Introduction, Synopsis, Treatment and Idea Development

PRODUCTION AIMS: 

• Create an Animatic based upon a self-written narrative that explores my own visual style, as well as focusing on themes, such as idealism, fear, anxiety among others.
• Create a broad series of developed Characters, Environments and Prop design that will drive and influence the Animation.
• Key visuals include 3 main characters, 2 main sets influenced by both western and eastern Cartoon styles, as well as real life and primary sources, to help appeal to the target audience.
• Complete all production aims within the time set due to coherent  time management and set schedule
• Investigate into how Story, Personality and Culture are defined by Visual character design

This year I intend to create a portfolio showcasing my strengths in Animation. I plan to develop and showcase my abilities in 2D Character Concepts and Design, storyboarding and my understanding of the fundamentals of Animation in order to become a desirable candidate in the creative industry. I want to create a series of characters based on one of the project ideas, listed below.

Over the summer I came up with themes to kickstart this project, that will eventually lead to a final animation at the end of the 2nd semester.


Idea 1: The Analog Kid (chosen idea)

Length: 5 mins

My first idea is the story of a little girl who dreams of one day dreams of becoming a hero, She plays with her toys during the day, and likes to play fight with imaginary opponents, The young girl then goes to sleep, where she dreams that she is a heroine saving a group of people from the baddy and his minions. Upon waking we find out one of the people she saved was her father, who is absent in the real world and is only seen in a family photo, the girl wants to be a hero so that no other child has to live without a parent.

Genre: While most of the piece deals with Fantasy Elements and Action pieces, the story also deals with loss and other darker themes, this will be balanced by the lighthearted life of a child and her ambitious dreams. This character study will show us why the girl has her particular hopes and dreams.

Structure: The piece will start off slow and washed out during the day, as the child struggles with reality. During her dream, the pace of the animation will speed up and consist of quick action and dynamic angles. The piece will slow down at the end of the piece as we learn about the sadder side of the story.

Style: Character designs and Animatic will be in 2D. Character designs will be in my own style with additional inspiration from my research. The Design elements during the beginning and the end will be Grounded and real life, whereas the dream sequence will be bright, with plenty of abstract camera angles and lighting. The visual style will be a cartoonish character, with some exaggerated features such as eyes, mouth etc, to help convey the character emotion and personality better.

Meaning: The piece is a roundabout way of visualizing loss and someone's coping mechanism to deal with it. Having a child as the main character is a good way to allow me to think outside of the box, as a child's mind is much less narrow than that of adults.

Sound: Sounds will play an important part in showcasing a character's emotion during the real world, with soundtracks created to help further how the characters are feeling. Sound effects will play a larger role in the dream sequence. The sound will be explored in the 2nd semester through outsourcing.



Animatic Style:

https://xenophoss.tumblr.com/post/176139794605/thank-you-for-watching-boruto-65-my-director



Idea 2: 4 Warriors

Length 2-5Mins

My 2nd Idea is about 4 Fantasy based warriors who are off on a quest. The characters will be based off ideas and concepts from different cultures that I have visited: for example, A Aborigines Kangaroo, A Samurai Tanooki, and so on. The main idea of this is to allow me to create really unique and quirky characters that I can build in Maya, that will be a good addition to my Portfolio.

Style: Much like the previous idea, Characters will be designed in 2D and then built in 3D, before being rendered in a high-quality animatic in 3D.

Structure: The structure of this piece is more of a character study, focusing on the way characters move, how they emote and how they express themselves, the piece will focus on them telling stories and how each acts in relation to the stories.

Sound: Voice acting will play a large role in this and with ambient background noises and music playing to immerse the viewer.




Idea 3: the Woodcutter

Length: 2-3 Mins

Idea 3: A Woodcutter is creating his latest artwork, using gracious strokes, the piece is created with dramatic flair and is fueled by his emotions

Style: This idea focuses on a character's movement will creating his latest work. Much like the previous idea the piece focuses on the character and how they express themselves, the camera will focus on the woodcutting process and how the blade moves through the wood, as well as the muscle behind the blade

Sound: Sound would be incredibly important in this piece, with music that goes with the characters movement as well as the sound effects of the wood cutting process.

Themes: Again, this would be another character study, showcasing how an artist uses emotion to create pieces of art that are more than just a print on a piece of paper.

Why idea 1?

I chose idea one for several reasons.

I felt that the first option allowed for a wider range of character design, and had more variety in the way it could be told and shot. A dream sequence would allow for some more fantastical and vibrant elements of the piece, that perhaps the other two wouldn't provide.

Also, I feel that my own style is more suited to tackling a project that target demographic is teens to young adults. Using bright colours and character with soft and exaggerated features are often enjoyed by people of this demographic.

My aims for this semester is to create a broad range of character designs using a self-written narrative. I feel that this option gives me the best opportunity to complete these aims in a satisfying manner.