Animation Aspects Discussed and Feedbacks Received

What ideas have you presented to your tutor and peers?

I had in fact brought two ideas to present, but the first idea was so well-received that there was no need to present the other. I had presented Evee and Bentley (a girl with a scarf that can move like a pair of arms and even had his own personality) concept, along with several ideas for situations and actions the pair could take part in.

What comments did you receive? How have your ideas and original plans changed in response to feedback and changes in circumstances? Consider the resources available, time, cost etc.

The feedback was extremely positive, supportive and encouraging, which I very much appreciated. My ideas and plans have generally stayed unchanged, albeit certain reductions and changes in some to simplify the project and make things easier for myself.

Few resources are really needed for this hand-drawn animation other than paper, stationery and a light box, although later on it was decided that backgrounds would be added with computer software. Thankfully, cost has not really been an issue. Time, however, has been a rather prominent obstacle. As hand-drawn animation is so time-consuming, as well as being busy with other school work, time has indeed become a frequent predicament.

Animation Initial Ideas

This is the final design of Evee and Bentley: the current design chosen for the animation. Below are the various stages of Evee and Bentley's development. I tried various styles, trying to find the one that both fit Evee and Bentley and the one that I was comfortable with to animate.

Inspirations (including those listed below) include: the Pokémon Anime Series, Richard Williams "The Thief and the Cobbler", Yves Bourg "Supercrash" (www.supercrash.net, thebourgyman.deviantart.com) and Bill Watterson "Calvin and Hobbes".










This is the first ever drawing of Evee and Bentley: a doodle in the computer art program Paint. The style was my own, but as a whole inspired from the Pokémon anime cartoons from my childhood.











These are the first drawings of Evee and Bentley I did by hand, based off the one I did on the computer.













An older Evee.




















This style for Evee and Bentley was inspired by Richard William's "The Thief and the Cobbler"





































This style is based on the cartoons of the 1920s. It was very fun to draw, and its role in the development of the characters was substantial as it helped construct a simpler design for Evee and Bentley.












This was an attempt to make Evee younger, smaller and simpler to draw.










This is a character based on Evee and Bentley, although the incarnation of Bentley is not in fact alive, making the main focus the superhero girl. This was inspired by the comic "Supercrash" by Yves Bourg. (www.supercrash.net)






Where and how did you get your ideas?

Evee and Bentley are characters I had invented a while ago, purely for my own amusement – a girl who owned a scarf that could move on their own like a pair of arms: an idea I thought was pretty entertaining. Immediately I wanted to make the scarf have a personality of its own, so Evee could have an emotional bond with her scarf – inspired much by creations such as Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy – as well as to make the scarf more interesting. More inspiration for Bentley came from a fascination with ghosts and the ability ghosts are claimed to have: possessing (or being spiritually tied down to) an object.

As soon as I started the animation course, I thought that Evee with Bentley could be quite interesting to animate, and I had tonnes of ideas and situations that a girl with a living, moving scarf could get into. This inspired my idea for a “day in the life” of Evee and Bentley: an unusual pair of best friends with a bizarre ability.

Evee was originally a character based on myself, but evolved into her own person with separate traits and individuality. I also made her a lot younger than me: in the animation she is twelve years old, mainly to increase the variety of situations that could occur (such as playing catch, and encountering school bullies).



What research have you done?

Because Evee and Bentley was basically planned out in my head way before the animation course had begun, so not much research was needed to be done. However, much research on how to animate the piece was done, such as walk cycles (studied by reading “The Animator’s Survival Kit” by Richard Williams), due to being an inexperienced animator.


Why are research and drawing skills important to the animation development process?

If I had done no research on how to animate things that I had no knowledge on animating, my animation could have been at a much poorer standard. If I had a complete lack of drawing skills, the designing of Evee and Bentley, the animatic and of course the animation itself would have been impossible to go about doing. There is a huge reliance on at least some drawing skill and initiative in order to be able to successfully develop and execute a piece of hand-drawn animation.

Animation Storyboard

Obtaining Permission

Due to copyright issues, in order to be able to use the song I wanted for my animation, I had to request permission from the copyright holders of the song. I did this via a license data form on their official website.

The song I wanted for my animation was "Day at the Seaside" by John Renbourn from his album "Another Monday". Originally I had wanted "Better Together" by Jack Kohnson, as I felt both the meaning behind the song and the gentle, calm mood of the song suited Evee and Bentley. However, I found another song that I felt suited the animation even better: "Townshend Shuffle" by William Ackerman. Not only did the song carry the same gentle, calm but at the same time cheerful mood that I wanted, but it did not have words, which suited Evee and Bentley.

However, I could not obtain Copyright permission and I did not even have access to the song. To compensate, my animation teacher found an album he owned that had a very similar kind of music. The song "Day at the Seaside" from this album fitted perfectly with my animation, and so I decided to use that instead.

Animation Developing Skills

This was a button drawn in Adobe Illustrator and then put into Macromedia Flash to be animated and made interactive with a mouse cursor.









This is a screenshot from an animation, created during a session that taught the group how to use Macromedia Flash to animate.

First Light Productions

Lizardo 4 is a stop-motion animation in progress created and directed by Sam Gainsborough. The Animation class, including myself, helped to make some of the background characters, designed particularly for scenes where there would be crowds, so there had to be a diverse group of people made.

First of all, we each made a sky to use as a backdrop for the outdoor scenes. The best and most suitable sky was chosen to be used for the production.

Then, we split ourselves into groups to take care of each of the different areas: constructing various-shaped armatures, molding the heads, hands and the feet, building the bodies, and making the clothes. For the heads, they had to be made in the style that Sam had designed for the main characters of the film. The bodies were made from polystyrene. For the clothes, they had to be tailored to specific proportions so they would fit each character's body structure comfortably. They had to be interesting yet typical to any ordinary group of people.