I came up with this storyboard by drawing shots which i could picture and then strung them together into an flowing order. I decided to cut the scene below at this stage as It's quite long.
Monday 24 February 2014
Monday 10 February 2014
Waterstones Trip
After receiving the brief I decided to go to the children's section at Waterstones to see if I could scope a book that hasn't already been made into a moving image piece.
One book that really stood out was The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson (Also wrote the gruffalo) I really liked the fact that the book had glitter on every page and thought I could incorporate those home made fairy lights into the animation, but after giving it more thought I used a mermaid in the last project, I actually want to try something different.
I carried on looking and got to the Oliver Jeffers section (writer and illustrator of Lost and Found) and I decided to purchase three of his books, which i shall analyse individually now.
1. The Heart and The Bottle.
This story is about a girl who takes in the worlds natural wonders and then one day she finds an empty chair (which I think is a metaphor for her granddad dying) and so she puts her heart in a bottle and then stops taking in the beauties of the world and grows old and then one day she meets a little girl on a beach who takes it out for her so she can experience the natural wonders of the world again.
I was taken by this book because i thought it was actually pretty deep for a childrens book and there are so many different lessons you can take from it. I also really like the mixed media illustrations I think it leaves a lot of scope of different ways to animate (though this applies to all three of the books he has a really unique and beautiful way of illustrating). Another reason why this stuck out to me is that I can visualise what the credits would look like in my head. With a rotating bottle a young girl putting her heart in the bottle rotating and changing colour fading to black in the background while the heart pulses and then the little girl being grown up and another little girl coming in screen right changing it to a happier tone and her pulling the heart out and the bottle rotates with the titles in the bottle now.
See mock storyboard images below:
2. The Incredible Book Eating Boy
This book really appealed to me, because it really reminded me of Roal Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine which used to be one of my favourite books. The story's essence is that a boy eats books and he gets really clever until he can't digest them anymore he muddles all his thoughts and he's all sad and then he realises if he reads them he could be just as clever. I think it's a nice story because reading in young children is really important. I really like how the backgrounds of the illustrations are pages of books, really antique styles with faded writing and guidelines on them. The way I picture the titles would be with a similar feel in the backgrounds but then 2D computer drawn in a painterly style characters. I think this would be a more challenging story to not give away. I think it very important that I remember the titles can't give away the story. I do really really like the circus font on this book and it has a very different tone to the others. The reason I feel more drawn to this one than the other is because of this and also i can visualise a lot clearer one particular part of the credits. There's one illustration in the book of a book in the boys belly and I can imagine flickering like an XRay, and I'd really like to animate that one part more than the whole of The Heart and The Bottle.
3. This Moose Belongs To Me.
One book that really stood out was The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson (Also wrote the gruffalo) I really liked the fact that the book had glitter on every page and thought I could incorporate those home made fairy lights into the animation, but after giving it more thought I used a mermaid in the last project, I actually want to try something different.
I carried on looking and got to the Oliver Jeffers section (writer and illustrator of Lost and Found) and I decided to purchase three of his books, which i shall analyse individually now.
1. The Heart and The Bottle.
This story is about a girl who takes in the worlds natural wonders and then one day she finds an empty chair (which I think is a metaphor for her granddad dying) and so she puts her heart in a bottle and then stops taking in the beauties of the world and grows old and then one day she meets a little girl on a beach who takes it out for her so she can experience the natural wonders of the world again.
I was taken by this book because i thought it was actually pretty deep for a childrens book and there are so many different lessons you can take from it. I also really like the mixed media illustrations I think it leaves a lot of scope of different ways to animate (though this applies to all three of the books he has a really unique and beautiful way of illustrating). Another reason why this stuck out to me is that I can visualise what the credits would look like in my head. With a rotating bottle a young girl putting her heart in the bottle rotating and changing colour fading to black in the background while the heart pulses and then the little girl being grown up and another little girl coming in screen right changing it to a happier tone and her pulling the heart out and the bottle rotates with the titles in the bottle now.
See mock storyboard images below:
2. The Incredible Book Eating Boy
This book really appealed to me, because it really reminded me of Roal Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine which used to be one of my favourite books. The story's essence is that a boy eats books and he gets really clever until he can't digest them anymore he muddles all his thoughts and he's all sad and then he realises if he reads them he could be just as clever. I think it's a nice story because reading in young children is really important. I really like how the backgrounds of the illustrations are pages of books, really antique styles with faded writing and guidelines on them. The way I picture the titles would be with a similar feel in the backgrounds but then 2D computer drawn in a painterly style characters. I think this would be a more challenging story to not give away. I think it very important that I remember the titles can't give away the story. I do really really like the circus font on this book and it has a very different tone to the others. The reason I feel more drawn to this one than the other is because of this and also i can visualise a lot clearer one particular part of the credits. There's one illustration in the book of a book in the boys belly and I can imagine flickering like an XRay, and I'd really like to animate that one part more than the whole of The Heart and The Bottle.
3. This Moose Belongs To Me.
This story is basically about a boy who really wants this moose to be his pet but he doesn't always answer him and several others think they own him too. I really like the fact that this story is like a french film there isn't really a strict narrative, not one that you can ruin anyways. Little bits happen like the moose wanders off and then comes back and saves him, eats some apples. The reason I like this book is that theres a lot of scope for experimentation, I love the painting quality. It makes me want to go back to painting it's something that I used to have a real skill for but I just don't have time to embrace anymore. However when I first read this book the part that I imagined is painting the moose on glass ontop of a greenscreen, and have the character moving and grooving all over the titles and changing the background. I'm really excited by a potential prospect of learning new techniques. Although I think it could be a massive risk, what with glare off the glass from harsh lighting, the shadows might ruin it or lack of preparation in the first place. I think it would be very important to reference a moose walking, and have the key frames prepped. Another idea I had was combining live film with the animation. But I think this is something else that would require research as it's imperative that the style remains very much Oliver Jeffers. I wouldn't want to ruin that ownership. There is a stream at local country park that is quite similar feel but theres no mountains. I think this is something I could look into. Or even making the scene because I don't think I could paint it to the same texture. The paint appears to be quite flat on the canvas/board and I'm a heavy painter. Also although I think the backgrounds an important feature I think more time would be better spent on mastering the movement on the characters. There's one old woman in there who I think would have the voice of Tilda Swinton. In my head I picture this book being made as a short animation like Lost and Found. For this part of the credits I imagine her character in a frame wiggling with a banner underneath with the voice actress's name. The frame style I have in mind is very much like this one from another project of Oliver Jeffers, from one of his dipped paintings titled: Without a Doubt Part 1.
I think it's clear that I have a lot of ideas flying around but the strongest one has to be The Moose Belongs to Me because it has so much scope for development, and that's where my last module fell through so I just need to run with the development and try get as much done before putting all my focus onto the animation. I think as well it's very important I keep up to date with my blogging. So I'm going to do some now. Specifically I'm going to look into titles I can emmulate in This Moose Belongs to Me, from tv shows such as Charlie and Lola and short childrens films like The Gruffalo and Lost and Found. But also TV Shows that I really like because there might be elements I can use. You don't know where you can get inspiration from.
Monday 3 February 2014
Briefing
After the briefing I have decided to take on the task of of creating titles for a book that hasn't already been made into a film. I feel really inspired by this project because I already have a few ideas for books such as Trudi Canavan's Magician's Guild or Angela Carter's Collection of fairy tales. I'm thinking though that it might be best to go look at short children's stories. I really want to layer different kinds of animation, combine stop motion, handrawn and 2d computer animation in a layering technique like a more professional version of The Musketeers opening credits for the new BBC TV show.
I think this brief is more suited for me because I work best when I focus on one project so that immediately made ident's not appeal to me, and I prefer working with narratives and fantasy stories and I think if I was to look at Amnesty or Childline I just wouldn't get as into the project. There's a lot of freedom with choosing any book so I'm really excited to go to Waterstones tonight.
I think this brief is more suited for me because I work best when I focus on one project so that immediately made ident's not appeal to me, and I prefer working with narratives and fantasy stories and I think if I was to look at Amnesty or Childline I just wouldn't get as into the project. There's a lot of freedom with choosing any book so I'm really excited to go to Waterstones tonight.
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