Narrative Project-Two Characters One Setting

For the Two Characters, one Setting project we were given the task of using these three elements in a way that could tell a simple narrative. 

Ideas Stage:

To begin with I began brainstorming some possible narrative ideas that I could do. My first idea was that I could make an animation that deals with the theme of addiction or illness, having one of the characters act as a captive while the other would act as the actual illness/ addiction. In this way I was thinking about possibly conveying this by having a boy trapped on a single stone pillar while a massive dragon would be circling him, keeping him trapped there. I think this is a really cool idea, however I was thinking very deeply about whether or not I was not sure if I can convey theses topics in such a way just yet. What I mean by this is that these topics are very complicated and complex and if I were to do it I would want to do it right. Not saying I couldn't its just I would want to do it in a manner that was proper.

My other idea/ideas involved the dynamic of a large character and a small character and the ways they would interact with each other. The two ideas were quite similar in that one idea was to have the bigger character help a smaller one over a bridge. And the other was to have a big character help a little character up a steep cliff or hill. I quite liked this dynamic and knew it would be something that I would probably do since it would allow me to create a simple narrative and have simple characters that I could play around with. It could also give me a way to do something possibly sentimental or even something lighthearted. When sketching what I had in mind for how they would look, I became more drawn towards the bridge idea. I kept trying to think of other ideas but there was something that kept pulling me back to it. And so I decided to go with that one.

Research:

Once I had finally picked my idea it was then that I began to do some visual research on Pintrest. The initial idea I had in mind had the setting of a bridge in the middle of the forest, so I wanted to look and woodland themed characters and backgrounds.

Character:

My Two Characters Pintrest page link: https://uk.pinterest.com/tyler1599/two-characters/

Background/ Setting

 

My Backgrounds Pintrest Page Link: https://uk.pinterest.com/tyler1599/backgrounds/ 

Character Development:

While I was doing this I began to sketch some of my own ideas, drawing some simple shapes just to start off with. I knew I wanted both my characters to look similar but not too similar, still letting the audience know that they came from the same setting. I came up with the rough designs of my characters quite quickly, as you can see below. However these would function as the foundations for me to build upon later as I developed the characters further.

Testing out what the characters would look like together in their setting.

Once I had these foundations I began to build upon them, fleshing the characters out more, smoothing them out and overall just simplifying their designs further. I firstly began with the smaller character, trying different body types, however I quite liked the hunchback design as it suited the characters actions of carrying things over the bridge, he looks like he was built for that. I even began to test out things that he could carry over the bridge, giving him lots of random junk. An idea which would later be carried on further into the final film narrative. I also gave him some tribal-ish markings which seemed to oddly suit the character and I made sure to carry this on in the design of the larger character making its ones slightly different to tie them to each other in a subtly way.

For the big character I knew I wanted to give him quite an intimidating and mysterious silhouette, however at the same time I wanted him to actually be friendly and curious. Conveying his character to start off in the misty background behind the trees, again as this mysterious and intimidatingly large creature in the background. While when in the foreground he would be this friendly bumbling giant. When designing him I went through many body types, originally starting off with a kind of S shape, however I didn't think this conveyed how massive I wanted the character to be and so I ended up going with a kind of bearish body type. Giving the character the heftiness and mass I was looking for. I also re-designed the head making it much bigger and slightly squarer to match up better with the body. Trying out different antler and horn designs until I found one that I liked. .

 Character Workshop with Rachel:

In the middle of the project we had had a character making workshop in which we created characters via making Plasticine models first and then sketching them. Before this however we were told to got to the museum and sketch some of the animals there for some inspiration. Because I already had a good grasp on my characters design, I used the time to do some sketching, however the mask section was useful as it allowed me to look at some actual tribal markings and look at the ways they were incorporated throughout the masks.

During the workshop I sketched some really cool characters. I was really happy with they ones I came up with and the workshop was really helpful and intuitive and I had never thought to design characters in that way before.

Story Boarding/ Narrative Construction:

Once I had my characters to a point I was happy with I began to storyboard my film in thumbnails first so I could figure out how the narrative would pan out. I developed upon my original idea of the big character helping the small character over the bridge by having the big characters curiosity of the bridge causes him to accidentally brake it. The small character needing to get over the bridge for an unknown reason,(throughout the film he is carrying random things from one side to the other) to which he finally meets the big character. Being scared initially due to his intimidating size, however he is then is surprised by his kind act of helping him across.  

Concept Ideas:

Once my basic narrative was figured out I began to draw up some concepts for our two character catch up meeting with our tutors. 

