a new You're It illustration

i did this to be shown on screen at my grad ceremony.

also, here a character study. i was planning her as a killer in my comics but i hav no idea where the story is going atm so i just draw her with weapons a lot....

trailer

posters

final version

some poster wips

this is the one i'm working on, not quite sure about the font, i know i want something hand written (hence i wrote it myself...haha)

idea 1

idea 2

presentation notes

Since the beginning I wanted to merge the aspects of children’s book illustrations with animation, with a plot based on stories that have sinister contents and twisted endings, like many of the old (original) fairy tales told to children. The aesthetic of my animation reflects the tradition illustration while the animation technique brings motion to the characters and the environment. There is a hint of craft and collage in the visual style of the background, reminding the audience that this is a story for children about children. 

I mainly focus on the visual of the animation and pay more attention to the colour tones of each shots. In Walter Murch's Rule of 6, emotion is the most important aspect in editing, then story. If the cut doesn't support the emotion of the film, then the cut is unnecessary. And to portray the emotions in my animation, I tried showing them through colour tone within each cut; switching from cool (the water/ the dead) and the warm (the land/ the living). To give the audience a hint of abnormality in a casual day. I changed the panning of the buildings from upwards to downwards, to get the children “closer to the water". Also, all the actions in the animation are from left to right, creating consistency and making it easy to the eyes.

actual set render

revised storyboard

here's the latest version of the storyboard. changed the finding sequence and added some shots. excuse the hiccups in the music. i added more images so kinda pushed the music with it.

what the final film might look like...

here r some final render of my animation "you're it"

i know i shouldn't choose the first scene (girl hiding in bushes) to work on but it's got the most simple bk to work as a test. and after the panel, that scene is not gonna b the opening scene cuz it confuses the audience.

Why paper

Why paper

Initially I wanted to tell a story about children’s disobedience leads to punishment in a supernatural way, much like Grimm’s fairytales. After some revisions I decided to keep it simple; it is just a ghost story. What got me started (again) with fairytales and supernatural subjects was when I read some short stories written on the Internet about the ancient black magic that happens in some native tribes of China. The stories may be fictional, but they were based on common believes and folktales. I started to research more about superstitions and storytelling.

One of the most common stories that are told in many cultures is about the danger water. Because we humans cannot live underwater without air and its cold and light impenetrable qualities bring mystery and imagination to our mind. The story of my animation is based on the belief of the haunting spirits that take victims to replace themselves in order to move on to the afterlife, thus creating a loop and making the locations filled with cases of “accidents”. The setting of my animation is within a city with water running throughout it in forms of canals and tunnels. This is my solution of combining both water and living environment into the same setting. From the last panel I got the comments that there were too much settings and the audience was getting lost. Over the summer I travelled to cities with canals running through them, getting my inspiration for the environment aesthetic.

I thought I was attractive to beautiful things visually (who isn’t) but it seems what really gets my head wrapped around the matter is the story. Ironically, comparing to my drawing skill, storytelling is not my forte. I often complicate things, adding too much unnecessary information and details, causing confusions among the audience. It is the reason they first story idea did not work out. I simplified the concept down. What is the main idea of the story? In this case, a spirit of a drowned victim is getting another unfortunate soul to take its place. How can this story be told with a twist at the end? A group of children are playing alongside the water, a girl with a strong resemblance of a fish joins in to the game of tag and she is ‘it’. Her position of being ‘it’ reflects her role as a drowned spirit, with the task of passing down her position to someone else. The participation of the girl in the game triggers the “accident” that would soon happen along the story. I try to keep the settings as simple and obvious as possible. It is usually the transitions that throw the audience off. My goal for the story aspect of the film is comprehension; as long as the audience can understand the plot without extra explanation.

