[INSPIRATION] Animal Crossing

This is all related to the female character that I want to create; I wanted to create a female cat character that would be different from the main character, but not too different in terms of body shape, I personally think that the characters from Animal Crossing have an ideal body shape for the character I am wanting to create, not to mention the characters are all anthropomorphic animals, so there are cats in the game;

Animal Crossing is a life simulator as you become the mayor for a village and the villagers are animals. The entire game is aesthetically pleasing and is suitable for people of all ages, I want to create a character that has the same type of appeal as these characters. The cat I am wanting to create next will be colourful, to have a sort of contrast to the traditionally drawn cat. I will do some sketches of the character type in my sketch book and hopefully come up with an idea after looking at some of the cat characters featured in Animal Crossing. Below is the trailer for their latest game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf: 

[FILM] Ethel & Ernest

Ethel and Ernest was a breath of fresh air to see a traditionally hand-drawn animation in a cinema, independent cinema I might add. It was a beautiful and emotional story about Raymond Briggs' parents and their life from 1928 to 1971. The film was hand-drawn animation eye candy, it was beautifully animated and I felt it gave traditionally drawn animation a push in the right direction. However, one of the main things that struck me is this question: Why didn't this get a mainstream release?

Raymond Briggs' isn't a stranger animated movies, although his movies usually last roughly around 20 to 30 minutes. But is this a case that because the film is hand-drawn, it is pushed towards independent cinema with only a week to view it? Not necessarily, in my personal opinion I felt that the subject of the film may have been slightly niche for a mainstream audience, although the film was an animated PG rated film, I would definitely not say it was for children as it followed a difficult narrative theme. The film to me felt like it was targeting a much older generation or people interested in British history, overall it had a slight 'documentary' feel to it.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film wholeheartedly, however I cannot see many people wanting to see it in mainstream cinema in contrast to other animated films. Lets use Sausage Party as an example; Sausage Party was an adult animated film which came out in mainstream cinema in March 2016, The film was a direct parody of CGI animated films and had an all star cast of voice actors, the film was brimming with jokes and adult humor and has made over $136,000,000 in the Box Office. 

However, both films were successful, Sausage Party is considered a Commercial Success while Ethel & Ernest was a Critical Success. Ethel & Ernest's demographic aren't cinema goers, this film didn't need a mainstream theatrical release as the director knew it'd only be seen by a hand full of people, the film wasn't intended to entertain, it was more art or a cultural expression. Whereas Sausage Party has a high production value, was intended as escapism entertainment and followed a safe narrative which made it a commercial success.

Neither film were failures, they both achieved their intended outcomes, however this again backs up a point in which I am making in regards to my research; It's not the animation that determains the films future, it's the story.

[DRAWINGS] The Female Cat Design Ideas

As stated in the Story Development blog post, I will be creating 4 different characters for this animation; Max the Cat, The Old Animator, The Young Animator and finally, a female, modern cat. For me, this character has a huge role in this animation now, as it is the key contrast to Max the Cat, rather than the Animators. I want it to be a cat, with somewhat similar aesthetics to Max, but completely different. I don't want a realistic looking cat, nor do I want a sort of human/cat hybrid, I want the design to be small, cute and a similar size and shape to Max.

I want this cat to represent digital animation, in contrast to Max representing traditional animation, however I want them to feel like they have some things in common and somethings not in common, for example: I want Max to be able to utalize the principles of animation to impress the female cat, whereas I want the female cat to use motion tweens and effects to impress Max. 

I'm still in the early stages of ideas for this cat, however I feel like the two cat should made a good team, I will develop this cats desgins further and hopefully create something that I will be happy with.

[RESEARCH] The Box Office

The Box Office plays a huge part of my research, as it is a full list of recorded sales for animated films in each year, especially in comparing the Box Office sales to hand-drawn animation to CGI; from looking at how well Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) did compared to Shrek (2001) to how well Winnie the Pooh (2011) did compared to Rio (2011). 

