Divorce

I was very glad with the outcome of this project since it was my first time doing a digital piece. Because I didn't have a tablet and had no experience of using one I decided to draw on an iPad and Photoshop. I was also new to using colour along with working digitally. This was a fun experience and very knowledgable, I particularly found it extremely rewarding because it turned out looking like cartoons you'd see on TV, obviously not as high quality and well done, but for a first try it has a lot of good technique.

To make this seem more professional I woke with the widescreen film and TV ratio of 9:16.

Although I didn't get to finish the final piece's story, I would like to complete it and add sound.

Storyboard: Divorce

Upon stumbling on a post about butterflies and their ability to have a deformity that enables them to be both male and female. It's literally half male and fame, split right in the middle causing it to have two different wings. The term for this is bilateral gynandromorph butterfly.

I though the idea of marriage and divorce would be more effectively shown through a butterfly.

A caterpillar crawling along on it's way until it spots a flower and with a butterfly perched on top of it.  It jumps up and into the flower as in encloses the butterfly and caterpillar inside.
The flower then opens revealing a bilateral gynandromorph butterfly fluttering away. This is the existing butterfly and the caterpillar joining as one. The butterfly is faced with a crossroad leading to three different paths; two shady areas on either side and one brightly coloured are going ahead. The butterfly then splits in two and the colour drains out, creating two small white butterflies flying in different directions.

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Going along with the idea of growing up, marriage and divorce I though a caterpillar turning into a butterfly would be most best fitting.

I decided that the character design should be simple, this gave me a chance to look at the facial expression of the caterpillar, the flowers I could make and the different types of butterflies.

Even though I knew I wouldn't need to create the transformation of the caterpillar into butterfly, I though it would be appropriate to study that transformation so I'm well informed about my area of study and can answer questions about such things if asked.

I had a talk with one of the tutors and she suggested I look at the different types of caterpillars and what kind of butterflies they grown into. This is an important bit of research especially because butterfly enthusiasts could possibly watch the film and they could be very critical.

Therefore I looked a few butterflies of different colours that I found beautiful and different caterpillars alike and studied them. This helped me gain knowledge and gave me an insight to real professional research put into films/animation so they appear more realistic and less offensive to people with different interests.

Getting Inspired

"Metamorphosis" meaning; a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.
(in an insect or amphibian) the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages.

What could I possibly do?
Again I made a mind map to help myself put all my thoughts together. Since I didn't have a very clear idea of the word metamorphosis, I decided to simply type in in google images and see what I found. I picked three pictures that I though could help me and made small mind maps around it with words that I thought when looking at the images. Through this I put all my thoughts together and thought of the idea of growing up and marriage and divorce.

Trip to Brighton

Project 3

Title: Metamorphosis.

 

 

Three words that come to my mind: weird, exciting, fantasy.

Planets

For my second animation I successfully managed to add sound, however it's not of high quality or pound enough to be audible. I also added dialogue which I did although we were encouraged not to, since it's difficult. So I'm proud of myself for being able to, with some success, use it in my work.

Although this piece is unfinished I think it comes from a very interesting idea which my friend and I would love to work on in the future as an internet cartoon. Having though very deeply into the story, background and characters it turned out to be a very exciting idea that drives us both. The story also gained a lot of attuning within the class as people seemed to show a lot of interest in it and relate to and favour many of the characters. For example the Sun named Sunpai; originating from the Japanese  word senpai; meaning a senior or superior in any academic or corporate organization in society, commonly used in the schooling system. Within the anime fandom, it's a popular term when referring to a male you look up to and are physically attracted to, you see the person as higher than you and they're usually the nice guy.
It was a play on character and a term that lots of people can relate to.

There is also a romance in the story between Pluto and Sunpai which people have taken a huge interest in and pitched in a lot of iras that I've found very exciting and drives me to work on this professionally.

Aside from pleasing the audience, there are some underlying themes that I'm promoting within the story. Anti-bullying and equality. Through Pluto getting bullied I would like to show why bullying is as stupid as it is bad. And I'd like to promote equality through the different characteristics of the planets and through the gay relationship between the Sun and Pluto, this also links to reasons people are possibly bullied. Along with entertaining my audience, I wish to promote good things and teach my audience to be better people in some way.

We've discussed this often and have created a strong storyline and background to the characters and their lives that we're confident we can make a successful cartoon of it all while enjoying the making process.

As a personal project I wish to take this further one day is something I would like to accomplish.

Storyboard: Planets

Background story:

1. In middle school Earth came up with a theory that Pluto wasn’t even a planet, he was just pretending, seeing as he didn’t fit in, didn’t behave in any way and was just simply too distant. He said that he didn’t fit as a planet, or a star or anything in the whole universe and he was plain weird.

People started spreading bad rumours about Pluto Pluto was always different and distant, therefore he was always bullied. 

2. One day, in middle school, Earth came up with a theory that Pluto was pretending to be a planet and he wasn’t really anything; he backed up this theory by saying that he was too small to be anything in the solar system and that he was a mistake.

The rumour spread like wildfire and everyone was talking about it without knowing the source of information; it just became known that he was pretending to be a planet to get attention or to fit in.
Earth realised what he’d done; it was merely a theory he came up with but it got out of hand and now Pluto was suffering. He started smoking to make himself feel better, however it just make his health decrease incredibly. He stopped hanging around with his friends and became known as the stoner.

No one knew who started the rumour, not even Pluto; even Earth almost forgot he did that because his brain was completely drowned in the poison of smoking and drinking.

I finalised my storyboard and wrote a script to match the animation I'll soon be working on.

A bunch of planets shout at, throw stuff at and be mean to Pluto, in quick flashes and a few words. Pluto wakes up from his horrible nightmare and looks at the time, it’s almost time for the school party.
He looks at the door and his mum calls from downstairs, saying “Pluto honey, wake up from your nap; it’s almost time for your school party”. He sighs, he hasn’t told his mum about what happened to him in middle school and she thinks everything is normal and he’s having a good time.
He goes to the party and Uranus says “ew, it’s Pluto” and a everyone laughs. Pluto sulks and makes eye contact with Neptune. Pluto smiles at him and Neptune immediately looks away. Sadly Pluto goes to sit next to Earth, who is sitting next to the food table, completely stoned and talking to himself. They greet each other.
Earth starts coughing and says he has a tummy ache and that he needs to go to the bathroom. Pluto asks if he needs help, Earth says “it’s fine, the voices in my head will keep me company” Pluto nods and lets him go.
Pluto looks at the dancing crowd; they’re having fun and partying. He looks at Jupiter who’s chilling with all his moons and talking to Mars; switches his view to Venus getting her nails done by Pluto’s moons and some of Saturn’s moons. They say they’re so glad they left Pluto for her; the Saturn ones put their hand up and say they left Saturn.
The door opening sound happens and everyone turns around and says “oooooo”. The sun walks in with Mercury, all smiling, while Mercury waves and says greets the people of their behalf. Planets start whispering; saying he hardly comes to parties so they find space for him to sit. Venus runs over and immediately leads him to the food stand, pushing and telling Pluto to go away rudely. Sun frowns and tells her to stop and tells Pluto that he can sit with him and Mercury; Mercury smiles and nods. Pluto is scared, but listens.