I think that for me making the story is the hardest part of the production pipeline and getting your audience to engage with the characters too is important. I want to create an animation that my target audience can relate to, my aim is to create empathy and sympathy for my target audience as I want to get a feeling and a reaction from them. My target audience is both adults and children as they will both find the animation appealing. After looking at my storyboards my tutor and I agreed that this story would be most benificial as it is universal, another reason to why I chose this story was because I want to make the animation with no dialog so that it could be understood by all languages. The story is quite simple but it gives me the opportunity to allow my characters to tell the story through facial expression and body language; as character building and animation is my favourite area of CG animation. After going to the Edd Hooks master class I learned quite alot about projecting a character and how to use them to relate to the audience. It's more about the power centre of the character, the body structure can tell so much about a character. I think that alot of my target audience will symaphise with my main character but some will have empathy as they would relate to him. We all know how it feels to be a child and to have no control over a situation. I wasn't at all sure what to do for my final project as I wanted to create an animation to the best of my potential but the advice I had from my tutors was to create something that is personal and something that I can relate to. This is the animatic to my storyboard that I came up with thinking about my childhood; as a child my mother was quite strict so I used her influence in my animation... but exaggerated. I want the audience to feel for the child so I took away his objective by having his mother giving him endless jobs in the garden whilst he wants to go and play with his ball (conflict with situation). I thought about a hobby for the boy and what toy he would have a love for, I know that a ball has been used alot but it is a toy that almost every child has, or if not a ball something in replace of a ball ie stone, empty can etc. The story was fine but their needed to be an objective for the mother... why did she want all the jobs doing in the garden? I decided to use a garden competition for the reason of the mother wanting the garden looking nice. I will show the neighbours gardens first looking lovely and colourful but then we see a contrast as the camera pans to their scruffy overgrown garden. As the camera pans into the house we see a wall of photo's showing the mother and son; this will give the impression of a single parent and that is why the garden is so over grown.... it's too much work for her. So her only help around the house is her young child; that is a little how it was in my childhood, as a single parent my mother did all of the house work but we would help her in the garden, weeding, mowing the lawn, brushing up leaves etc. Single parents will relate to the mother and will emphasise with her as they know how it feels to be on their own. At the same time they will emphasise with the boy as they too have been a child and will know how it feels to have no control over a situation.
After speaking to my tutor and class mates today, we talked a little about the look of the animation, I need to alter some of my props, having wall paper pealing off the walls, perhaps a cluttereed house and also furniture standing outside the front of the house, this will also give the impression that the mother has no time to do the work around the house... perhaps because she is working to earn money to live and survive... what we all have to do; although children don't understand this and to them a mother who gives them jobs to do around the house is mean. As a child I did understand that my mum was on her own and although I wanted to go and play I would help her. I really want the look of this animation to be right and give the right impression to the audience, the problem I am having is time is running out.... but as part of the module we have the opportunity to have the 2nd years working with us on our films; which is great as they have also given me some visual idea's :)
This animatic is a little long and i'd like to squash it down atleast a minute. My tutor and class mates are going to have a look at this animatic and after having feedback I hope to have a shorter finalised animatic. Instead of the ball staying on the lawn mower I will cut out the ball bouncing on the flowers and instead have the ball bouncing from the lawn mower.... the camera will cut to the lawn mower going through the fence and back to the ball as it rolls to his mother feet... camera pans up to her looking angry. It's hard which area's to cut out as I do feel it is slightly too long. I have tried to make it so that it flows and with out the actions you wouldn't get the emotion. I am thinking of cutting out the shed part... but with out the heavy jobs his mother wouldn't feel the guilt. The ending is where she has a change of heart and surrenders to her son, weighing up her options to either give her son another job or to give him his ball so that he can go and play... she passes him his ball. Giving her son an even better reward (her playing football with him) we soon see a change of heart in her son when he see's their neighbours gardens looking flourishing and colourful.... again him weighing up his options we are revealed that he has also had a change of heart, not only helping his mother but having a big input on the way it looks, he uses his passion and influence of his main objective by persuing his mothers objective. Together they create a unique garden inspired by a football.
I have had to split my animatic up into parts..
