11/18 Checkpoint

I realize that I did not meet my checkpoint goal today of animating to part 7 in my storyboard and only made it to part 5. Also the part I animated as always can be improved and is not the final version of that part (which is why I left my calendar open so I can edit and tweak). I did get her running composition made which since it will be used frequently will help with repeating actions as there is a lot of running involved. Looking at the seconds I have so far again I would like to add some more subtle development of her character at the beginning suchas her studying more of the environment before she starts running. She could look around more and plausibly walk around in the first scene to get a feel of the buildings. With all of this in consideration along with whatever is said in critique I still am aiming for the same goals in my calendar despite being a scene behind. I will just have to work that much harder but I feel that having some of the initial keyframing and setting up along with further undersading how I'm going to build the rest of my parts has helped the process movealong faster. I don't feel that it will set me back greatly. Also I edited my Moon Boy; mostly his skin:

Character desgins

After looking and critiquing I've decided that my boy character needs some revisions. His colors don't have to be all blue and it makes him look like some sort of weird phantom that is foreign to her warm tones (in a bad way). He needs to look like he has some flesh tones in the skin. He will still have gray/blue hair but he needs to look more human and less ghost/alien and it doesn't have to be pushed so hard that he is this blue Moon Boy; he can just happen to have some blue tones like she has some red ones. Also they look like a weird brother and sister relationship. I think I made them exist, outline-wisre, in way too much harmony. I really just need to change the shape of his head and the mouth a little (possibly even the eyes a little thinner or more squared).

November 16th

I created the rest of my Photoshop assets for today. The biggest problem I had was with Moon Boy and not trying to make him look like a something from Avatar or the Smurfs since he is blueish in tone. I think maybe I should try to make another version where he has a blue outline and silver colored clothes. I think by having so much concentrated blue he just looks like some weird alien character and not what I intend. Also I made a couple of different tree pieces where I'd just copy and paste them but I think I made need to make more and make them more varied so they won't just look excessively repeated. I decided to take out the curtains since it was mentioned in class that they weren't needed. Also I plan to drop the stage lower in the view so it won't hog up as much space.

Calendar

Nov. -Tues 16th (have all assets done)

-Thurs 18th (get to scene 7 in storyboard)

-Tues 23rd (get to part 14 in storyboard)

Tues 30th (have all initial animating done for critique)

*Dec. - Thurs 2nd (Work on editing first half of projects for DVD portfolio)

Tues 7th (edit last half of projects for DVD portfolio)

Thurs 9th (turn in DVD portfolio)

*for class continue to also improve this Final project.

Final Project Aesthetics Scene

For this assignment we just need to have our enough assets made to create a scene to test how the overall aesthetics will look for our final. This doesn't mean that this didn't require some work and thought. I decided to change my Star Girl's outline from black to a reddish-brown because the heavy weight didn't mix well with the backgrounds and scenery I made for my other pieces. The biggest problem I think I have right now is trying to figure out how to make the CC Particle Effect not look like a glow effect.

I think I need to add more layered textures to the trees and add more trees to make it look haunting and like a forest. I think I need to add more buildings in the background layer to emphasize the fading away of the city. Also the more I look at it, the "stars" in the sky are too small and need to be slightly bigger but not so much as they distract the viewer or crowd the scene. I think I need to have a further distance from the city and the tree line. Also I wonder if there should be some sort of fog effect around the trees. And furthermore if they should have some sort of line weight to them. The yellow tree could be pushed back further into space to show depth and the color hue could be toned down because the yellow is pretty distracting.

Inspired by:

This is a shot from a animation that Erik Nakamura and Saelee Oh. Saelee Oh does a lot of cut paper work and I just was drawn to this piece because even though the individual assets are flat the shadows and layering add a lot of depth.

Changes/additions to storyboard

So I added some more scenes to my storyboard to better explain the action and help me visually with the space I'm trying to design. I added in a kiss at the end like what was suggested in class and I also changed the scene around #7 because having them switch paths is confusing for this linear space. I also wanted to show that I'm comparing the idea of space and perspective purposefully to the unreality of Medieval paintings and their distortions. Hopefully this will shed some light on what I seemed to have not communicated Thursday about how there is a foreground and background and how they relate to each other. Also here's my 3 Act Structure Diagram:

Final Project Pitch

My final project will be a narrative. I looked to my theme of finding and balancing a child's perspective with an adult mind to draft my story. I found that I still like these ideas of going on a journey in search of truth, hope and the extraordinary.

Pitch: A girl discovers a mysterious glowing aura and decides to follow it through a city and into a forest. Along the way she notices that a boy is also following the force to find at the end of their journey that they have this understanding of truth in common. It all takes place on a stage with the girl and boy appearing as puppets.

Visuals: Aesthetically I want the piece to feel like a stage and the char

acters to look and behave like puppets. They will have shadow effects applied to their bodies to make them appear as 3-D objects as will rest of the sets. The stage pieces will be revealed in layers and they will always appear from below or slide "off" the stage as the sets change.

I want the characters to finally look like this piece with its 3-D qualities and textures.

Also the character himself behaves and looks very much like a puppet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0yC2ldpBFI

I want the color palette to try to resemble this in a way, meaning I found the use of lighting, shadows and color interesting. I also would like to incorporate the layers on the ground; not necessarily the stitching but layering up the ground sets to make them look like cutout collage.

This is an illustration of a city by Lane Smith and I really enjoy the abstract representation of the buildings with outlining them in blacks and whites and filling them in with texture blocks. I was wanting to utilize a series of purple hues while the ground would be reds. The image above the Lane Smith one is a background form the animated show Samurai Jack which had stunning visuals. I want the trees to resemble that odd twig form with spindly branches popping out.

I enjoy the real light show this piece puts on. I don't intend my "glow" and particles to take up as much space as this video has and in reality it'll only be a single orb with trailing sparkles waving across the screen but the animator's use of blurring and dispersing is something to think on and draw from.

Summary: The piece opens with a curtain folding back to reveal a stage with a backlight starry night. A city pops up from below the stage in layer pieces. One of the buildings has a small door on it that opens as the main Rainbow girl walks onto the set. She looks at the buildings off to her left as a mysterious glowing orb flows in from the right. She turns her head and notices it only to watch it move off screen on the right. She proceeds to follow it as the entire "set" moves to the left to reveal the next scene. As Rainbow girl follows the orb she sees that a Blue boy in the background of the set also noticing the the orb and following it. As the set moves to the left again, both the girl and boy are following the light but with her in the background and him in the foreground. The next scene shows the city trailing off and into a forest. The girl runs to the middle and stops realizing that she lost track of the light. It suddenly comes from the left and continues into the forest with her following again. The next scene shows the light hovering in a clearing in the forest. As she runs up tot he light the foreground trees scale back to reveal that the boy is across the clearing also having found the light. They both slowly walk towards the light transfixed and then notice each other. The light then glows brighter engulfing the stage set. Finally it dies away and the set goes with it. The curtains close on the stage.