Toy Design

This is something I've been meaning to do for a while too. Caroline said I need to make the feet of the toys noticeable in some way, so when all you can see is their legs, the audience can recognise them as her toys. 

So for the bear, I added cotton lines highlighting toes, and a red bottom of the foot. There wasn't much I could do to a bears foot to make it unique, but I hope this is enough. 

Image by Cassie Austin

For the doll, I added dark red shoes. 

Image by Cassie Austin

Character Design & Fabrics

I have been meaning to change the character design for ages, because I didn't want her to wear a skirt, as it would be difficult to animate with. So I finally got around to changing it to trousers, specifically pajamas. 

Drawing by Cassie Austin

Now I have the final design, I focused then on the fabrics.

I went to the market last week and got myself lots of sample fabrics to try out. I bought 9 for £8 and I had a few fabrics at home. So I made a sheet with all the different fabrics cut into the shapes of the clothes I want her to be wearing. The fabrics didn't scan in very well, so it's difficult to get a good idea of what type of fabric they are.

I chose the few I liked the most and put them against the character design to see which works best. My favourite is the light blue with patterns. But I want to show all the fabrics to everyone and get their opinion. 

I still need to order the armature, I nearly did last week but I am really unsure exactly the type I want, and as they are very expensive, I want to be completely sure first. So I am going to buy it on Tuesday when I see Henry, and he can help me figure out which one.

Also, in the workshop with Henry last week, he showed my how to do an invisible stitch. He said that I can get advice from his fiance Emily, who is the model-maker at Dinamo. 

I got hold of a sewing machine last week, so I am getting used to that so I can make the clothes for her look more professional. 

Back History/ Personality

Katie is a six year old girl who keeps to herself.

She is shy, very impressionable and imaginative.

Growing up her parents always argued and she had to occupy herself.

She is very lonely, she usually stays in her room, her only friends are her toys.

Where am I?

I showed Caroline my second animatic this morning. She still really likes the idea, but she had a couple of points:

• Sound - I need to add sound to the animatic to make it more readable, especially in the beginning.
• Shot construction - maybe add some close ups

I know that sound plays a major role in my animation, I just don't have any yet. I might get samples off the internet just to see if my animatic works.

Also, I wanted to get the story and the timing right, and then go into detail with the cinematography. So when I make the presentation storyboard, I will think about shot construction. 

I am not happy with the title 'Katie's world'. I still think its too obvious for this type of animation. Its like 'Alice in Wonderland' or 'Pan's Labyrinth' - It gives away that its the main characters own world. 

So I jotted down a few ideas to see if I could come up with anything better:

 

So far, none are jumping out at me, apart from 'unbearable' because it made me chuckle when I thought of it. 

TO DO LIST

I am becoming a bit obsessed with lists. But I really need to focus on these things this week:

• Character back history/personality
• Toy Design
• Presentation Storyboard
• Step Outline
• Material sheet (instead of colour palette) 

Bedroom Design

I realise I'm leaving the design of the girls bedroom a bit late, as I designed the fantasy world weeks ago. I have attempted to a few times, but I find it quite dull. Nothing exciting happens in the bedroom. 

But I finally got round to it. I thought the original drawings made the bedroom look really empty, so I thought of things I could add to it to make it feel more real. 

Image by Cassie Austin

 I made a plan of the room to help me get a better feel of the room:

Image by Cassie Austin

I also struggled with the colour. Again, I feel that as a girl's room, it should be pink. and the bedding looked boring without any detail on it, so I played around with pattern brushes. 

The painting on the wall changes too, because at first I thought it should just be a landscape painting that blends in with the background, just to fill up an empty room. But then I thought about what kind of pictures a child might have in her room. So I made a painting that looked like a childs hand and foot prints. But then I thought I could really emphasize the fact that the girl feels alone, and scared of her parents, so I made what could be a painting done by the girl, of her and her parents, but not happy. 

Image by Cassie Austin

Image by Cassie Austin

Image by Cassie Austin

Image by Cassie Austin

 My favourite is the last one. Little pattern on the bedding, painting showing her worries.

Second Animatic

I met up with Henry last week and showed him my idea and the animatic. He really liked the idea, but had a couple of suggestions:

• There should be some interaction between the girl and the toy feet in the fantasy world

• There should be an element of danger - getting trampled on

• The ending would be better if she gets stood on by the giant foot, but as it's about to squash her, she wakes up as if from a nightmare. 

• Also, I should look at 'Where the Wild Things Are' (2009) by Spike Jonze, as it is quite similar. Its about a little boy who wants more attention from his parents, and he creates his own world with creatures in where he can be the centre of attention.

Images: Stills from 'Where the Wild Things Are' (2009) Spike Jonze

I agree with what Henry suggested, I did originally want her to get caught under their feet, and I really like the ending idea, so I added these into the animatic:

Because the ending is different in this one, the timing is different too. Its only 3 seconds longer than the last animatic, but she leaves the world a lot later. So I had to create a new plot graph, and send both of these to my composer.

First Animatic

I have completed my first animatic for this animation. I am quite pleased with it. It has no sound, and it came to 2.22, which is quite short, but I think it is more doable if it's short. I kept it simple, I just needed to see if it was readable. I changed to background colour to fit the world.

Caroline still really likes my idea, I just need to make a few minor changes. I need to focus on the backgrounds and beginning to make the model now.

Plot Graph

I'm not sure if that is the correct name, but I made a graph to show the main plot points and the emotions that they create. Also the music will be very similar to the emotions. I colour coded the different emotions, because she has very strong emotions whilst in the world, but they are very opposite emotions. So light blue is unease and slightly tense, dark blue is a negative emotion - fear, frustration - and pink is a positive emotion - happiness, wonder.

Plot Graph by Cassie Austin

This will be very helpful in visualizing the final outcome. Also, I have shown this to my composer, so he can figure out how the music will go.

Character Colours

I still can't decide what colour to make the girls clothes. So I used the character turnaround and coloured her in the two colours that I can't decide between, and put them against both backgrounds.

Girl in Blue in Happy World
Image by Cassie Austin

Girl in Blue in Scary World
Image by Cassie Austin

Girl in Pink in Happy World
Image by Cassie Austin

Girl in Pink in Scary World
Image by Cassie Austin

I thought she should be in pink, because its very typical of a girl. But a couple of other people preferred blue in previous images. I'm still unsure, pink is very typical, so maybe is too obvious a choice, and I should choose the blue. However, the colour will also depend slightly on the materials i'm yet to buy.

Another thing I thought about is how difficult it might be to animate a skirt in stop motion. I'm thinking I should change her clothes so that she's wearing pyjama bottoms or trousers.

Revised Gantt Chart

I haven't been as productive as I would have like the past couple of weeks, and since the deadline is getting quite close, I began to worry that I was very behind. So I made another gantt chart, which is more accurate.

I think I can stick to this schedule a lot better now, and I still have enough time to do everything. As well as what is listed on the Gantt chart, I also need to buy materials and the armature ready for when I make the model over christmas.

New Storyboard

I've made a new iteration of my storyboard. Its quite similar to the original one but with more detail. I think its still quite simple, but that might make it doable.

I'm not sure about the ending, the tone is a bit strange. She's happy to be out of the scary world, but she's still upset by her parents arguing.