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Work Experience
As well as planning and developing my final project I have also been given the oportunity to go and have some work experience working on the Sikh channel. We have currently been creating the backgrounds and props to use on the childrens animation. At the moment we are at an early stage and our lead animator Jorawar is putting the pilot together. If the animation gets the big thumbs up that would be great but I am happy working in the team as I am getting an idea of how we would work in the animation industry.
These are the props that I created in the style of Alice in Wonderland
background
more Waybuloo style
We were told to create some props or backgrounds for the animation. After it was decided that the main boss wanted a realistic looking enviroment.. unfortunatley texturing isn't my best area at the moment so I need to get some practice with this.
These are the props that I created in the style of Alice in Wonderland
background
more Waybuloo style
We were told to create some props or backgrounds for the animation. After it was decided that the main boss wanted a realistic looking enviroment.. unfortunatley texturing isn't my best area at the moment so I need to get some practice with this.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
FESTIVAL PLANNING- POSH CARTOONS
For this years end of year show we are arranging our own animation festival. The venue has been chosen and booked for the 11th June- 00:00 - 23:55.
The festival is taking place at the Old Joint Stock in Birmingham; which will be a good venue as we can have a social drink and downstairs and then have our films showcased upstairs in the theatre. We have a face book group which I will invite family and friends, but we also need animators/artists at the festival so that we can network. This would be a great opportunity as I need to get myself out there. I have recently signed up to a few CG forums where I will post my work and will recieve feedback from other animators/3d artists. As I get to know people and chat to them I will mention our animation festival and perhaps they may want to come and see.
In the mean time I will add my working developements for this final project which will be shown at our festival. We also need for this festival:
- a logo
- a leaflet/banner/advertisement to promote the festival
- perhaps a website for the festival aswell as a facebook page
- an Ident to play at the beginning of the student films
The festival is taking place at the Old Joint Stock in Birmingham; which will be a good venue as we can have a social drink and downstairs and then have our films showcased upstairs in the theatre. We have a face book group which I will invite family and friends, but we also need animators/artists at the festival so that we can network. This would be a great opportunity as I need to get myself out there. I have recently signed up to a few CG forums where I will post my work and will recieve feedback from other animators/3d artists. As I get to know people and chat to them I will mention our animation festival and perhaps they may want to come and see.
In the mean time I will add my working developements for this final project which will be shown at our festival. We also need for this festival:
- a logo
- a leaflet/banner/advertisement to promote the festival
- perhaps a website for the festival aswell as a facebook page
- an Ident to play at the beginning of the student films
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
new idea- The child
Rough idea
The scene opens up and we see a screw driver digging out the weeds in between the slabs of a concrete floor. As the camera pans up we see a young child looking quite misserable as he looks up to the sound of childrens laughter as they play on the street. The camera then cuts to the children playing.
The camera then cuts back to the child as he looks at his mum and points to the children playing on the street. We see his mum in the background with folded arms and a stern look on her face nodding her head from side to side. We then see the childs face as he looks sad. The camera cuts to the child cleaning the windows, again with the children in the background playing. The childs face again looks sad as he glances at the happy children. The childs mum comes to the window and the boy points at the children to go and play, again the mum nodding her head... no. We'll then see cut scenes as we see the child doing more jobs for his mum, his mum over his shoulder making sure he is doing his jobs right. We see the boy giving his mum a sad expression hoping for her to feel guilt but has no success. fade to black
The scene opens up with an over view of the child and his mum in the garden, we then see a close up of the mum as she holds out a hammer and points to her side. The camera cuts to a huge pile of wood and then back to the mum as we see her hand an instruction manual for a shed. We then see the childs shocked face as he glances at the manual and then back to the wood. The scene cuts to a hammer hammering nails, then we see a long shot of the child building a shed. As he builds the shed we see a change in the background as the sun sets and the moon pops up showing the passing of time. fade to black
The sun rises as we see the boy finishing off the shed; nailing the felt on the top. The boy turns to look at the children playing on the street (children laughing in background) but this time we see a happy expression as the boy hammers in the last nail. Jumping down the ladder the boy again points at the children playing and yet again his mum nodds no. The camera cuts back to the child as he points at the finished shed. We then see the mum holding out a brush and pointing to her side. Camera cuts to hundreds of leaves scattered on the floor and then back to the boys face as he looks sad. As the boy gazes at the children playing on the street we see his mother in the background putting some tools in the new shed. We see the boy looking at his mother in anger and the his expression changes as he comes up with an idea.
