Jan 13, 2012

Trying to make a Short Animation Film: Part II

What comes after story?

Well, technically my story is this constantly evolving, morphing monster right now. And nothing happens exactly one after the other like walking down stairs, but rather each step overlaps and affects whatever is right behind or ahead of it.

I have been simultaneously trying to do 3-4 things at the same time. Which may account for some of the confusion one might experience by the end of this post.

Maybe it the wrong way of doing things, and there might be a better way. But right now for me, this is what is helping me move ahead with work atleast in minute degrees.

I am working on my story, storyboard, character design, figuring out the style and treatment of the backgrounds as well as working on my editing, staging, composition and layout skills.

Each pass of storyboard, and feedback received on it is helping me strengthen the actual story. Also principles of composition, layout and staging have to be incorporated in the storyboard as well.
I am also trying to decide how to treat my backgrounds, as I know that if i have detailed backgrounds with a lot of rendering, it will be a whole lot more work, and backgrounds are not my greatest strength. Also, my story is completely character driven, and keeping in mind time constraints, I am considering going with a minimalist approach. So from both viewpoints, artistic and realistic, it makes better sense to spend the time on making clear and simple backgrounds rather than spend more time to get super realistic rendered backgrounds which don't contribute to the story.

So now I'm exploring different styles and treatment for the same.
Artist like Quentin Blake and Ronald Searle come to mind, as well as the animations of UPA, which had such simple and beautiful backgrounds which was perfect for their shorts.

Some of what I've been reading/watching:
http://sevencamels.blogspot.com
http://vancegerry.blogspot.com/
http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/
The 5 C's of Cinematography
The Art of Layout and Storyboarding
Disney's Illusion of Life
Shorts from UPA (watch on youtube)
Thomas Ott's Panopticum (graphic narrative)
Manta Ray's Hush (graphic narrative)


Also, I'm trying to learn about colour in compostion.
Man there are just too many things to figure out! :O


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