Revising storyboards, thinking about how to gradually allow William's character to change and showing the arc, while thinking about how to minimise workload when it comes to animating the now-quite-long animation.
Created a short sequence to slot into the story that shows a little more of william's character and shows his gradual acceptance of another's company.
William sits down on his couch and reads his newspaper.
He peers over it, curiously.
The puppy is there, and gets excited to see him.
He quickly recovers his face with the paper, indignant.
Expression eventually changes, he sighs and folds the paper.
He motions to the puppy, who gets too excited and leaps upon him.
He is shocked and slightly hurt and so quickly pushes the puppy off him, reopening the paper.
Fade out, fade in to the puppy asleep on his lap.
Thinking about the opening sequence, a sequence in the film "Requiem for a Dream" springs to mind as being helpful to think about.
The montage that hints about their drug use without actually showing it directly is helpful to think about how to minimise animation workload while still communicating the story effectively.
The Cat Came Back is a 1988 animated film by Canadian director Cordell Barker, produced by fellow award-winning Winnipeg animatorRichard Condie.
Inspiration for the conflict between the puppy and William, although perhaps a lot less dramatic and disastrous. The concept of the cat always managing to get back inside the house, against all odds, without the man noticing, is hilarious.
Took a look at this disney film for inspiration, mainly on character development. There are so many wonderful and wacky character designs in this film that it was difficult not to be inspired. A lot of the characters personalities are shown through their relationships with each other. The villain of the story, Bowler-Hat-Guy is made the way he is through his distain towards the main character, Lewis. He himself has a strange relationship with his own hat, who controls him through superior intelligence.
'Meet Meline' by Virginie Goyons and Sebastien Laban (2009)
“Meline is a little girl who spends most of her time in her grand-parents barn, drawing. One day, a scared furry little creature gets lost in the barn. All excited about this mysterious creature, Meline will now try as hard as she can to approach it and discover it.”
Because of Meline's age, her personality is naturally very curious, and also easily pleased and easily scared. She is clumsy, but innocent, which is shown through her disregard of knocking things over, and interested in the things around her. She sniffs the air as she begins to look around for the mysterious creature. There is no hesitation of following it, only pure curiosity. She gasps loudly, her whole body freezing, at a slightest little noise. Yet when it comes to facing a dark section of the barn, she relies on a half-working torch before she will consider slowly advancing. She looks around herself, head darting here and there, and makes small whimpers. Easily you can notice the change of her mood. The contrast between childish curiosity and terrified uncertainty. Really like the motion of her furiously trying to get the torch to turn itself back on and her facial animation as she first sees the creature close up. The morphing of her emotions is beautiful. She looks almost disappinted, confused as to what she is seeing, and this changes to shocked and pleased as she notices the creature's babies. The childish innocence is really well captured, as well as stunningly represented in 3D.
Very high quality short animation with a simple story. Two aristocrats are competing for the affection of the same lady. The situation escalates and eventually gets blown completley out of proportion, to hilarious measures.
Firstly, the character designs are fantastic. Stereotypical English lord versus Pompus French lord fighting over unrealistically beautiful lady with enormous breasts. The costumes of the two men reflect directly aspects of their personality. The englishman is wearing a smart brown outfit composed of lapels and a tie. His hair is combed neatly and his moustache is long and thin. There is a huge amount of expression from his eyebrows, which are large and extruded, which shows a lot of how he is feeling through their exaggerated movements. The frenchman is dressed much more outrageously, in much brighter colours and style, with bright gold buttons. In contrast to the Englishman we can see that he spends his wealth differently, is perhaps a lot more excentric. His hair is long, tied back in a low ponytail, adding to the typical fairytale hero look. Facial wise, his nose is very large compared to the other characters', as well as his entire chin and jawline. Although this makes him look more tough, i'm sensing more that it adds to the pompus attribute. So although the two main characters are very different, in many ways they are the same. They both want the same thing, after all. Even the robots that they use to battle with are reflective of their personality. The englishman has a steampunk style industrial design whereas the frenchman has a medieval, knight-in-shining-armor look to it, with cushions.
