I often struggle with keeping my animated forms consistent in 2D animation but I also struggled with the 10th principal (Exaggeration) when I used rigs. To battle keeping consistent forms I knew I could design some very simplistic characters that I could follow and I could easily draw exaggerated expressions and poses with 2D Hand-Drawn so I made my decision.
I also made the decision to try out Procreates new animation app 'Procreate Dream'. I was really excited to see my favourite software finally dip its toes fully in animation and I knew this assignment wasn't about the aesthetics of my film and more the techniques I used so I was happy enough to try out Dream rather than using Toon Boom. However reflecting back on this decision, it wasn't the best idea. Since Dream is a brand new software it has a lot of issues and its missing quite a few features that other animating software have. I found myself having to troubleshoot a lot of different things and try and find work arounds to animating smoothly on the software. I also should of taken the opportunity to animate on Toon Boom and flesh out my skills using it since its industry standard.
DESIGN
When it came to designing my characters I immediately thought back to the 11th and 12th principals of Animation; Solid Drawing and Appeal. I went to youtube and watched both videos by Alan Becker to get a better understanding. Since I come from a design background I wasn't too worried about this but I still wanted to make sure I nailed these two principals first.
After watching these two videos I made a mental note of several different points.
Using Solid Shapes that create Appeal
Choosing Proportions to Appeal a certain personality.
Keeping it Simple for Appeal
Overlap parts to create a Solid Three Dimensional Drawing.
I wanted my characters to appeal to children so I opted to mix the proportions to have a large oversized head to allow more clear exaggerated expressions and a small body to make sure nothing was distracting the viewer from the face. This was also reminiscent of Animal Crossings use of proportions. I used simple shapes and mixed them to have a variety; rectangles, cylinders and pyramids but I made sure to make all of the shapes have rounded edges to keep that childish appeal. I enlarged the eyes and shortened the snout creating a caricature of how cats often have large eyes and small noses in comparison. Having large eyes will help me push the expressions of fear and anger easier. I overlapped things like the tail, dress, shoulders and whiskers to add a solid 3D illusion.
To ensure I would be able to keep my animated forms consistent and also keep a solid 3D appeal I made some turn around sheets that I could draw over and reference during my animation.
Story
For my story I opted to tell a funny story.
A small cat takes a walk through the woods, as she ventures deeper her flashlight stops working and is shocked to find a pair of green eyes and sharp teeth watching her from the trees.
I created some really rough storyboards and then put them through procreates animation feature. This was the first error I made which created problems. I set each storyboard to the same length. I didn't think through the timing of each shot when I turned it into an animatic. In turn, this had me taking longer to animate the shots as I had to think through the timing while I was animating rather than making those decisions during the pre-production stage.
During my feedback sessions with both Mike and Sarah we were able to come up with a few more shots that would allow the story to have more appeal and push my skillset further to attempt some more character movements and different shot angles for cinematography.
Instead of hitting the flashlight she would throw it on the ground in frustration.
Then ease forward when she hears the noise.
When she sees the creepy eyes she would jump in shock and fall back onto the flashlight resulting it in turning back on.
The light would then reflect onto her friend laughing, who was the scary face.
She would either join in and laugh or huff in frustration at her friend.
If I had a bit more time to brainstorm my idea I would've added a 'Why' which would of been, she is meeting up with her friend after getting a text from them. This would of allowed me to flesh out the start of my short, which felt quite rushed when I watched the full short at the end of the assignment (9. Timing).
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