Rex
Within this blog I will be documenting the creation of my 2D animated short film
based on a poem by Santhini Govindan. This film will be tailored to an audience
of young children to give the feeling that one of their books have came to life.
Idea Creation
In the beginning as I began brainstorming what I wanted to create for my short film there was a few things I was already certain of, I knew it was going to be a kid’s animation for one and I also knew I wanted to create a 2D animation as that is the field I would like to get into.
I had considered creating an animation based on themes such as;
Friendships (looking back on good times)
Girlhood (growing up through school, heartbreak and family)
As I researched more into the theme of friendship I came across a lot of poetry about being a child and the connections we make at such a young age, It just reminded me of how as Kids everything seemed so much more exciting and magical therefore an aspect of this was having an imaginary friend as this is a result of our childhood brains creating more joy.
Poem
Imaginary Friend
© Santhini Govindan more by Santhini Govindan
Published by Family Friend Poems March 2022 with permission of the Author.
I have lots of friends, but there is a special one,
With whom I play the most – we have so much fun.
He never argues, and I’ve never heard him whine;
He always thinks that my suggestions are perfectly fine.
He never, ever disagrees, or picks a quarrel with me,
As a friend, he is as loyal as can be.
But he does urge me to do naughty things once in a way,
And when I get scolded, he’s silent when I protest and say,
“I didn’t intend to do any mischief – I just can’t comprehend,
Why are you scolding me, instead of my imaginary friend?”
Santhini Govindan. “My Imaginary Friend.” Family Friend Poems, March 23, 2022. -friend-2
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Poem Ideation
When I had the idea for narration I knew a poem would be a great way to tell a story in an achievable amount of time. As someone who has an interest in poetry since through school I kept with English as a favorite subject due I loved dissecting and using my imagination to either understand the story of the poem or even sometimes bringing my own meaning to the words in front of me. Therefor using animation to bring the story I created in my head would be extremely fulfilling and gratifying. One thing that I loved about this poem is how it takes us along a journey of friendship and the shock at the end where we find out this friend we had grew to love was actually imaginary. This twist induces so many emotions, for one it can be sad as in the end the friend doesn’t exist however the main take-away I got from this is the brilliance of childhood imagination as we watch him create his own fun and creating their own companion for his own mischief and excitement.
My original name choice was Bea and me because I like the rhyme and believed it was quite catchy however when it became time to create my characters I really enjoyed the character I created in the dinosaur one day and the name created itself from then on. I chose against naming it after the poem as the title was my Imaginary Friend which would have affected my story as I did not want the viewer to know the friend was a imaginary until the very end.
In the beginning of my brain storm I knew I already wanted to create a kids animation as that is the field I wanted to specialize in due to the bright color’s and nostalgia from childhood. Narration was another aspect I wanted to delve into as I believe it adds another element of nostalgia and makes it easier for children to follow. My style choice was of children’s books more than animations, my main references where books from my childhood such as ;
References
Angelina Ballerina
Winne The Pooh
What I particularly liked about these books are the sketchy hand-drawn
style. I always resonated with these designs from childhood as not only the stories stuck with me but also the beautiful colors, the detail in each brush stroke while keeping a minimalistic style. Especially with the Winnie The Pooh designs the backgrounds aren’t complete and use aspects of each scene to create an entire clear environment.
Animated references
The Snowman – 2017 Aristocats – 1970
Although I did take a lot of my inspiration from childhood story books I also pulled from animations that fitted with my style choice such as the snowman and Aristocats. With the snowman I enjoyed the peaceful aesthetic and sketchy style maintaining that look that it has been completely hand drawn. Likewise with Aristocats you can still see a lot of the sketch outlines of the characters especially and I appreciate how they have quite a variety of facial expressions especially with the younger cats considering that is more related to my animation as they are two young boys.
My Backgrounds
For my backgrounds I took a much more natural aesthetic. As the poem is a childhood journey I loved the idea of it all being majorly outside as it emphasizes how children can create fun out of absolutely anything, something that as an adult we forget was once something we could do. Unfortunately we no longer find joy in the seemingly mundane as these are locations many of us walk by each and everyday. Many of these backgrounds are compiled of assets such as trees and bushes that can be re-arranged to create new environments.
Background Assets
These assets I really found helped transform scenes to completely change them into a new environment. This was great for transitioning from one scene to another. therefor helping me manage my time better when creating this project as it was quite a large challenge I set myself by doing a 2D solo animation without decreasing the quality of the content.
