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MI6015

This tumblr hereafter will have updates to Module MI6015. A full recap will be made once project is complete.

https://www.tumblr.com/mi6015ashvinkalaivanan

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This is my first draft of my animatic. It is not finalised as I have much planned and am looking towards new ideas. Unfortunately the sound effects aren’t very reflective of the current product as I’m still sourcing appropriate audio relevant to said project. This animatic is currently a little to long and I will devise a way to simplify it in the future.

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Negative Space & Silhouettes

Negative space and silhouettes help with posing the characters in scene especially making it more visually dynamic.

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Understanding Composition

Composition helps with positioning your characters in scenes stylistically.

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Layout and building designs

I designed some houses for my project.

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Sound Design

Sound Design is a very crucial aspect in giving life and flavor to actions in animations and live-action movies. Cartoons tend to use silly sound effects liberally to exaggerate the emotion or action portrayed, this emphasizes the actions intended, making it more appealing and less boring.

Even without the characters’ voices, the emotion and action is still portrayed through sound effects.

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Salient aspects of Caricature in visual culture

Semiotics

Controlling the meaning that you make.

Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs, symbols, and signification. Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated. Our actions and thoughts are often directed by a complex set of cultural messages and conventions, and dependent upon our ability to interpret them instinctively and instantly. When you put images together your creating meaning, we can’t control that meaning but it is important that we understand how it works. For example, when we see the different colors of a traffic light, we automatically know how to react to them. This is a sign which has been established by cultural convention over a long period of time, learnt as children, and requires a deal of unconscious cultural knowledge to understand its meaning.

However when we see red amber and green, do we only see them as traffic lights? We use it as a tools for permission.

Red - definitely not

Amber- sort of maybe, at your own risk

Green- good to go mate!

Simplified definition

We seem as a species to be driven by a desire to make meanings.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913) Regarded as the founder of ‘structuralism’

Posing

Positioning of the character is important. We sense what the character’s next move will be. We get a sense of weight. We get a sense of 3D space.

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Realism and the Uncanny Valley

The uncanny valley is a hypothesized relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The concept suggests that humanoid objects that imperfectly resemble actual human beings provoke uncanny or strangely familiar feelings of uneasiness and revulsion in observers. "Valley" denotes a dip in the human observer's affinity for the replica, a relation that otherwise increases with the replica's human likeness.

Examples can be found in robotics, 3D computer animations and lifelike dolls. With the increasing prevalence of virtual reality, augmented reality, and photorealistic computer animation, the "valley" has been cited in reaction to the human-esque likeness of the creation as it approaches indistinguishability from reality. The uncanny valley hypothesis predicts that an entity appearing almost human will risk eliciting cold, eerie feelings in viewers.

Examples

Sonic the Hedgehog

In April of 2019, Paramount Pictures released the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog. The trailer was met with critical negative reception as the character was nowhere similar or faithful to its video game original. The character had anatomical features that were very realistic, which was visually unappealing. However, due to the overwhelming negative response, the studio decided to revamp the character, making it more visually appealing and faithful to its video game counterpart.

The Polar Express

The Polar Express was a movie from 2006, being the first all-digital capture film where everything was motion captured. The designs and expressions of the characters was reflective of the actors whom acted them. With motion capture being in its infancy, the movie was criticised for its unappealing and uncanny looking characters.

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Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism in definition is the attribution of human-like qualities, emotions and features to non-human entities. This is usually used as an abstract form of personification or characterisation of these entities. These concepts have been used widely in fables and ancient mythology, spanning for many centuries.

The Heider-Simmel Illusion

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Understanding a Backstory/Origin

Backstory

Every character has a backstory that serves as a basis to their persona and identity. A character’s Backstory is a key fundamental to giving more depth to character, without it a character is just as one-sided as a background character or a cameo.

Picture this. You’re hungry(for an exposition), so you’re gonna eat this burger. Think of your character as a burger. Would you eat a burger, no lettuce, no mayo, no sauce, no kale, no patty and no bun?

I don’t you about you, but I’m lactose intolerant. ’ಠ_ಠ

Whilst the construct is subjective per individual and based on the majority, the idea is that a burger is unsatisfactory without its key ingredients (a patty sandwiched between two buns). Likewise, for a character to be just as fleshed out, they would require a backstory. Just as every burger is personalised by the ingredients used in them, every individual character is just as unique in their own way. If a character has a scar, don’t ignore it as a aesthetical element to make your character cool, tell the viewers how they got that scar, how they were before that event, their changes after the event and so on.  It helps your audience get invested in a character.

Ernest Hemingway described the importance of what isn't told in a story as analogous to an iceberg, where only 1/8th is visible, the rest adds mass and significance.

This is Whisper the Wolf,(Sonic the Hedgehog #8) she’s called that because of her sparse dialogue and soft-spoken tone(she only talks by whispering). But how did she get that name? What was the event that led to who she is now? What was she called before the event and how different was she before the event?

To answer those questions, you’ll have to read the sonic comics by IDW. If you did, chances are, you were interested in the character’s backstory,(I know there are a plethora of other characters with different backstories, so let’s just assume for now) but how does she tie up with the comic overall, and what is her goal?

