keyframes

Drawing out the keyframes stage this is the most crucial to buildup from with the foundations. 

Of the project movements planing it out it can be quite a daunting an time consuming task but drawing out these scruffy frames in flash gives me a idea of the movements I wanted the characters to create an build on in animating it fully. 

Some examples of my scruffy flash keyframes in progress

timing

After having a key concept built up in previous weeks I started to develop into timing out the duration of my animation in a visual animatic using the storyboard, I had already created. to build on the key scenes of the film with a audio track too that would be reading out the poem this 

the first ruffly timed out animatic plan for a film I'm making with a bursary with the animation and film studio London.

story is about a little boy who suffers with selective mutism making him fear speaking in class.

(is only a ruff version i did with my voice …so its not perfect)

anyway my animation fitted into ruffly around 2 minutes with all the scenes included.

time frame

One thing that is crucial in animation is the planning of tasks especially as i found in past projects, especially as I am making this film independently to a quite quick turn around of a few months, for this reason I had to be realistic on how much time i would set myself to do the work so i didn't end with a frantic panic too close to a deadline as well as give myself time a buffer to catchup in if tasks take longer.

>time plan

(felling very organised)

concept arty stuff

As I have started the project Im now investing time in drawing out all my concept work visuals from the earlier research I already have a vague idea of how the characters will look like.

and from the mood boards I created what I would want the animation image style to look like 

In drawing it out it would be easier to get a plan on paper of the character forms and environment they will be walking in as well as the style aspects would be represented. 

As I had planned the animation to be styled in a way that mixed the two forms of drawing in 2d as well as creating 3d characters for stop motion and how the background could mix the two styles with my trademark detailing.

In my story the kids would be represented by as both children but also a representation of what the character fears so having them able to develop into another form is suiting. 

I also wanted them to look separate form the key character in being created in a vector like style. they seam detached from the main character who will be in 3d form. 

The outline was important so redoing in pen showed off the more graphic style.

Drawing out the key characters to appear 3d was a bit more difficult as pencil form to get a perspective of what the character should look like.

I also wanted the character to be textual in its crafted 3d form like felt or fabric. so colouring it out in pencil shading is what i felt would come closet to that parts of the character like the eye and mouth expressions i think i would like to animate in flash as a way of bring the character to life aswell as working in the deadline time constraints.

   

Backdrops work as a bit of a happy medium between this 3d world and flat 2d form I also want it to be quite detailed with patterns on leaves and objects I tried to get a idea of this in fine liner.

Mood board inspirations

After getting selected I've been working up these visuals from the past week but also looking at other animations that can help inspire me with there story or style.

I always wanted to create a animation that mixed animation mediums in a Un-convental way my previous projects I have been focused on making my illustrations appear to come alive in flash or after effects. But I was always interested in creating something that was 3d in form, yet still working with the skills i have acquired animating in 2D in either a graphic styled way.

The mixing of something that feel real as a 3d form so had been hand made with the style of something flat an graphic is defiantly something i wanted to try out. 

Heres a mood board of various animations i found did this or played with the movements in a similar way.

—mood board of animator style

Also here are some illustrations that also interested me as a style of the work i wanted to create helping me generate a mood set of colours.

—moodboard illustrators

starting a fresh project

I recently one a computation for an animation nursery with the animation and film studio London, to help support and launch from a animated short film of my creation this will be shown with several of the big UK animation festivals.

Winning this was a big achievement as there is often very little support for creating independent  animated shorts so although it is a bit daunting i didn't want to let them down in creating something I would be proud of and hopefully they could launch an show off too.

The story involves a little boys fear of speaking and contributing to a class environment an so looses the ability to speak with this fear. 

The subject of inspiration was selective mutism that many kids grow up with and have a difficulty in explaining how they feel as well as finding a way of overcoming it.

 This story was something I had been interested in creating, as visualising a feelings of the condition as well as a narrative understanding was the point of the story. 

