Abbi and I decided to model the room in 3D to make drawing the background for the animation easier.
The colours being used here in the images of the model are not going to be the colours used in the full major project. I just added some colours so that the model would allow me to have a better idea of what the room would look like. I found that the screenshots of the room with colours made it easier to see what I was drawing. In the animatic of the project, it was more difficult to draw as everything was grey.
I did the models for the base of the room itself (the walls and what’s on the walls) the bed and everything on the bed, the chairs, the different flowers and the flower vase. the carpet, picture frame, the ring bands and the mirror. Abbi did the models for the drawer and the wardrobe.
We don’t need to do a model of the underwater dream world as this can be done in After eEffects in post production once the animations are all completed.
Animation progress
The animations were drawn in Toon Boom Harmony with the ratio of 1920 x 1080 which is a common industry standard in 24fps, using the brush tool.
Initially, when animating for this major project, I started of with doing a very rough animation to get the correct timing and movements.
Once I got the rough animation drawn and was happy with it, I started on cleaning it up. Firstly, I started with the face. I tried my best to keep the character on model and once I got the face completed, I then went through the rest of the character and did the animations in different sections e.g. dress and hair, until the entire character was cleaned up. I wanted the movement of the dress to be a different timing from her hair and the ribbon around Elizabeth’s neck. The dress and hair move very 4 frames and the ribbon moves every 3.
I went over these again and did another clean sketch just to tidy the animation up and bit more before I continued.
Once I was happy with the clean sketch animation I then did the line art.
When colouring I duplicated the line art layer and used the bucket tool and coloured each frame.
I added the colours in sections starting with the skin and finishing with the ribbon.
I drew the pupils in on a different layer.
For the shadows and highlights I drew out the outline on each frame for where I wanted the shadows to be. Then I filled them in with the bucket tool.
In the image above you can see how I sorted out my layers while animating. I locked different layer as I worked so I wouldn’t accidentally draw something on the wrong layer.
I finished animating the first part of the underwater scene so I could see what the final project might look like and to get a better feel of how I’m going to do the post production. However I will most likely redo this when I have finished the animation and do the post production all together.
The videos above are examples of rough animations and the clean sketch.
I did rough animations of the ending scenes so that I could send them to Abbi so that she can start doing animations of the cat.
Animation test
I had an idea for animating the Elizabeth’s memories in the dream so, I did this animation test.
I drew two pictures then used puppet pins to give the illusion of movement between the two poses.
Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to complete this so it is not in the finished animation.
I experienced some issues due to lack of processing memory on my computer. This meant for a few days, I wasn’t unable to do anything as I had no memory. In clearing caches, some of my animation frames were accidentally deleted from my computer. Thankfully, I was able to redownload the frames and replace the footage. The memory issues were also resolved and I was able to free up processing memory on my computer and was able to recommence working.
Throughout the editing for the animation I noticed that my characters were either floating or not interacting correctly with the bed. I didn’t understand why this was happening. I tried my best to correct this with editing, but the only character I could fix this way was for part of the ending scene. The first scene I tried to fix with editing but the characters were either still floating slightly or you could see the top of the mattress. Once I got to scene 3 I realised I couldn’t fix it with editing. It was at this point I realise that the background ratio was different from the animation ratio. Once I realised this, I was able to get the radio difference fixed which solved the floating problem completely.
For scene 4 there is a camera turn where I had to draw around 11 backgrounds however, I still had 2 animations to finish as well and the memories to draw so I was starting to get worried that I wasn’t going to be able to get them finish so in the end I ended up get this backgrounds out sourced.
The art style of an animation basically means the visual aesthetics and techniques that are used to create the animation.
The original art style for the original animation short was an anime art style. I wanted to explore a different style for the remake of the animation short.
After doing some research into different art styles for this major project, I decided to do some art style tests to help me to decide on which style I wanted to go with for the animation short. In the end, I chose a style that was inspired by the art style used in Bee and the PuppyCat animation short that I watched.
Character designs
Elizabeth – originals
Simon – originals
Originally I planned to just redraw the character designs in the new art style. However, I later change my mind as I thought this would be too lazy. I also realised that the clothing and hairstyle weren’t in the correct time period of the 1840’s so I made sure to do the proper research and redrew the character designs to reflect the time period and costumes.
Final character designs
Elizabeth – Final design
Simon – Final design
Above are the final character designs which are based on the 1840s.
