[PERSONAL] When Dreams Became Data in 2017

Now that I have completed my animatic, I now need to focus on the actual animation production, this includes finding a suitable musician for the score, learning how to animate using clay-mation and mastering inputting traditionally drawn characters into Flash. I have been influenced by many different things this year and my eyes have been opened to a whole world of different techniques, animations and methods to producing animations, I have a whole new respect for animation from the 1920s to 1940s and I hope that in the new year I can make a faithful homage to that with Max the Cat.

I still feel like I need to work on May the Cats designs, as her designs shift alot through the animatic, some shots have her with whiskers, some shots have her with beady eyes while some shots I have given her large eyes. I feel like I still need to do a lot of work before I jump into producing the animation, however, now that the animatic is complete, once I do sort all the character issues out, I can head right into the animation.

I look forward to producing the animation in 2017, as I feel it will come out as a fantastic animation, I hope I can keep everything up and produce something that people of all ages can enjoy and appreciate the meaning behind everything, roll on 2017.

[PRODUCTION] Production Schedule

Now that I have each scene and shot list written down, this should make it easier to create a production schedule, I want to make sure I get everything done in time so I have only created the schedule up until the 27/08/2017 giving me lots of extra time at the end to clean everything up and do any post production I may need to do.

To view the Schedule, click here.

Because of this time frame, this means I will need to create 3 different shots a week in order to to make the deadline I have set, however, if I am unable to do this I still have plenty of time to finish after the deadline. The production schedule doesn't however take into consideration; Max's shots, the after credits and any other forms of the production that I may need to create (Live action videos for reference, quick drawings, soundtrack etc), it is solely a production list of each scene and shot.

Using this production schedule allows me to work at my own pace without the fear of thinking I am working too slow, or alternatively, rushing the work. I can clearly see what I have done, in what time frame and what I need to do.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Complete

Above is the finished animatic for the animation I am producing; When Dreams Became Data, the run time is roughly 4 and a half minutes, however the timing is subject to change while producing the actual animation. There were many things I struggled with during the production of this animatic, timing being one thing and trying to visualize how I will animate Max on paper and translate it to digital. I changed the ending to this animatic from my storyboards, while I was discussing the storyboards with my lecturer Sarah Kennedy, we came to the conclusion that the film appears complete once the two finally hold hands, so I decided to end it there, and have an after credits scene where the young animator rushes out of the room, and leaves the two holding hands in their drawn positions. I personally like this ending more as it seems much nicer, plus it allows the audience to wonder what happens when he wakes up, and then we see.

All that is left now is to begin the production of the actual animation now, which I will start at the beginning of 2017, the animation should take me a few months to complete along side the other work I am required to do while studying on the Masters, however I want to make sure this animation is the best I have produced. I want to be able to showcase this animation at film festivals, I so far do not have any work in which I am proud of, so I am hoping this will be the first.

[TELEVISION] Walt Disney - Part 2

Walt Disney on BBC 2 was a wonderful insight into the world of Walt Disney, we delve into Disney's fascination with creating art, as well as the creation of Cinderella, Dumbo, Bambi and Fantasia, we are also introduced to his new dream, Disney Land in the second of the two parter.

In the second part of the documentary, we are shown Walt Disney's fascination with creating animation as a new form of art, he was adamant that animation could and should be appreciated as forms of art, however, Hollywood still saw them as children's cartoons. After creating Snow White, he wanted to create animations which were completely different from one and other, Dumbo is completely different from Fantasia, Bambi is also completely different from Pinocchio, he wanted to keep creating something new, fresh and different.

I feel that nowadays, this is an issue that hand-drawn animation is facing, Walt Disney was so adamant that his films were to be perfect, that out of all the films he created, he only considers Snow White to be a masterpiece, the first feature cartoon he created. He then went of to try something different, playing with special effects in Pinocchio, focusing the beauty and terror of nature in Bambi and focusing on music and having music as the main narrative. He also created the Silly Symphony series as a way of experimenting with animation, and viewing the potential of hand-drawn animation. This is something I feel should be happening nowadays, as hand-drawn animation is at a standstill in mainstream cinema, Walt Disney was adamant that hand-drawn animation had potential, and now, hand-drawn animation is being overshadowed by CG animation. 

This was a fantastic documentary, it opened up many doors to Walt Disney's life until his death, all the hardships he faced during his career as an animator, and innovator. I would recommend this documentary to anybody to watch. 

