𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖆

Daria Shebanova | Group 33 Animation

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Goodbye First Year

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02/05/25

On Friday, I organised my work for the assessment. At the top of the presentation wall, I placed sketches from People’s Park, my chosen illustrator, Robert Ingpen, and my best sketches in his style. I also included a still from my final Mini Me animation.

The bottom section displays my work for the Nursery Rhyme group project. This includes my visual research, character designs, selected shots from my animatic, and the rendered poster. 

On the table, I arranged my sculpture for the Mini Me project, interchangeable mouths for stop motion, and related sketches. I also displayed my storyboard for the group project and my sketchbook with drawings from Fota Wildlife Park.

Reflecting on the past five weeks, I’m satisfied with the results I've achieved in such a short period of time. The Mini Me/World-building project was fun, and felt like a good start for the animation discipline. I enjoyed working outdoors to gather ideas for the background (although I know I could have done more detailed studies, I still collected enough visuals to work with). It was also interesting to explore different art styles of the illustrators I’ve chosen. I focused primarily on Robert Ingpen and his illustrations for "Peter Pan and Wendy," but I studied Patrick Benson's style from "The Minpins" as well. In hindsight, I could’ve been more mindful of the materials I chose for my Mini Me project. I overestimated my sculpting skills and the time available, so the final product doesn't look as good as if I were ro use paper like many of my peers did. Nevertheless, I still believe I did a good job, especially considering my starting point.

The Nursery Rhyme project was a little challenging, but this is the reason I genuinely enjoyed it. From the very beginning, our group had an interesting combination of the nursery rhyme, genre, and time period (Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary / Thriller / Industrial Age). I believe our final product was pretty creative, especially since we chose a more realistic approach. Overall, I think our group effort was balanced, although in the end, Debbie and I ended up covering tasks that weren’t completed since we were managing our CCS fairly well. To be honest, the pitch itself wasn’t the best, but it certainly wasn’t the worst either. I think we were all a bit too anxious and tried to include too much information. 

In conclusion, I view both projects as great learning experiences. While I recognise that there were parts I could have handled differently and certain aspects that could have been organised better, I’m glad I got a taste of the Animation course. I’m really looking forward to continuing it next year.

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Mini Me - Final Animation

Here is my Mini Me finished, with the parallax and the sound finally done. She is a little uncanny, but I kinda like her for that.

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01/02/25

On Wednesday, I made some final edits to my Mini Me, including cutting out the mouths, painting the glasses, and styling the hair. By Thursday morning, I was almost finished and only needed to take photos for the lip-sync. After that, we were taught how to create the lip-sync using Adobe Animate. I encountered a few issues with the sound, but that didn’t matter much since I had to add the sound in post anyway.it doesn't really matter as I had to add the sound on post anyways.

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29/04/25

Mini Me

Illustrations by Robert Ingpen I used as reference

We started working on the Mini Me project. During the Easter break, I thought about the materials I could use and decided on air-drying clay. I knew that most people would use paper for their projects, so I wanted to stand out.

While I certainly did stand out, it wasn't in a good way because my piece ended up looking almost uncanny, and the lack of a mouth didn’t help. Despite this, I was stubborn and didn’t want to restart and change materials, so I continued with my original plan.

I began by forming a base out of tinfoil and paper to keep the clay layer thinner and the piece lighter. After college, I glued on the hair. I would have done more, but I hoped to wait for the clay to dry before sanding it down.

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30/04/25

On Tuesday, I continued working on my Mini Me. I was hoping that the air-drying clay I was using earlier would dry so I could sand and smooth it out, but it didn’t. With limited time, I decided to start painting the skin. At first, it looked really creepy, especially since the neck wasn’t in one piece. I wanted it to be able to move from side to side, but instead, it made the figurine look like it had its throat slit, which definitely wasn’t the original plan.

I was worried because it looked bad, but once I started adding details like the eyes, eyebrows, and paper eyelashes, it improved significantly. 

I also added a little shirt with a ruffled collar. After glueing on the fabric, I measured the space needed for the mouth and created 12 different mouths for various sounds.

Additionally, I made a test version of my background parallax as I was trying to figure out an exact way to do it.

Parallax Test

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11/04/25

Final Pitching

Today, we finally had our final pitch. It feels much easier once it's done. Our group was the second last to present. We weren’t perfect, but we definitely weren’t the worst. Our main issue was that we were too anxious and tried to pack in as much information as possible, which caused us to go over the time limit.

We presented our short movie, M.A.R.Y, a detective thriller set in the Industrial Age. The protagonist, Sam, is a kid who works in a factory. Their friends start going missing one after another, and a series of clues leads Sam to uncover the truth behind these mysterious disappearances. The story has a somewhat open ending, leaving room for a continuation in the form of a full-length movie, a book, or even a video game. The target audience is teens, as the work features realistic depictions of themes such as loneliness, loss of friends, and the metaphorical loss of innocence and coming out of age. It also addresses the concept of child labour.

The main characters include Sam, the protagonist, Terry, the floor manager, his daughter, Terra, who is also Sam's best friend, and the Boss, representing the class system. 

The factory is enormous compared to the main character, dark, and uncomfortable to be in, with many hidden dangers. 

In the story, Sam is working at the factory when their friends start disappearing, motivating them to start an investigation. Initially, they find a diary belonging to one of the missing friends and a drawing depicting a working accident involving another child. As they try to find Terry, they discover a list of names, many of which are crossed out, except for their own. Terry’s office is locked, so they search for him elsewhere. Along the way, they frequently find the name "Mary" written everywhere. 

