Friday 6 May 2016
Thursday 5 May 2016
Monday 11 April 2016
Cutting Down
Well, I done goofed. My animatic ended up being over ten minutes long... I'm going to have to cut some of it down. It's a shame, because I'm quite proud of everything that's on here, but it must be done. That's not to say the scenes I cut will be gone forever. I've got this idea in my head that this version of the pilot that I'm making will not necessarily be final version of it. I'll cut it down for the sake of... maintaining my sanity, and the greater likelihood that this will get finished in time for the deadline. I guess the scenes where Sillie and Millie are playing games and having a tea party can be cut completely, and possibly some scenes from the opening. Again, it's a shame, but it is the nature of television production. Again, it is easier to make this decision when I know that I'll still be finishing this pilot after I've submitted it.
Designing Millie's Bedroom
A character's bedroom exposes the most about their personality through mise-en-scene. When designing a bedroom, it is important to note that it must visually depict the character's personality, because it is that which has caused said character to bring the room in the state it is in. A lazy character, for instance, would most likely have a messy room. A character who cares about someone might have a photo of them in their room, possibly hidden in a drawer. A geek might have tonnes of posters or super hero bed sheets.You can tell a lot about a character through their rooms and I will keep this in mind as I design Millie's bedroom around her characteristics.
Tuesday 29 March 2016
Thursday 24 March 2016
Background Style
I made this background to practice and determine the overall direction I'd like to take for the scenery. This is just a jpeg of the background I made, the actual file has been composed in such a way that it can work with parallaxing on After Effects. I'll be making a demonstration of that, including a moving character within the scene. There will be changes to various colours, shades, and brush sizes in the final version of this background.
As it will help with my art direction, I'll be making another background in a similar style, while talking through the process.
Step 1: (this part's optional)
Step 2:
With a clear enough idea on the perspective and layout of the area, I then trace over the layer below, while adding minor elements to the scene, using a black simple circle brush - size 4px, pressure off.
Step 3:
Next, I add a solid colour to the layers below the line art layers.
Step 4:
Above the solid colour layers, I make a multiply layer and add a shade to certain parts of the scenery. I use the the same shade of colour from the solid colour layer for this. I then merge this layer with the Solid Colour layer.
Step 5:
I add textures to the scenery on another layer.
Step 6:
Next, I add extra shades by using two multiply layers, both at 50% opacity.
Step 7:
I'll add the rest of the well-needed details and colour/shade them just like the previous steps, and I'll avoid shading the less significant details, like the skirting boards or that light switch.
Step 8:
Finally, I'll organise the layers into groups so that as I'm compositing the scene in After Effects, I can convert them into 3D layers, which helps characters move in front of and behind the layers, as well as paralaxing.
Thursday 17 March 2016
Sillie & Millie Inspirations: Mother Series
This is probably my biggest inspiration of all. After playing these games at the same time as this pilot lingering in my head at the time, I began to evaluate what in particular about these games grabbed me.
Mother 2 (or Earthbound as you will know it as) is, on the surface, a parody of JRPGs with a very childlike art style and tone of voice, but is primarily a coming of age story, where the protagonist, Ness (a representation of the creator of the game as a child), by the end of a long and bizarre journey, experiences true terror and by remembering the his friends and family, counters the fear and ends up being a bigger man. The background music is similar to Adventure Time's in terms of how experimental, wacky, and tone-presenting it is. It has more of a nostalgic feel to it, opposed to Adventure Time, though, and I think is a stronger influence in that sense.
Mother 3 has the same kind of tone as Earthbound. A very vibrant and child-like art style, some random and wacky humour; the difference is that instead of getting scary out of nowhere, it has little snippets of very dark and sad moments throughout the story. On top of that, it deals with themes of family death and childhood trauma, a very daring move considering this is somewhat more of a kid's game than anything. Just like Earthbound (and to a larger extent Adventure Time) the transition between humourous to serious is both smooth and strong. The music in this one is not nearly as experimental as Earthbound's but it does have a strong nostalgia factor, the Love theme in particular being a powerful contender for most emotional theme in gaming. This is actually why the demo music for the main theme of my pilot is so sentimental, because it's more of a taste of the tone I wish to take on with my series, despite how the pilot looks on a surface level.
Mother 2 (or Earthbound as you will know it as) is, on the surface, a parody of JRPGs with a very childlike art style and tone of voice, but is primarily a coming of age story, where the protagonist, Ness (a representation of the creator of the game as a child), by the end of a long and bizarre journey, experiences true terror and by remembering the his friends and family, counters the fear and ends up being a bigger man. The background music is similar to Adventure Time's in terms of how experimental, wacky, and tone-presenting it is. It has more of a nostalgic feel to it, opposed to Adventure Time, though, and I think is a stronger influence in that sense.