With these I really wanted to try and get a sense of what the final film would look like. This also allowed me to figure out the scale of the characters in relation to one another and how I wanted them to appear within the frame.Feed back from the meeting was good and they seemed to like my idea and where it was going. However one of the suggested changes I should make to my characters was their circular eyes. I quite liked them how they were,  however I went ahead and drew lots of different types seeing how they would look on the characters. Overall none of them really stuck out for me like the original ones did and I just decided to stick with those. I totally understood why the suggestion to change them was made however I felt like I could make them work. I was thinking about changing the colours of them each time the react to something like a traffic light. Possibly being something that can show how they are feeling however I'm not sure at this point.

Character Colour Design:

Once this was done and I had my character finalized I began test out what colours they would be.

Again because the two are in the setting of a forest, I figured that especially for the large character (since I imagine he would be living there) that he would have very earth woodland colours.

It was different for the smaller character however because I wasn't entirely sure what colour he would be at all. And so I just ended up trying him out in a range of colours. I actually ended up asking my fellow animators in the studio what colour I should choose for both of them and everyone went for the brown for the large character, and the dark purple and dark green ones for the small. I personally quite liked these colours myself and thought that they suited the characters.

Characters Within the Setting/ Character Colour Test: 

Next I set about colouring the background and the characters within it. I again went for very traditional earthy colours keeping them very dark. I also added a blue hue over everything just to make it look slightly colder and tone down the colours of the background a bit. This was down to the fact that I wanted it to look as  though it was really misty. I have plans to animate the mist slowly moving in the background throughout the animation, giving the scene a very calm atmosphere (hopefully).  

In this scene I wanted to test out how the big character looked in the background. His shadowy appearance does make for an intimidating figure in the background, something I was happy about. It was at this point suggested to me that I should make his eyes glow as well. Something which actually turned out to be a really cool suggestion and I was really happy with how it looked. 

Again I tried two versions of the small character, one with the dark green and one with the dark purple. However I found that I liked the purple version better so I ended up going with that.

Final test version. 

Animatic:

With the actual proper storyboard, I went ahead and scanned it in- turning it into an animatic for me to use when it finally came time to animate. (Animatic can be seen below)

Animatic_2_Characters from Tyler Carrigan on Vimeo.

Animating:

And so once the jewelry collaboration formative review was over and done with and we now had 2 weeks Easter holidays I decided to use this time to try and do all of the animation (Something which is taking way longer than first anticipated- clearly). All of the animation was being done in Photoshop using layers and the animation timeline, which I had never used before. At this stage I was just focusing on getting the animation done and so no colouring or shading has been applied yet. 

Quick Narrative Change:

During the last weekend of the holidays myself and Amy (a fellow animator) were talking about my animations narrative and how I felt that the middle section needed to be changed and there need to be something more than just the character helping the other character over the bridge and off he goes. We brainstormed it for a bit and came up with the idea that as the little character is crossing the bridge he drops something (later deciding the thing that he drops is a scarf) and leaves it behind as he crosses back over a second time. This allows for the big character-rather than fading to behind the trees again as time passes- just to stay there and come back up from hiding and be looking at the scarf. As he does so, I figured that the small character could come back into shot a notice the big character and react in the same way as before. However when he gets lifted over the bridge by the big character the first time he could pick up the scarf he has dropped. Again the big character takes him back over the other side again. Once this is done I want the little character to give the scarf to the big character as a thank you and then leave the scene and the film ends. Credits role. And then I wanted to show the bridge again, now fixed due to the scarf being used to tie it together. 

I felt like this was a way better way to tell the narrative and quickly drew up another thumbnail storyboard for me to follow when animating.

Animating Still Ongoing:

Currently at this point I am still animating and I still have the last couple of scenes to do. This includes the bits and pieces that are missing in the animation and still need patch up. I also still have the colour, sound and editing to do. However I am hoping to get the animation done for the film house deadline. 

Here is what I have so far: 

Two Characters Animation from Tyler Carrigan on Vimeo.

It Continues!: 

Finally I have manged to get the film finished for the film house! Yay!!! However I still think I want to return to it and go back and add more colour and shadows to the characters and maybe clean up the timing a bit. But I'm glad that its got to a point that I can say it is almost finished and again I'm quite happy with the way this has turned out. Here is the latest version below:

My Thoughts on the project:

I have really enjoyed this project, however I am a bit bummed out that I haven't managed to finish it before the deadline. However I feel like if we had more time to do this project I think I would have got it finished. Even though it was spread over the entire semester I felt as though all of the other projects that we had in-between this one, including context required us to be really full on and I felt that this project suffered because of that. However I think this has been one of my favorite projects so far. Having been one that has really aloud us to develop our very own narratives, character and settings a whole lot more than any other project has.