Initial thinking:
For our module in Animated Narratives, we were assigned the task to produce a 30-60 second animation following the theme of “Food”. We were also informed that our characters couldn’t have moving legs, a limitation to some but to us a chance to get creative. My group consisted of Miller, Leon, Naomi and I, where we immediately began to come up with some brief and general ideas. At first, we were baffled but soon started writing down some interesting concepts. Among these, we settled for our concept of a tanning salon for steaks and ultimately decided that this was the most creative idea and were excited to make a start.
Concept art:
As we split up, we individually sketched out some different ideas of what our story could look like and some character ideas. I came up with a few sketches of what the tanning rooms could look like and a few character sketches, such as a bacon character and some sketches of steaks.
Furthermore, I also came up with some tanning bottle sketches, trying out different color combinations and bottle shapes. Together we also discussed and sketched out layout concepts and what some of the interior could look like. Our original idea for the interior was to create a sort of food train, almost like a sushi conveyor belt that would bring all the meats to the tanning beds.
Altogether this was useful, giving us a broader idea of our animation, beginning to slowly piece together our vision.
Storyboarding:
At this stage, the fun really began as we got to set out the story and create the storyline. I was very excited about drawing my storyboard out because I love a chance to draw, and I had a good idea for my section. All our storyboards were around the same length to help keep timing equal, so I came up with the part where the steak walks into the shop and asks for the strongest tanning oil and the bacon employee is quite intimidated. I felt that it created quite a bit of a dramatic effect which is what we were aiming for.
Tasks:
This is where our pre-production really brought our idea to life for the first time. As soon as we presented our idea to our lecturers, we began to properly give out and allocate everyone in our team a different set of tasks to complete, which was going to help us stay organized. We discussed what everyone felt comfortable to do given our different skills and more. We decided to split everything up equally but giving more of the 3D to Leon and Miller, as they are stronger in 3D, and gave the 2D tasks to Naomi and I as we are more comfortable in 2D.
Once again, we still split everything up equally as we didn’t want anyone in our group to miss out on learning, but kept it more suited to each person’s skills and ability. We found this method to be very handy as I feel it sped us up and kept us moving at a good pace.
Final concept sketches:
After our pitch for our lecturers, and using the task list, we all created final concept sketches and character boards to get the final mock ups of our characters. Since I got given the eggplant model, I came up with some simple sketches that capture her personality and overall color scheme. This was exciting as I was pleased with how they came out, and being able to see the different expressions and emotions that were portrayed.
I also came up with some final label designs for the bottles, some completely original and others inspired from logos I came across when doing research. These really helped me sketch out and create professional labels you would come across in real life. Although I used the design of some labels from online, I made sure to change them up, adding my own take on them.
Previs:
My 3D Previs ended up being the part where the bacon employee sets the timer after hearing another customer arrive after the bell rings, and although I’m not that pleased with how it turned out, it was one of my first times animating with blender and was a good way to put our idea into motion to figure out timing and camera angles.
I used the bacon model Miller created and put together the brief sequence. I experimented with different camera angles, which gave me a chance to learn how to attach the different cameras together, learning about markers and how to use the correct camera angles and positions.
Refined Previs:
This Previs was the same sequence, but more improved and a bit more detailed. Although a lot of it stayed the same, the added detail was another version that helped us further envision our animation, because as everybody’s Previs clips were put together, we could see the storyline advancing.
The added detail was another learning lesson for me as it helped me learn more about how to animate an arm, how to create the effect of walking and the use of colour in the set. I did make a mistake with the camera as it went too far to the right when showing the egg timer, but later I fixed it with no problem. Keeping the egg timer in the hand before putting it on the shelf was another tricky bit but very educational.
We also got some good advice when we presented our Previs animation to the lecturers, so all in all it was a good learning lesson.
Asset list:
