Sebastian Kaczmarczyk
UNIT 13
TASK 5
Pre-Production
20th of April
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Today, we had a big brainstorming session, where we tried to pinpoint all important planning and designing documents.
Firstly, we created a list of all documents important to our projects in general and then divided them into two groups:
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PLANNING; documents we need to prepare before doing any work, to ensure that all we want to do is clear, reasonable, scheduled and legal.
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DESIGN; documents we need to prepare before production. They help us to visualise our ideas.
Then, we listed some of the documents we personally need for our projects and put them on the whiteboard.
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We did that in order to make sure than nobody will miss any of those documents; we all are aiming for merits or distinctions and would not want to lower our grades by not documenting our projects properly.
Personally, I found it very helpful, even though I firstly thought I would rather finish up my research;
It reminded me of some useful documents, like image references and palettes - even though they are not necessary, they are quite helpful when it comes to creating test designs and make sure everything looks reasonable.
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Also, it allowed me to remember about documents like copyright assessment, which is often overlook. I am not sure whether I will need it, since I am planning to create all assets myself, but I need to remember about it just in case.
After creating those lists together, we started working on our own again. I decided to use the rest of the session on ideas generation. I started by writing 'ANIMATION' in the middle and creating the most important 'branches' that came to my mind; STYLE, SETTING, CHARACTER and STORY. Then, I started writing down options available to me for each branch. I have also linked them together. I did that to see which concepts work well together.
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However, this kind of ideas generation got me nowhere. Everything was too vague.
That is why I started working on another page. This time, however, I started writing down all random thoughts that come to my mind thanks to my tutor's dice. Black texts indicates my initial ideas. Then, I used SCAMPER and cards to put a twist on those ideas.
This way, I have quickly wandered off 'boring' and 'conventional' ideas to some crazier ideas. Children got superpowers to pretend to be rabbits and then became normal rabbits. Then, I thought of a rabbit that does not act as a rabbit at all, instead it acts like a business man.
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In other words I twisted idea of children to animals, twisted idea of animals to animals to pretend to be children, and then twisted idea of animals pretending to be children to animals pretending to be children acting like adults.
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Then, it just got weirder... and more interesting.
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Rabbits got the ability to talk just to lose it so that they cannot communicate in any way, in order to create misunderstandings in the story;
the business rabbit is supposed to sell other rabbits' carrots for their jewellery but fails since he is the only rabbit that can talk.
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Then I thought that I might make him bad at tricking others, so that he tricks himself instead.
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This way I was able to think of one 'big idea' for my project. Just like during the 20th Century Fox workshop, I am planning to gather some good ideas and then compare them, and work on the best one.
I found this session to be very productive; I was able to find information I need and move forward with my project.
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Now, I need to create some more ideas - I do not want to start working before exploring my option further.
25th of April
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Today, I would like to try to come up with new ideas, and evaluate my current one.
I came with this concept after reading that Walt Disney once said that adults are just grown up children.
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This concept revolves around the idea of kid's imagination and how it makes things more exciting.
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Here, I would animate 4 or 5 scenes how adults see them and then how kids see them.
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Wooden blocks become buildings, a toy becomes a racing car, spilled water becomes a stormy sea.
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I like this idea since it would allow me to create some really exciting footage.
My second idea is to animate one of my comics, or create an animation with similar style and characters.
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Here, I could show how a comic transforms into animation.
Finally, there is my first idea of telling a story of a unique rabbit.
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I have described it yesterday, so this time I tried creating alternative designs.
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I tried to draw a simple rabbit, realistic rabbit, a few cartoon-like rabbits and even one monster rabbit.
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These designs were inspired by my tutor's rabbit.
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It took quite long but I managed to get three initial ideas.
However, they are pretty shallow, since I did not want to create three in-depth concepts if I have to scrap two of them later anyway.
I did this in order to give myself more options, however, I did not help at all. Now, I am unsure of what to do and which one to choose. I am leaning towards the 'rabbit concept' since I have already started researching it. I think, that I will have to ask others what they think.
26th of April
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Today, I spent most of my college time on preparing my professional social media and portfolio rather than working on this project. I did that due to yesterday's meeting with my mentor and today's exchange of emails. I did not want to wait to apply changes we discussed.
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Then, I started thinking about my three initial concepts, especially about the rabbit one, and stories I can tell through them. I tried to find out which one is the most exciting and would allow me to create this bright, cheerful and active audience-grabber Disney wants.
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I have pretty good ideas for the 'Imagination' concept, I think. I already thought of different scenes and ways to achieve them. Also, I think that I would be able to make it interesting for both kids and adults since this animation would show how things are being seen by both groups. I am unsure whether could create an interesting design of a child; most of my characters are young adults.
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My second idea, the 'Comic' concept looks pretty solid to me too; I have already developed this character and it already has hundreds of fans, so people definitely like him. However, it is also why I am hesitating; I think I should create something brand new instead of expanding something I have created in the past.
