Design & Concept
Animation Proposal:
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For this project, I am proposing to create a storyboard that consists of at least 20 – 30 shots for the overall planning of the three-minute long animation which derives from my inspiration of both video games and animated programmes. Being fond of these growing up, I have decided to base my animation on specific designs.
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To start my planning, I will create a table for a shot list, this consist of the shots that will help me implement camera movements and angles, as well as the characters’ motion and movement. The shot list will also give the description of what actions the characters are doing and what is happening around them. Each shot listed will be in chronological order.
After this, I will be moving onto the overall design of the characters I will implement to both animatic and animation. I will be using the designs I used for my previous module in visual studies: The Boy Genius and his robot companion R-BD, they will serving as the main protagonists, and their opposing force being another design taken from the same module.
Once all the process is complete, I will immediately begin the storyboard and creating both animatic and animation via Adobe After Effects.
Storyboard Outline
Shot List
Storyboard & Thumbnails
Animatic
Animation
Independent research
For this module, I have compiled my research altogether to showcase my animation’s development. I will be demonstrating it through mood boards of overall character and environment design – where I’ve drawn my inspiration from. I will also be providing a fair description for each demonstration; why I chose it and analysing aspects and details for every design. This research will allow me not only to develop the animation but to also shed light on the core concept design and how it exactly befits the animation style.
I began my research from drawing some inspiration from industrial settings, I aim to implement a dark, sinister tone as well as a “grimy” effect to the animation environment. By choosing this environmental aspect for the animation, it increases the tension as well as danger for the main characters when they first take steps on uncharted grounds. With this industrial setting, the characters may also feel small, with towering pipes, tanks and architecture; a sense of insecurity and insignificance may take over the main characters when they traverse through this environment.
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As aforementioned, the main characters for this animation is the Boy Genius, an extremely intelligent, naïve boy who has the knack for inventing things and his companion/friend RB-D Mk I, a robot he created for himself to befriend and travel with. These characters have stepped onto the unknown, the lack of knowledge and hope may lose their determination to push forward, with the industrial setting and environment, I aim to create a negative tension and feel when these characters come in conflict with their enemy.
When putting the characters within a setting, I believe it is important to provide an outlook of the whole environment, it influences the characters’ moods and behaviour as well as providing a foreshadowing element to the narrative. Having a specific setting as the focal point of the story will not only provide a good backdrop but also provide a visualization of the story. As I mentioned previously, I placed the characters in an industrial setting, a place no child should be, given The Boy Genius as one of the primary characters of the story.
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Providing this environment will allow me to represent an “oppressive” and “unsettling” state for the protagonist. Take 12 Monkeys (1995) and Dredd (2012) for example, the futuristic setting is perfect to represent a dystopian and authoritarian civilization which is what I tried to go for when putting the characters in an industrial environment, to symbolize a “hopeless future”.
One of the inspirations I used for the animation is Invader Zim, particularly a character named “Dib”. Like the main character for my animation, Dib is a social outcast and extremely intelligent. As with my character, he shares similar traits from this character. Not only his personality is similar, so is his physical appearance, the overall exaggerated shapes makes for a more unrealistic depiction. Boy Genius’ appearance consists of a disproportionate shape; large head and a small body, this indicates that the boy genius is a child. Boy Genius has more of a broader intelligence, and unlike Dib, where he usually instigates trouble, Boy Genius usually avoids but, trouble always “finds its way” to him.
RB is also based on the titular character GIR also from the same show, Invader Zim. However, GIR is much a more of a dim-witted character, whereas RB is intelligent as well as having a more human personality. RB is sarcastic and brooding, GIR is the exact opposite of this. They share the same physical appearance, like his human companion, he has a large head and a small body – disproportionate. GIR has a high-pitched voice, but RB has a much more mechanical one. I try to avoid similarities with every character by altering some major features and characteristics.
Key lighting is one of the most important aspects for my animation, a standard 3-point lighting will be used for a dramatic effect as well as adding further intensity. What I will try to achieve is sort of Rembrandt effect of the character’s appearances; in other words, the Rembrandt lighting will be applied. Rembrandt lighting is useful for subjects with round faces, like my characters for this animation. This type of key lighting will allow me to add not only intensity, but also apply definition to the character’s appearances. This type of lighting will be applied to action scenes.