The camera cuts to a front view of his mother as she hangs her tools up in the shed, the camera facing out of the shed. We then see as the boys pearing into the shed at his mother with a cunning grin slams the door (we hear him locking the door and nailing it shut) as his mum shouts at him through the door.
The camera then cuts back to the boy as he finishes nailing on strips of wood over the door. As he finishes we see his guilty face but as he turns around to see the children playing his expression changes to a big grin and runs off to play with the children. The camera cuts to a behind view of him as he runs away towards the children.
Objective- to go and play with his friends
Obsticle- his mother won't let him until he finishes off his jobs- conflict with the situation
Action- finishing off his jobs
How will my target audience relate to my main character?
My target audience will emphasize with my main character as we have all been children and know how it feels to have no control over a situation between your self and a parent. We know how it feels to want to do something but can't.
I am going to give this story board some treatment as i'm not sure if it's quite there yet, I am perhaps hanging around too much on the same objective, as Ed Hooks stated "don't hang the audiences heads there, you don't want to loose their attention" maybe I need to start off with a new objective but can't achieve that as he has to do his jobs first, or maybe have a different obsticle too.
As my Film will have no dialog I have been lookig at Charlie chaplin to get a good idea of how to project my characters body language, I must make it so that it is obvious to what I am trying to comunicate to my target audience. Charlie's face expressions tell alot about his feelings and emotions; I need to make the expressions obvious too. By also having music to reflect my animation will also help with the feeling of it and will help me to achieve getting what I want from the audience; empathy and sympathy.
The scene opens up and we see a screw driver digging out the weeds in between the slabs of a concrete floor. As the camera pans up we see a young child looking quite misserable as he looks up to the sound of childrens laughter as they play on the street. The camera then cuts to the children playing.
The camera then cuts back to the child as he looks at his mum and points to the children playing on the street. We see his mum in the background with folded arms and a stern look on her face nodding her head from side to side. We then see the childs face as he looks sad. The camera cuts to the child cleaning the windows, again with the children in the background playing. The childs face again looks sad as he glances at the happy children. The childs mum comes to the window and the boy points at the children to go and play, again the mum nodding her head... no. We'll then see cut scenes as we see the child doing more jobs for his mum, his mum over his shoulder making sure he is doing his jobs right. We see the boy giving his mum a sad expression hoping for her to feel guilt but has no success. fade to black
The scene opens up with an over view of the child and his mum in the garden, we then see a close up of the mum as she holds out a hammer and points to her side. The camera cuts to a huge pile of wood and then back to the mum as we see her hand an instruction manual for a shed. We then see the childs shocked face as he glances at the manual and then back to the wood. The scene cuts to a hammer hammering nails, then we see a long shot of the child building a shed. As he builds the shed we see a change in the background as the sun sets and the moon pops up showing the passing of time. fade to black
The sun rises as we see the boy finishing off the shed; nailing the felt on the top. The boy turns to look at the children playing on the street (children laughing in background) but this time we see a happy expression as the boy hammers in the last nail. Jumping down the ladder the boy again points at the children playing and yet again his mum nodds no. The camera cuts back to the child as he points at the finished shed. We then see the mum holding out a brush and pointing to her side. Camera cuts to hundreds of leaves scattered on the floor and then back to the boys face as he looks sad. As the boy gazes at the children playing on the street we see his mother in the background putting some tools in the new shed. We see the boy looking at his mother in anger and the his expression changes as he comes up with an idea.
The camera cuts to a front view of his mother as she hangs her tools up in the shed, the camera facing out of the shed. We then see as the boys pearing into the shed at his mother with a cunning grin slams the door (we hear him locking the door and nailing it shut) as his mum shouts at him through the door.
The camera then cuts back to the boy as he finishes nailing on strips of wood over the door. As he finishes we see his guilty face but as he turns around to see the children playing his expression changes to a big grin and runs off to play with the children. The camera cuts to a behind view of him as he runs away towards the children.
Objective- to go and play with his friends
Obsticle- his mother won't let him until he finishes off his jobs- conflict with the situation
Action- finishing off his jobs
How will my target audience relate to my main character?