I kept the ribbon from the old character design that was inspired by Maria Merryweather. She is the main heroine in the film, ‘The Secret of Moonacre.
Original storyboards
When coming up with the new story for this animation I did a very quick, rough storyboard sketch to get my ideas down on paper before they went out of my head.
Final storyboards
Above are the final storyboards.
Once the story was finalised, Abbi and I worked on our storyboards for the animation short.
Unfortunately, after some feedback in for the animatic, we didn’t end up using the storyboards Abbi created.
I didn’t make new story boards for the ending of the short. Instead I edited the ending when creating the animatic.
Key Frames
I made these keyframes before I did the animatic to help me out with framing out some main scenes. They also helped me to get a rough idea of what colour I wanted to end up using.
First animatic
Below is my first animatic.
After getting some feedback I made any corrections that were needed and produced my final animatic.
Final animatic
This is the final animatic for the major project. With this down I can start working on the main animation.
Colour scripts
Before I start on working on the main animations I created some colour script for the major project. I chose reds to represent the drama and tension in the dream sequence. Blues for under the underwater scene and then muted golden colours to represent dawn and Elizabeth waking up.
Test animations
In addition to working on the colour scripts, I also did a couple of animation tests. This allowed me to get an idea on how the animation process will be from start to finish.
A few years ago, I went to the Northern Regional College to study Animation and Visual effects instead of staying on at school and completing A Levels. This gave me a really good foundation and skills for the course I am now doing.
As, I had a body of work, I decided I was going to redo and improve one of the two animation shorts I made at tech. I did one in first year and one in second year. After watching the both, I decided against reworking the one I made in first year. The only reason I decided against it was I preferred the one in I completed in second year. I felt I had learnt more skills in that one. so I chose that animation short and decided I would rework it.
The video below is the animation I did in first year.
Above is the animation I made in second year and the one I chose to rework. It was named Bittersweet Nightmare.
The story has two characters – Elizabeth and Simon. They were husband and wife. Simon has passed away. One night, Elizabeth dreams of Simon. In her dream the are back together again however, it isn’t long until he fades from view and disappears. Poor Elizabeth is plunged into a dystopian world where Simon is no more. She awakes to find that her dream was a nightmare and he is actually gone. It was sweet to dream of her true love, but as he has passed away it really was more of a nightmare.
In tech, we had to do a mind map to get all our ideas down for the story and animation. Above is my old map mind for my second year animation short project for tech.
As I now decided what my major project would be, I set about revamping the original animation short.
In tech we worked on the projects by ourselves. This time however I had a partner to share the workload with. Abbi Dalzell agreed to work on the major project with me. We set about dividing up the the jobs that need to be done. Abbi was to work on the backgrounds and an animal character. The original had no additional animal characters. They were newly added to the story so that Abbi could animate them. After some discussion, we decided that the additional animation character that Abbi would animate would be a cat, called Kitty Cat Edwards.
I created a Mira mind map board for Abbi and I to work on. We both put our ideas and work progress on the board.
See below to see our Miro board and ideas
Ideation
I am also using whimsical to put all my own ideas and work project onto.
Art style
Below are a few mood boards I put together on my Whimsical to get ideas of art styles for this major project. I looked at quite and extensive list.
I looked at lots of different artist, such as Hannah Magee, Karo the Kreator, Loish, Ethan Becker and Jackie Drujko. I decided to pick Loish, Ethan Becker and Jackie Droujko to look further into.
Loish is a digital artist originally from the Netherlands. She has a degree and masters in animation. Loish does character design work for clients all over the world and has worked for some major companies including Amazon, EA, Coca- Cola and Guerrilla Games. She has released a few art books – The Art of Loish, The Sketchbook of Loish and also the style of Loish. She also gives workshops and lectures and posts tutorials and behind the scene materials showcasing her art. She spends her free time making digital paintings and sketches and is currently based in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Ethan Becker is also digital artist based in America. He is also an animation story director. Ethan has worked on Voltron: Legendary defender and DOTA series for Netflix, as well as having collaborated with Dreamworks and Warner Bros. He also is teaches animation pro classes at ProjectCity.TV as well as sharing his knowledge on the animation industry through YouTube videos.
Jackie Droujko graduated from Sheridan Animation. He is a professional character designer and filmmaker based in Vancouver currently working Disney TVA. Jackie is the creator of the short film Bang! Bang! and Mismatch. His passion lies in creating simple and appealing designs that communicate compelling stories. He also has worked for major networks such as Netflix (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Dreamworks (Cleopatra in Space) and Nickelodeon’s Monster High.
