[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.