Completed Animatic

All of our animatics have been combined with music and a rough recording of raw voice over. I am happy with how it has turned out, i think our group has really come together and made something that we will be proud of. Although the timing is slightly out of sink with the narration we have learnt from this, and in our actual motion graphic this will be amended. I think we have all stuck to a similar style and colour, but there is enough room for us to express our individual style. I think the music choice us also very appropriate, and we have managed to stick to the time frame given.

Finished Script

After many versions of the script we have managed to settle on a final version. I think the reason this was difficult was because we had our hearts set on making it rhyme, to give it a quite traditional fairy tale feel but with un-traditional story line. I am glad we stuck with this because I think it will add another element to our animation that not everyone will have. The process of writing the script began with the original story that we picked apart about broke down into beats. From this we created a few first drafts but felt like we sticking too closely to the story, and we wanted to adapt it into own own. After editing and re-working we had a more creative story, but it was still running much too long and we needed to make sure we were showing rather than telling. We all had our own versions that we merged together to get the best bits from all of them. I then went away with this version and did a final edit.

I have also pinpointed moment where folie and sound effects could be used, though this may change when we get down to the recording. There is room for some experimenting I think but I am happy with this core script that we now have.

Once upon a time in a faraway land

There lived a poor daughter who was hit by a hand, (smack)

She made the choice to run away, (Wind, trees rustling)

When she stumbled upon a castle to stay.

 ‘I can turn my hair to bronze’ she lied,

It was better do this than wail and cry,

“I trust you can do it; this is your warning”

“If you don’t, you will be out in the morning” (door slam)

A little man appeared, ‘A hand for your plight’,

Bronze covered her head by the end of the night.

“Make something even richer, I will let you stay for this!”

The little man made silver, and only asked for a kiss. (kiss sound)

‘I’ll marry you if you turn your hair to gold’

Together we can be rich and grow old’,

The creature appeared and asked for her child in exchange,

She said yes, and a year she did age.

“The boy is mine” and she started to pray,

“If you say my name, your child can stay’

“He’s no longer your next of kin,

For I name you Rumpelstilskin!”

The king had heard she had almost lost his treasure,

He slit her throat and wrists for good measure. (scream)

You may think this sounds condescending,

But not all fairy tales have a happy ending.

 

Ideas for Essay

After speaking to Mhari I think I would like to look at Adam Elliot and compare one of his first films to his most recent film ‘Mary and Max’ (2009). His films have progressed from short, student films into full length cinematic animations. I would like to look at this progression, if it is for the better, and what has changed along this process. One of the main things to consider is the budget, allowing for better cameras and equipment. Elliot has won as oscar for ‘Harvey Krumpet’ (2003). This allows him to work with some of the best people in industry.

The use of colour remains the same throughout his work, giving his animations a very distinct quality. You immediately know who is the animator, and his specific style of storytelling. I think it would be interesting to compare ‘Mary and Max’ to his first film, ‘Uncle’ (1996). This is was where Elliot’s style began to emerge, and I would look at how it became what it is today.

My next step will be to rewatch the films, and if I can try and find a directors commentary. I will also research further into the background of the animator and both films, and what happened in between the two to get to where he is now.

Weekly Summary Motion Graphics 2

30th October- 5th November 2017

Research Sources 

• Google images to find inspiration for character designs
• Discussions with Jon Chris and Lindsey about our ideas
• Looking back at previous research into the origins of the story

Development

This week our team achieved quite a lot, I think we made so good progress towards our final outcome. Moving on from last week we met as a group with the tutors and discussed our ideas, this was very helpful, and meant that we changed the story more to fit the brief. We delegated job roles, in order to split the labour a bit and add some consistency to the motion graphic. We also chose who was going to animate which section of the story. I developed my story board and a quick animatic to show the timing and how I think it could look. I went though a few different versions, as I wanted to work on keeping it clean and minimal, but without loosing the ‘shadow puppet’ effect.

Areas for Development

My next area of development will be to write a script using our new story, we have decided we would like it to rhyme, to keep it within the fairy tale style. I have made a character silhouette on after effects for the girl character so my next step will be to share this asset with the group so we can all use it. We will keep meeting as a group and developing ideas over the week and hopefully by the end we will have a very clear idea and be ready to animate the following week.

First draft character designs

I began by drawing out some designs on paper, and then used illustrator to create a digital version. I have not used illustrator much so this was a learning curve for me, as I want to improve my skills on this software. I created each of the body parts on a different layer so that when exported into after effects they can be animated individually.

Animatic for Rumpelstilskin

My first look at the style of the opening shot, I really liked the single element of colour but I felt the trees were too complicated, I really wanted to strip it down to the basics.