[DRAWINGS] The first Sketchbook

I have completed the first sketchbook which also doubles as my second reflective journal alongside this blog, the sketchbook is currently filled with 53 pages of drawings, sketches and concepts from back when my original idea was about a robot, to when Max was a Monkey all the way up to the designs of the Young animator and the Old animator. I have uploaded a few pages to the blog, however if you want to read the full sketchbook I will post a link below:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SKETCHBOOK IN FULL

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Update #06

I have now began to animate Max and May more and more, the scenes I am working on revolve heavily on character animation, as Max is squashing and stretching, while breaking the laws of physics. During these scenes, Max stretches from one sheet of animation paper to the next and retrieves a flower, then because he made May laugh, he then melts into a puddle, these shots required me to do more character animation than I have previously done within this animatic to get across what was going on, as as previously stated, I haven't updated the text on the screen to help explain what is occurring on screen.

So far, the animatic is coming along nicely and at a good pace, the animatic should be complete in the next few days as we are coming up to the climax, I will have to try and animate Max running across the wall to reach the far wall, this will include him running through a whiteboard which I still need to research. Overall, the animatic is coming along nicely, I am very happy with how it looks so far, I don't feel like it is dragging in any scenes, however if I do see any scenes that feel unnecessarily long I will be sure to cut them out.

[TELEVISION] Walt Disney - Part 1

Walt Disney on BBC 2 was a wonderful insight into the world of Walt Disney, starting at when he was aged 19 we follow him from the creation of Alice's Wonderland and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Pinocchio in the first of the two parter.

Part one of the documentary delved into how the early cartoons were made, animators were given mirrors and attended acting classes so they could understand how to portray expressions on characters, animators attended life drawing classes and taught by art lectures, and we even saw how animators studied special effects by filming glass breaking. We learnt about the struggles of Walt Disney, the bankruptcy and the breakdowns he faced, I learnt so much more about his life which I had no idea even existed.

One of the most exciting things I saw during the documentary, were the all the rubber-hose animations I've been watching on YouTube right on my television. it was very insightful into how they were created and brilliant to see in full high definition quality. compared to the poor 240p quality on YouTube. There were videos from Max Fleischer, Pat Sullivan and ofcourse Walt Disney, it was great to see all these animations and more, while Rebecca Gethings narrated the information on the screen. 

I look forward to watching Part 2 of the documentary, as I feel it will be just as informative as this part, if not more insightful.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Update #05

Today I have finished a few more seconds of footage for my animatic, I have now finally introduced May the Cat into the animatic and Max and May have finally met. This was difficult as I also had the scene where Max has to travel down the animation paper to reach some that allows him to see May, however, I feel like I did this well. Using a few character references I was able to do a quick run and jump image of Max going from one sheet of paper to the next, then using the camera to pan from one paper to the next. 

I feel I still need to work on how May the Cat moves around, as she is  more confined than Max is. However, I feel that the work I have produced so far is coming along well, I am particularly proud of the end shots in this where May and Max are somewhat interacting with one and other.

[FILM] We're Going on a Bear Hunt

We're going on a bear hunt is an adaptation of a classic children's book which came out this Christmas, although I felt the story was drawn out a little too much, the animation was fantastic. I had previously emailed Robin Shaw about the future of hand-drawn animation who states that, "We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is an adaptation of a children’s picture book, which has to nod respectfully towards the original illustrations." The animation was undoubtedly beautiful and captured the beauty of British landscapes. 

One of the main reasons why I want to discuss this film is not necessarily because of the art direction, but rather the timing of the animation. Many of my previous animations have had timing issues, and it is something I want to address with this animation, getting rid of anything unnecessary. We're going on a Bear Hunt to me, felt like it added an unnecessary narrative about the death of a grandparent and the unnecessary perspective of the bear at the end. The film could have been a 10 minute classic, but ended up being a 30 minute film which tried to touch upon more than the original storybooks intentions. 

Overall, the animation quality was wonderful, and a real nod into how much 2D traditional animation has grown. However, I feel that this is another example of where narrative lets down the medium. Looking at reviews of the film I am seeing more and more of the same views as myself, where the story was unnecessarily depressing for a children's film or it felt too long. To me, it was a wonderful film to watch, but I think it could have been much better and should have been a push in the right direction for traditionally drawn animation.

[BOOK] Warner Bros Animation Art: The Characters and the Creators

Warner Bros Animation Art is a fantastic book which features artwork, character profiles and many many more wonderful bits of information about the Warner Bros animation. The book doesn't focus only on the Looney Toons, it focuses on all of their creations, such as Tiny Toons, Animatiacs and many spin offs, making this an all around book about the Warner Brothers universe. 

The book not only teems with information about the Warners universe, but also has so much art work, concept art and stills from episodes. As I have previously stated, I am influenced greatly by the Warner cartoons, as they have a very distinct wackiness that isn't found in Disney classics. Max the Cat has many things taken from Warner Bros animations, from the aesthetics of the character to how he acts, Max is self aware that he is an animated character, as are the Warner Bros in many of their animated cartoons, especially in Animaniacs and Tiny Toons.

Overall, this book is a brilliant read and I would recommend it to anyone, it has lots of information about the history of the studio as well as the history of the Warner cartoons. The character artwork in the book are brilliant references for Max the Cat and will be useful when I begin production of the animation.

"If the decades and decades of everything that was ever great about the Warner cartoons could be distilled into a single character, it would be Bugs Bunny."

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Update #04

Today I started on the second scene in the animatic which introduces the young animator. As you may have noticed, I have not continued with the words in the top left corner, I will continue to input what is happening on the screen later as I feel the actual animatic takes precedence for the time being. For this scene, I completed the shots where Max and the young animator meet, as well as the young animator setting up his drawing tablet and drawing May the Cat.

I feel that I am about halfway through the animation process, and my animatic should come up to roughly around 4 mins to 4 and a half mins.

[INSPIRATION] Aardman Animations, Ltd.

Stop-motion clay animation isn't my specialty, however, I have been watching them since I was a young boy, particularly, Aardman Animations, Ltd. From Morph, to Wallace and Gromit I have thoroughly enjoyed watching their animated features, as previously posted I have been and talked to one of the storyboard artists from Aardman. I have been researching recently how Aardman do their pre-production, is it the same for clay-motion as it is for 2D?

During my research of Aardman Animations, I came across many different pre-production examples from the Aardman animation studio, ranging from character designs, character studies, background tests, concept art, storyboards and animatic panels. I found this very useful, as the methods to produce clay-animated pre-production is almost identical to producing traditionally animated pre-production, below are character design examples:

Backgrounds are slightly different however, as you don't keep redrawing backgrounds from different angles, backgrounds are just sets. Almost all the background designs I found have the same angle; an overall 180ish degree look at the room. Below are a few examples;

Storyboard panels and animatic shots are similar however, they have the characters in their 'on-model' positions, are finalized later. These are useful to see as I may be required to do a small animatic for the clay animation if the scene I animate requires it. Below are a few storyboard and animatic panels for example;

Overall, Aardman have influenced animators for many years, I am no different. The pre-production that Aardman create will be useful references to use when I begin to create my own pre-production for the small clay-animation. For the time being however, I need to focus my time and efforts on the actual animation, finishing the animatic for When Dreams Became Data is my number one priority.

[DRAWINGS] Recent Sketches: 01/12/2016 - 20/12/2016

I have been focusing more and more of my attention on Max the Cat in my sketchbook, as he is the character which will be solely drawn on paper, I want to draw him in a variety of different poses so I can gauge how he will be expressed in specific positions. I am happy with the drawings I have been producing as I feel they capture the essence of classic animation as well as a hint of modern animation. 

I have nearly finished my sketchbook now so I will continue to sketch in a new sketchbook, I do find Max fun to draw, more so than many other characters I have drawn in the past, I think I will enjoy animating Max using a light-box, as I feel that he will be the most fun character out of all of my cast of characters.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Update #03

Today I wanted to get the first scene finished, the first scene is includes the beginning until the old animator passes away. Once I finished this scene I opened a new Flash file to continue with the other scenes. However, I am happy with how this scene turned out, I may alter the timing to when we travel through time, however I may change that once I have more time at the end.

The animation so far is coming along nicely, I will continue to animate the animatic more throughout December, I feel that at the pace I am animating I should get it finished before Christmas. Below is the third draft of the animatic:

[PRACTICE] Animation Test #6

As stated earlier, I created a new animation test to see how the new desk would fit in with the props in the video, the test is the same image that is on The Animators Desk post however I wanted to see how everything fits together, now that I figured out how to bitmap the jpeg images to rid the pixelation as well as animate Max in the background, below is the finished result:

[BOOK] The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation

The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation is a brilliant book which takes us through the history of Peanuts Animation, from A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965 to Happiness is a Warm Blanket in 2011. Although I have never really mentioned Peanuts animation before during the animation process, it is a big influence for the animated characters in my story, Peanuts animation is very simplistic as it follows the traditions of the comic strips, simplistically.

One of the great things about this book is that it not only talks about the stories that have been animated, but it also shows the pre-production, such as scripts, storyboards, concept art and character models, to the post production of more recent Peanuts animated films. I want May the Cat to have a simplicity to her that is often seen in the Peanuts animated features, I personally believe that Peanuts creates simplicity very well, as sometimes, simplicity can be the downfall for an animation. One of the great things about this book is that it has examples of character walk-cycles, this is something I have been searching for for a while as Peanuts have very distinct and very simplistic walk-cycles for their characters, this sis something I will study alot during the production of my animation.

Overall, this is a fantastic book and a great read, it is lighthearted and is a brilliant trip down memory lane. The art which is featured in the book is perfect, ranging from concept art from the first ever peanuts animation, to some of the scripts with all the notes intact.

"You can watch one-hundred-million-dollar movies that espouse the virtues of humility and simplicity, but in A Charlie Brown Christmas, you have something that actually is simple. Everything about the production of the cartoon espouses the virtues of the cartoon. That's an incredibly rare thing." - Doug Sweetland (2012)

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Update #02

Today I wanted to get some character animation done on Max the Cat as well as use some of the animation tests I did in for footage. As you can see, I used the animation test 06 in the footage during the scene where the animator is drawing Max for the first time, to finish the character off I also used the ending for the animation test 05. I have also added a more detailed drawing of the old animator as he sits down at the animation desk, this is to show what the character will actually look like in the scene, below is the animatic:

I will continue to produce the animatic and hopefully get it all complete before the beginning of January.

[INSPIRATION] Whiteboard Animation

During my animation, there will be a sequence where Max the Cat runs across a whiteboard, during this sequence, I will draw Max the Cat onto a whiteboard and take photos myself, while animating him. This will be a difficult task as I have never created a whiteboard animation before, however I believe it is the same principle as stop-motion. I will more than likely use the same technique as what I am doing with the traditional animation, and animate it all in one spot and use Flash to move the characters around the paper.

One thing to note about whiteboard animation is that there isn't many around, there aren't any feature films what use it, and so far I have only come across a few student films or animation tests such as:

 

As you can see, these are all fairly amateur and made just for fun, none use character animation so it is difficult to find a suitable reference, however as the scene is only for around 15 seconds I am sure i'll be able to figure something out. The scene will consist of a run cycle with the possibility of Max looking around the whiteboard in confusion.

[DRAWINGS] Animaniacs Hand Study

I find hands difficult to draw, however, because the character I have created pays homage to the styles of classic characters, he has gloves on similar to old Warner bros and Disney characters. Having cartoon characters wear gloves goes back to when cartoons were black and white, and animators had to make characters hands show up more easily, plus gloves were fashionable back then. I have previously tried to draw hands as you can see below, however I wanted to try and do a hand-study for characters which I personally really like, the Warner Bros; from Animaniacs.

As previously stated, the Warner Bros pay homage to vintage rubber hose characters with their black and white bodies and gloves, however are thrown into a modern world. Making them the perfect candidates to base Max the Cats hands on. The Animaniacs' hands are interesting, as they are very expressive, as well as fairly elongated when straight. They only have four fingers like other classic cartoon characters of vintage times, and personally I think the hand study went really well, as you can see below:

The more I drew the hands, the more confident I began to be, so after a good few attempts I tried to draw the hands faster, using a stop watch I timed myself and limited myself to 20 seconds per hand. I wanted to see if the quality could stay the same while rushing, as well as try to match the style, below is the result:

Overall I am happy with the outcome and I feel that my hand drawing skills have improved greatly, I will continue to draw hands as it is something that I feel could be improved.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Update #01

Today I began to create the animatic for my animation, after a few rocky starts I was able to produce this 25 second clip from my animatic, watch below:

I am hoping to stay faithful to the storyboard as much as possible, one thing I am adding which I never added before is notes in the animatic for reference. This will help me when I begin the animation process as well as help other people understand what is happening on screen. A second thing I have added is a quote at the beginning of my animation, I want the quote to get the people who watch the animation to think about what animation actually is, so I thought the best quote for this would be Walt Disney's:

"Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world." - Walt Disney

This to me sums up animation perfectly. I will continue with the animatic very shortly, so far I have covered 4 panels from my storyboard and it has already equated to 25 seconds, I believe the animation will run approximately 4 to 5 minutes if this continues, I may have to speed it up in certain scenes. 

