Coming Soon Process Book

PROCESS

Word and Image II Fall 2018 | Claire Warhover

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introduction

inspiration

characters

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story

animating

critique

introduction

Assignment Build a 45 to 60 second cinematic sequence that introduces key characters and creates a sense of expectation for an upcoming feature film. You are being asked to create a set of characters, preliminary production designm, and an animatic sequence for the film.

An animatic is a working model for a finished motion piece; it includes artwork presented in a slide show format, properly paced with audio. Your audio will be restricted to music and, if useful, sound effects. Your miniature film must use each of the characters listed.

Snarky and the Wiffles: Voyage to Pluto • Snarky • Two wiffles • A quirky robot • A stowaway space snake

inspiration

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As inspiration for my character design, I mostly looked at the character design from the shows I like to watch. I looked at the variety of sillouhettes, and noticed that the sillougette of a character has a lot to do with who they are and how they behave. I also noticed that many of them were simple so that they could be moved in many different positions without having to figure out how the body would move. Lastly I noticed that their facial expressions and reactions to things were exaggerated so that the emotion was explicitly clear to the audience. I used these observations to help me in the design of my characters.

characters

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Quirky Robot

While I designed my characters, I kept in mind that I was going to have to draw them again and again, so I tried to reduce the details as much as possible. I also considered how they would move, so if I could limit the amount of complicated movements (such as having the robot fly) then the frames would be easier to draw.

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Stowaway Space Snake

Most of my characters came out to be quite rounded and soft, making them look as though they were part of a kid’s movie.

I tried to bring elements of the characters into the others to make them appear as a set. For example, they all have some form of antenna, either natural or mechanical. Also, Snarky’s hair is very similar to the shape of the wiffles, connecting the two of them. All of their faces are the same, which also contributes to their appearance as a set. I tried to give them all completely different sillouhettes so that they would all read as quite different from each other, while still appearing as a set.

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story

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Because my characters looked so childish, I wanted my story to be relatively simple and also relatively light instead of dark. When summarized, my plot was quite simple. Snarky, two wiffles, a robot ,and a stowaway snake fly to pluto to find the rest of the wiffles’ species. On the way, they get hit by a meteor and a wiffle flies out the window, but the snake slithers out the window to get him back.

They then continue on and land on pluto, but when they get there, there are no wiffles. However, when this plot is split up into the simplest possible steps, or frames, it became much longer (seen on facing page).

Voyage to Pluto: Outside the spaceship, on the ground: - Looking at all the characters, with snarky positioned at the telescope - Closer shot on snarky and the telescope - Looking through the circle of the telescope, there is pluto with the wiffles on it - Snarky makes a surprised face - Snarky pushes a wiffle up to the telescope - The wiffle looks through the telescope - The wiffle runs around in a circle with excitement - The wiffle looks at Snarky making a begging - Shot looking down at the wiffle as he begs - Snarky nods and smiles - The wiffle jumps with excitement - Snarky, the two wiffles, and the robot board the space ship, - and we see the spaceship lighting up to take off - the spaceship flies away Inside the spaceship: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Now that they have taken off, they all sit in their seats on the spaceship. (shot looking at all of them, facing forward, looking at it from the front) Suddenly a snake slithers out of Snarky’s pocket (side view) Snarky notices and makes a scared face while throwing his hands in the air the snake slithers away we follow the snake slithering he slithers into a spacehelmet two wiffles get out of their seats they go to look for the snake they look around the helmet but cant see him they look at each other and shrug they return to their seats black screen the two wiffles and snarky are on the floor coloring shot of the robot piloting the ship shot of the coloring again, but with shaking snarky and the wiffles turn to look at the robot shot of the robot looking scared snarky gets up and goes to help the robot they are seen looking out the windshield out the windshield, there is a field of asteroids the robot and snarky look at each other looking out the windshield, they hit an asteroid (on the windshield) looking into the ship, everyone falls down and one of the wiffles flies into a window he breaks the window he flies out the window everyone gets up to look out the window looking out the window, we see the sad wiffle floating with asteroids looking into the ship, snarky looks at the robot scared snarky scratches his head snarky looks surprised shot of snarky’s feet, with the snake slithering up it shot of snarky smiling and looking at the robot

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cut to a shot of the outside of the ship, the snake attached, snarky on the other end shot of the robot holding the other end of the snake with the wiffle shot of snarky reaching towards the wiffle shot of their hands touching shot of snarky holding the wiffle the robot pulls the snake in they all stand inside the ship the happy wiffle hugs the sad wiffle who does not hug back sitting in their chairs again, but now with the snake in snarky’s pocket shot looking out the windshield of pluto shot looking inside where the happy wiffle stands up and is excited the rocket lands on pluto everyone gets out of the rocket They look around them they look shocked a tumbleweed rolls by (looking now at empty pluto) the wiffles look up at snarky snarky makes a face like he has an idea

animating

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When I began animating, I took each of the bullet points on the previous pages and turned them into their own frame. Once the story was completely drawn, it was easy to see where the plot holes and moments of confusion were. While some of the frames stayed the same from the beginning of the process until the end, some changed drastically in order to convey the story more clearly. On the next page, you will see that in the original story, the stowaway snake crawled into a clear spacehelmet. However, this made it unclear as to why the wiffles could not find him, so in the final version he crawls into a tall cardboard box to make it more believable.

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End of Process

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Beginning of Process

Because of the shape of Snarky’s legs, you can’t really tell they are legs from the side. So, for this scene, I changed it from a profile view of him looking down at the snake to a front view, so that it is clear what’s going on. I also gave him more of a surprised reaction and made it clear that he was looking down. On the next page, you’ll see that in the original story, the wiffles looked for the snake in the spacehelmet, can’t find him, and then go back to their chairs. In the new version however, both Snarky and the Wiffles go to look while the robot flies the plane. They will then be interrupted by the meteor, explaining why they moved on without finding the snake, unlike the original version.

End of Process

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End of Process

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Beginning of Process

Initially in this scene, I had Snarky and the Wiffles coloring when the ship was hit by a meteor, which was an extra scene that the story didn’t need. In the final version, I had them go straight into the crash from them looking for the snake in the boxes, so there was no need for an extra scene.

End of Process

On the next two spreads, you’ll see that in the initial scene where the wiffle is saved from space, Snarky was the one who went to get him. However, people wondered why, if the hole was big enough for Snarky to go through, the robot didn’t fly through without the need for the snake. To fix this, I made it so that the thin snake was the only one that could fit through the small hole.

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End of Process

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End of Process

critique

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At critique, something we talked about a lot was how to know exactly how much of a story you need to show in order for the story to still be clear. You can’t show too little, because people won’t understand, but you also can’t show too much because it will bore the viewer. We also talked about how the shape and design of the characters contributes a lot to a story, so the design and the story need to match. The design, story, and music all come together to create the tone of the final project. I thought that this applied a lot to the process that I went through with my animatic, because each decision informed the next.

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Claire Warhover Coming Soon Process Book Word and Image II Fall 2018 Strada TF