Sillie and Millie Inspiration: George Costanza (Seinfeld)
I was comparing Millie to different characters I enjoy and I realised that there was someone that really hit the nail on the head of what kind of character she is.
George Costanza is quite an accurate comparison, I'd say. I've always sort of related to this character, because he is so much of a jaded baffoon that you really want him to succeed just once. This is a remarkable trait for characters in slapstick comedy, in my opinion, because while the character is in a sense unlikable due to their immaturity, you still relate to the feeling of failure and that desire for them to succeed makes you like them. I figured Millie would be the same.
In the pilot, for example, we can relate to her stress and desire to be cured of her sickness and just have fun at home with her friend, but her attempts at having fun during her sickness and trying to cure herself are what make the slapstick. She's dumb and reckless, but lovable. In the same way George just wants to fit in with society, Millie just wants to fit in in general.
Millie is somewhat as much fueled by her arrogance as George is, in the sense that while she can usually be happy and accepting around Sillie, she is also rather cynical towards others. This doesn't come across well in the pilot, however, but I'd say Millie is the type of person who would try and recreate an argument just so she could use her "jerk store" come-back, or eat an eclaire from the trash because it was on top of a magazine.
George Costanza is quite an accurate comparison, I'd say. I've always sort of related to this character, because he is so much of a jaded baffoon that you really want him to succeed just once. This is a remarkable trait for characters in slapstick comedy, in my opinion, because while the character is in a sense unlikable due to their immaturity, you still relate to the feeling of failure and that desire for them to succeed makes you like them. I figured Millie would be the same.
In the pilot, for example, we can relate to her stress and desire to be cured of her sickness and just have fun at home with her friend, but her attempts at having fun during her sickness and trying to cure herself are what make the slapstick. She's dumb and reckless, but lovable. In the same way George just wants to fit in with society, Millie just wants to fit in in general.
Millie is somewhat as much fueled by her arrogance as George is, in the sense that while she can usually be happy and accepting around Sillie, she is also rather cynical towards others. This doesn't come across well in the pilot, however, but I'd say Millie is the type of person who would try and recreate an argument just so she could use her "jerk store" come-back, or eat an eclaire from the trash because it was on top of a magazine.
Sillie & Millie Influences: Adventure Time
One of the many shows, movies, and video games that influenced Sillie & Millie was Adventure Time. I looked at that for inspiration for some of the humour but also for the fact that it manages to transition so smoothly to real genuine drama. That drama is backed up, of course, by the really grim lore, that they admittedly made up as they went along but works because it's a fantasy world so the backstory is open-ended.
It's the fact that they touch on such adult themes and don't pull any punches when talking about them, and yet the tone of voice is still child-friendly because of the simple and cutesy visual style.
On top of that, the music is very experimental and effective at establishing both the humourous and the surreal tone of the series, and it transitions nicely to the more emotional music.
It's the fact that they touch on such adult themes and don't pull any punches when talking about them, and yet the tone of voice is still child-friendly because of the simple and cutesy visual style.
On top of that, the music is very experimental and effective at establishing both the humourous and the surreal tone of the series, and it transitions nicely to the more emotional music.
Sunday 6 March 2016
Millie's House
As this is the main setting of the pilot, I should make sure the setting tells us as much about the series as possible, since the actual story of the pilot is all about the two main characters, I'm fairly limited on what I can show in it. I don't wish to hide too much, nor do I want to bombard the viewer with information, so I think visual hints at what might happen later on in the series would help.
I've always thought of settings as characters, meaning there is usually some kind of signifier within the mise en scene. This video explains it better than I do.
This is the kind of logic I wish to operate on. Now how the setting will establish the characterisation and situations of not only Millie but the whole family is another story. The house needs to:
A) Set the tone for the series
B) Establish possible story elements
C) Contain appropriate mise en scene for the characters
I've always thought of settings as characters, meaning there is usually some kind of signifier within the mise en scene. This video explains it better than I do.
This is the kind of logic I wish to operate on. Now how the setting will establish the characterisation and situations of not only Millie but the whole family is another story. The house needs to:
A) Set the tone for the series
B) Establish possible story elements
C) Contain appropriate mise en scene for the characters
Main Theme demo
I contacted a man named James Wood, a composer and mutual friend of Cara, with the instructions I posted earlier. He sent me the demo track today, and I am utterly amazed by it. It really captures the more bitter-sweet and nostalgic tone of the series that I wanted. I can't wait to see how it gets remixed both for this pilot but in later moments of the series, should it get fully developed.
Here it is. Judging by the general surprised response to this theme (a lot of people were telling me they expected it to be much sillier) it's definitely doing its job right.
Here it is. Judging by the general surprised response to this theme (a lot of people were telling me they expected it to be much sillier) it's definitely doing its job right.
How Would I Describe Millie's World?
I am having a lot of trouble thinking of how to make concept art for Sillie & Millie and I can't find any examples of similar concept art. It might help if I describe with words what the world will is.