[PRACTICE] The Animators Desk

 As stated in a few previous posts, I want to create a space for the animators to work which isn't just an old looking desk, I wanted to create something similar to a desk that animators would use back in the 1930s, something with areas for animation paper, finished drawing, equipment and various other tools, overall I wante the desk to be able to fit both the light-box and the drawing tablet, so I changed the desk from this:

To this:

While I was creating this desk, I noticed that it gives the whole room a bit more of a character to it, however, the shelves on top of the desk didn't look right with the light-box or the cintiq, as the perspective looked off and I couldn't work with the animation paper which would be on the wall. I decided to get rid of the top of the desk and stick with having a new bottom with extra storage space, below is what the finished prop looked like in the scene:

Personally I like how the new desk looks, I don't think it needs the other shelves as there is enough storage for the animator. I may experiment in the future by having a couple of filing cabinets next to the desk.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Research - Vintage Pencil Tests

Vintage animatics are hard to come by, as storyboards were sufficient enough for animators back in the 1930s, however, one of the more popular things to create were animation/pencil tests. These tests were created to help show how characters would be animated and drawn, they vary from having backgrounds, to being full scenes to just being 10 second clips, however, because they are so uncommon I struggled to find examples, below I found one of Brad Bird's earlier Pencil Tests for an unfinished animation, The Spirit (1980).

The Spirit (1980) Pencil Test:

When studios did create animatics, they varied in quality. They were often animated very well however because of financial constraints they were often left intentionally simple, the skill came from getting the idea across with just camera moves, good editing and limited animation.

I have been creating animation tests myself, one of the more similar tests to these would be the fourth test I created. below are a few examples of where the animator has simply created animation tests to show how the characters will be animated on screen.

Piper (1974) Pencil Test:

Again, vintage animatics are somewhat rare and are hard to come across these days. However the process isn't too different to how it is these days, when I begin to create my animatic I will of course take more inspiration from how animatics are created in modern days rather than vintage, as there are more examples of contemporary animatics. However, looking at a variety of animation and pencil tests are very insightful into how the characters were animated before hand, a useful task indeed. As stated in an earlier post, I will begin the animatic process very shortly to show how the film will look.

Pinocchio (1940) Pencil Test

[INSPIRATION] 2010s Fashion

Although the fashion sense of the 2010s should be easy, it is actually difficult to pinpoint as their are so many groups, stereotypes and fashion senses. Even now, fashion from the 1930s is coming back in to contemporary fashion, so it is difficult to create a distinct look. However, with the young animator, I wanted him to wear something that would make him appear lanky, so baggy clothing would be a must.

One thing I need to figure out is what stereotype the young animator falls under, would he be a geek and wear pop culture related shirts, would he be goth and wear dark clothings, chav, emo, prep, nerd, jock, townie, grunger, punk, he could fall under any one of these. The fashion sense I looked at particularly was one most commonly seen in 2010, the hipster fashion style.

 Looking at the fashion sense of people in the 2010s, it is clear to see a somewhat difference between the 1930s, however I am wanting my character to stick with the baggy long shirt and the baggy long trousers, as although the majority of the fashion senses I have looked at usually have skinny jeans and a button shirt, I want the young animator to represent someone who doesn't care about fashion, so I want the opposite of the fashions of today. I want the young animator to represent someone who has just woke up and thrown anything on, I feel like I capture that well with my character.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Animatic Research - Modern Animatics

Animatics are the key thing in pre-production for animation, it is an animated storyoard which allows the creator to not only get the positions of the characters in the frame, but also time it correctly. You can also use it to time the video to the music, voice acting and SFX. Modern Animatics are very common, most if not all animated television shows will have an animatic for the episode, this helps the director pick and choose which scenes they want in the finished animation, and if it all times correctly.