This subject has a bit of a personal link to me in my upbringing as something I suffered throughout most of my childhood and adolescence in education system as a strong Fobia of speaking in group environments and the social paranoia that often came with it of having my words dissected or twisted against me left me often without a voice,  As well as this gave me a distant disposition which could often be mis interpreted with hostility.

Growing up I have been able to overcome this by gaining confidence in myself from my creative attributes, so the poem hopefully will give people a better understanding of what its like as well as inspire kids with a similar mentality to overcome it too with focusing on something they enjoy. 

storyboard 
My story animation was built around a narrative of a short poem i wrote to pitched to the animation bursary competition and a series of visual storyboards both are below.

unspoken poem

There once was a child that lost their voice,

Their words disappeared but it wasn't a choice.

It was built in fear for when they spoke out, 

That others would laugh, tease and shout.

This fearing of when they spoke,

The words be turned against them like a sharpen poke.

Each word became a fear, which caused them to choke.

When they where told to speak,

Their body trembles and they would feel week 

SPEAK , SPEAK !

But there where no words to fill the silence

It was only seen as an act of defiance.

Then at home alone in their thoughts fled,

To try and forget from what people had said.

Into another world instead,

For their are other things that couldn't speak, 

That didn't make them feel a freak or week

Perhaps, their voices overshadowed simply

What can truly be heard with empathy?

Outside the ordinary world, looking for something more.  

This curiosity drove on more, to look deeper study and draw 

Understanding simple actions alone.

Instead of a sharp gossiping tone

They see what as unheard in this world that was never alone.

Finding other ways to communicate in paper and pen,

Till finding the lost confidence and to speak again.

Wacom trial

Recently I've been able to tryout a continue companion which is a pressure sensitive digital tablet that is part of the Wacom family. 

This I have been quite exited about as a new way of using digital mediums as I already had been using a small Wacom bamboo stylus with my mac system for the past 5 years or so an want to see how it could further my digital work. 

Unboxing on arrival it taken me a while to set it up in activating it fully as most of the instructions where online instead in the unboxing (….which as typical irony goes i only found out once i had finally figured it out how to set it up on trial and error)

As it runs on a window 8 operating system I was not used to initially (being mostly a mac user to date) but after tweaking all the nessary updates managed to get it working. 

It wasn't too hard to get used to using the pen as the pressure sensitivity seamed to function quite well as clean strokes across the system come naturally if you have ever used a Wacom system before.   

   

Using the pen and having your hand directly on the screen, can be a bit visually obstructing too to start with especially, this can also be a difficult thing to get used to if you have already used a Wacom bamboo before and are used to seeing just a clear screen view if its in digital retouching.

This can become a bit of a similar problem in some softwares in accessing some of the tabs in several of the adobe softwares and menu functions being so small to click on and adjust easily.

Without a keyboard plugged in the tablet using keyboard normal digital shortcuts can be incredibly difficult to do. 

Even with the built in optional digital built in keyboard, this can be tedious an take up a 3rd of the screen space as well as fiddly to open and close for a quick short cut key.

Inspite of this initial difficulty some software applications suited more for design purposes there are some software's applications that too are far better suited for the Cintiq than others.

In particular digital colouring is something I found much easier to do quickly and adjust to the tablet pens system quickly as colouring images was easier given the familiarity of the pen to that of a brush and its pressure sensitivity being very responsive. 

This was also a great plus with some softwares like Corel draw or photoshop being able to build up very detailed digital images that rich in colour an are quickly adjustable layers and brush effects.

This also applied simarly to working in a animation format where as i had previously struggled creating frame by frame animation in flash from just a bamboo that didn't appear as a slightly scruffy style of output I can draw out the frames quickly and easily that are a lot easier also to clean up in-between which makes the process faster and somewhat similar to its lighbox drawing board roots in enjoyment.
Overall i did like using it an hope i can keep it if i can afford to do so, an see how it works better with the new animation project I'm working on.