Characters Design
References
When it came to deciding on my characters I pulled a lot of references from many different sources such as Rugrats, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc Winnie the Pooh and inside out. Some of these references where for the style whilst some where in reference to the the characters personality and features. In my research I came across the character Boo from Monsters Inc and I noticed the outfit they had put her into disguise her as a monster was a great way to distinguish my imaginary character. Of course a monster outfit was not the most fitting costume however that’s how I became to think about putting child the in a onesie as it kept the character realistic enough to not be obviously imaginary but also enough to realize their is something different about them.
Initial Idea’s
Personally my favorite role is character design which is actually what brought me into animation, creating brand new characters and bringing them to life brings me so much joy and seeing them come to life is extremely gratifying. In the beginning my first decision I found difficult was whether or not to create human characters or animals.
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These are my original designs, initially I went for animals as I enjoy the humor in bringing animal characters to life with different expressions and personalities. although I really liked the idea of these I felt they where actually too silly and funny that they would take away from the story and not convey the emotion as well as I would like. Another issue I came across was that the imaginary friend wouldn’t be as clear due to the fact that all the characters are unrealistic and it would take away from the nostalgia as viewers wouldn’t be able to connect the same to the character as they couldn’t put themself in their place.
final Character Designs
Rex
Role : Imaginary friend
Age : 7
Description : For this character i have chosen to put
him in a dinosaur onesie as it is clearly differentiates from
the other character hinting already that something is different
about him. Also this outfit gives him a fun light hearted look
that children would enjoy and hold their attention from the
beginning.
Boy
Role : Main boy
Age : 7
Description : For this boy i have gave him a friendly
innocent face and dungarees also to again give him a
cuter innocent look. This helps the audience create an
attachment to him and further increases the impact of
the twist at the end as we find out he was in fact just
a young possibly lonely boy looking for a friend which
he ends up creating in his own head.
Creating character personalities
Here are my initial planning as when I first had the
design aspects down i needed
to be sure it matches my references
and that the characters worked well together.
the task where i created different facial expressions
I found very helpful as this is what confirmed to
me that these where my final characters and they
where right for their designated roles.
One thing I had initially struggled with was the dimensions but after some research I found this diagram really helped with accurate dimensions.
Planning My scenes
This has been my first experience creating a full short animated film by myself therefor planning was a vital aspect in keeping myself organized and on track to get everything completed to my deadline. I began by creating a timeline week by week giving myself personal goals so instead of looking at it like one big challenge that could seem very intimidating i gave myself little goals so I felt productive as I chipped away towards my end goal week by week.
Story Board
when creating my scenes I thought back to my own childhood I thought about the things I did for fun with my friends and siblings, these ideas consisted of ;
- racing sticks along the river
- playing in the park
- water balloon fights
- building forts
- telling scary stories
throwing sticks in the water under a bridge to see who’s made it to the other side first, running around the park, going to the sweet shop as it felt like a fun day out picking which treat you would have that day however in the animation I have made this a bit sillier as his imaginary friend convinces him to steal some which I find made the animation more fun as as a kid we’ve all been tempted to take a few sweets out of the jar, I believe it portrays childhood impulsivity as it seemed so exciting thrilling. Mischief is often another thing about being a child that is quite nostalgic as it’s things we couldn’t do today as adults. I portrayed this mischief through my scenes such as when the boys were telling scary stories under the blanket in a fort They had made themselves And having a water balloon fight in the park.
Although I had these ideas already I had to find a way to visualize them, it was all well and good Discussing fun things that we do as kids but I wouldn’t know if these fully worked until I could see them compiled together therefore I began making a storyboard. This storyboard really helped me as it put a timeline together where I could rearrange things and make sure it all flowed as an animation. I had to be ever so careful that my inspiration of a story book didn’t cause the animation to be very still and not come across very static.
I actually found this storyboarding process very enjoyable, as I enjoy illustrating I was able to create these images I had thought up in my head and really put them to paper. Although I did spend more than my desired time on them as much of the detail was not yet needed at this point it still helped me much later on as when I was creating my designs I already had a very good blueprint to refer to. You may notice the more I discuss my planning process that some of these scenes have since been removed for example the 2nd scene where they are dressed as superheroes and the end scene where he is reading the book as I created my animatic with these aspects involved I realized that it was just not a need and it would bring the time of my animation up too high to the point it was not manageable as a solo project. I chose these scenes because I felt they added the least to my animation especially the end as I found more closure my new ending where it is just the closing of a book which kept in tune with my theme of it being a children’s book brought to life.
