Bursting with Berryness!

Project number 2- and we're on to storyboards. I'm feeling quite excited about this one- it seems, after looking at various examples from the industry, that this could be potentially an area I may consider venturing down in the future, so I'm eager to get going and see if it turns out to be what im expecting...

The project is split into two parts- the first of which is to pick an advert and storyboard it exactly as it appears on screen, acting as a sort of practice to get us used to the workings and structures of storyboards and how to create them effectively. the advert Ive chosen to use is the recent Ribena advert, featuring a variety of animated berry characters, all with one aim- to get to the berry laiden tractor trailor, and make it into the bottle of Ribena...

So from this, the storyboards had to represent camera movements, music and dialogue, timing  and the main action of the characters in each shot. It was daunting at first to know exactly how much detail was neccesary in each panel, and just how many panels were needed...

It feels now that I may not have needed so many panels, and that some of the actions were shown in more detail than neccesary for storyboard purposes, but with this excercise I feel I have learnt alot about the process of storyboarding and what is included in them, aswell as gathered a quick yet accurate drawing stlye that I feel kept me interested, keeping them form becoming too tedious and showing only the  main focus and details of each shot- using pen to highlight and make certian features more of a focus point than others.

I am happy with the way the storyboards turned out and am eager to begin work on the next one of the project, and add a bit of my own creativity to them.

The life and times of Morris Kane...

Now Morris Kane, creepy coroner extraordinaire, has taken shape, and it's time to bring him to life. Focusing on the emotions and actions suggested by the dialogue,

I continued to feel as if the expressions could have been pushed and exagerated further, but it simpley wouldn't have suited the character. With the few that were tried it seemed to take away from the character's personality and creepy status rather than add to it. So they were kept subtle and simple, and worked so much better- reflecting the character's rather laid back and intense nature, aswell as his creepy and slightly unstable mentality.

The character, now in place, begins to take shape more with the planning of just how he will move and what he will do in his animated segment. At first, the plan was to stand him behind the coroner's table, complete with dead body. But after acting out and filming reference videos for the scenario, the movements just didn't seem natural, and seemed forced. So when trying the actions sat down, they seemed to work alot better, allowing much more subtle actions and details that brought the creepy personality of the character to life.

The subtle movements make him seem incredibly creepy to me- the fact that he's simply stirring his cup of tea whilst speaking of death in his threatening tone, he seems so used to be surrounded by death that it no longer effects him, and has possibly even twisted him somehow into the sinister, slightly unstable character he is today. Using these thumbnails to put together for the animatic gives the first glimpse at how the character will look with the voice and how his movements and action will come together...

The animatic shows the main gestures and movements of the piece, but the subtle, more delciate details I feel will bring the character to life- the eyebrow movement- emphasizing the expression of his eyes, the long curling finger movement, his thin limbs delicately flowing around his body. All will hopefully come together to create the character I want and that will fit the voice successfully...so only time will tell...

The birth of Morris Kane...

So back to the minor project...
Someone said to me once, that creating a character is a lot like giving birth (not that I would know ofcourse)- It starts of with something small, and takes a long time to develop- suffering through the pain and frustration, particuly nearing the end stages. But once ready, you feel it, and the result suddenly all becomes worth it.

So after going through, well, quite alot of designs and developements for the character, from the evil villain character to the coroner, my designs were getting very complex, as they tend to do- with lines and details that weren't neccesary. I liked them, and some features and elements worked and suited the voice, but I had to think ahead to actually animating this character and drawing it repeatedly...

I started to get very repetative with the designs, even with a varied selection of research into villains, characters and artists, and started to loose direction and found it difficult to move on. In order to get past this, I had to begin to think simpler, think single shapes and rounded forms that were easier to draw and gave a much clearer look and character, only including details that were totally neccesary...

 The design in the top right hand corner of this design sheet interested me and seemed to work- a simple singular shape, with the character's personality still coming through. His small stature, at first, I didn't think would fit the voice, I wanted it to be more of a serious, darker edged character than  i've done in the past, but this desing still seemed to work and added a further visual pun to the piece, with him acting so serious and threatening, yet appearing so small and weedy. So development of the character began...

 The above design of the character was only a quick sketch, but really seemed to work for the character and seemed nice and rounded to draw. His shape and features were simple yet flexible enough for what was needed for the character and his personality. Now the features needed developing to see if anything else can be done with him.

 Several changes were made, but in the end they seemed to over work the character and take away from the inital feel of the sketch and character- overcomplicating his facial features more than anything to a point where it they became confusing and unclear. So the character was taken back to the previous design and tested in quick poses and sketches.

These sketches really seemed to work and fitted the character and dialogue and I felt I could get all of the expression and emotion from him when animating to fit with the voice succesfully, but without being too over the top, unclear and angular. So with a bit of tidying and polishing, heres the final character...

Now the character is born, the fun with him can begin, and Morris will become clearer with creation of the expression and pose sheets...

A little further look back at year 1...

The second character created for year 1 was...The Magician... Starting out as a Mr Potato head style pirate villain, The Magician grew through development to become a villain in his own right. Once a proud member of the Evil Alliance, he always saw himself as the best villain to ever have existed- even if the other members didn't see him in the same way. Forced out of the alliance by his peers for helping an old lady cross the road, he was stripped of his costume, and banned from using his powers outside of his home, where he now resides and continues to act like he is still the villain he once thought he was, and sees that anything that stands in his way is dealt with- from the cat to the toaster... well he tries to anyway. Yet all along he hides the fact that inside he is hurting and missing his old life of evil and power, and more than anything his old sidekick, Mr Sparrow (who is seen in a photo in one of the expression sheets- based on the original design for the character). But The Magician continues on, and who knows, one day he may return...as if by magic...

Here's the full story of this, once called, evil genius...

The animations of the character were then made up of four seperate elements- a walk cycle, a trait, a lip sync and a longer acted performance.

All of the sequences show the over the top, flamboyant nature of the character, pushing his limits as far as possible. The trait shows the magician in his full blown evil state, cackling madly and using his powers against one of his most feared foes...the dog! The acted performance, a longer piece, then adds a voice to the character and shows his more everyday side- although still in his evil, slightly deranged state of mind, with his flamboyant actions and movements. The character allowed for lots of subtle movments and details to be added and being able to push him and stretch his limits kept it interesting and fun to produce- and at the end of the day, everyone loves a villain!

A little look back at year 1...

Before I go any further with this years project, here's just a quick glimpse at some of the the projects from last year- mainly here, the character based projects, the first of which was Billy 'Sunshine' Cowl- a hyperactive TV presentor for This Mooning...he's a cow by the way! But his bouncy, bubbly, over excited persona infront of the camera is incomparable to that behind the scenes- a reclusive, depressed individual that does nothing but sit at home in front of the television and eat...

So here's Billy's dramatic, emotional and heart breaking back story...

I loved playing around with the two different personalities of this character- going from one extreme of jumping around and being as outragious as possible, to becoming very enclosed, straight faced and generally the complete opposite. It would be nice in the future to possibly get him animated and springing to life, so we'll see how things go.