It's hard to explain really so I'll try and describe it the best I can.
Millie's world is based on a modern day English setting. There is not a specific year for this series yet so let's just say it's the year "201X". Even though this is a real-world setting, it's a vibrant and cartoony place, so weird and over-the-top stuff can happen (I mean just listen to the plot of the series, a toy gets possessed by a spirit). The world's aspects can be thought of automatically as the series goes along, depending on what the writers come up with, as long as they don't end up ruining the story or anything.
In terms of how the backgrounds look, it just looks like a more vibrant version of the real-world, kind of like The Simpsons, or Regular Show.
I think this helps get a proper idea. I'm probably just better off using examples of the aesthetic of other shows or movies to inspire me, or rather inspire the background artist (s).
It's hard to explain really so I'll try and describe it the best I can.
Millie's world is based on a modern day English setting. There is not a specific year for this series yet so let's just say it's the year "201X". Even though this is a real-world setting, it's a vibrant and cartoony place, so weird and over-the-top stuff can happen (I mean just listen to the plot of the series, a toy gets possessed by a spirit). The world's aspects can be thought of automatically as the series goes along, depending on what the writers come up with, as long as they don't end up ruining the story or anything.
In terms of how the backgrounds look, it just looks like a more vibrant version of the real-world, kind of like The Simpsons, or Regular Show.
I think this helps get a proper idea. I'm probably just better off using examples of the aesthetic of other shows or movies to inspire me, or rather inspire the background artist (s).
Thursday 25 February 2016
Storyboard Template
I am in need of a brand new storyboard template for the pilot. The college ones are utterly terrible and the ones on Google images are no better. I think the best thing to do is look at and develop an understanding towards the more professional storyboard templates. It's actually a really important thing to consider during the storyboarding process, since I want this to have really good quality cinematography.
Adventure Time, being a board-driven series, is a great example of how to design a storyboard template. It has a nice 16:9 aspect ratio, with a dotted opaque guideline showing the 4:43 ratio. It also has a little space that shows where the CN logo would be on the bottom-right. It's nicely laid out so that it's straight forward and has enough space to either write or draw actions, and a space for timing, which is quite vague but depending on the context of the scene being planned can actually be self-explanatory. On top of that, the panels themselves are big enough to establish the shots effectively, and the dotted lines give the artist an idea of where to place the characters within the frame. The information around the panels is simple and easy to follow. It's also easy to read a printed version, because it's designed for the landscape layout, which perfectly enables you to read it from left-to-right, instead of up-to-down.
There's really no other series with a better template that I can think of, to be honest. I don't see why everyone wouldn't simply just copy this template, instead of trying something different.
Thursday 11 February 2016
Sillie & Millie Main Theme
For the main theme of Sillie & Millie, I really want to place a lot of importance onto the music, not just for marketing reasons but in terms of the theme of nostalgia, childhood, and innocence, I wish for the main theme to reflect those themes. I would like a simple melody that could be remixed into something more trans-formative, such as a sad tune, a happy tune, a catchy tune, or even a song with vocals. On top of that I want a tune that I, or a child/beginner, could play on a piano with one finger, because that makes it more comforting to the audience to take in, and could even inspire them.
I watched this clip of Angelo Badalementi talking about how he came up with Laura Palmer's theme from Twin Peaks for inspiration:
Here are the instructions I would like to give the person I hire to write the main theme:
"For this main theme, I would like this to be a simple tune that could be remixed into a more trans-formative version, such as a sad version, a happy version, or even a version with lyrics. It should be a very simple tune that a child, or a beginner piano player, could play on a piano with one finger. I want it to reflect the feeling of remembering a melody that you enjoyed hearing as a child, perhaps it could be a lullaby, a nursery rhyme, or a music box you enjoyed to play in repeat; regardless, it should reflect the feeling of hearing that type of melody again and feeling nostalgic for it. Here are a few examples of tunes that follow similar guidelines:
Eight Melodies - Earthbound (Mother 2)
http://starmen.net/mother2/music/131-%20Earthbound%20-%20Eight%20Melodies.mp3
Smiles and Tears - Earthbound (Mother 2)
http://starmen.net/mother2/music/153-%20Earthbound%20-%20Smiles%20and%20Tears.mp3
MOTHER 3 Love theme - Mother 3
http://starmen.net/mother3/music/Mother%203%20-%20045%20MOTHER%203%20Love%20Theme.ogg
Mom's Hometown - Mother 3
http://starmen.net/mother3/music/Mother%203%20-%20006%20Mom%27s%20Hometown.ogg
These are examples of songs that reflect similar themes of nostalgia, childhood, and innocence, as well as how they sound remixed with different meanings or with vocals.
