28th April

Tuesday 30th April

Today I worked on all the inbetweens for the boy leading up to when he falls off the side of the chair. I’ve decided not to do that camera move like Marianna suggested last week, even though it was a good suggestion. I was planning to do this with a smear frame, and got as far as this:

But it was taking so long to figure out and I hadn’t even started to figure out what the boy would look like.

Here is me planning out the boy leaning upwards (he’s got his face down on the chair at first, and is bending backwards):

I then decided to do it as a smear frame, so emphasising him flinging himself upwards in a different way to how he fell backwards beforehand. To do that, I decided to work out what all the frames that the smear frame is replacing look like, and essentially merge them altogether into one outline:

And it’s looking like this:

One of the things I was most trying to do with this who section of the boy was for the character’s movement to match the rhythm of the speech, which I managed to achieve.

First week of animating: Key Frames (and a few inbetweens)

I traced from the drawings I did for the storyboard to create my key frames. There were a few bits where I needed more key frames, specifically the parts where the boy towel twists and untwists himself. I started with the first one, and ended up doing all the inbetweens as well, because it was complicated and I needed to figure out the whole thing in one go for it to work.

It took me a while to get the hang of timing charts. In the photo above, I wrote the numbers on little pieces of paper, so that I could move them around instead of writing them and having to rub them out and write them again if I wanted to change it. I also tried making my timing charts really long so there would be more of a difference between the sizes of gaps.

Next I did the key frames for when the boy falls off the side of the chair and is untwisting while sliding off the chair at the same time, which is even more complicated. The only way I can keep a hold of how I’m planning to do any of it is by making notes like this.

Plus: New version of x-sheet, page 1, to start adding faces

18th April

Background Design

This is my draft for the background. This is the key for the colours:

• DB = Dark Blue
• MB = Mid Blue
• LB = Light Blue
• P = Pink
• –> = Gradient

I decided I’m not going to do a straight digital painting, because I don’t think I’d be pleased with the results, and I’d find it more interesting to do something mixed media. Instead I’m going to make two collages, one for each colour in a gradient, and scan them. I’ve got a stack of magazines and I don’t really know how they’re going to turn out exactly, but that’s what makes it fun.

20th April

Here is the collage for the blue/turquoise areas of my background. It was really nice to make, but took a bit of work to get the gradient right. I tore the paper instead of cutting it to get those rough edges, so it would have a handmade look. Someone who saw me making it thought it was supposed to be water, which was an unintentional but useful by-product since it’s for the wall of a swimming pool

Storyboard

I drew my storyboard on paper with using a lightbox, because I felt more comfortable doing that than digital drawing. After receiving feedback on my initial animatic, I added more keyframes to include more acting in the characters. I also changed the angle of the last shot, and drafted a background for the last frame.

Character Design

Jess said I didn’t need to do a turn around for my characters, so this is my design. Both characters are the same shape and proportions, but different sizes. The measurement above are just examples – the ratios next to them are so that it can be scaled up or down for whatever size character.

I’m keeping the faces as simple as possible, so it’s easy to keep them consistent. I’m still figuring out the mouth shapes, so the ones here are just a first draft for now.