In my second go I used lines for the trees which I think looks much better. It is very simple but effective. I also made the shapes longer and thinner, which I think gives it a slightly creepier effect, sort of ‘tim-burton-esqe’.

My animatic is rough purely to save bit of time, as it just as breakdown of how it will happen and doesn’t need to be beautifully finished. It has really helped me visualise the animation, and how it will flow.

Using all the ideas we have discussed as a group I came up with a story board for my section of the story (the first 10 seconds). This is just a first look, and will probably change as we add the script and sound to it. I want to insinuate that the father and R our connected, so I used the shadow of a hand following the girl that morphs into claws. These then become the trees of the forest that she runs through. I really like the idea of something seamlessly merging into something else, without the need of awkward transitions. I did the animatic on photoshop to get an idea of timings and how to get from one point to another. I tried to use the colour red to insinuate that danger is coming.

 

 

Delegating Job Roles

In a team meeting we separated a few tasks out to individuals in order to spread the work load a little and make sure we are able to do everything in the time frame.

Michael will be looking at some music to use and where we would like to insert sounds.

Cat and Daniel are looking into the background, we decided to have just a few people do this job ignorer to keep some consistency between our different sections.

Cassy will be looking into the character design for the girl, and Harriet into the character design for R. This is for the same reason as above, so we are all working from the same assets.

I will be looking into the transitions between scenes, and how we get from one beat to the other, and also taking notes in our meetings and sharing them on our group chat so we all know what we discussed. My next step will be to look at a few examples for inspiration.

We are still refining our script, and I think this is the most pressing matter at hand, and we aim to have this finished by next week, and record in week 4.

Character Design ideas for the girl character

We want to keep this character quite simple. Going with the style of the animation she will be silhouette, but I like the idea of an eye being visible, to show she is a human character. I want to aim for a more stylised approach rather than a realistic one. In the original stories her age is not always clear, but going by other Grimm tales from the time she was probably in her early teens, as these were stories meant to warn children. I want to retain some of this child like persona.

A simple female silhouette for reference

the character from Brave, I like the idea of the hair being the main part of the character, as this links to our story

More examples of female silhouette, in this I like the large petticoat skirt

I like the simple design of the hand in this

A Erich Heckel print, I want to keep his style in mind when creating the character

Changes to the story

After a meeting with Lindsey we decided to try and make our story different to the original, as we have mostly stuck to the original story. Using some elements of other interpretations of the story, we wanted to make it so it was the girls hair that was being turned to gold rather than straw, and have connotations that the father and R are related in some way. We tried to retain a few of the fairy tale elements, like the rule of three and the un-named characters. The moral has become slightly ambiguous, and it has become a bit of a metaphor for how abuse and trauma can follow you. It shows that you shouldn’t claim to be able to so something that you can’t.

We kept the same basic beats but edited the story to make it more interesting.

1. Girl runs away from an abusive father, gets lost in the forrest, and comes across a castle. She tells the ‘king’ that she can turn her hair into bronze, so that she will let her in and give her shelter. (Maddy)
2. The king says he will send her home if she doesn’t prove she can turn her hair into bronze. A little man appears and says he can help her, but wants to hold her hand as payment. She agrees. (Michael)
3. The king is happy, but he is greedy, and threatens to send her home again. The girl says she can also turn her hair into solver, and he agrees to let her stay if she can prove it. The little man appears again, this time requesting a kiss for his help. (Harriet)
4. The king is very happy with his riches, and says he will marry the girl and let her stay forever, if she can turn her hair into gold. The little man appears again, and says he will help her one last time, if he can have her first born child. (Daniel)
5. Time passes, they marry, and the child is born, but it looks like a mini rumpelstilstkin. The king is angry because he knows the child isn’t his. The little man returns and says if she can guess his name he won’t take the child. (Cassy)
6. She knows it must be the most evil name she can think of, the name of her father, ‘Rumpelstilskin’. As she says this the King slices her throat because the baby is not his, and Rumpelstiltskin runs off with the baby. (Cat)

Character design ideas for Rumpelstilskin

We discussed this as a group, and the overall consensus was that he should be demonic in nature, a dark shadowy character that we never quite see. We also wanted to include horns to allude to this, and make his silhouette clearer. It give’s the impression that he is something other that human.

Baphomet, a symbol of Satan

Sandman from the Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman

A drawing of a plague mask

A drawing of a plague mask

Mr. Tumnus from The chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

Ryuk from the Anime Deathnote

The Faun from Pan’s Labyrinth

All these images have something in common, they are otherworldly creatures, or have animalistic elements. The plague masks in particular would create an interesting distinctive silhouette, and horns would suggest something satanic. We also discussed the character having a long black cape, and would almost float rather than walk. We want to give the impression that he is fluid like smoke, and could disappear at any second.