Explorer Project
The objective of the 'Explorer Project' was for us to undergo the process of producing an Animation in the same way as our previous Animation project, but this time in three weeks and without tutor-given mini briefs. We would need to plan, organise, develop and produce the Animation independently.
We were however allowed to work in small teams, so me and my friend Charli teamed up and set to work mindmapping ideas for
our project. Throughout the course of the project we worked together but divided the work between us.
our project. Throughout the course of the project we worked together but divided the work between us.
Ideas & Concepts
Initial brainstorming & mindmaps
Characters
Our Animation would feature two characters - a boy and a girl, aged around 11 as to be a suitable age for both using a trampoline and be complaining about parents, which is the general gist of the conversation that they will be having over the hedge.
Me and Charli tossed a few names around, running through the alphabet and picking the first names that came into our heads. In case they call eachother by name in the Animation, we wanted something that would suit their ages (eg. not Frederick and Margaret) and roll off the tongue easily, not distracting the viewer with a unusual names (eg. Caius and Alexis).
We narrowed our choices down to 'Matt' and 'Kim' - Matt being an average name that would sound good and Kim being a nice name that would imply it's a nickname, showing the best friend relationship between the boy and the girl.
Me and Charli tossed a few names around, running through the alphabet and picking the first names that came into our heads. In case they call eachother by name in the Animation, we wanted something that would suit their ages (eg. not Frederick and Margaret) and roll off the tongue easily, not distracting the viewer with a unusual names (eg. Caius and Alexis).
We narrowed our choices down to 'Matt' and 'Kim' - Matt being an average name that would sound good and Kim being a nice name that would imply it's a nickname, showing the best friend relationship between the boy and the girl.
While Charli specialises more in Anime styled character drawing, I would feel more comfortable working in a cartoony style, so we decided to each do our own character designs in our own styles and then decide what we like.
I watched a few different Animations on Youtube by various artists to get some inspiration for my own character designs.
'Colour' by Tiji is one I only recently discovered but really like, and there's a young boy at the end who's apparently reading the earlier story as a book, creating the images with his own imagination. I really liked the style of the boy, so decided to play around with that.
I watched a few different Animations on Youtube by various artists to get some inspiration for my own character designs.
'Colour' by Tiji is one I only recently discovered but really like, and there's a young boy at the end who's apparently reading the earlier story as a book, creating the images with his own imagination. I really liked the style of the boy, so decided to play around with that.
![Picture](/uploads/2/5/3/1/25311183/3994691.jpg?496)
I took a screenshot of the boy from the Animation and brought it into Photoshop, where I could raw from it and consider how I could play with the style to suit my character.
I traced the image, altering it slightly to change his troubled expression
I redrew his shoulders, going from rounded and sloped like a child to more pronounced and angled like an older boy.
The hair was very simplistic, and boys around 11 tend to start experimenting with gel and following trends, so I restyled his hair with more spikes to give it a more suitable look.
I then made his jaw more defined, taking away the curvy puppy fat from the original drawing and making his face shape a bit more grown up.
Happy with his new look, I finished off the design by colouring it and adding shadows. I like the style and I think he looks like the age I intended - around eleven years old.
Script
Opens from black into titles against sky background, text
fades/breaks apart.
Opening shot of sky, camera pans down to show fence and hedge.
Kim: “Eughh!”
Matt: “What’s up now?”
Kim: “They grounded me!” (jump) “Again!”
Matt: “For your grades?”
Kim: “Yep.” (jump) “It’s not fair,” (jump) “they’re always telling me what to do!”
Matt: “Well,” (jump) “You did your best, right?”
Kim: “Exactly!” (jump) “I wasn’t even that far off!”
Matt: “At least you revised.” (turns in air)
Kim: “Yeah!” (jump) “They should be proud.” (jump) (jump) “They can’t ground me.” (frowning defiantly)
Matt: (Jumps up, arms folded) “You shouldn’t stand for it.”
(Both jump in silence for a while)
Matt: “So…” (jump, sideways glance) “Wanna know what I got?”
“No.” (pointedly)
“A” (jumps smiling) “Star” (jumps grinning)
“Shut up, Matt!” (jump) “You always make fun of me!” (Throws tennis ball)
Matt: “Haha – whoa!” (Flails arms, falling backwards)
(Girl shoulder shot, she’s still bouncing but there’s now only one bouncing noise as Matt doesn’t come back up)
Kim: (Slightly concerned) “…Matt?”
Shot changes to Matt’s side, looking up at hedge
Kim: (Bounces higher to look) “You okay?”