My target audience will emphasize with my main character as we have all been children and know how it feels to have no control over a situation between your self and a parent. We know how it feels to want to do something but can't.
I am going to give this story board some treatment as i'm not sure if it's quite there yet, I am perhaps hanging around too much on the same objective, as Ed Hooks stated "don't hang the audiences heads there, you don't want to loose their attention" maybe I need to start off with a new objective but can't achieve that as he has to do his jobs first, or maybe have a different obsticle too.
As my Film will have no dialog I have been lookig at Charlie chaplin to get a good idea of how to project my characters body language, I must make it so that it is obvious to what I am trying to comunicate to my target audience. Charlie's face expressions tell alot about his feelings and emotions; I need to make the expressions obvious too. By also having music to reflect my animation will also help with the feeling of it and will help me to achieve getting what I want from the audience; empathy and sympathy.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Story board
I have finally decided on my story board and I think that I do have quite a good story. I have given my main character a hobby (painting) and by doing this I was able to come up with a story board.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Research and inspiration- Kiwi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs
This is another short animation that I really like, the concept of it being a wingless bird that would take his life just for the chance to fly that one time :( The animation begins showing us Kiwi nailing tree's to the side of a cliff, at first it seems a little odd but the humorous body language of Kiwi; pulling out a hammer and nails from his back and nailing the tree to the cliff using his feet to hammer the nails, makes us think that something positive will become of this, only to Kiwi is it positive as he eagily finishes nailing all of the tree's to the side of the cliff. Seeing a long shot of the tree's nailed on the side of the cliff, this is where we begin to realise that this is odd and begin to question it even more. The next step is Kiwi putting on his goggles and jumping off the cliff, the camera is facing up right so that the tree's are still on their side, but then the camera (whilst Kiwi is in mid air) rotates showing the tree's standing as though they are up right and Kiwi is flying through the air. At this point soft chiming music begins and a tear falls from Kiwi's eye. This is where we really feel for Kiwi as we realise that he went through all of that trouble for one chance to fly and risks his life for that chance.
The thing that I like about this short animation is the change of story and also change of mood, it switches from humorous to upsetting and from the start to finish our minds are puzzling what is going on "what is he trying to make?" "what is this for?" and then as he jumps "why?" until the camera rotates and then I think it is here that we realise why he has jumped. I feel that this is an emotional animation and although we know that this is a nonsence character and a made up story line; there are people that do feel this way in simular situations. I think that this animation really does reflect the way we feel, we want to achieve all that we can and sometimes to get that there are sacrifices; although in Kiwi's situation it is something that birds should be allowed to do, because of this he feels useless and he wants to know how it feels to fly like a bird.
This is another short animation that I really like, the concept of it being a wingless bird that would take his life just for the chance to fly that one time :( The animation begins showing us Kiwi nailing tree's to the side of a cliff, at first it seems a little odd but the humorous body language of Kiwi; pulling out a hammer and nails from his back and nailing the tree to the cliff using his feet to hammer the nails, makes us think that something positive will become of this, only to Kiwi is it positive as he eagily finishes nailing all of the tree's to the side of the cliff. Seeing a long shot of the tree's nailed on the side of the cliff, this is where we begin to realise that this is odd and begin to question it even more. The next step is Kiwi putting on his goggles and jumping off the cliff, the camera is facing up right so that the tree's are still on their side, but then the camera (whilst Kiwi is in mid air) rotates showing the tree's standing as though they are up right and Kiwi is flying through the air. At this point soft chiming music begins and a tear falls from Kiwi's eye. This is where we really feel for Kiwi as we realise that he went through all of that trouble for one chance to fly and risks his life for that chance.
The thing that I like about this short animation is the change of story and also change of mood, it switches from humorous to upsetting and from the start to finish our minds are puzzling what is going on "what is he trying to make?" "what is this for?" and then as he jumps "why?" until the camera rotates and then I think it is here that we realise why he has jumped. I feel that this is an emotional animation and although we know that this is a nonsence character and a made up story line; there are people that do feel this way in simular situations. I think that this animation really does reflect the way we feel, we want to achieve all that we can and sometimes to get that there are sacrifices; although in Kiwi's situation it is something that birds should be allowed to do, because of this he feels useless and he wants to know how it feels to fly like a bird.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)