🐝KayBee🐝

Animation research development & production

[kaybeeba]

Elemental ~ Character interaction practice

I wanted to explore the dynamic between Ember and Wade as well as practicing my colouring, combing my style with influence from the film and its design work.

I felt my initial sketches didn't explore the fun shapes of the characters enough so with my second attempt I explored different angles and exaggerated expressions.

I found colouring these took longer than I'd like as I'm not used to adding more dimension to my shading, however I learnt techniques I wouldn't of used before. I generally like how this practice turned out and I definitely want to draw them more with a background influence so I can reflect the influence of environment against their element nature.

[kaybeeba]

Stylizing in Animation/Illustration:

Elemental 💧🔥

Disney and Pixar's Elemental is set in a world that inhabits characters that are elements of nature. The story follows a fire elemental called Ember Lumen, and a water elemental called Wade Ripple who eventually fall in-love after meeting when Wade bursts through basements pipes in Ember's father's shop.

Elemental is a really good example for effective character design and their specificity. Each character holds their own unique form though they way share an the same element as other characters they are still recognizable as an individual.

The way each character moves and interacts with their surroundings are also heavily influenced by their characteristics and material.

(Add page from artbook that covers how wade is influenced by his surroundings and ember influences her surroundings)

I want to be able to create such effectiveness in my own character's designs and create more test work to nail down their characteristics within their movement and form. The behind the scenes work from Elemental has inspired me to do just this.

Not only are the character's interaction with their surroundings well designed, but the way they interact with each other is done with a sense of realism influenced by cartoonish traits.

[kaybeeba]

Stylizing in Animation/Illustration:

One Piece - Gear 5

Everyone has been talking about the anime One Piece lately and the big reveal of Luffy's Gear 5, and honestly I can't blame them! The release of this episode has broke the norm of the conventional anime we watch today by bringing the animation back to the core of classic cartoon's roots. Not only is the style of animation heavily cartoonish whilst keeping the anime's base design but the added slap-stick sound effects tie it all together.

In an interview between Eiichiro Oda and Gosho Aoyama, Oda explains his desire to keep battles playful without letting the anime get too serious. He says that he wanted to incorporate classic gestures such as, character's legs spinning in circles when running or a lightbulb above a character's head when they are thinking of something. He felt these style choices and fun characteristics should be implemented more in modern manga.

Breaking the stylistic norm and pushing animation past its previous limit is what starts to set the stepping stones for the next evolution of animation. Trying new interesting techniques or even elevating old ones can help provide a fresh animation style.

[kaybeeba]

Stylizing in Animation/Illustration:

TMNT Mutant Mayhem

The newest iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Point Grey Pictures covers the story from a teenage lens, making it more of a coming of age film. The film embellishes a heavily textured and sketchy art style that was developed during the design phase to resemble a teenagers notebook sketches. The animation style was heavily modeled after the team's design work to create a sense of the film being created by a teenager, playing into the teenage lens.

This take on the Ninja Turtles was to create relation with the characters and the world, though the main cast are mostly mutants you can still connect with them because their personality and characteristics are so believable.

The choice of cast also lent towards the teenage perspective, casting actual teenagers to voice the turtles as well as having them interact as a group without a fully structed script for each piece of dialog.

"It's you and your buddies. It's you and your brothers. It's you and your sister and your brother."

[kaybeeba]

My Own Tv Series:

Inspiration for my shows

Inspiration for my tv show ideas came from shows I've either grown up with or are ones that helped me develop my own sense of imagination.

Here Comes Bunbee!

Looney Tunes & Adventure Time

Considering this is an idea I've had for a while these shows heavily influence the type of comedy and pacing I would want my show to have.

Nebula's Invasion

Steven Universe/SUFuture & Invader Zim

It's clear that with these two I want my show to be fun and colourful whilst also being chaotic at times. I want my main character to have a strong personality like these shows consist of.