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The picture opposite shows the inverted “triangle” shaped light on the bust’s cheek. This triangle usually rests on the dark/unlit side of the subject’s face. With this type of lighting, it will give the illusion of a much slimmer appearance for the subject.
For the colour scheme, I plan to implement complementary colours which consist of orange and blue; this initially showcase conflict within a scene as well as producing a very striking and high contrast presentation. I chose orange and blue not only due to their common use in films but to also reflect on the childlike innocence represented by the orange colour whilst the blue represents isolation that the main character feels.
Alongside the 3-point lighting, it will be accompanied by filtering and lighting gels. What I will try to achieve is mostly a post-apocalyptic feel to the overall environment for most, if not, all scenes. Take these Blade Runner 2049 interior and exterior shots on the left, this gives sense that most living things have been destroyed and hopelessness fills the land as the “hero” walks through the wastes.
This filter was my first choice as it suitable for the character's situation: heroes in search for hope in times of despair.
One of the inspirations for my designs were not only from cartoon shows and films but also video games. Take the Fallout 4’s power armour for example. Unlike from its previous titles, this generation of power armour sought through complete overhaul and design. The preceding games required no energy source to run them, however in fallout 4 they require a “fusion core”, nuclear battery to maximize the armours’ capabilities i.e. sprinting and the use of a jetpack.
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This bulky design gives the main antagonist of my animatic/animation a brutal appearance, with its appearance comes its size, making the protagonist a sense of powerlessness when facing a gigantic enemy.
Using Adobe After Effects and Photoshop
The software I used for this module was Adobe After Effects as well as Photoshop. These were integral in completing both the animatic and animation. Here are the techniques I used to create the necessary motion and movement as well as scene setup.
To apply the storyboard images onto the software is a simple process, I went to file > import > multiple files. This allows me to apply all the storyboard images on to the timeline panel where I can drag and drop the images onto the project panel and then onto the timeline panel. This will then layout the images, but before I start adding motion and movement, I adjusted the composition settings, changed the resolution to 1280 x 720 and changed the duration around 3 mins long (as per required for the animation length).
Now all the settings have been applied, I moved onto the first motion I did for the animation. For the first shot, I applied a zoom and position transformation for its basic motion. I added a key for both position and scale at the specified time the motion will begin, position being moving the image from a different spot and scale will re-size the image.
Once I applied those I scaled whilst moving the image to the Boy Genius. I added a key where I want the motion to end, at this point a line within the composition panel will appear, this line represents where the image is being moved, I can adjust pivots to create a sort of looping motion; this will be discussed later on.
Photoshop is very important in creating the images necessary to make each character have motion. I opened an image within photoshop and began to edit it, I used certain tools to get the job done, this include the lasso and quick select tool, for quickly selecting the desired image to crop, I used quick select, hence the name and for more accurate crops I used the lasso tool, although this can be a painstakingly slow process.
When the image has been cropped, I cut and pasted it as new layer, I toggled the visibility for the original image, selected the new layer and placed the image on the centre, I moved the image using the move tool, I then pressed ctrl + t to resize it. Once all has been done, I saved it as a photoshop image.
The photoshop process is not done at this stage, I still needed the background for the character. I toggled the visibility once more to show the background, however, there is a hole where I previously cropped the character out of the image.
To deal with this, I placed a white colour background behind the image, I then selected the layer where the background is placed and using the eraser tool whilst resizing it to its appropriate size, I erased some of the outlines left behind by the previously cropped out character. I then saved it as a photoshop image and renamed differently so it will not overwrite the previous image. Once all the appropriate images have been saved, I then imported the photoshop files onto After Effects.
As mentioned previously, lines were placed within the composition panel of the animation to represent where the images is being moved, I can adjust these by experimenting with the pivots placed within each section of the line. In one of the shots, RB was flying towards the main antagonist, to show that he is flying, I created a motion where he is gradually zooming in closer to the enemy, I also added several position keys to create camera movements as well.
These keys represent every up and down movement, some keys are farther apart from each other and some are closer, the closer the keys to each other the faster the movements. Going back to adjust the pivots I adjusted the pivots to different positions so one or two movements will not be similar, I also arranged its steepness: the steeper the line the higher the intensity.
