Development

Idea Generation

For the first part of the brief i have to chose 3 Descriptive words which string to mind when i hear the piece of music i was given 'babel'.

Many words came into my head while i repetitively listened to the piece of music. So i wrote each word down.

I then chose 3 words from the list above... Animals, Showtime and Band. I couldn't just choose a story from looking at the words so i took it a step further by generating words which came to mind when thinking about the words individually. By this point i had started to get a slight idea of the kind of story i wanted to produce an animation on.

Background ideas

After looking at my possibilities and the story i will be pursuing, I now know that my background will be on a stage, so i have researched the different types of stages and as you can see there are different lighting and colours which are optional.

Studying the music

Length 0.00 to 3m20

After listening to the piece of music several times i decided i wanted my 30 seconds to start at 2min20seconds. This was nearer to the end of the piece of music and i found it more interesting because more instruments are being played and excel in certain parts of the music.

Above i have studied the music and i have highlighted the parts which other instruments are introduced and the kind of sound they make... for example a high pitched sound i have shown by having the line going up. I have also shown the amount of seconds the instruments last and which 'beat' is continuous throughout the piece.

duh duu duu duu dudududu

bu bu bu bu bu -- bu bu bu bu bu

buhbuhbuhbuhbuh buh buh buh bu bu bu bu

Character Ideas

After writing lots of words it is time for me to put pencil to paper and start coming up with character ideas. At this stage it will just be quick sketches in not so much detail. As detail doesn't matter too much at this point because i will develop it later on when i have chosen my character and story.

Here are some of my character designs.

The sketches above are just done in pencil and they aren't very clear to see, however i did take it a step further and develop a few characters in colour. The characters i coloured in are more likely the type of characters i will choose for my storyboard and animation.

I produced some funky characters here. I particularly like the more bold, cartoon like characters.

StoryBoard Ideas

I am now going to put together some rough story board ideas, just with a beginning, middle and end and a frame in between each. These storyboards won't be in colour because im not sure whether i want my animation to be in colour or not. If i decide i want it to be in colour i will experiment with it, when it comes to developing my storyboard further and see which works best.

The storyboard above is about an elephant being sad and lonely, a little bird comes along, the elephant is worried, the bird gets stuck in the elephants tumptrunk, then frees itself leaving the elephant dizzy and shocked.

The storyboard above is about a happy elephant, then its trunk turns into a trumpet, a monkey comes along and plays with balls on a show, the monkey drops his balls, the audience boos, leaving the elephant and monkey feeling miserable.

The storyboard above is about an elephant being all alone, his trunk turns into a trumpet, the elephant plays to the music, the music attracts birds to appear from all over, the birds fly around the elephant making him a very happy chappy.

The storyboard above is about a penguin being all alone, little playful ball creatures pop up out of the ground, the penguin befriends them and plays, penguin drops the balls causing them to bounce onto the floor, leaving everybody sad and googley eyed.

The storyboard above is about a butterfly happily sad on the tree stump, an annoying creature appears in the tree, the creature chases the butterfly, it scares poor butterfly away, then the butterfly realises that the creature just wanted to be friends.

The storyboard above is about a happy elephant, its trunk turns into a trumpet, a shy ball rolls in and likes the music, he flies up and rolls down the trumptrunk, then the elephant and shy ball become friends.

Below is my final story board ready to be created into an animation. Basically the story is about an elephant whos trunk turns into a trumpet and plays music... while a little shy creature rolls in, grows arms, legs and eyes and enjoys the music by walking and dancing around. Then decides to use the elephants trunk/trumpet to slide down for fun. The elephant and the shy creature become best friends. (the frames aren't in the correct order due to blogger not letting me after hours of trying).

I do like the storyboard i produced and i think the story is rather quirky but after deep consideration and looking at more research of animations which have already been done i decided i wanted to change my storyboard. I also wanted there to be more connection between the words i chose at the beginning of the project. Therefore i decided it was time to change my mind and to develop a new idea which was less literal.

Regardless of changing my mind on the actual story, i am definitely going to use an elephant as one of my characters!

Change of plan

Its never too late to change my mind!

With one of my characters set in stone it is now time to revisit my three words Animals, Showtime and Band

Having thought about my three words, i have decided that i want them to be quite clear in my animation what my words are. I know this was a starting point at the beginning of the project but i think it is quite important to have these as clear as day in some pieces of work.

It was either a choice of making the relationship between the music and the animation very clear, or having a not to clear link between the two.

I am now going to think of some more ideas which aren't as literal as my first 'final' storyboard.

Here is my new final storyboard idea.

I will now produce more frames to get an idea of the length of the story once turned into an animation.

Here are 6 key frames of the story.

As you can see, there is only one character in my story and he is made out of musical instruments. The reason for this is because one of my words is 'band' and another one is 'showtime', the music generally reminds me of a brass band playing to an audience. Therefor i have interpreted this in a different way.

My character

I am now going to develop my character a little bit further knowing its an elephant and its going to be made up of musical instruments.

Firstly i will research musical instruments and put together a mood board.

These instruments above will be the exact instruments my elephant will be made up put of. I specifically chose some of these instruments because they are what i can hear being played in my piece of music.

I will now study which instruments will be certain parts of the elephant, for example the ears being a cymbal.

The image above simply shows the main parts of the elephant and which instruments will resemble which parts of the elephant.

I will now produce a character profile

Above are some rough views of the elephant from the side, infront and behind. I have also considered the eyes he will have.

I am now going to draw the profile views in more detail using instruments.

I think these drawings look lovely.

Character movement - (the way my elephant will move)

Please excuse the poor quality image!

It isn't very clear to see but here i have used sketches the way Walt Disney did, to get a feel of movement and the way in which he will move. Particularly his legs.

During my animation i was something coming out of the elephants trumptrunk to the sound of the music. Here i have come up with some quick possibilities.