Instead of finding Terry, they come across a bloody engine. Scared, they attempt to back away and accidentally unlock a secret passage. Within, they discover a broken doll that once belonged to Terra. Frustrated, they follow the hallway, which leads them to the Boss’s office. Inside, they find Terry crying, holding a photo of his daughter. Sam tries to get his attention by pointing at the doll, but their eyes meet with the Boss. They ask him, "Who is Mary?" but the Boss doesn’t answer; instead, he points out the window, revealing a giant logo that reads "M.A.R.Y," indicating it’s the name of the factory. 

In the end, the camera pans up into the sky, showing that there is a Boss for each floor, and then descends several levels, revealing a private graveyard for the children.

We didn't win any of the awards, sadly, but I was still very happy to finally present all the work we've done.

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10/04/25

On the final day before our pitch, we were all busy wrapping up the last bits and pieces. Before that, we had finalised our plan for the presentation.

Earlier, Ríon created a draft of the poster, and I worked on rendering it to align more closely with our established style and the master shot created by Debbie. Later, I printed around 15 copies of the poster to share during our presentation.

Meanwhile, Debbie focused on finalising the character lineup, and we decided to redesign Terry, the floor manager, who was originally designed by Ríon, to better fit the overall aesthetics and represent his middle-class background better. I created an initial sketch, and Debbie then reworked it digitally. Initially, We focused on incorporating shape language into our design, so we made Terry square-shaped. At the beginning of the story, he wears a large, blocky jacket. However, by the end, when he is at his most vulnerable, he is shown without the jacket, revealing his softer features.

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09/04/25

Animatic - Engine

Second part of the animatic that I did on that day.

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09/04/25

Animatic - Diary

On Wednesday, I combined two parts of the animatic: the diary and the engine. This particular section looks a lot like a moment from a video game, likely due to the first-person perspective. It's interesting to see this connection, especially considering how many games inspired us during the project.

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08/04/25

Trip to Fota

On Tuesday, we took a trip to Fota Wildlife Park, and it was a lovely artistic experience. By the end of the day, I was quite tired because I did my best to see and draw as many animals as possible. I also created a few additional drawings later, although these were based on videos of the animals that were constantly moving (as seen in the last two photos). Overall, I think I did a decent job for someone who rarely draws animals or anything that isn’t anthropomorphic, and I should totally do some more animal drawings myself in future, as it would give me more artistic tools for stuff like character design. I believe the best drawings of the day were done in watercolours or colored pencils, as the ones done in pencil appeared a bit stiff.

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07/04/25

This is the last animation I completed that day that featured the engine itself. Unfortunately, I slightly ruined the perspective, and I much preferred how it looked in the animation test. However, I didn't have enough time to start over.

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07/04/25

Another animated sequence that I made that day, but from a different part of the storyboard, now made by me.

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07/04/25

On Monday, I began working on our animatic while everyone else focused on finishing various tasks, like props and backgrounds and background character designs. I decided to recreate three scenes from the middle of the story that feature three clues: the diary, the name list, and the engine. I planned to create animatics that included brief frame-by-frame animated sequences. I started with the scene involving the diary, which was storyboarded by Debbie and also incorporated her prop designs.

Debbie’s work

Moving parts on the separate layers

Background

Frame by frame animated moment

Later that day, I animated three additional moments and sketched out some ideas for the design of the opening page and cover of our presentation.

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Final Animatic

I finally finished the animatic. Originally, we planned for Katie to handle the SFX but since she focused on CCS, I took on that responsibility as well. I used the ambient soundtrack from Silent Hill 2 (A World of Madness and Ashes and Ghost) because it matched the atmosphere of the scenes we depicted. As I mentioned earlier, the animatic showcases three key story points, which we call clues. The sections featuring Alice’s Diary and the namelist were storyboarded by Debbie, while I created the part with the bloodied factory engine. All animatics include short sequences of frame-by-frame animation. The final result really reminds me of video game cutscenes, which fits well since we drew inspiration from various horror games like Silent Hill, Fran Bow, and Rule of Rose, among others.

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04/04/25

Week 2 Presentation

This week, our presentation was significantly better than the last one, although we still faced some issues with inconsistent formatting and fonts that don’t fit our aesthetic. Additionally, one of our group members, Rion, was absent and did not contribute to the shared presentation. 

We presented our character designs. Sam, designed by me, is meant to represent a general depiction of a child from that era, standing out from the main cast due to the warm tones in their design. Sam also appears to be the youngest character.

Terra, designed by Debbie, is the daughter of the factory's floor manager, Terry. Debbie based her design on my style, incorporating softer shapes and features. Terra's blue gown indicates that she belongs to a higher social class.

The Boss was designed by Katie. He symbolises the entire system, he is tall, with a sharp silhouette and dark colours. He wears purple, which was one of the most expensive colours to create.

Katie handled the backgrounds, including various illustrations of the creepy secret hallway where Sam finds Terra's broken doll. Debbie created the additional props, such as Alice's diary, the name list, and the hallway table. I illustrated props like the factory engine, the logo, the beds, and more.

Before the pitching, we hope to complete the following: Rion will create background character designs, Katie and Rion will finish the backgrounds, Debbie will contribute more props, I will create the animatics, Katie will handle SFX, and Debbie and I will work on the master frames.

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Animation Test - Engine

I finished this little animation test created specifically for our presentation.