Applied Animation - Week 2

All 3 of us had decided to base our Animated Documentary on a middle-class male character who visits a suburban area and exploits the homeless in the process of various acts in order to make himself appear like a better person. We got this idea after discussing a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly popular where people film themselves giving homeless people food and water in order to make themselves out to be amazing people. Tragic.

I decided to do my own initial research into the subjects and ideas we discussed. We agreed as a group to have an animation that consisted of different mediums and various animation techniques such as rotor-scoping and hand-drawn animation. We also discussed maybe having live-action backgrounds with our character hand drawn over the top. I discovered a rotor-scoped film called A Scanner Darkly. Even though it's a nice piece of rotor-scoping, it seemed a bit too detailed and intense for what we are imagining.  

I also decided to research into some animated shorts that had the sketchy vibe that we were looking for.

365 - One Year, One Film, One Second a Day

Even though this is a trailer, I feel like it successfully captures the aesthetic that we are aiming for. It has a sketchy vibe to it and also consists of a short interview. I showed this to the group and we all agreed that it will be something to refer back to when we start deciding on what style we want.

Here I made a few notes of the discussion our group had about different scenarios as well as certain inspirations we want to include. We discussed inspiration for our main character, and we all suggested Alan Partridge as main comedic inspiration. we also discussed watching tv shows like The Office and other mockumentary type TV shows in order to understand and try to capture the same sort of vibe.

We briefly discussed scenarios that our character could be in. Our constant goal is to create a comical character that brings to light how certain people can come across as ...

After mulling over the initial ideas and scenarios that we discussed, we all decided to split up and do our own initial thumbnails and create some quick visuals to try and shape our concept. I sketched an image of our main character in a heavy duty police training dog outfit, interviewing a homeless person. Our aim is to portray him in a witty but dramatic way, putting him in situations that he's not used to and dramatising the precautions he takes.

Initial Sketches.

In an attempt to develop our idea, we all decided to individually sketch out our ideas. Tess created some dynamic and interesting initial character sketches which we all felt captured our character. The significant sketch in the bottom right corner is what we all agreed to work from as we felt is captured our upper-class, middle-aged character well.

As a group we came to the agreement that having significant features such as ridiculous eyebrows, double chin and perfectly curled but thin hair. We discussed how we liked having an outline of his head with the hair layered over the top in order to capture his lack of hair. 

Here, I decided to take notes while we discussed our inspirations for the character design. We decided on a large crooked nose, much like Stephen fry. We also discussed how Matt Berry would be a good inspiration as he has this ridiculous and entitled attitude with his physical appearance to match. I decided to make notes about him having long and ridiculous shoes. We decided to keep his outfit simple with a suit and cravat as a base to later develop whilst we figure out his main features.

Tess created this drawing of our character which sparked an idea where in long distance shots he would appear small and round, but in closer shots he would appear more detailed and have a longer shape to him. 

I decided to create some quick sketches where I focused on developing his look without further research into the style we want to create for the final animation. I felt like I needed to develop his look with originality and off our own notes without taking too much inspiration from what is already out there.

Here, me and Tess discussed briefly how he would walk which brought us onto the idea that he would have ridiculously chiselled calves as he won an award for best calves in 1987. 

We also discussed how our character could have a lazy eye that becomes apparent when he's bored. We thought it could be a good idea to have him interview someone and while they're speaking, his eye just slowly drifts away.

I decided to create some quick and initial designs for his nose, as well as a couple of key poses to see if his appearance would coincide with his ridiculous nature.

I decided to alternate between creating sketches of just his face as well as full-bodied images because I felt like I would find it difficult to marry the too angles together considering we want him to be round and stumpy but also have sloped shoulders and a fairly long face.

As a group it was decided that I should continue to work on the character design and for Jay and Tess to work on backgrounds and thumbnails.

I decided that my next step would be to create a brief mood board that depicted visual elements that we had all decided on.

I decided to add a few pin-up girl images for when it comes to drawing the character in certain positions because we want him to be a ridiculous and dynamic character that strikes ridiculous poses.

I decided to create a mood board that consisted of different patterns that I could later use for his suit. Tess introduced me to the masking tool on Photoshop which will be something I will experiment with when I  develop his look further.

Name generation

We decided to try and generate some names for our character in an attempt for him to take shape. We decided after a long discussion that he would be called Lorde Kieth.

Further Character Development

We created a character background sheet in order for us to continue our development process as well as a list of scenarios that we eventually narrowed down.

To make our animation more of a documentary, we decided to have some facts that would either pop up throughout our animation but also in a documentary-type nature, there will be establishing shots where Kieth would talk over.

Further Development.

I decided to attempt to draw Kieth in various positions in order to develop his image. I constantly referred to my notes that my group made about his large, crooked nose as well as his sharp calves. I had an idea that from a front on perspective his mouth would appear normal, but from the side his mouth would be a pout. I want his sense of entitlement to ooze out of him, whether it be his posture or strut.

A concept of ours is to have Kieth carry round a spray water bottle that he would us if people on the street got too close to him, almost as if he is training a dog.

It was discussed that Kieth would have a bad gag reflex, so I tried to draw him spluttering at a certain smell.

His small hands, large nose and ridiculous eyebrows are something we want to keep, but figuring out his head size to his body weight is proving to be difficult at this stage. 

I decided to add some colour and shading using oil pastels. I feel like I'm getting there with his body shape as well as his ridiculous attire. Hair colour is something that is proving to be difficult as I'm unsure whether his hair and eyebrows should match. As a group we decided to have him wear a tail coat and have his perky bottom poking through the gap in the middle.

Overall, I feel as though this week has been successful and I am happy with the direction our group efforts are heading. My next step in developing Lorde Kieth is to continue varying his design until we are all happy with his look.

Applied Animation - week 1

After the module briefing, I decided to create small mind maps on the topics in hopes of coming up with an idea or concept to focus on until I found a group to discuss my ideas with. 

The four topics where:

Sustainability, Science, History, Politics.

I googled sustainability because I had no clue what it meant. The name speaks for itself. I couldn't think of anything for this topic.

I decided to research into the different types of sciences. I was drawn to social science which is the study of people. I feel like this could be a good topic to explore, because I feel like it isn't a really serious topic and I could have some fun with it. I don't want to make a serious animated documentary.

I thought that if I was to choose history as my main theme that it could either go down the more informative and serious route or a sort of horrible history-type of documentary, which has been done before. I don't really know much about politics but I know that if I was to try and be funny with the topic that it could be taken the wrong way.

I decided after this brief research to go back and evaluate the kind of animation techniques I haven't tried yet. I want to focus more on hand drawn and practical animation that has a comical and silly vibe. 

After a few days of failing to find people to work with, Jay and Tess finally asked if I wanted to be a part of their group. They had a few ideas already thought up, but they weren't well-rounded and were brief concepts. They told me of a couple of animations that they wanted to take inspiration from, and after watching them I understood that we were all on the same page with what humour we wanted to aim for as well as what kind of animation we all wanted to try.

The Chaperone 3D

Mr Madila

These two animations were seen by Tess and Jay when they went to Manchester Animation Festival. I feel like these two animations are a great bases for inspiration because of how much they stand out. The Chaperone 3D uses a variety of mediums and techniques to capture the narrative. I like the rotor-scoped, sketchy and rough imagery used as well as the live-action and stop motion scenes that break up the animation, but still allow the narrative to be the main focal point.

Mr Madila has a certain level of comedy that all 3 of us are drawn to. The way that the portrayal of the main character is done doesn't take away from the topic of the animation. The whole animation has a witty but humble vibe to it. It doesn't ridicule Mr Madila, but it highlights how silly it all is.

All 3 of us sat and discussed the ideas that they had thought up. The first idea was about children, and people acting as if they're pointless and an inconvenience. There would be facts about them that wouldn't make sense but would be funny e.g "100% of children are unemployed". we played around with this idea but felt at times the scenarios would be cruel instead of funny. We all have a relatively similar sense of humour, but we want our animation to be a mockumentary but not to victimise and ridicule. We discussed the idea of basing the animation around a medium, but we felt like it could be difficult to get an interview with a medium and also it could cause controversy. We also agreed that it could be too similar to the animation Mr Madila.

We decided to create a brief time table of the next 3 weeks in order to organise our idea generation and also the beginning stages of pre-production. We hadn't finalised an idea at this point, so we gave ourselves Friday to work towards coming up with our final idea. We also decided to create a couple of mood boards or individual research so we were all on the same page when it comes to the designs and also the level of humour we were aiming for. 

Overall I feel as though our thoughts are on the same level, as well as all of us having our individual aesthetics that can be utilised to compliment each other.