Moving away from design and looking at character animation, we see the two sides to the men first start to show as they begin to argue over the lady. Both begin with very smart, regal auras, straightening ties, holding hand behind back as he walks. The englishman's movements quickly become very rushed and jerky as he begins to get jealous and try to fight back against the frenchman's superior charm. The frenchman never quite matches his level of speed, always staying the more calm of the two, with slower movements with larger arcs. Little things like the frenchman being able to realign his own moustache without touching it add to the humor of the story as well as the character depth.
What seems to interest me most about this animation is the differences and similarities in the two main characters. They are both lords of some wealth and power, and both desire the affection of the breasty lady, yet their designs and personalities are different enough for them to stand alone.
As an excercise, here is a list of unique traits that belong to each character: Sir Dingleberry
Skinny - design, pointy
Fumbles - says the wrong words, corrects himself
Polite - kisses hand
Smart - attire, straightens tie, Dull - colours
Childish - insults nationality and mother
Jumpy - moves quickly, hardly any inbetweens
Weak - fails to remove his glove first time, is surprised
Irritated - Has a growl to himself
Language - simple, to the point, posh
Unable to come up with comebacks
Neat - wipes mouth after tea Marquee de Manstrumpet
Built - design, rounded
Charismatic - spins chair, invites
Flashy - colours of attire
Smooth - moves in arcs, slowly, carefully
Persuasive - continues to woo lady ignoring insults for a while, eyes on her
Calm - watches as the glove is removed, barely winces at the slap
Proud - only begins to care when he notices that his moustache is affected
Language - suave, illustrated words, talks to his dog
How people interpret ideas differently. What we see may not be what you see, but then, it is up to the individual what they choose to take away from a piece of art. Everything means different things to different people, and nothing is truly random.
Last Friday I was fortunate enough to attend an animation festival hosted in Edinburgh in which I watched talks filled with useful advice about the industry i am interested in working in, as well as participating in a group excercise to get more used to the way that projects are created in the industry. The speakers were a freelancer artist, producer at axis animation and animation director at Aardman.This was a very worthwhile experience and I left feeling inspired and more knowledgeable. I was able to work on my skills in working with strangers, out of my comfort zone, as well as listening to people who were once where i am now and managed to be successful.
I really feel the animation industry is one i am destined to join, whether it be through film & animation or games. We were told to think about what we could offer a company that they don't already have with someone else, and I feel that my research project this year shall allow me to stand out as a really great animation practitioner.
Discuss what it is that inspires and interests you, and what type of creative project you would like to undertake for your honours year. Consider the work of other computer artists, designers, and musicians, as well as creative works such as animations, films, games, interactive media etc. What type of product or performance would you like to show case at the end of the honours year?
I am inspired by all forms of art, mostly film and animation, but also games, magazines and music. My specific interests are character design and animation for animated films and the product i hope to create would be a short animation showcasing a single character design with concentration on personality through movement. With this i would be able to showcase what i learned and discovered this year through showing my practise based research and its impact on my final animation project.
Career and Creative Aims
Discuss what type of career you would like to pursue, if any. For instance, you may be specifically interested in a role as a character animator or in the animation industry more broadly.
I would definatley want to work towards becoming a Character Animator, or even a junior artist. I'm willing to work on anything that is needed of me until i can get to that position, if necessary. Although my aim is to end up working on films and animation, i would definitely not dismiss employment in the games industry, as I already have a huge interest in gaming and game art.
Current Skills and Abilities
List and describe your current skills and abilities. This can include traditional art, design, and musical skills, as well as skill levels with computer packages such as 3DS Max and Photoshop.
Traditional Art and sketching, Digital Painting in photoshop, vector art in Illustrator, Concept design, 3D modelling in Autodesk Maya, 2D animation in Flash, hand-drawn animation, 3D animation
Skill Gaps
Following on from the previous section, list and describe the skills and abilities you would like to acquire and/or develop.
I would love to develop my skills in Sculpting in Zbrush/mudbox, Texturing, Rigging and Skinning faster, as well getting my animation skills to the highest standard!
Characters that act the opposite to their appearance and it's expectations.
A theme in the characters i have been looking at seems to be that most of them are animals. We all have certain animals we believe are the scariest/cutest in the animal kingdom, so to see those expectations reversed is quite a strong contrast.