Dust Bunnies

64 Zoo Lane & Teletubbies

I grew up with these two shows and always loved them for their silliness and styles. I would like Dust Bunnies to take all the good use of colour and setting from 64 Zoo Lane whilst having the silly nature of the Teletubbies.

[kaybeeba]

My Own Tv Series:

Dust Bunnies

Dust can be a problem but Dust Bunnies are worse! Dust Bunnies will run around your house while you aren't around. All they want to do is play in their giant playground.

The target audience for this show would be 2-10. This show is a lot more simpler with it's story. Each episode is one of it's own and doesn't fall into a linear story, the Dust Bunnies just find new ways to entertain themselves with items around the home.

The environment would be set in a simple family household, everything is warm and cozy, perfect for the Dust Bunnies. The family members of the household are either in another room or out of the house when the Dust Bunnies come alive.

[kaybeeba]

My Own Tv Series:

Nebula's Invasion

Nebula crash lands onto planet earth, her only mission is to collect as much data as possible on the ecosystem. She finds herself getting distracted more and less like a magpie to a shiny penny. Follow her as she tries to fit in human cultures and steal as much stuff as possible, ESPECIALLY food.

The target audience for this show would be 10-18. I'd like the show to relate to the teenage audience as the main character is struggling to fit in like a new kid in school.

For the environment I'd imagine it being within a busy city so a random alien wouldn't find it hard to blend in.

Nebula:

A teenage blue alien who most likely suffers from ADHD. She can be very excitable and too forward.

[kaybeeba]

My Own Tv Series:

Here Comes Bunbee!

A loveable yet disturbed creature that is Bunbee explores their new found freedom after escaping a laboratory. Along the way she creates two friends, a moth called Dean and a red wasp called Andrea. The three embark on wacky adventures allowing Bunbee to learn new things and where she fits in the world.

Target audience for this show would be aimed towards 6+. I haven't added a cut off for age as I'd hope older audiences would enjoy it too with the character develop throughout the show. The show wouldn't include strong language so younger audiences can enjoy the silliness of the show too.

Their environment would consist of lush meadows and forests, out in the wilderness.

Bunbee:

Bunbee is a happy accident who managed to escape a tragic start. Her species is sliced between a bumble bee and a rabbit. She is the loving main character to the series who seems to find herself getting into troubling situations.

Dean the moth:

A strong yet gentle character. After finding Bunbee alone and helpless he lent his hand and swears to protect her from harm.

Andrea the red wasp:

She's small but very feisty, she will pick a fight with anyone. She just so happens to find Bunbee and Dean and instantly attempts to bully them but is shortly humbled by Dean alone. The only reason she stays with them is for her own entertainment.

[kaybeeba]

Tv Series - Cartoon Broadcasting

Ever since I got the initiative to become an animator I knew I was inspired by cartoon shows I fell in love with when I was growing up. With this project I will be dedicating my research and development based on such cartoons.

These cartoons would mainly broadcast on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel etc.

Both Cartoon Network and Boomerang are American TV channels owned by Warner Bros Inc that has housed many beloved cartoon shows. These two channels were probably the ones I had watched the most over the course of years has their development of shows grew well throughout generations.

The target audience for such shows on these channels are stretched between 6-12 year old's (as stated online), however certain shows have gathered younger adults to enjoy them as well. Personally I would like to try to target that younger adult audience because I'd hope what I'd create would create such likeness as these shows and ones I also personally enjoy.

Nickelodeon or Nick for short is another American TV channel owned by Paramount shown for housing cartoon shows and live action shows.

Nickelodeon has had some super iconic cartoon shows like Spongebob Squarepants but generally have had less cartoons on their channel compared to other competitors. Because of having a 50/50 split on broadcasting live-action shows and cartoon shows I feel some of their shows don't get enough broadcast time, where some others too much. This doesn't leave enough room for newer shows to develop in my personal opinion. This could also be because their target audience is family based ranging from 2-17 year old's.

Disney Channel was another American TV channel owned by Disney that also hosted both cartoons and live-action shows.