Here are other examples of memorable themes that can be remixed:
Main Theme - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/pXrjMaVoTy0
Falling - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/_rZbsnB-xkM
Laura Palmer's theme - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/khMlcTE7lw8
Audrey's Dance - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/DF43b38k0Mw
Promise - Silent Hill 2:
https://youtu.be/6qalGezr76o
Promise (reprise) - Silent Hill 2:
https://youtu.be/8N_PXTGdlGw
I hope my instructions were clear and concise for you. If you have any questions, let me know."
I watched this clip of Angelo Badalementi talking about how he came up with Laura Palmer's theme from Twin Peaks for inspiration:
Here are the instructions I would like to give the person I hire to write the main theme:
"For this main theme, I would like this to be a simple tune that could be remixed into a more trans-formative version, such as a sad version, a happy version, or even a version with lyrics. It should be a very simple tune that a child, or a beginner piano player, could play on a piano with one finger. I want it to reflect the feeling of remembering a melody that you enjoyed hearing as a child, perhaps it could be a lullaby, a nursery rhyme, or a music box you enjoyed to play in repeat; regardless, it should reflect the feeling of hearing that type of melody again and feeling nostalgic for it. Here are a few examples of tunes that follow similar guidelines:
Eight Melodies - Earthbound (Mother 2)
http://starmen.net/mother2/music/131-%20Earthbound%20-%20Eight%20Melodies.mp3
Smiles and Tears - Earthbound (Mother 2)
http://starmen.net/mother2/music/153-%20Earthbound%20-%20Smiles%20and%20Tears.mp3
MOTHER 3 Love theme - Mother 3
http://starmen.net/mother3/music/Mother%203%20-%20045%20MOTHER%203%20Love%20Theme.ogg
Mom's Hometown - Mother 3
http://starmen.net/mother3/music/Mother%203%20-%20006%20Mom%27s%20Hometown.ogg
These are examples of songs that reflect similar themes of nostalgia, childhood, and innocence, as well as how they sound remixed with different meanings or with vocals.
Here are other examples of memorable themes that can be remixed:
Main Theme - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/pXrjMaVoTy0
Falling - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/_rZbsnB-xkM
Laura Palmer's theme - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/khMlcTE7lw8
Audrey's Dance - Twin Peaks:
https://youtu.be/DF43b38k0Mw
Promise - Silent Hill 2:
https://youtu.be/6qalGezr76o
Promise (reprise) - Silent Hill 2:
https://youtu.be/8N_PXTGdlGw
I hope my instructions were clear and concise for you. If you have any questions, let me know."
Monday 8 February 2016
Sillie & Millie Music
For the full series, I would like to place a lot of importance in the music of the show. Up until now, I have always just sort of cherry picked a few public domain themes to use for my stories, but right now I need original music to keep my pilot and the later series fresh. In terms of the soundtrack as a whole, I want a contrast between light and comedic, with gentle and heartwarming. I'm looking for somewhat rock vibes, with a touch experimentation to make the music sound unique and surreal. As such, I have looked into the soundtracks for the Mother (AKA Earthbound) series and Undertale. For TV inspiration, that would be Adventure Time, mainly for similarly experimental background music.
Introduction - Mother
Eight Melodies - Mother
Opening Credits - Earthbound
Porky's House - Earthbound
Buzz Buzz Prophecy - Earthbound
Home Sweet Home (Pollyanna) - Earthbound
Onett - Earthbound
Boris' Cocktail - Earthbound
HI HI HI (Saturn Valley Theme) - Earthbound
Eight Melodies - Earthbound
Fun Naming - Mother 3
Mother's Hometown (Love Theme) - Mother 3
Happy Town? - Mother 3
Club Titiboo - Mother 3
The Green Train's Fun Too - Mother 3
Flowers - Mother 3i (this is from the soundtrack CD released alongside the game)
Some themes from Undertale fit the feel of the show as well.
Home - Undertale
sans - Undertale
Snowy - Undertale
Undertale - Undertale
Memory - Undertale
Here are examples from Adventure Time as well.
Adventure Time
I feel like these all represent the kind of bitter-sweet tone that I am going for with this series. For the main theme of the show. What I'm going to specifically ask for with regards to the main theme is a whole other story that would need its own blog post to explain.
Introduction - Mother
Eight Melodies - Mother
Opening Credits - Earthbound
Porky's House - Earthbound
Buzz Buzz Prophecy - Earthbound
Home Sweet Home (Pollyanna) - Earthbound
Onett - Earthbound
Boris' Cocktail - Earthbound
HI HI HI (Saturn Valley Theme) - Earthbound
Eight Melodies - Earthbound
Fun Naming - Mother 3
Mother's Hometown (Love Theme) - Mother 3
Happy Town? - Mother 3
Club Titiboo - Mother 3
The Green Train's Fun Too - Mother 3
Flowers - Mother 3i (this is from the soundtrack CD released alongside the game)
Some themes from Undertale fit the feel of the show as well.