The aesthetic of the animation has been mostly inspired by storybook illustrations. I am drawn towards the compositions of flat shapes and colour, using layers to create illusion of depth. Illustrations in many books are decorative with elaborate details. Yet those decorations are also part of the storytelling. While Alphonse Mucha’s illustrations amaze me with the elegant Art Nouveau style of the Victorian Era, I also adore the round and childish style of children’s picture books. Watercolour and collage have been the major inspiration as well by incorporating textures and patterns into the images. The artists I find myself praise recently are mostly from the Internet, therefor I cannot learn much about the artist except their artworks. Artworks by Cynthia L. aka ‘Deathofrats’ on Deviantart are colourful watercolour pieces with loose line strokes and repetitive patterns. She plays with negative and positive shapes to generate compositions that hold the images together. The subjects are often childish and playful while also being settle and peaceful. ‘Pettrybyos’ has similar technique and subject but with different style. Her use of colour is not as bright, though she uses the wash of watercolour to create luminous effects.

What I want to achieve is a visually appealing animation with a simple concept for a story. The aesthetic of the animation imitates the pages of storybook, as if the illustrations are animated to the story. I am relieved that the current plot for the story is quite clear and apparent to the audience. Although I did not want to make the hints at the beginning of the animation too obvious, it does not reveal the ending and is still able to surprise the audience. 

Tention charts

the top one is for the short animation "Death Buy Lemonade". bottom one is mine

another short anim test

umm ya this is just another character animation test.  the characters will b popping out of various places etc. i had a couple frames of  dramatic stretch and squash out, either the timing or the lack of frames made it look weird.
i'm still not sure how animated the characters will b. i love the retro cartoon style from cartoon network like dexter and XJ9 (Jenny from My Life As a Teenage Robot), all geometric shapes and silhouettes. and the lesser drawings too i think >.> but then i might just over animate it (cuz i can't help it with the overlaps) and it just looks crappy.....

ah ok a proper storyboard....kinda

welll it's not exactly timed out yet, and the sound is all sucky....o gawd i suck at sound...
the music is there just to indicate there will b music there...it's a soundtrack from Amelia. i was actually surprised at how the music kinda fits, cuz i didnt think about it at all when i was doing the storyboard.

ehhhhh

mmmm some set concept.....messy messy...

twirl twirl

character 360 rough. haven't figure out the pattern on the back of the fish yet. should i add more colour palette?

more characters soon?

ok got some texture scanned, took longer than i expected cuz of the wrinkles in the fabric...
must...collect...morrreee!

rough rough anim test

oh dear, i don't know how to animate anymore :< was thinking of something  settle instead of jumping around.....large movement is easier to animate....
will update later

 

i dunno y this took so long :< it's like only a few frames...o dear gawd colouring...

Proposal

Grad Proposal

Title: You’re It (working title)

Summary

To produce a 2 to 3 minutes animated film about children playing a game.

Synopsis

A girl in fish costume finds a way to pass on her position as being “it” through a game of hide and seek.

Project Description

“You’re It” is an animated film about a girl joins a group in a game of hide and seek. She being it has to find the others. The first one being found turns out not only taking the girl’s role as it but also her place as the spirit of a drowned victim in the water. In many culture there are stories about spirits in water that will drag victims down, especially at certain spots where “accidents” happen the most. These spirits are bitter and the only way to free themselves is to let another soul take their place. In my short film, I am replacing the bitter ghost with more innocent one who might not realize she was dead. And she is just playing the game by its rule.

Visual Treatment

The background of the animation is going to be in 2D digital cutout to enhance the children storybook look. I will work with a lot of textures and patterns. There will be small amount of animation within the scenery elements to be part of the storytelling. The main programs I’m going to use for developing the images are Photoshop, Illustrator, Aftereffects, and Flash. Photoshop will be mainly use for processing the image files such as the cutouts for the background. Illustrator and Flash use vector, therefore, they are good for the animation that needs alpha channel. The characters within the film will be traditional 2D animation execute digitally. Although I’m inclined to experiment with 3D character animation and render it out with 2D look, I feel I’m stronger with traditional hand drawn animation.

Sound Treatment

There will be no dialogue in the film. The characters will communicate through their acting and other visual aspects. Most of the sound will be ambient noise and sound effects. At the beginning of the film, the music will be subtle yet cheerful. The music starts again when they begin the game. The music goes with the credit as if nothing disturbing has happened. So far I only know about Premier to work with sound.

Budget

Adobe CS Master Collection	$305
1Tb external hard drive	$110
Music and sound	$400
The new computer (old one died)	$2,600
Total	$3,415

more concept drawings

changing the story to kids playing hide and seek game.