We each decided to create characters, a stage and a storyboard to get different designs and have options to agree on the final.

For the final storyboard we combined a few scenes from other team members storyboard and did it collectively on a whiteboard.

We later decided which character each person will be modelling. that gave us an opportunity to do a few more changes to the character design and eventually get our models done, while keeping each other up to date to keep a consistent style throughout the modelling stage.

Designs and references:

The bunny – Sylvanian family doll rabbit, the design I did for the failed attempt.

Fox – the previous fox design, fox in zayka-zaznayka 1976.

Squirrel – anthropomorphism in children’s stories.

Hedge hog design – old mouse in Rango 2011.

Puppet theatre – a vintage French guignol theatre.

My story board :

Final story board done by all members:

The bunny ran out of carrots and went on a walk to collect some, through her journey she gets warnings from an old hedge hog and a mother squirrel to turn back but doesn’t heed their warning and consequently gets killed by the fox as a result.

What didn’t work: but helped in creating the final story.

The story I came up with:

Similarly to the little red riding hood but instead with a twist, the little girl must deliver a little farm animal to a neighbour and gets stopped by a well-mannered fox or so it seemed. He tricks her and eats her farm animal – The story still felt too much like its inspiration and not everyone was into the idea.

The storyboard:

The mood board as well as reference for the character designs, most elements were still used for the final story:

Overall style (colours, art style – grungy, realistic): Corallines 2009 doll, Tim burton, Pinocchio 1940, the sandman1992.

The characters of this story were inspired by characters from the mood board and were used as in inspiration for myself in creating my final design:

Grandma – The mother in kolobok 1956.

The fox – Fox from kolobok 1956, fox in pinnochio 1940, fox in Rango 2011.

The bunny – Sylvanian family doll rabbit.

The little girl – coraline 2009, masha 2009.

The sketch:

3D attempt :

Stage – a vintage French guignol theatre, Slavic home from kolobok 1956.

Communicating with the team:

We discussed and put together a story with our own addition, while drawing inspiration from the previous story and focusing on the moral of heed the warning.

We tasked ourselves to creating the final character designs, a stage and a storyboard.

The final story for our animation:

To put it simply it’s a story about a little bunny that doesn’t listen when warned by a squirrel and a hedge hog, not to wander too far away and gets killed by a fox.

The Beginning of my thinking process: what could be done, as a story of a journey with characters not having legs:

The best concept for a short, understandable and easily conveyed story with any type of character: would be a story with a moral, like children’s bedtime stories for example.

I was interested to share with my group the idea of making a short animation about a children’s story of our own.

References/ research:

Story references: grimm’s fairy tales (little red riding hood), fables of Fontaine/ monster stories like a folk tale about babaika, the boogey man

Story reference/ inspiration for the art style: Kolobok 1956, the tale of the sandman 1992, the tale of tales specifically the lullaby 1979.

Ideas we didn’t use and why:

1. Ideas I shared with my group:

• A tale of a strawberry with an adventurous spirit wanting to explore. She is reminded several times about the dangers; she ignores it and dies after venturing too far – could have worked but not many characters would be animated.
• A tale of selkies and humans destroying their homes – wasn’t approved by the whole group and wouldn’t work with the rule of no legs.

2. Ideas thought of by the group:

• A tale of jam jars dancing but not being careful enough with each other and one of them falls and breaks – doesn’t fit into the ideas of a journey.
• A tale with a mother bat and her children, and the journey of her shy baby bat gaining confidence and finally getting out of the nest – could have worked but didn’t get all the teams approval.

Communicating with the team:

Common interest in making a children’s fairy tale with a grim ending. And an idea we liked, was conveying it in a form of a puppet show, to avoid legs and emphasize its for children.

We started off with some sketches of ideas we could go for the stage and style of puppets and tasked ourselves to come up with a story.