Home - Undertale
sans - Undertale
Snowy - Undertale
Undertale - Undertale
Memory - Undertale
Here are examples from Adventure Time as well.
Adventure Time
I feel like these all represent the kind of bitter-sweet tone that I am going for with this series. For the main theme of the show. What I'm going to specifically ask for with regards to the main theme is a whole other story that would need its own blog post to explain.
Young Creatives: Studying My Audience
I started working on Young Creatives, which is basically teaching young people art, in my case I help with the animation course, in University. I did this both for extra cash, as well as to study my audience, since I am making a TV pilot for a kid' show. I've actually had a lot of fun doing this. The kids are fairly well-behaved and fun to work with. There are a lot of varied characteristics among them too. Some of the kids are introverted and work in their own pace, whereas others like to be very vocal about their work. One child in particular is very talented and makes the most depraved and disturbing animations ever (I'm not even kidding, they're practically Eraserhead-esque), and one of the girls makes pretty cute ones, with the occasional violent ones, normally involving cats. She is also very talented in terms how she times the comedic parts.
I haven't seen a single one of these children that are, well as idiotic as people make children out to be. There's actually one kid who's eight years old but still very mature. He's even chosen his religion, and in the latest session, he was actually helping one of the kids out, because he was completely not motivated at all. They all tend to have very dark senses of humour and I do mean all of them. You could go through all of their animations in a row and not find a single one that wasn't in some way tragically humourous. One of my favourite examples was one kid who made up a character specifically to make his life miserable, every step he took. He kept telling me about all of these scenarios in which he seems to triumph but somehow winds up getting a worse deal than ever at the end.
I could go on for hours about the different personality types we get in these courses, but overall my experience has taught me not to hold back too much in terms of my language towards this audience. I can safely say that children are just people and there's no need to patronise them at all.
Wednesday 3 February 2016
Initial Script
Well, I finished the initial script! That was certainly fast.
I think it's now time to start sending it to people to have a look at and maybe start the rewriting process. I actually did show it to a friend of mine and she really enjoyed it, so that's a good sign that I'm already on the right track. The one thing I'm expecting to happen is that certain things get cut down for time, adobe story estimated the length of the pilot at around nine minutes so I may need to rely on Mr. Snip-Snip to fix that if it's accurate.
I think it's now time to start sending it to people to have a look at and maybe start the rewriting process. I actually did show it to a friend of mine and she really enjoyed it, so that's a good sign that I'm already on the right track. The one thing I'm expecting to happen is that certain things get cut down for time, adobe story estimated the length of the pilot at around nine minutes so I may need to rely on Mr. Snip-Snip to fix that if it's accurate.
Monday 1 February 2016
Animation Process?
That's the huge setback to this project. Regardless of my confidence in my animation abilities, even if I reach the minimum of five minutes long for this pilot, the actual animation will still be a huge process. On the other hand, the animation for my two minute Context of Practice 3 short took less than a month to do on my own, including the keyframing, and I had an essay to be done alongside it. I can probably speed up the process of this animation to that amount of time if I simply do the keyframes then send it over to a group of inbetweeners. Easier said than done, probably. I might spend the last few hours cleaning up the animation, which will certainly be a hell of a lot longer and tedious than the animation process but we'll see.
Wednesday 27 January 2016
The Story - Themes and Ideas
I'm at the scriptwriting phase of the animation, and I am thinking about the structure and the content of the script. Judging by the idea, I'd say it would be structured like an animated sitcom episode, that's sort of what I'm going for throughout the series, I'd to the series itself not use a formula but to follow a story arc instead. However, for the sake of this TV pilot, I'll see if I can follow a more basic standalone episode formula, only I'll make it relate to a theme that's relevant to my series and characters.
At this point, I'm sort of questioning the story I've had my heart set on writing. On the other hand, I would rather make the pilot in one location to save production time, maybe even costs, and I can't actually imagine another idea beyond Millie feeling sick that would fit into that category. I'll still go with that because, as it is emphasised in the book Writing Sitcoms by John Byrne and Marcus Powell, "most jokes are only funny the first time you hear them" and imagining how Millie could very stupidly screw up forcing herself to get cured, or even just the idea that she would even attempt it, made me laugh a lot, when I first thought about it. Multiple potential story ideas have come up, but my heart is set on this one so I can't exactly back down now, and can make this one funny. I just need to think about it like I'm writing one episode out of the thirteen or more others that I would if this series got picked up.