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And, of course, my 'Rabbit' concepts looks pretty good to me as well. As I said yesterday, I start to lean towards this idea since I have already started researching it; I watched some videos of my tutor's rabbit as well as seen how they are animated and tried to 'redesign' them. I found many interesting things, like that they do not hop, instead they push their front and then their back catches up. It is because of those little things I find interesting about rabbits, I start to think that it might be my final idea.
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In the end, I have decided to go with my 'Rabbit' concept.
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I have chosen this idea over others, as I believe it fits my brief best. Another important reason was other people's insight and how they praised this idea. For example, my substitute tutor said his son would definitely love to watch this in motion.
I really like how this idea has been tailored by my research; as you might notice, everything started with me watching traditional and modern animation made by Disney, and coincidentally they featured animals, rabbits in particular.
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Then, during my ideas generation I unintentionally. started thinking of more ways to include rabbits.
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I am not sure why it happened, however, my guess is because rabbits fit my brief's needs pretty well. Not only they are very appealing to both children and adults, but they are also associated with very positive personality traits. This way I can easily either expand on those traits or invert them for more interesting story.
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At the moment, I am quite happy with my research and planning, and where it is currently going. However, I also noticed that I might need much more research than I conduct at the moment. Nevertheless, it should be easy to achieve since the college just lent me a laptop for this unit.
27th of April
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Today, we had another group session, during which we discussed our projects. This time we had to think about our goals and what we would like to achieve. I think it was supposed to remind us to not slack off and aim high instead.
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Picture above shows a diagram I used to point out mu current goals, from smallest and easiest to biggest and hardest.
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When asked to write down 'Easy Wins' that I should achieve in this unit, I firstly wrote things like creating smooth animation, making it fun and enjoyable and suitable for the target audience, while fitting the brief perfectly. After hearing what other people wrote I changed it to annotate my processes in more detail, to explain my planning more in-depth and to use more research sources. I liked the first four more, since I consider them more important - they would give me more self satisfaction and should please my client and audience more, however, it did not fit this activity, I think. We were supposed to think about the whole project and not just the final product. Also, half of my initial wins are a given.
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As my 'Key Objective' I chose exploring ways of making visually appealing animation, demonstrating my understanding of the subject and to show my skills in the area. Again, I would rather write something along the lines of 'creating an engaging 1-minute story with positive characters and educative values' but it would be about the brief and not the entire project.
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Unlike the previous two sections, 'Aspirational Goals' was straightforward: I want to show my software skills and my working to a higher level. I always try to learn new things and use them to 'elevate' myself, and want to show it.
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Then, I got confused once again because my truly biggest possible achievement here would be getting a distinction grade. However, after hearing what other chose I wrote 'To cchallenge
2nd of May
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I have noticed that in the past units I struggled with my time-keeping; often I would spend too much time on one task and then have to rush the next one. Because of that, I have decided to take a precaution and use Gantt Chart:
This chart helps me visualise my schedule - I marked the deadline and expected end of the pre-production stage, as well as my estimated dates for all activities.
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However, at the moment I feel like I should make it more tight.
Even though I have a concept of a story and my character, I do not have a clear image of what it is going to be. That is why I started sketching random situations simply to think of different stories and find what sounds the best. Today, I drew two scenes; one where my character wants to 'butter up' his audience to sell carrots just to find out that they were eaten. Other rabbits did not catch on and thought that he advertised this rabbit.
The other scene shows how my character does a magic trick by making a rabbit appear from his hat.
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Neither of those scenes are what I currently want in the final product. I simply want to think of different scenes and see how they change my idea.
I find it hard to come up with a storyboard or a script for this kind of setting, which is why I am stuck at the moment. I started reading about business cliches and tropes, hoping it will give me ideas for interesting scenes.
3rd of May
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Following my Gantt chart, today I worked on my proposal. I am still stuck with the story, however, I have to move on with my pre-production documents.
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Treatment Proposal
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The brief has been set by Orion Ross in The Walt Disney Company's stead. The brief's main objective is to create a narrative-driven comedy cartoon with optimistic and cheerful character that will keep viewers invested in the story. Cartoon has to be aimed at young children of 4 to 14 years old, however, it should be appealing towards their friends and family as well.
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There are not many technical constraints: the cartoon has to be 1 minute long, come with a series of poses, expressions, initial sketches, turnarounds and storyboards.
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On the other hand, here are more design rules: the character has to be unique, with an ability to 'leap off the screen', hold the audience and have a lot of depth. In addition, the character has to be relevant and meaningful to the audience. Cartoon has to be innovative, not perceived by norms and principles of animation, and the industry. Also, it should be approached in a way that benefits due to creative considerations of the character.
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Currently, my idea is to animate a series of scenes rabbits traveling to a carrot shop. It does not sound as exciting as my previous ideas, comparing adults and kids imagination, telling a story of a cunning businessman or putting a comic strip into life, but in my opinion it will fit the brief better. My idea has developed over time, thanks to my research, and changed because of struggle to create a compelling story. I want to make this cartoon interesting through the ridiculous way those rabbits travel through mountains; each one will move differently and tackle obstacles in a different way. This cartoon will surely fit the target audience as I have designed my characters in a way that should immediately make kids laugh; one rabbit is normal, while others are respectively anthropomorphic, a ball and a spring. I want it to be humorous, which I will achieve through subtle jokes like rabbits taking an elevator to climb a mountain, or try to swim in a river that ends with a waterfall.