Unifying Theory of 2 + 2

Make the audience put things together, don’t give them 4, give them 2 + 2 (which makes 4) Judith Weston says that ‘all characters have a spine’. This inner motor is a dominant, Unconscious goal they are striving for, to scratch that itch.

Woody’s(Toy Story) was to do the best for his child, Wall-E was to find the beauty, Marlin (Nemo’s dad) was to prevent harm

Elements to consider

Convictions and beliefs: What are your character’s political, social, and economic views? Does your character have any theories on life in general or in detail? How did he, she or they come to feel that way?

Education: Consider both formal education and acquired education in this category.

Family background: Invent your character’s family history, including the uncle they were named after but never sees. Friends are included in this category.

Geographic location: Detail any environment that helped shape your character’s present circumstances. Create everything from the climate to the socio-economic make-up of the community to the carefully manicured lawns.

Key events: Virtually every event in a story will be possible because of something that’s occurred in the past. What events led up to those in your story, and why did they occur?

Past successes and failures: People are shaped in part by their best and worst memories. Knowing what your character’s track record is may be helpful in certain situations that arise in the script itself.

Phobias: Your characters’ fears dictate what they avoid in life and, in some cases, what’s pushing them to succeed. Think specific and general; a fear of rose thorns may be just as compelling as a fear of commitment.

Profession: How do your characters make a living? Do they enjoy working at the library, or are they biding their time? How did they get where they are?

Quirks: What makes them unique, physically and psychologically?

System of values: People differ in where they draw the line between right and wrong. What do your characters value most in themselves? What types of behaviour would make them ill?

Talents: What has your character always been good at? Does he utilise that talent, or has it gone by the wayside?

Time period: What part of history are you tackling? Whose history will you portray?

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The Characters (V1)

These are my current cast of characters in my film. This is not final.

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Shape dynamics exploration

I played around with various different shapes to get different sizes and variations.

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Style Explorations and Character Study sketches

I played around with various shapes and designs to get different designs.

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Understanding Shape Language & Character Dynamics

Shape Language

Shape Language is a concept used in art and animation to communicate meaning based on shapes we are familiar with. When used in character, object, and background design, shapes can tell a story, show personality, and illicit an emotional response in the viewer without using any words.

https://www.waltdisney.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/T%26T_ShapeLang_v9.pdf

Character Dynamics

Character dynamics refers to the way that different characters in your story relate to one another. The word dynamic can be defined as something that results in change, growth, activity, or interaction. Character dynamics are how you use the relationships between characters to help your characters grow or transform.

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Storyboards

Unfortunately, the scanner was not very good with the scan, but this is my story so far, totally approximately 122 panels.

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Research, Ideas & Moodboards

Research

Since my characters are mainly a Frog and a Toad, predominantly being amphibians, I decided to do research on amphibians. Between frogs and toads, frogs tend to live near bodies of water, as they’re able to breathe underwater and swim in water, whereas toads live on dry land. Toads however still can swim, but frogs are significantly stronger swimmers. Toads have a brownish tinge to their skin as opposed to the brighter green that frogs have. 

If there was ever a tell-tale sign to indicate which amphibian you are looking at, it’s the texture of their skin. Toads are warty-looking, covered in little lumps and bumps, while frogs are sleek and smooth. Toads also virtually always have dry skin, whereas frogs look wet even when they are out of the water.

Toads cope much better with dry conditions than frogs, as their skin is more waterproof. Frogs lose moisture a lot more easily, and so are rarely seen too far away from water, which explains why they always look moist.

Frogs have long legs, longer than their head and body, which are made for hopping. Toads, on the other hand, have much shorter legs and prefer to crawl around rather than hop. Frogs can hop significantly higher and farther than toads.

Frogs are lithe and athletic-looking, whereas toads are somewhat squat and dumpy. Their faces are different too; frogs have a pointed nose while toad noses are much broader.

Spawn is another key indicator for which species you’re looking at. Frog spawn is laid in gooey clumps, whereas toad spawn floats in stringy lengths.

Like their adult counterparts, frog tadpoles are slimmer whereas toad tadpoles are chunky. Frog tadpoles are also covered in gold flecks, while toad tadpoles are plain black in color.

Ideas 

Since my ideas involves a frog and a toad, I’ve decided to model my characters on a duo dynamic where each have polarising personalities, but not too different as they’re both friends, so there’s a common interest shared between them to harbor a friendship. 

The Frog

The frog character will be a lively and cheery character. She is much taller than her friend Toad. She lives near the pond in a lilypad house. She loves pie.

The Toad

The Toad character is a shorter, stubby character that has a more rounder stature in comparison to Frog. He is playful and cheeky and loves to play with frog.

The Moodboards

I’ve created various moodboards inspired for my characters, environments and styles.

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Concepts

Concept 1:

Two Characters in a romantic relationship.

Concept 2:

Story themed after a frog living its daily life from its lily pad house.

Concept 3:

Two Characters from different backgrounds meet each other for the first time, and get to experience each others differences and cultures and accept each others’ differences.

Chosen Concept:

After discussing with my lecturer, I’ve decided to merge the concepts of concept 2 and 3, being an interaction between a Frog and a Toad.