In terms of a themefor the pilot, the themes I've had in mind for the series as a whole is emotions, nostalgia, love, friendship, happiness combatting depression and anxiety, childhood, coming-of-age, and independence. I can apply at least a couple of those themes to this story and I'll by describing what I know about it so far. I remember being miserable every time I felt sick when I was a child because I always expected days off from school to be fun but they just weren't. There was never anything good on TV and I had so little energy to actually do anything, so it was boring and painful. Now to put Millie in my shoes, I have to imagine what she would do in this situation. Since she is basically an exaggeration of what I was like as a kid, she is thinking exactly the same thing. This time she has Sillie to share this pain with, who is equally as upset about this because he can't have fun with her at all. Millie, being the crazy girl that she is feels bad about disappointing Sillie, so she decides it would be a good idea to find a way to make herself feel better quickly, and Sillie decides to help her out anyway he can, despite them both having no real understanding of medical knowledge. So Millie is acting on behalf of Sillie due to her emotions forcing her to do this when she really should not have done so. I think I'm on the right path now.
Since I now have a clear understanding of the story and what the characters could develop from it, I guess the next step is to develop a narrative for it.
At this point, I'm sort of questioning the story I've had my heart set on writing. On the other hand, I would rather make the pilot in one location to save production time, maybe even costs, and I can't actually imagine another idea beyond Millie feeling sick that would fit into that category. I'll still go with that because, as it is emphasised in the book Writing Sitcoms by John Byrne and Marcus Powell, "most jokes are only funny the first time you hear them" and imagining how Millie could very stupidly screw up forcing herself to get cured, or even just the idea that she would even attempt it, made me laugh a lot, when I first thought about it. Multiple potential story ideas have come up, but my heart is set on this one so I can't exactly back down now, and can make this one funny. I just need to think about it like I'm writing one episode out of the thirteen or more others that I would if this series got picked up.
In terms of a themefor the pilot, the themes I've had in mind for the series as a whole is emotions, nostalgia, love, friendship, happiness combatting depression and anxiety, childhood, coming-of-age, and independence. I can apply at least a couple of those themes to this story and I'll by describing what I know about it so far. I remember being miserable every time I felt sick when I was a child because I always expected days off from school to be fun but they just weren't. There was never anything good on TV and I had so little energy to actually do anything, so it was boring and painful. Now to put Millie in my shoes, I have to imagine what she would do in this situation. Since she is basically an exaggeration of what I was like as a kid, she is thinking exactly the same thing. This time she has Sillie to share this pain with, who is equally as upset about this because he can't have fun with her at all. Millie, being the crazy girl that she is feels bad about disappointing Sillie, so she decides it would be a good idea to find a way to make herself feel better quickly, and Sillie decides to help her out anyway he can, despite them both having no real understanding of medical knowledge. So Millie is acting on behalf of Sillie due to her emotions forcing her to do this when she really should not have done so. I think I'm on the right path now.
Since I now have a clear understanding of the story and what the characters could develop from it, I guess the next step is to develop a narrative for it.
Tuesday 19 January 2016
Extended Practice Rationale
For my extended practice work, I have decided it would be best if I just went ahead and made a TV pilot for a series I have planned. Since my university is full of all the resources I'll need, I may not get another chance to make this after I leave, so it will be a good idea to get it completed before then. I have an entire series in mind for the characters, ever since I came up with them, which every time I think about and relate to the characters, develops further and further than originally only being a pair of silly characters.
The series itself is about a little girl named Millie, who upon struggling with depression, gets visited by a guardian spirit that possesses her favourite doll, Sillie. After this, Millie deals with multiple issues surrounding her life at the moment, such as the divorce of her parents, making friends, her dysfunctional relationship with her brother, and even loss. This is all balanced with a charming and comedic atmosphere with plenty of cringe, satirical, and gag humour used throughout. The focus will be on her friendship with Sillie, and how Sillie, as well as Millie's mother, help her with these issues and developing her independence.
What I need for this is a team ready and willing to help out. A lot of the third years will be busy with their own projects but hopefully they can help out when they are free. I can take a self-directed approach on some aspects but I will need help along the way. I'll be the director, art director, character designer, script writer, and storyboard artist. I might need a couple other storyboard artists to help out too. I'll definitely also need voice actors (I'll voice Sillie, of course), a composer, and background artist.
The pilot will demonstrate what a standalone episode will be like, inbetween the dramatic moments, similar to what Over the Garden Wall's pilot was like. It will establish the dynamic between the two main characters, alongside the kind of gags the series has to offer. This will also target a more PG audience, while purely being focused on a younger audience, aged 7 - 12. The plot of the pilot is that Millie feels sick and her mother leaves to get some medicine. Sillie treats this as a brilliant opportunity for them both to hang out, but Millie is too sick to function. Millie gets the idea to try and heal herself faster, with the help of Sillie who has no knowledge of medical science. This ends badly, as they try searching online for life hacks in order to do this, which are either completely false or they follow the instructions wrong, making her feel even worse. This continues right up until Millie feels completely awful and her mother has to fix her up.
The pilot will be five minutes long minimum, including a title sequence and end credits. This will also be polished enough to be shown in film festivals, and be pitched to networks.