Ethan becker
I watched a lot of video tutorials from Ethan Becker on YouTube. I found his videos to be extremely helpful in informing my overall design for the major project.
Title cards
Above you can see some of my research on Title Cards. I explored ideas for title cards from different shows. I mainly looked at the title cards from adventure time.
Character sheets
Above is a mood board exploring Character Sheets. I looked into a lot of different shows to see they were done.
The main character sheets I looked into were The legend of Korra and Dungeon Meshi.
Floriography
I wanted to have some symbolism in my animation short so I looked into floriography. Floriography is the language of flowers. It is using flowers and floral arrangements to express emotions and sentiments. Different flowers and colours of flowers represent different feelings. I researched the flowers that would match the emotions that I wanted to convey in my animation short. I decided to use White Lilies as they are often used as funeral flowers and also represent purity, innocence and sympathy. You often see a lily on a sympathy card. They also represent a rejuvenation of the soul and are linked to the natural balance of life and death. Chrysanthemums are similar. They are used particularly in mourning in Asia, China, Korea and Japan where white chrysanthemums symbolise grief. Finally I chose gladioli. They are flowers that represent mourning for someone who displayed strength dn character in life. All of these flowers fit in with the story line of loss and grief within the animation short.
Storyboard
A storyboard is a visual representation, a plan, that shows the sequence of a narrative or scene by breaking it down into panels. The panels outline the shots, the action and the dialogue. It is a useful tool to get the flow and help visualise the final animation. Above are some examples of storyboards that I researched.
Animatic
An animatic is an animated storyboard. It takes your original story board and takes develops it further. It is a series of images or sketches that are put together usually with a sound track. This gives a sense of what the finished product will be like.
Below is the research I did into animatics.
I watched Ethan Becker video tutorial on animatics before I started mine.
I did watch a lot of different animatic by different artist to see how each of them compose their animatics to better help me when it came to doing mine.
These animatics are almost animated at time and are very advanced. I could do a simple animatic for my major project but I am a very visual person. I want to do an animatic more like the ones in this videos above. That way I can get a better idea of how the final animation will look and how to better animate character movements and have better timing for each movement too.
19th century Fashion
The time period this animation short is set in is the 19th century in the 1840s.
The 1840s marked the ending years of the Romantic Era
Gothic Revival emerged where demure understated style was in fashion
Great emphasis on modesty
Silhouette=long bodice and tight narrow sleeves
Skirt full skimming the floor and was dome shaped
Featured a V-shape effect emphasised the long small was it and narrow sloped shoulders
The main inspiration for the clothing and time period is the Secret of Moonacre (Loosely based on the 1946 novel The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.
The little whit horse is set in 1842
Recently orphaned teenage girl who is sent to the manor of her cousin and guardian in the West Country of England
Environment
I looked a little into backgrounds by researching National trust places – their stately homes. However, Abbi was assigned environments so for further information please look at Abbi’s research.
Bee and PuppyCat
The main art style visual inspiration for this animation project is Bee and PuppyCat. This was created & written by Natasha Allegri (original series produced by Frederator studios).
Bee is an unemployed women in her early 20s. She encounters a mysterious creature named PuppyCat and together they go on a series of temporary jobs. These bizarre jobs take the duo across a strange world in outer space.
Colour scripts
I did some research on how to use colour for my major project. Colours and how they work together also adds to the overall theme, mood and message of the animation. I wanted to use colours that would reflect the sombreness of the story and the emotions of loss.
I did some research on how to make keyframes and how to make colour script so a can effectively use colour for this major project.
I collected screenshots of different shows and movies to make a colour script moodboard.
There was 3 main settings I wanted to look at. Blues for underwater, reds for the ending part of the underwater scene and and sun set scene.
Memory ideas
I looked into various shows and movies to see how they illustrated dreams and memories. I drew inspiration from Demon Slyer, My Little Pony and Coraline.
Animation ideas
I plan to do this easy animation for the memories. This animation is done with puppet pins.
Animations shorts
These are a couple of my favourite animation shorts. I plan on studying them to better help me in how I want to got about animation my major project and how I want the project to look in the end.
Animation Tutorials
These are a couple of different tutorials I will watch though out the process of making this project. Tutorials are really useful for teaching and inspiring and learning new techniques.
Post production
I found this animation tutorial on post production which I found very useful and informative. I plan to use what I learned in this video to complete the major project animation short .