Similar to Nickelodeon, Disney Channel now-a-days has less time slots for cartoons, a lot lesser in fact. Because Disney+ is their new biggest thing right now a lot of the newer shows have been put onto that subscription instead of the TV because audiences now are streaming more than watching live TV. This has obviously worked really well for Disney as they have also a lot of their older shows on the same platform so more viewers were inclined to subscribe. Their target audience ranges from 6-14 year old's however like Cartoon Network depending on the show older viewers also watch.

[kaybeeba]

Stylizing in Animation/Illustration:

Learning Character Development and Design by Mary Jane Begin

Archetypes:

Hero

Villain

Caretaker

Innocent

Ruler

Sage

Trickster

These are character tropes that can have influence on designs of characters. For example; a hero character would have a cleaner, symmetric design, whereas villains can appear more rough and disproportionate. These design stereotypes can be combined or even expanded upon to further incorporate the character's personality.

Motion:

Developing motion in characters from the beginning of design work towards the final animation style requires multiple studies revolving around your character form and personality. The illusion of of movement with design work can help you grasp how the character will eventually move when animating.

Carlos Grangel's work on Dreamwork's Spirit is a perfect example as he creates his studies based on real life reference to grasp the realistic movement of his subject. He would create simple sketches outlining the movement of the character whilst also doing detailed studies to get grasp of the character's structure. Once these designs are down he would then merge human emotion onto the design, creating a series of expression sketches.

Characters in sequence:

The key to a recognizable character is a consistent design throughout your sequences. This can be categorized by the character's colour palette and form. Creating a series of sketches of the character from multiple angles will give you more understanding of the character. After finalizing the design you must also establish how they would fit in their environment so their place in their world in also consistent.

Mary explains this best with her illustrations for the book "Little Mouse's Painting".

"For the main character, Little Mouse, I had to maintain her proportions and costume from scene to scene. No matter how large or small she appeared, so that the child reader would recognize her."

[kaybeeba]

Animation Foundations:

Storyboarding with Dermot O'Connor

Within storyboards there are multiple techniques within the choice of shots and transitions that can be used to ease animation production as well as lending the idea of passing of time. Cut away shots can be used to take the audience away from the main focal point for a short while and then can be cut back as if the the scene had been continuing for a lot longer.

Dermot's example; two characters starting a long conversation in a dinner and the camera cuts to the cook preparing food, then cuts back to the same characters at the end of the conversation.

Posing and staging characters within storyboards should exaggerate the motion of the characters as well as lend readability to the story. With the characters you should lean into their expression and exaggerate their posing to make it visually more interesting and dynamic.

Moving from storyboards to animatic you'll create a first pass which is basically the testing phase of turning your boards into an animatic. This usually has extra character drawings to lend movement, camera movements/transitions and basic sounds. Adding all these elements will help with pacing the animation and testing the sound design.

[kaybeeba]

Animation Foundations:

Gestures with Andrew Gordon

Andrew states that within gestures there are a few that have become overused and cliché and as creators we must try to recreate a feeling in our own unique views. Instead of using previous animation as examples he makes a point of reflecting back to ourselves and others around us that project emotion in different ways.

"How many different ways can you look at your watch?"

Andrew continues by saying specificity within a gesture can make your character animation more interesting by creating a new take on a motion.

When talking about facial gestures Andrew explains that when a character is expressing a facial gesture you should know exactly how they are feeling or meaning without any additional dialog or hand gestures. By doing this you can then add additional body movement to emphasize the gesture.

Spontaneity and realism in acting patterns come hand in hand to make a motion convey what they are expressing/saying; these sync up to key frames in animation whenever the emotion changes.

Acting out a scene to dialog multiple times whilst recording each take can give you good reference to how you want to eventually animate a character in the scene. Finding video references for other creatures, such an animals can help understand the gestural movements to keep the flow of realism.

I have previously used my own photography to help illustrate human gestures when I can't find a very specific reference for what I'm wanting to illustrate. In future I definitely want to reference filmed performances more to create interesting and natural gestures.