The series itself is about a little girl named Millie, who upon struggling with depression, gets visited by a guardian spirit that possesses her favourite doll, Sillie. After this, Millie deals with multiple issues surrounding her life at the moment, such as the divorce of her parents, making friends, her dysfunctional relationship with her brother, and even loss. This is all balanced with a charming and comedic atmosphere with plenty of cringe, satirical, and gag humour used throughout. The focus will be on her friendship with Sillie, and how Sillie, as well as Millie's mother, help her with these issues and developing her independence.
What I need for this is a team ready and willing to help out. A lot of the third years will be busy with their own projects but hopefully they can help out when they are free. I can take a self-directed approach on some aspects but I will need help along the way. I'll be the director, art director, character designer, script writer, and storyboard artist. I might need a couple other storyboard artists to help out too. I'll definitely also need voice actors (I'll voice Sillie, of course), a composer, and background artist.
The pilot will demonstrate what a standalone episode will be like, inbetween the dramatic moments, similar to what Over the Garden Wall's pilot was like. It will establish the dynamic between the two main characters, alongside the kind of gags the series has to offer. This will also target a more PG audience, while purely being focused on a younger audience, aged 7 - 12. The plot of the pilot is that Millie feels sick and her mother leaves to get some medicine. Sillie treats this as a brilliant opportunity for them both to hang out, but Millie is too sick to function. Millie gets the idea to try and heal herself faster, with the help of Sillie who has no knowledge of medical science. This ends badly, as they try searching online for life hacks in order to do this, which are either completely false or they follow the instructions wrong, making her feel even worse. This continues right up until Millie feels completely awful and her mother has to fix her up.
The pilot will be five minutes long minimum, including a title sequence and end credits. This will also be polished enough to be shown in film festivals, and be pitched to networks.
Friday 15 May 2015
Lip Syncing Process
Step 1: Make a Flash document with a green background and a dot depicting where the tracking dot will be.
Step 2: Draw and animate the facial features while always covering the tracking dot.
Step 3: Open up the stop-motion scene on After Effects.
Step 4: Export the facial animation from Flash as an image sequence and import onto After Effects (make sure you change the frame-rate to your preferred fps by right-clicking and then clicking Interpret Footage). After that, you just remove the green background by changing the screen colour to the same shade of green on the Keylight menu.
Step 5: Create a Null Object and place its centre point over the tracking dot.
Step 6: Open the tracking menu, place the Track Point over the tracking dot, and edit the Motion Target to the Null Object. Then click the buttons next to Analyse and if the Track Point moves the way you want it, click apply.
Step 7: Make sure the facial features cover the tracking dot and are aligned well with the null object, and then parent the facial animation with the null object.
Final Step: Look through the footage and make sure it syncs up well, and that it covers the tracking dot the whole time, before rendering it. You can edit the path of the Track Point in the tracking menu, plus you can resize and move the facial animation but it won't affect the tracking at all.
Tuesday 12 May 2015
Photograph for Promotional Art
We were told to produce a photograph or an image of our work be used as part of a promo for the screening of everybody's work. Grace volunteered in doing our distribution work, but this was my contribution towards it.
What Has Changed Since the Final Crit
- The original recording was changed to one sung by somebody else, as the original wasn't as energetic.
- The character design for Symphony was altered so that she would wear lipstick, since originally the mo-cap dots would show far too much whenever her mouth was closed.
- Scenes that were meant to be animated in front of a green screen had to be changed, this was not suggested during the crit, rather it was something my team decided to change soon after it, as it would have gotten in the way of other projects being made by different groups, and the lights would have been too much of a hassle to book for the stop-motion room.
- There are now going to be tints added to the characters faces.
- If there is time, we will add a silhouetted crowd in the intro and certain other bits.
- There will be credits added to the intro scene.
Final Crit Feedback
The feedback for our final crits was mainly positive. Everyone enjoyed the animation, both with the expressions and the stop-motion animation, and laughed during it. I'm really proud of my team right now actually. They told us we should maybe add a silhouetted crowd and more sound effects, but overall every one really liked it. I think giving the time constraints, we could manage to add every neat little touch that we were pitched, but there may be compromises here and there.
Monday 11 May 2015
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Ren's Toothache and Tone of Voice
Our team have thought about tone of voice when making this. It's mainly come natural to us, though. Grace wrote the song and I feel like the lyrics are simple and entertaining enough for a young audience to understand. I also think they are One thing I wanted to keep in mind though, was the mentality of children. Something John Kricfalusi wanted to do when making The Ren & Stimpy Show was to make a series that kids can enjoy without being educated. I kind of agree with him on that. I freaking hated being told what to do when I was a kid, and normally just cared about entertainment. That's not to say every show that focuses on morals are inherently bad. I still enjoy shows like My Little Pony, Adventure Time, and Spongebob Squarepants, that manage to have lessons while still being entertaining.
