Animatic and Rewrites (Trial and Many Errors)

As animatic maker, I made the animatic. But it wasn't brilliantly received by my peers for being too cluttered and unfocused.

I should work on adding detail to the characters. I'm pleased with the blocking and camerawork but without facial expressions it's harder to understand. I'm also struggling to assert myself in my group as I'm bad at saying "no" to ideas I think would be detrimental to the story.

I cut a shot where a hand throws the meteor out of a space portal as it detracts from the focus of the story.

I'm more pleased with the new animatic. It's more focused on the original concept of the President fulfilling his gardening dream in his final moments, BUT it still needs work and I need to meet with my group to discuss it.

I doubt that this will be the finished animatic but I've promised myself to have it completed and approved by my group by next Friday.

Bad Bits of Hand Drawn Animation

Hand drawn animation is terrible. It takes so long to make movement look convincing and involves hours of tedious repetitive drawing. 3D animation creates smooth, natural movement more quickly and develops sprawling, beautiful scenery with detail and DEPTH that hand drawn animation can't accomplish.

Piper -Alan Barillaro

It's easier to experiment with trial and error when working in 3D than with 2D, where you must draw many rough frames and line test them before you know if it'll look good.

2D animation severely limits the degree to which you can move the camera, so you can't shoot a scene where the camera moves through a window and into a room. This makes it harder to tell a compelling story with exciting shots to convey a mood.

It's also harder to animate very subtle movements like breathing or natural movement when a character is in standby. This detracts from the illusion of life.

Good Bits of Hand Drawn Animation

Hand drawn animation is great. Brad Bird describes it best as a more personal connection between artist and viewer because you can see the human element in the brush strokes of the background design and the line art of the characters. Small details like that make it really human because you can connect with the animator who acts out the character when they draw them.

With 3D digital, the sets and characters are never touched by human hand and it can seem more mass produced and LESS personable and authentic.

Hitman: Hiding in Plain Sight (Harry Partridge)

Prince of Egypt (1998)

It's easier to stretch and exaggerate characters to make them cartoonish using traditional animation without having them slide into the uncanny valley. There's no technical 3D software and rigging to work around which makes this much harder in 3D. Animators have the visual freedom to scribble scenes to give the illusion of speed, to apply unique brush strokes for a fresh style, and to change things about the set and designs really easily.

Storyboarding

I drew a draft, rough storyboard.

We had a meeting and edited a few things, and then I took the notes and drew up a PROPER storyboard. The biggest edit we made involved contriving a reason for an asteroid to appear in the earth's atmosphere without having been spotted by NASA already, so chose for it to come of a BLACK HOLE. 

We made it a wacky visual gag

We racked our brains for ages about whether or not to include the hand, but after a while a DIRECTORIAL decision had to be made. I'm pleased with this storyboard.

Clever Camerawork in Animation

GHOST IN THE SHELL - 1995

This is a really nice silhouette. A shot WITHIN a shot. It has a cool sense of balance and tranquility and isolates the character.

KUNG FU PANDA - 2008

The bright burst of Orange contrasts well with the dark blue background and draws the eye towards the action. The background seems to stretch out eternally, yet the orange light offers a sense of warmth and comfort.

PAPERMAN - 2012

This shot has brilliant depth. The background stretches out and fades and the audience's attention is brought to the main characters. The shadows are bold. The shot is simple, straightforward, and the camera suggests that the two characters are equals.

THE IRON GIANT - 1999

"The Iron Giant" uses broad, sweeping shots and dolly zooms to show scale. The giant is often shown from a low angle, from Hogarth's perspective.

New Project - The PITCH

I pitched my concept for a 30 second team-made animation focusing on character and narrative to my course mates. My idea was chosen for our group to work on and I graciously appointed myself as project overlord.

The story needs tweaking and fine details, but the premise is that the President of the United States is unhappy with his life and yearns for a more simple and stress free lifestyle. When he finds out that earth is going to be hit by an unavoidable apocalyptic asteroid, he seizes the opportunity to seek out happiness with his final moments on earth by becoming a gardener.

I pitched the story with very rough drawings.