STORY PROJECT 2 - HALVES
For this assignment, we were
established into groups of two persons and we were tasked with developing a
story for a one minute animatic. Based on a series of loglines created by my
partner and myself, we chose our favourite with enough potential for a short animatic.
From there, we created a clear narrative by creating a beatboard, script,
character designs, storyboard, and then finally an animatic.
Our chosen story is about a small, confused sock who becomes unfortunately separated from her partner sock during a human’s accidental rush out the door. Dazed from her terrible tumble down the pile of laundry where they once rested, Left finds herself among the winding mess of the bedroom floor which she must learn to navigate if she wants to ever see her partner again. Aided by another lonely sock, Left must venture through the mess of the bedroom to once again be reunited with her other half.
The main problem
faced with the overall animatic in my opinion, which also stemmed from the
storyboard, was the timing of the frames themselves and the general flow of the
story. The story we chose based on my partner’s logline and my original
beatboard script seemed to simplify the overall story which made reaching the one-minute
mark a much more arduous task due in part to the limited amount of communication
which was hindered by our differences in schedules and individual workloads. We
overcame this through the timing of each panel, which was manipulated with the
help of music and sound choice so that the panels didn’t feel too long or
short. With the addition of many added sounds and effects under the overall slower
music playing as the ambient sound, this allowed us to establish a general
story flow to match the limited number of panels for our short story and convey
the story easier without making it feel lacking.
The story itself held
little problems during development. Out of all the loglines, the one that
sounded the most appealing was the lost sock idea which I believed we could
make into a charming little story. From there, creating the initial beatboard
layout and script came relatively easy as the plot of the story was simple and
had no dialogue to worry about. Unfortunately, this simplicity did hinder the potential
to reach the one-minute mark but was overcome with the help of good ambient sound
and strong effect noises.
STORY PROJECT 1 - KINTSUGI
For this assignment, we were instructed to come up with a no dialogue one-minute animation story that did not involve humans or animals. We were tasked with creating the story based on a series of logline pitches which were then critiqued by other members of the class and then to develop the story by creating a clear narrative by writing a script, creating various character designs, a final character model sheet, beat board, storyboard, and finally an animatic which would include public domain music and sounds that would add to the overall animation and story.
My story is about a timid little teacup who is broken in an unfortunate accident. Wanting to piece herself back together, she must find her missing pieces that have scattered across the room. With the help of an unlikely friend, she can piece herself back together and discover what being whole means to her.
I encountered very few issues while putting together my animatic other than simply looking for a song which would both fit the mood and rhythm of my animatic while also being free to use and the issue involving the movement of certain pieces within the animation. For those moments where I wanted the character to show the motion which was displayed in the scene, I regretted merging all the parts together when I initially drew out the storyboard immediately. Instead of having the ease to move things around, I had to cut and paste to a new layer the figures I wanted to have move which then created these obvious cut edges and overlapping opacity in the tones that gives away what I had to do to make it work. As for the music, I was lucky enough that there was a radio station on youtube that I regularly listen to which provides free to use music and after browsing several videos, I found one which I found would fit the tempo nicely.
For the storyboard itself the only issue I faced was that as I started to get into the story following the script I had written, I began to realize that I was detailing out too much of the story which was going to make for an animation that would be much longer than the assignment parameters. It is because of this that I ended up sort of condensing the last handful of shots into more manageable and still clear to understand frames which would be able to keep the same tempo of the story while not over burdening the duration I was allotted.
The toughest challenge I have with beatboards is that I’m always unsure as to which parts of the story should and shouldn’t go into the board as a whole. For this assignment, I tried my best to only include the parts of the story which could effectively summarize the narrative and mood I was trying to convey in a clear and concise way. My way of deciding what to put was to ask myself during the whole process what are the main parts of the narrative that can summarize the whole animation with broad imagery. This really helped me to create the beat board as I was able to think of the major aspects of my story and condense them down enough to still make sense visually and convey the mood and theme I was trying to achieve.
For the character sheet, there was already rather clear imagery I had in my head about how I wanted the main character, Tea Cup, to look. I wanted her to have a small wide-eyed sort of appearance to make her timid and fearful nature prominent while also creating a visually pleasing design out of a broken cup design. Figuring out the style I wanted to go with for her overall design was a tricky decision since I wanted something that would be both visually appealing while also being simple enough for me to convey into both boards and the eventual animatic. After a few hours browsing online, I found some simple style designs for the character which held the same sort of visual cues I wanted for my character (i.e. slender limbs and bug eyes) and once I had some references to work off of, it was easy to finish off her design.
I had a hard time starting the project as a whole only because my biggest issue to overcome was the lack of dialogue which would occur in the story and the lack of humans or animals which was required. Having not been particularly inspired by any object ideas, there was a feeling of trepidation which I had to overcome first before I could actually start coming up with anything at all. After spending a lot of time browsing online for inspiration regarding objects and common narratives explored in short animations, it wasn't until I stopped thinking about it so hard that I finally came up with a few handfuls of ideas based solely on items I had around my room. This led to me eventually enjoying the idea of designing a story around a broken teacup as I remembered the Japanese practice of Kintsugi, where they take gold and silver resin and put together broken pottery and believe that the break is just as much a part of the pottery as the whole design is. This concept fascinated me and I was very excited for the opportunity to explore the idea with my own take.
For the storyboard itself the only issue I faced was that as I started to get into the story following the script I had written, I began to realize that I was detailing out too much of the story which was going to make for an animation that would be much longer than the assignment parameters. It is because of this that I ended up sort of condensing the last handful of shots into more manageable and still clear to understand frames which would be able to keep the same tempo of the story while not over burdening the duration I was allotted.
The toughest challenge I have with beatboards is that I’m always unsure as to which parts of the story should and shouldn’t go into the board as a whole. For this assignment, I tried my best to only include the parts of the story which could effectively summarize the narrative and mood I was trying to convey in a clear and concise way. My way of deciding what to put was to ask myself during the whole process what are the main parts of the narrative that can summarize the whole animation with broad imagery. This really helped me to create the beat board as I was able to think of the major aspects of my story and condense them down enough to still make sense visually and convey the mood and theme I was trying to achieve.
For the character sheet, there was already rather clear imagery I had in my head about how I wanted the main character, Tea Cup, to look. I wanted her to have a small wide-eyed sort of appearance to make her timid and fearful nature prominent while also creating a visually pleasing design out of a broken cup design. Figuring out the style I wanted to go with for her overall design was a tricky decision since I wanted something that would be both visually appealing while also being simple enough for me to convey into both boards and the eventual animatic. After a few hours browsing online, I found some simple style designs for the character which held the same sort of visual cues I wanted for my character (i.e. slender limbs and bug eyes) and once I had some references to work off of, it was easy to finish off her design.I had a hard time starting the project as a whole only because my biggest issue to overcome was the lack of dialogue which would occur in the story and the lack of humans or animals which was required. Having not been particularly inspired by any object ideas, there was a feeling of trepidation which I had to overcome first before I could actually start coming up with anything at all. After spending a lot of time browsing online for inspiration regarding objects and common narratives explored in short animations, it wasn't until I stopped thinking about it so hard that I finally came up with a few handfuls of ideas based solely on items I had around my room. This led to me eventually enjoying the idea of designing a story around a broken teacup as I remembered the Japanese practice of Kintsugi, where they take gold and silver resin and put together broken pottery and believe that the break is just as much a part of the pottery as the whole design is. This concept fascinated me and I was very excited for the opportunity to explore the idea with my own take.
