Friday 31 October 2014

Narrative: Environment Inspiration, Logorama

 
In our tutorial Alan showed us this animation 'Logorama' which is about a world made from well known logos. I couldn't find the English one but it's more about the visuals anyway. He suggested that maybe we could make our factory environment from the shapes of icons that are found on cardboard boxes. This would mean that it would have a really unique style and that Will's cardboard box characters would fit in really well with that environment.

Here's some icons that I've found that may be helpful:
 

 

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Narrative: Male Character Designs




The main idea I've had for the male character is someone with very little presence, and quite bland since the girl character never notices him despite all his efforts. I also feel we could make him very expressive with the use of his eyebrows and mouth. 

Character Designs







Monday 27 October 2014

Narrative: Prop Design, Origami Crane Orthographics


Narrative: Environment Design

My Rough Factory Design

With Will's Characters

Another One With Will's Character Designs

I made a rough idea for our environment but still needs a lot of refining such as having the paper shredder and 'rejections' lever / trap door etc..  but think we should stick with the straight-on fixed camera throughout. I think the conveyor belt design I have here will be 3D modelled, along with the characters and then maybe we will just have a painted 2D background to suggest the rest of the factory world and keep focus on what's happening in the foreground. I've added a couple of Will's character designs in here as these were my favourite ones and I wanted to see how they would fit in with the factory space. Although I can't quite decide which I prefer at the moment, it's all work in progress!

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Narrative: Origami Crane idea

I had a quick thought in regards to the whole origami crane sequence for our story. There's a legend about making 1000 origami cranes to make your wish come true (Senbazuru), so instead if it being one crane and getting picked up by a draft, maybe we could have origami cranes trickling down the conveyor belt to the girl? (We obviously won't do a thousand since that's a lot of work to do, but it would get the idea across?)


Here's a rough sketch of what I mean, and this would also make her finally look at the other character after all of his attempts?

Factory Concept Art Design 1


Tuesday 21 October 2014

Rough Story Board



Narrative: Initial Character Ideas

Since the three of us agreed that cardboard boxes would be a good idea to incorporate into our designs in some way I did few sketches.
I wasn't sure how literal we wanted to be so made a few cardboard characters:



I also did a quick stylized human character to go along with it, inspired by the Animal Crossing art style:


Scarlett, Megan and I all agreed that we wanted to work more on the stylized human style for our character rather than literally being a cardboard box. We plan to play around using cardboard textures on our characters/environment.


Narrative: Environment Influence Map (Factory)




 
I like these three images in particular to inspire our environment. Images 1 and 2 have the straight-on view of the conveyor belt whereas the third one it at a slight angle. Although I like the fun and simplicity of the first one, I really think the colours of 2 and 3 would really work for our animation.

Friday 17 October 2014

Cardboard Boxes

One thing I really liked about the factory is the boxes that we could have laying around. How our character could have aspects of his shape like a box. I had a look at the shapes and sizes of different boxes and tried to do some drawings from them.








I did a few drawings based on the images and research I found and come up with a few ideas. These are basic sketches. Felt good to sketch again after while. 












Character Building

I keep trying to figure out how to draw my character and what type of figure they will be. So I began research drawings. I find that it helps me to understand the character more when I see images of drawings. I see what I like and don't like and begin building my character. 
Heres some images I found helpful. 









.


I started looking into the different types of expressions each person makes. It's hard to create expression on a face when you don't know exactly which one is which. The expression I'm really looking for is love and love sick. A silly/foolish look on a boy. 

Using the lessons and tips that Justin has thought use I wanted to build the character using shapes. Our character in the factory isn't strong but he isn't weak. He's not big built but he's not skinny. He's sort of a built of the factory, clumsy and box like. 


Thursday 16 October 2014

Factory Influence Map

 
 
The factory essence that I was looking for was one like a beat up old wooden workshop place. Messy but yet warm. I thought it would give a nice setting to where love can take place. I like the idea of lights hanging low from the celling's with old materials used to protect it.
I also like the idea of slashes of light filling the room from cracks in the windows or the walls?
 