Below are examples of animated television shows; Rick and Morty and Adventure Time's animatic, which have both been created using Harmony - Toon Boom Animation software:

Rick and Morty Animatic:

Adventure Time Animatic:

These two animatics are created very basically, they don't have much in terms of animation. These two animatics are considered draft animatics, nothing that is drawn is set in stone and some things may or may not be edited out. Compare that to a rough animatic, which is used to actually animate your animation. There are a few differences between the two, namely the fact that the animatic is much more animated in the rough than the draft, compare the quality of movment between the Rick and Morty animatic above and the Eddsworld animatic below:

Eddsworld Animatic:

As you can see, there is much more movement in the animatic for Eddsworld, an internet animated series rather than Rick and Morty, a television series. Another difference between the two is the animation software used to create them, like I stated above, most television shows' animatics are created using Harmony - Toon Boom Animation software, whereas most internet series are animated using Adobe Flash software.

Another example of an animatic would be the Starbomb animated video animatic, which was also created using Adobe Flash software. This however, is heavily influenced by storyboards, and has actions and  directing notes on the screen. It also shows the rough animatic first, before showing an on model look at the characters, a somewhat unique look at an animatic. Below is the video:

Starbomb - SMASH Animatic:

Each type of animatic is useful, either for showing how it'd be animated, directions for animation or just for roughing out what you want on screen. I will try and incorporate a few of these animatic types, as all are useful for different reasons. I will begin the animatic as soon as I get a chance, and hopefully I can get a rough idea of how the video will look in the end.

[INSPIRATION] The Workspace

The room where the entire animation will take place needs to accurately represent a room which is from the 1920s to the 1940s, I have attempted this with the background test located below:

One of the things that was mentioned to me by my lecturer was the fact that the desk doesn't accurately represent the animation desks used by animators in the 1920s. Which have many shelves for animation paper, a desk light and various other equipment, below are a few examples of preexisting animation desks:

Some rooms look different to others, but the main difference between the room I have designed and the rooms that are pictured above, is the fact that they have lots more areas for artwork, animation paper, various equipment and inspiration. This will be something I should incorporate into my animation as I want to make sure everything is accurate to the time. 

One thing I should note is that the young animator removes the old animators light box from the desk, so I need to make sure it isn't stuck to the desk like the light boxes above, I need to make sure they are similar to the one I am using which is portable.

I will alter the desk that the animators work on, however I will still make the old animator use a portable animation light-box. I want the young animator to be able to remove the light-box and replace it with a more modern drawing tablet, I will experiment with a variety of desks to find the one which works, as I feel that this will give a better feeling that the room is used by an animator, for an animator.

[PERSONAL] The Clay Film

Towards the end of the animation, there will be a scene where the young animator sits down and watches a film, the film wil be on screen for roughly between 5 seconds and 10 seconds. I was struggling to think of what sort of film the young animator would watch, however when I was in a meeting with my tutor, she suggested to have him watching an animation. We discussed the possibility of having May the Cat in an animated video on the screen, however it then occurred to us that it wouldn't make sense when the video closes and has the drawing of May on the back. 

We then decided that the film should be an animation in a different medium, CG or perhaps Clay-mation. I thought about trying my hand at CG as I have done some Maya animation at college, however I haven't touched it since so my skills will be very rusty, however, only recently I have acquired a clay animation set, so I decided to go down that route.

The short film will consist of a single clay animated character who appears on the screen, who will then interact with an object of some sort before cutting back to the young animator. I am hoping to create something similar to Morph. 

There are many examples of just a clay character interacting with the real world, I personally find it to be one of the easiest forms of clay animation as it doesn't require a set, it's just clay characters on a desk interacting with pens, pencils and phones, another example of this is the Klay World animations from the early 2000s:

This short 10 second video will take roughly between a week to a month to complete and will need to be animated as soon as I get the chance, i'll have to create a short script for the film along side the actual production I am creating.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Storyboards

Throughout November and December I have been working on the storyboards for my animation, the storyboards overall were 20 pages long. I wanted to create my storyboards in full detail, unlike any other storyboard I have done previously. One of the things I have failed to input is the action and dialogue details, however I wanted to get the onscreen images done as a priority. Below is a link to my storyboard:

To view the storyboard click here

Now that I have completed these storyboards I am able to begin my animatic, I am hoping to get a rough complete by the beginning of January. Below you can see every page of the storyboard in image format.