What's interesting about The Ren & Stimpy Show was that despite being very anti-moral, there was one episode called "Ren's Toothache" was actually pretty educational. It was all about how Ren hadn't brushed his teeth so now his teeth got really sore, and of course his situation only got worse from there. The story is even structured in a manner typical of a documentary animation for kids. The intro shows Ren not listening to Stimpy warning him that if he doesn't brush, his teeth will fall out, then Ren begins to suffer the consequences of that, which leads to him still being stubborn, causing the situation to get even worse for him, and eventually the problem becomes unfix-able and Ren only has himself to blame for it. This is very unlike the show to do something like this, and may have even been something the staff was forced to make by executives. Strangely enough, this episode still doesn't feel out-of-place for the series. I think the reason for this is that while it does have a moral at the end, it still manages to balance that quite well with the typical humour of the show. It's all about the tone of voice. The episode is still very zany and slapstick-driven, and it doesn't use 100% true facts either (for example, it says the toothache was caused by a tooth beaver that gnaws away at people's nerve-endings, which I don't think is based on fact), but the message is put across quite well.
It really shows that you can educate kids without being too in their face about it. It's the kind of tone of voice that John K usually tells stories with in this show, the kind that teaches morals without making kids feel like they're in school again. This is the kind of tone of voice I wanted us to go for with our music video. It was written to feel like the kind of video kids are shown in school though, but really that's even more reason to make the video with this kind of tone. So that children are both educated and genuinely entertained.
What's interesting about The Ren & Stimpy Show was that despite being very anti-moral, there was one episode called "Ren's Toothache" was actually pretty educational. It was all about how Ren hadn't brushed his teeth so now his teeth got really sore, and of course his situation only got worse from there. The story is even structured in a manner typical of a documentary animation for kids. The intro shows Ren not listening to Stimpy warning him that if he doesn't brush, his teeth will fall out, then Ren begins to suffer the consequences of that, which leads to him still being stubborn, causing the situation to get even worse for him, and eventually the problem becomes unfix-able and Ren only has himself to blame for it. This is very unlike the show to do something like this, and may have even been something the staff was forced to make by executives. Strangely enough, this episode still doesn't feel out-of-place for the series. I think the reason for this is that while it does have a moral at the end, it still manages to balance that quite well with the typical humour of the show. It's all about the tone of voice. The episode is still very zany and slapstick-driven, and it doesn't use 100% true facts either (for example, it says the toothache was caused by a tooth beaver that gnaws away at people's nerve-endings, which I don't think is based on fact), but the message is put across quite well.
It really shows that you can educate kids without being too in their face about it. It's the kind of tone of voice that John K usually tells stories with in this show, the kind that teaches morals without making kids feel like they're in school again. This is the kind of tone of voice I wanted us to go for with our music video. It was written to feel like the kind of video kids are shown in school though, but really that's even more reason to make the video with this kind of tone. So that children are both educated and genuinely entertained.
That's Organic!
I'm extremely certain that this video was what inspired my partner, Grace, to make this animation. To be honest, I do rather enjoy it. It's cute and funny, plus its tone is appropriate for the target audience of children. It's also very entertaining, slipping in a few gags here-and-there, so that it's not solely documentary-driven. The animation is pretty bad though, but I feel like that kind of adds to its silly charm. The appeal comes from the cheesy voice-acting/singing and pleasant atmosphere. It's a very fun way to teach kids about healthy eating.
Character Design - Aubrey
I was thinking for this character, I would design him as this kind of groovy, and chill, guy. I figured for his character, he could look like the more quiet one of the group, but still a rather cool guy. I actually had the California Raisins in my head when I was told by Grace that the aubergine would play the saxophone. I also thought about the Animal crossing character, Brewster, mainly for his expressionless face, complimenting his overall calm demeanor.
Character Design - Manny
Manny was designed as this cute and rather simple looking guy, but still quite a fun character. I didn't really know how to characterise an orange significantly, since it's basically just a round object, so I was admittedly rather lazy with this design. That being said, I think simply giving him that dumb smiley face establishes quite a happy character, and he still stands out from the rest of the crew. I also managed to have some fun with the expressions too.
Character Design - Larry
Since I was told this character was supposed to be a lemon, I figured I would make him stand out, and make him unique to how people would typically design a character out of a fruit like this (which I gather is a rather specific thing to think about). I figured, rather than be predictable by simply putting a face on a lemon, but work around the shape of it too. I wondered how putting a lemon on its side would help this, and naturally made the side with a stalk on it be where the face is. Afterwards, the mustache kind of reminded me of a jolly old man so I just made his eyes small and have crow's feet. I figured it would add to this personality if I didn't try and get really exaggerated with his expressions, but instead maintain this expression the whole time.
Character Design - Pepé
Pepé was designed to be this rather insane character. I figured since this was a chilli pepper I'd give him a personality that suits their typically spicy flavour, so I designed him so that he was really angry, or at least very excitable.
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