25 Second Animation - Animatic and Critical Feedback (OUAN405)

It was really handy to present my animatic and I'm pleased with the feedback I got. It gave me some lovely ideas and was even very flattering!

Here's an overview of the criticism I received. The animatic is well timed and the jokes fit well into the short time span. The soundscape is downplayed when it needs to be and energetic when it needs to be, which balances the tone well! The use of the faint traffic noises and the tweeting birds makes the world feel tactile and the ticking of the crossing signals turning on and off contrasts nicely with the loud jazz music to humorously show the different perspectives of the man on the street and the crossing signals dancing with each other.

I can work to improve the final shot. That's the one that needs the most attention. I will add an extra second of footage to allow more time to establish the wounded man crossing the street after he gets hit by the first car. That final gag feels a little rushed right now. I was told I could better draw attention to the waving green man at the distant set of crossing lights by playing with elements like a camera zoom or by focusing the camera on that section of the screen, blurring the foreground. I will also reposition that distant set of lights to coincide with the lines laid out by the golden ratio, as that is instinctively more attractive looking. I'm not so keen on using a zoom, though, because that would mean the camera would be much closer when the man gets hit by the car a second time. I think there's something inexplicably funnier about that collision when it's further away, especially since the first one was up close.

I was given some really nice ideas about character design. I was advised to go more exaggerated with my dancing crossing signals. For instance, they could reach out of the circles they occupy and pull into the frame some canes and top hats, an idea I really liked and definitely want to apply to my final product.  Environment design is also something I need to do more research into. Should I go very detailed with it? Should I make it quite stylised or abstract? 

"The Phantom Boy" had awesomely stylised environments

Shall I make the buildings less detailed and more loose-y goose-y as they fade into the background? That's what I'm thinking of doing, using lighter and lighter shades on different layers to convey a sense of the buildings fading into the background.