Jarvis Animation

Grand Valley State University - Animation student. Excited to explore the medium and show my work to the world!

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This is a rough proof of concept for my next animated short “Speaker Anatomy”! Had some keying issues, but the main focus of the footage was to get an idea of the workflow and to see how it looked through production. With some minor tweaks, I think this is going to look amazing! What do you think?

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This is some external footage that I am using as a style reference. It is a short film titled “Cliff” and was made using the 3D animation software: Blender. MadCrazyScientist posted this short on Sep 28, 2014 to youtube and I think they did a wonderful job. I love the plain white used for all the textures and it is what I am aiming for when I design the inside of the speaker.

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Finally got my animatic together. This is simply to try and get an idea of the duration of the project and also the story. Enjoy!

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Introducing the star of the new upcoming animated short, SPEAKER ANATOMY which comes out April 2017. His music style is so different from the rest, that he might run into some trouble trying to fit in!

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Sir Piano, a classic man who has seen it all. Check him out in the new animated short SPEAKER ANATOMY coming out April 2017!

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Keep an eye out for the newest character of the SPEAKER ANATOMY cast, the Snare Drum! Wildly unpredictable

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Introducing Mr. Bell, another supporting character in the new animated short SPEAKER ANATOMY!

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Introducing Miss Acoustic Guitar! One of the supporting characters of the animated short SPEAKER ANATOMY!

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Project Treatment: Speaker Anatomy

The short starts out with live action footage of the unboxing of a new speaker. It is brand new, slick, white, shiny, and ready for use. The owner’s faces are not shown because they are not the focus of the short.  Once the speaker is set up, the camera follows the path of the aux chord all the way into the front of the speaker, which brings us to our main characters in an animated world. In a single file line horizontally, a row of 6 characters stand/sit silently. The next shot is a medium shot that dollys down the row showing every character booting up with their respective noises. First the piano character (grandfatherly, wise, no nonsense), bell character (expressionless, firm, timid), electric guitar (too cool for school, no rules), acoustic guitar (motherly, kind, sincere), then snare drum (sparatic, wild card, crazy eyed). Next, close up on our main character, the ‘dubstep’ character is what we will call him. He wakes up and makes a strange, unidentifiable noise. He looks down the row receiving strange glances from most of the line. He very confused as to what is going on.  Above the piano character pops a green illumination with a soft ‘ping’. Without hesitation he steps forward to the front of the speaker like it was a part of his morning routine. The piano tenses up slightly, and begins to produce the music, which was requested by the speaker owners. The owners outside the speaker listen and enjoy. Back inside the speaker, our dubstep character is very envious. The song concludes shortly, the green light shuts off with a soft click, and the piano steps back into place. Another ‘ping’ is heard (meaning that a green light has illuminated) and dubstep looks up excited, but it is not his light, it is a different character. He sinks down. The fourth character in line, the acoustic guitar, is called forward and begins playing her music. Crossfade to the end of the song, and the green light shuts off again with a soft click, and the acoustic guitar returns to her place. Dubstep is excited once again, but then the brightness of our speaker dims, and the owners walk out of the room. Dubstep walks to the front of the speaker, and tenses up like the other characters (trying to make music) but nothing happens. Defeated, he walks back to his place at the end of the line and falls asleep. A close up shot on his eyes closing, then fade to black. A ruckus is heard, and dubstep jolts awake. It is still very dark. Dubstep looks outside the speaker and many people are seen standing around in groups talking. He looks over at the row of instrumental characters and everyone is scared. Stage fright. The speaker owner approaches the aux chord, and plugs it in once again. The music travels down the chord again and the speaker light is on again and everything is bright. The characters are all wide eyed, except dubstep who looks more excited than ever. A green light illuminates with a solid ping, and a slow pan to above dubstep reveals that it is his light. He is awe struck. The characters are all focused on him now. Dubstep is frozen. After a moment of tension, he realizes its time to break a leg. He floats over to the front of the speaker. Turning around, he sees the crowd of eyes all focused on him. Then he faces forward, takes a deep breath, and focuses all his might into producing music. Then the craziest song on gods green earth plays, and the party outside the speaker goes wild. The piano character is disgusted and turns away. The electric guitar loves his individuality and bobs his head. The acoustic guitar smiles, almost proud of him. The music comes to a crescendo as the camera closes in on dubstep who enjoys his moment of triumph, and then credits roll.

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This is my mind map. I made this to help me spit out some ideas for the next animation I want to do. To be honest it is hard to read, but it helped a lot!