Animatic
Moving along I began work on my automatic, I decided for my animatic That I would do a hand drawn start motion animation this was what I was most comfortable with and felt it would be the greatest use of my time and keep a sketchy aesthetic which would be then transferred into my final project. The animatic was used to help with timing learning up my sound that would be in my final project and was a great reference further down the line
Former original sound on this automatic I have used AI kids voice as at this point I have decided that I would like a child narration to bring back in that nostalgia theme that I have been really focusing on within the storyline. I did have a bit of struggle in the automatic with timing and composition, The majority of the feedback I was given initially was the timing as it was often too slow as kids at this age are quite energetic and move quickly therefore some scenes had to be sped up to make it more realistic. I also in the beginning had much too many walking scenes which made the animation not as exciting. To resolve this i cut up a lot of sections where cuts could be made to keep it all smooth and cohesive.
Sound
Luckily for me when it came to deciding on my sound I had already put myself in a great position by choosing that poem from the very beginning as now I had a great baseline. My main mission was to find someone with a young enough voice but also old enough to be able to read the words clear and concise with confidence. Being from West Belfast I really wanted someone from my area to do this voice over as it’s not an accent often heard in productions like these., therefor it was very important for me to showcase an accent that I have grown up with. Initially I had recruited my niece who is seven years old however it proved to be difficult as some words in the poem were very advanced meaning I had to read each word to her and often she would stumble upon those words and although it sounded very cute it was not professional enough and I had to find someone else with a bit more of a mature reading age. Luckily where I am from we have a great community and soon enough I was able to get someone in my area to perform this for me. She is 13 years of age and luckily her voice sounded just young enough to suit the animation whilst still being very clear, I am very impressed with the performance she gave as it was definitely a make or break to the story telling of this short film.
The audio file
To edit this sound I used audacity which is a free application but luckily enough was very simple to use when cutting up the audio to match the scenes in my animation.
Music
Alongside this narration I included a royalty-free instrumental in order to bridge the gap between each segment And create a calming atmosphere.
2D Character Rigging
Asset preparation
References
In order to understand the lead of my assets I needed some references these Screenshots of tutorials were great help as it helped me visualize and lay out my own assets in an concise way which was easy for me to understand and follow.
Asset creation
Now I had my pieces in place it was time to get into the technical side of things. To keep in line with my style choice my best way to on animate was to do 2D rigging this was a challenge for me as I have never done to the rigging before however it was a great opportunity to learn a new skill as 2D Animation is my preferred style. After in-depth research on different software for 2D rigging I found a plug in called Duik Angela within after effects that seemed very user friendly with a lot of tutorials online that were a great benefit to me in this process. With a lot of great recommendations from my tutor I began preparing my character for rigging initially I went with illustrator as it was a great way to organize my assets.
Above I have displayed some screenshots from the work I have created using illustrator with an illustrator I was able to create many assets of each moving piece of the body from many different angles. This was needed as in each scene if the character was turning or looking in a different direction I needed a piece of each part of the boy looking in that direction to make the animation process much much easier. In the 4th picture you will see that there is some green dots above the character design these were my guide so what I did was measured each joint so that when then I imported it to after effects it was all measured up correctly that the movement would be smooth and there wouldn’t be an overlap or a joint sticking out which could completely destroy the illusion that the boy is moving.
In the first image it is simply just a wire frame of my entire character, this allowed me to see that the lines were all in order this proved to be a great tool in keeping movements smooth and again ensuring the joints were correct.
It is clear to see that when I was creating Rex I did not get far with the illustrator design as I began reflecting on the characters on the references I had in the beginning and soon realized they were not matching the art style that I would like and more importantly the backgrounds I had created. It was a big decision to change my characters at this point as a lot of time had been put into the asset creation within illustrator however they still proved to be a great help as when I moved to procreate I was able to trace over the assets I had already made and prepared for rigging but only this time I could have them exactly how I imagined and with that more artistic sketchy style. In the end this proved to be a great risk that definitely paid off as I am extremely happy with the result and I’ve learned a great deal in the process.
Facial Features
Personally I looked forward to the creation of the facial features as I knew it would bring my characters to life. With 2D rigging there is a lot of drawing that needs to be done and although sometimes it may be tedious I found it quite enjoyable as every single piece was fully created by myself.
Here is a list of many facial expressions I created through these combination of eyes mouths and eyebrows I was able to create multiple facial expressions for both characters each eye and eyebrow was made separately so I could re-use them and alternate the for a much wider range of expression
Another aspect I had to be aware of is the fact that every tool needed for a scene I personally had to hand draw therefore I have included some of my assets including the swan and the swan attacking the suites from the sweet shop the blanket in which the kids tell scary stories on the phone that they used to take pictures throughout.