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There was not much inspiration while creating this idea - I used a range of different idea generating techniques and went with the flow. Nevertheless, character designs and environments are based on my research, specifically Disney animations and my tutor's rabbits.
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After creating all pre-production documents that are required by the brief, I am going to start animating in Illustration. My current plan is to create two main layers - one for characters and one for background. Obviously, there are going to be more layers than that, but those two will be the most important. The background one is going too be bigger than the screen so that I can draw it once and simply move it from side to side to create an illusion of movement. I will tackle the characters' one as usual; layer as big as the screen, animated frame by frame in 12 frames per second. Then, I will convert all frames into GIF files, one for each scene, and put them together in After Effects to convert them into MP4. I am used to this production pipeline, which is why I chose it in the first place.
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To create this animation I will need sketchbooks and a computer with Illustrator and After Effects, which I have already arranged.
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I have just finished writing this proposal. It took longer than expected, due to a random need to finish my mood board in the middle of writing.
I am pleased with the pace at which I proceed with the project - even though I think I could work slightly faster, it looks like I will be able to finish everything on time and have plenty of time for the production stage.
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At the moment all I need is storyboard, which I am going to make next week.
9th of May
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Last Friday, I worked on my mood board.
Firstly, I looked for a range of interesting landscapes - especially those similar to my sketches and with interesting colours. Then, I looked for photos of rabbits at different angles. Also, I added a child's doodle of a rabbit.
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I tried to fill a single A4 page with as many photos without making them too small as I could. While choosing those photos, I tried to look for different angles to see how things line up and how they scale with distance.
Then, I sampled some colours from those photos to see which colours naturally work well together.
I made this mood board to have references while working on the production - to see how my characters should look from different angles, how they should be built. Also, I wanted to see which colours work naturally well together to maybe use them. I really like this purple and orange sky in the on the left.
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I added a single child's doodle to see how children image animals and see how I can use it.
10th of May
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Today, I looked for some more interesting colour palettes. This time, however, I did not sample them from photos. Instead, I used three different generators online.
This generator allowed me to choose five points on the spectrum. Moving those points generated colours.
Those colours were generally very bright and lively. I like the first set of colours the most.
Second generator took a colour I chose from the spectrum and then gave me a range of its shades and three other colours that would work well together. I generated three different sets.
First one looks like ground, second like plants, third like the sky.
I used the third generator to randomly generate three sets of five colours each. Here, I did not choose anything. I like the first set and how lively it looks.
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Today, I have experimented with different colour palettes, using three different sources.
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Generators can be accessed at:
I have decided to look for alternative colour palettes to ones I have already put in my mood board to see what would work in favour of my art direction. It was also due to my curiosity: I wanted to see what results would I get from using random generators.
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After spending some time with those generators, I can confidently say they are definitely helpful and that I am planning to use them while creating backgrounds for my animation.
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This activity was rather spontaneous, since I did it ahead of schedule. Fortunately, it did not change my schedule in any other way, such as pushing other activities to later dates, as I did in meantime.
11th of May
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Today, I decided to finally write about concept art I have made so far.
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I have created this series of sketches over the last week, during breaks between activities and sessions. Each image shows a different scene I am planning to put in the final product. Each drawing is of different quality as I believed that some scenes need more attention than others.
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I drew each scene so that it shows my characters from another angle and distance to make their jorney more exciting. This is also why I decided to draw rather extreme and quite dangerous landscapes - it is supposed to make my characters look more adventurous and fun.
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I think it works very well in the brief's favour, as characters seem very fun, cheerful and bold.
I have created those sketches with a black gel pen in my sketchbook. I decided to use a gel pen rather than a pencil or any other pen because I like hot it looks on a thick paper, how quickly it dries and how it feels like to draw with.
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Those sketches could also be classified as part of my primary research as it shows how I tried to explore designing landscapes.
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I have decided to use a sketchbook instead of computer while creating those sketches as I have found it to be easier and quicker to draw by hand than using mouse or tablet, and as I have said before, I made them during relatively short breaks.
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I did those environment sketches, even though my brief states that only movement is important. I decided that I want this animation to look better and finished, which is why I decided to work on interesting character and environment designs.
Also, I think that interesting landscapes in the background are crucial for my current story to work: it is all about journey and adventure - traveling through blank and boring places would not work for this kind of story.
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I really like how those sketches look - I have even asked Luke, a background artist that visited us recently, about his thoughts and tips how to make those backgrounds.
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I drew those at colleges since this is where I feel most inspired to draw.
11th of May
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Today, I finished working on my storyboard. It is pretty long and involves creating around 20 scenes, however, I think it should look very good once in motion.