Shot changes to Girl’s side, looking down
(Matt shifts his weight and cat wails as it escapes from under him)
Matt: (Chuckles and sighs as his head slumps back)
Shot changes to initial side view, girl bouncing and laughing as camera pans up to sky for end credits.
Opening shot of sky, camera pans down to show fence and hedge.
Kim: “Eughh!”
Matt: “What’s up now?”
Kim: “They grounded me!” (jump) “Again!”
Matt: “For your grades?”
Kim: “Yep.” (jump) “It’s not fair,” (jump) “they’re always telling me what to do!”
Matt: “Well,” (jump) “You did your best, right?”
Kim: “Exactly!” (jump) “I wasn’t even that far off!”
Matt: “At least you revised.” (turns in air)
Kim: “Yeah!” (jump) “They should be proud.” (jump) (jump) “They can’t ground me.” (frowning defiantly)
Matt: (Jumps up, arms folded) “You shouldn’t stand for it.”
(Both jump in silence for a while)
Matt: “So…” (jump, sideways glance) “Wanna know what I got?”
“No.” (pointedly)
“A” (jumps smiling) “Star” (jumps grinning)
“Shut up, Matt!” (jump) “You always make fun of me!” (Throws tennis ball)
Matt: “Haha – whoa!” (Flails arms, falling backwards)
(Girl shoulder shot, she’s still bouncing but there’s now only one bouncing noise as Matt doesn’t come back up)
Kim: (Slightly concerned) “…Matt?”
Shot changes to Matt’s side, looking up at hedge
Kim: (Bounces higher to look) “You okay?”
Shot changes to Girl’s side, looking down
(Matt shifts his weight and cat wails as it escapes from under him)
Matt: (Chuckles and sighs as his head slumps back)
Shot changes to initial side view, girl bouncing and laughing as camera pans up to sky for end credits.
Storyboard
Initial sketches
Final storyboard - photoshop
Final storyboard - photoshop
Layout & Backgrounds
We wanted our background to have a simple but nicely styled look. We put together a blue gradient background and looked on Deviantart for tutorials on how to draw bushes, which would be very important to get right as the bush is always in shot as the divide between the two characters. After finding a great tutorial by user The-Searching-One (http://www.deviantart.com/art/How-I-draw-bushes-413891139), Charli designed our bush using various techniques in Photoshop.
Research for creating backgrounds
Development of backgrounds
Final shots
Development of backgrounds
Final shots
References
Jumping - analysing secondary action & drag
Trampoline footage
Trampoline footage
Over the Easter Break, Charli went home and managed to get some trampoline footage with her siblings.
This video that I have edited down shows both her younger brother and sister jumping on the trampoline. We analysed how they both move, noting any differences between boys and girls that would help as a reference for animating our characters. One important conculsion we drew was that Charli's brother tended to try more interesting jumps, which is something I can relate to from using trampolines at school - boys tend to be a bit more adventures and mess around more, compared to girls who seem to focus more in just doing good jumps. We could feature this in our Animation to add character, with Matt mucking around.
This video that I have edited down shows both her younger brother and sister jumping on the trampoline. We analysed how they both move, noting any differences between boys and girls that would help as a reference for animating our characters. One important conculsion we drew was that Charli's brother tended to try more interesting jumps, which is something I can relate to from using trampolines at school - boys tend to be a bit more adventures and mess around more, compared to girls who seem to focus more in just doing good jumps. We could feature this in our Animation to add character, with Matt mucking around.
This also meant we were now able to get our own sound effects for our Animation! Whist recording the videos, Charli held the camera closer to the trampoline to pick up on it's noise, and also found that holding the camera underneath it produced a much clearer recording. No we have this we can cut the audio and take jump noises from it, ready to fit them into our Animation.
Audio
Aside from the voices, the other key audio we would need is the sound of the trampoline.
As we didn't have access to a trampoline to record genuine sound effects, we searched the flat for objects we could use to produce a "boinging" sound. Using a metal ruler positioned at various lengths from the desk worked fairly when but was sometimes too rattly, whilst we did a lot of tests with elastic bands that worked a bit better.
As we didn't have access to a trampoline to record genuine sound effects, we searched the flat for objects we could use to produce a "boinging" sound. Using a metal ruler positioned at various lengths from the desk worked fairly when but was sometimes too rattly, whilst we did a lot of tests with elastic bands that worked a bit better.
Animatic
Link to animatic
Animation
Conclusion & thoughts
Link to final Animation
Link to final Animation