Rigging With Duik Angela
Duik Angela is a rigging animation tool kit for Adobe after effects this toolkit allows for a range of features that are not readily available on after effects such as easy to use controller and bones that conveniently speed up the rigging process and simplify the entire process. As this is a brand new method of to the animation for me I began by finding tutorials on YouTube that were clear concise and easy to understand for someone like me who is brand new to 2D character rigging.
Tutorials
These tutorials where a great use as I learnt the automatic walk cycle tool which helped me in a few of my scenes although it was difficult to use this feature alongside standard animation so in the scenes where the character is simply just walking across the screen this was useful but for other scenes I was able to create my own walk cycles.
Bone And rig Set up
Animating
Most of my time had been allocated to rigging as I knew if I had a solid rig the animation process would be much smoother and give me a much better quality animation.
Below is my run cycles for Rex and Boy using the automatic run cycle tool.
Rex walk
Boy range of movements
In these videos it can be seen I have practiced many movements on each of the characters that will be involved in my final animation A few of the movements I found a bit difficult as they are not a movement I would often think of in depth for example the scene or rex scoots along the bench seems extremely simple of a movement however when it came to animating I found it would look very unnatural and quite static. due to the keyframes not being a smooth enough motion therefore I had to create my own references as there was a lack of these online. I did this by getting a video of myself doing the same motion and slowing it down below I have included some screen grabs of this video just to give the idea of what I have used as a primary reference
With the use of Duik Angela I used key frames to animate my short film, I split each scene up into sections and animated the character separately this allowed me to keep each section quite separate and broke up the project to not feel as heavy. I find this to be quite an efficient way of animating however it did come with a learning curve and is as it is the first time I have done this especially by myself however I enjoyed learning a new skill and find this is actually a great way to animate.
Editing
to piece the animation together I use premier pro for my editing software, I found this really useful as I was able to actually insert my animatic to keep control of my timing and then scene by scene every time I finished I could then remove that from the animatic and insert my finished scene. Not only did this keep me very organized but it also helped me keep track each week by week that was getting enough done.
In this screenshotted image you can see my setup on premiere pro I was able to have my animated scenes in one section and then keep my audio clip on my music separately displayed so I could keep an eye on my timing. I had received a lot of feedback that I really needed to be careful that my narration lined up with the scenes of my animation as within premier pro I could cut up the voice note quite well to the point that each section of the poem could be set to the change of each scene. I resolved my timing issue by carefully going through and dividing each section of the form up equally within the animations there was no awkward points with just silence or too long of a stretch with only music therefore I aligned the start of each voice clip to the start of a scene so that the changeover was a lot more smooth and kept the viewer enthused.
Final Animation
Now that I have finished my animation I can confidently say I am very pleased with the outcome This is the biggest project I have done solo and I feel I have succeeded in what I set out to do. I have told a story of nostalgia, childhood innocence and created an emotional response with the multiple people I have shown this to review as they felt a connection to the story and were able to relate it to their own childhood.
I would say my biggest struggle was time management due to this being such a large project it was quite daunting at the start and when I looked at it as an entire piece of work it was quite intimidating however with a lot of support from my lecturers and tutor I was able to keep on top of it by breaking it up into little sections making it seem a lot more digestible.
End Of Year Show
The presentation of my animation is extremely important as it creates a visual for the guests to understand the theme of my project that I have been working on for this past year. I have had many ideas as to how I could display my work and other assets that I could collect however I believed with the style of my animation simplicity is best. The things I have purchased for my display is acrylic stands of my characters cut out, A classic red and white white tartan picnic blanket as although this does not occur in my animation it is another symbol of childhood for me going to the park and having a picnic therefore lining with my theme. I have also compiled an art book which I thoroughly enjoyed as throughout I very much kept in tune with books from my childhood meaning that when I could compare my artwork I also had a children’s book that I was very proud of with artwork that I enjoyed making and take pride in.
I have created stickers also as a as a kid stickers were so exciting and were a novelty to receive therefore I have made three different sticker designs of Rex and Rex with the boy together. I did play with the idea of getting a kids dinosaur onesie as they are quite popular and definitely would have been able to have purchased however since my animation is to do with childhood imagination not everything needs to be materialized as the great thing about imagination is you do not need to see it to believe it therefor keeping the magic alive.
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