One of the things I have noticed while looking at the Box Office is the huge decline in the market share for Hand-drawn animation compared to the huge rise in the sales of Digital animation, in 1995 Digital animation only had 2.83% market share in comparison to Hand-drawn animation's 3.79%, now in 2016 Digital animation has 19.19%, a huge increase in comparison to Hand-drawn animation, which has plummeted to 1.48%.

"Market share represents the percentage of an industry or market's total sales that is earned by a particular company over a specified time period. Market share is calculated by taking the company's sales over the period and dividing it by the total sales of the industry over the same period. This metric is used to give a general idea of the size of a company in relation to its market and its competitors." ("Market Share")

This is striking, as because of the low market shares of the hand-drawn animation industry compared to the high market share of the digital animation industry, it cripple the chances of future mainstream hand-drawn animation as investors would surely head in the direction of the market that is ever increasing in contrast to a market that has been decreasing every year slowly. Right now, Although hand-drawn animation hasn't got the lowest market shares in all mediums of animation (Stop-motion animation 0.31%, Multiple Production Methods 0.01% and  Rotoscoping 0.00%) it's still a sign that hand-drawn animation needs to do something that hasn't been achieved in any other medium, it needs to reinvent itself. or else the future of hand-drawn animation will slowly decrease until it's at the bottom of the market share list along side Rotoscoping.

 "Market Share". Investopedia. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.

[INSPIRATION] Big Hero Six - Fred

I have an image in my mind for how I want the young animator to look, the only person I can really compare it to is one of the sidekick characters from the film Big Hero Six (2014), Fred. Fred is a shaggy looking guy who wears baggy clothing, he has a long face and has a very laid back appearance to him, a very stereotypical lanky young man whose age range is around 19 - 24.

I want to create a character with similar attributes, lanky with baggy clothing, similar to perhaps Shaggy from Scooby Doo, Where are you? (1969). Although Fred is depicted as an eccentric young man who could be considered overbearing, I am wanting to create a man who keeps to himself, but also appears to not look after himself, perhaps spends most nights up late.

The character design for Fred isn't particularly anything special, if I am honest, however I find him very aesthetically pleasing to view, as he is a very average joe looking character. I hope to capture this when I create the finished character design for my Young Animator character

[PRACTICE] Animation Test #3

Above you can see the latest animation test I have done for my animation When Dreams Became Data [Working Title], Max the Cat bouncing on the spot in a similar style to old 1920's animation. I wanted to create a small loopable animation for the presentation I had to do last Friday, and overall I am incredibly happy with the outcome. I personally feel like  captured the heart of old school animation, however, there are still many things I need to improve.

While doing this animated test there were a few things I learnt; one of them is that you can cheat tracing by photocopying a frame of from the animation, lowering it slightly and then tracing over that, just make sure to draw the feet in the same place. Speaking of feet, another thing I have learnt is that I should always draw the feet first when creating a stationary character, if I draw the character moving their upper-body and the feet don't match up with the previous frame, the animation will look incredibly odd. The last thing I have learnt is that you cannot tell any mistakes once it's finished, I made a couple of mistakes with the ears and the hands, however once the frames are altogether you cannot even tell if there is anything wrong.

Overall, I am very happy with the little loop animation I created and gave me confidence that I will be able to animate the character using a light-box, I will continue to create more animation tests in the future, but I feel that this is the first step to help bring Max the Cat to life.

[DRAWINGS] The Young Animator Design Ideas

Although I was considering having a young animator as the main animator rather than an old animator as seen in the Second Character, I have now thought of a new storyline which can incorporate both Young and Old animators as mentioned in the Story Development blog post. I am wanting to create a lanky looking young man, possibly early 20s who seems like a very shaggy character. From the get go, I wanted to young animator to have similar features to perhaps Shaggy from Scooby Doo or Fred from Big Hero Six or perhaps even Lars from Steven Universe. Below are two final design ideas:

I will further develop these characters in the near future, I want him to be relatable to a young audience, perhaps an aspiring animator? I want there to be a distinct contrast between him and the old animator, polar opposites in the way they act, look and animate.