Let me know what you think. I'm going to start thumb nailing now. 

Narrative: Rough Timeline Structure / Story Breakdown...

So after our tutorial with Alan on Tuesday we have finally come up with an idea that would work for our animated short.
 
So basically we are planning on having a fixed camera and the animation starts with a boy working alone in a card factory.
 
        0sec
  •  A girl enters.
  • The boy looks at her and smiles but she doesn't see him.
  •  They start to take alternate glances at each other.
  • 10sec
  • He tries to send her a love card along the conveyer belt but as it approaches her, her mind becomes focused on something else and it goes by without her seeing.
  • 20sec
  •  He then sends a card with music but by the time it gets to her, the music has died so she rejects it.
  • 30sec
  •  He then tries a paper plane but it tragically lands in the paper shredder.
  • 40sec
  •  She opens the window next to her.
  •  In his final attempt to get her attention, he makes an origami bird and sends it to her.
  •  When she sees it, she doesn't reject it but picks it up, intrigued.
  • 50sec
  •  A gentle push of air makes the bird flutter a little then a more forceful gale comes along and carries the bird back to the boy, her eyes following the bird with curiosity and then she realizes...
  • 60sec
  • END

Monday 13 October 2014

Ending Ideas

Narrative Endings


I came up with a few ideas for the ending of our story. At the end after the boy has tried everything to get the attention of the girl and she still hasn't noticed the boy. 



- One idea could show the boy walking up to the girl and taps her on the shoulder and hands her a rose. She looks up at him with hearts in her eyes. 

-Or when he walks up to her and takes her hand and kisses it. 

-Or he goes over to her taps her and closes his eyes, puckers his lips and leans in close for a kiss. 

-The girl looks over her shoulder at all the cards that has been sent over to her. You don't see what happens after if she notices them on the floor or not. The camera shows the boy busy about to set up another plan when the girl walks over to him and shows him all the cards. She has hearts in her eyes and she kisses him on the cheek. 

Saturday 4 October 2014

Narrative: Environment Research

Since our narrative has gone down a different route, and we have a clearer idea of the type of factory we're going to have this animation centred around, I started doing some research of what to expect in a card printing factory.


This video is a very good reference of the type of machinery we would be expected to model. Its probably pretty helpful when it comes to where we want the two characters to be interacting.

Fig.1 Xerox igen4

Fig.2 UV Coater


Obviously we can modify these to suit our theme a bit more but its a good start to build this on. I hope you guys find this helpful??

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Thoughts After Group Tutorials

 
After Tutorials
 
 
After our group tutorial with Alan we went away with an idea taken from all our ideas put together. A sad old man in a factory run down by routine finds himself working (Set in black and white) until he happens to do something that changes his actions and suddenly everything goes back into color and life gets put back into the factory.
 
 My thoughts...
 
 
 
New Idea
 
I like the idea but I feel like we still are missing something if that makes sense. Then I spoke to Phil today about the idea and he helped me a lot to clear my mind on the meaning of the quote "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" .
 
He believes that we should make our setting 'The Factory' work harder in our world to help really bring the meaning to life. Suggesting that maybe we use a card factory where two people are printing valentines cards. The girl  or boy character is completely bored and the boy likes her. Trying to send her messages through a conveyer belt. But how can actions speak louder than works when words are lost in a valentines card factory?
Its a story audiences could relate to it very easily and we could suggest that in 5 seconds of the beginning but showing the girl working, bored and the boy staring at her wide eyed. Then we could show funny ways the boy tries to show her how he feels. Revealing that he likes her at the end.
 
 
 
Romance is dead in a factory where romance is their everyday life and routine.
A story of unrequited love...
 
Megan we could use that whole walle showing Eve how he likes her by showing her his home and the things he collects?
Gemma the whole routine and life in a factory is systematic and the same routine is still there.
 
 
What do you all think?