Animatic

Script

Downtown, New York, in my office, it was raining cats and dogs. I was working on a case, when a letter dropped through the door. It was a lead on my new suspect, so i headed off to investigate.
I arrived at her mansion and i couldn't even touch her with a forty foot pole.
I asked her, "why the long face? cat got your tongue?"
She knew i was pulling her leg and burst into tears.
"No need to cry over spilt milk," I said, "I'm all ears so spill the beans."
By the time I was finished I realized I was barking up the wrong tree so I carried on.
I decided to go see the guy she mentioned so I haled a cab and did some back seat driving. This is going to be a piece of cake I thought.
Eventually he told me the whole cock and bull story, but even then it smelt fishy. He seemed to have have a chip on his shoulder, so i told him to hold his horses. Even though I didn't have enough evidence to haul him away, I felt he was all bark and no bit, but I wasn't going to beat about the bush, so I said I would keep an eye on him. I still had a gut feeling about this guy, but I thought let sleeping dogs lie and headed back to my office. Tomorrow will be another another investigating day.

Simplified Character Redesign

Illustrations

I've been looking at a variety of illustrators work that have a simple style to them that i can adapt to go with my story.

Saul Steinberg





Serge Bloch





Elena Odriozola



Her illustrations are also very simple, the bodies are like square blocks with limbs sticking out and their faces do not have extreme expressions.



A. Richard Allen

His work is much more simplified the arms and leg shaped almost like a ling triangle, head and face shape is not overly complicated either.





Tony Diterlizzi



I really liked his work, even though the story is about bugs the characters are drawn similar to fashion illustration, tall, slim, elongated.

Mood Board

Fashion, Films, Animation and Style in the 1930s

Terry Gilliam

His animations are daring and creative, the simple movement of the characters are able to perform humorous actions that would not be realistically possible. The sceneries are flat with bold colours and not too over crowded with things. His animations take humor to the point where anything is possible.

Character

Name: Peter Spyalot
Age: 32
Height: 5'10"
Occupation: Private Detective
Status: Single
Character: Devotes his life to catching criminals, smokes way too much and has a habit of finding girls that fall in love with him, which he doesn't have time for. Workaholic, tries hard not to harm people, however difficult it may be. Some find him quite arrogant, he calls it confidence.



Name: Candy Golddigger
Age: 26
Height: 6' (with heels)
Occupation: Spending Cash
Status: Married
Character: Lives in her own dream world of sparkle, glamour and fur coats. Quite uptight, way too good to be associated with the likes of you. Has an amazing ability to spend money in record timing, on the most expensive of jewellery and clothes.



Name: Rob Abank
Age: 45
Height: 5'8"
Occupation: Gang Leader
Status: Widowed
Character: Cuban cigars are his best friend, closley followed by scotch on the rocks and a few doughnuts. Has many willing to do his dirty work, for fear of their legs being broken by his drones. Extremely selfish until it comes to his dog, who he'd do anything for.

Character Development

I researched and studied fashion illustration from the 1930s to help my character design progress.

I've been looking at animations and films that have taken things literally for humour. I decided to look at Tex Avery's animation of tomorrow taken everyday problems and sorting them out literally.

Animation Examples

Examples of Animations that have used Actions to Portray Emotions:

Disney's Fantasia

The brooms in this clip are a good example of animated characters with out a face but 

can still portray emotion and relationship with Mickey Mouse.

Fantasia shows many animations with out dialogue and creates feeling and emotion 

through music and body motion. i.e. The dancing Flowers and mushrooms.

Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence

The award winning feature animation film has a scene with the main character Bataeu

and his dog. The dog is animated very life like with characteristic of an everyday dog

but viewers are still able to see the how close the relationship for the dog and the main

character is.

Aladdin

The scene where Aladdin meets the magic carpet for the first time is a very good example

of action from the magic carpet to portray its character. The way it behaves with the monkey

shows that it is playful or the way it hangs the top 1/2 of it low to show sadness when

Abu yells at it.

Since this has been disabled here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEr8gN5GUAo

Negotiated Project Proposal

Aim: 

I want to create a 2D animation without dialogue that would get the subject across to viewers without use of words. I want to do this by exploring actions and body language to create feeling without use of or limited facial expression. I would like the piece to be a subject that children can relate to and to remind adults of childhood times. Similar to a piece for families to watch together. 

Learning Outcomes: 

• Improve my 2D animation skill and progress in my animation
• Develop the use of the programs that would be use to create a smoother animation and using the program to the full as possible
• Being able to create a believable character that can portray emotion with limited use of expression and dialogue
• Succeed in animating and understanding human behavior and body language
• Progress my narrative skills and story writing or script work