Sebastian Kaczmarczyk
UNIT 13
TASK 2
Context
14th of March
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After creating this website and finishing working on a template, I decided to start reading different briefs that were sent to us. I have access to them for a few days already, however, I could not find time to check them.
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In all honesty, number of briefs that we can choose is simply... overwhelming. Our tutor said that there might be three hundred of them. Fortunately for me, she suggested me Beano's brief about creating and animating a female character, which is in my area of interest. That was just a suggestion, though, and I would like to check at least a few dozen of them first before I make any decision.
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I have just finished reading about 30 briefs. At the moment, I found just 5 briefs that sound interesting to me and that are related to the course. Unfortunately, they seem to be too brief for being a Unit 13 project (their estimated completion time is between 2 and 7 days, I think). Because of that, I will have to continue reading briefs tomorrow.
There were too many briefs to begin with, so my reading about 30 of them is quite a success, at least for today. Most of them were either not related to my studies (social media campaigns, games' level design) or too short (creating a post card). I found it very difficult to find any briefs that would be related to the course and be interesting as well. I think that I am working pretty quickly at the moment and would like to sustain this kind of momentum.
15th of March
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Today, I read some more briefs but could not find anything interesting either, except for one from Disney. It was other students that suggested me to check the superhero one since I wanted to animate in Unit 13.
Interesting Briefs
In this brief, Beano asks to reimagine one of their female characters for a new generation. This brief requires to create a character redesigned, a silhouette, a one sentence 'elevator pitch', short animation and to show creative processes. This brief sounds very interesting, however, I am not too sure about choosing it at the moment since I do not know Beano's character at all and I cannot find them online.
For this brief I would have to produce 3 pieces of concept art for a game, based on a book or other writing. It sounds quite interesting, however, I cannot choose it since this brief is way too simple and short (it is estimated for 25 hours) and because I completed similar brief last year. I would choose this brief if it was more complex.
This brief is even less specific than the previous one as it simply wants me to create postcards in A6. There is not target audience and no theme, making this brief not suitable for this unit. I decided to write about it anyway, to show how many unrelated briefs are here.
I found this brief to be very interesting as it asks me to create new designs for a can, which would be something new for me. I think that this brief would be pretty good, since it allows me to do a lot of research (how can designs changed over the years and how they look now) and do something new.
Another brief about animating. This one requires me to come up with my own design and then animate it, and to create a presentation about my creative processes. It sounds pretty good as it could allow me to use what I learnt and did for Unit 12. I really like it, but I still have to give it some thought.
And the last brief about animating. This one was suggested to me by another student. This one, just like the Disney brief, requires me to come up with a character design of a superhero and animate it.
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I have just finished reading another 30 or so briefs. Just like yesterday, most of them were uninteresting or not related to my studies.
This time, I decided to go more in-depth about briefs I like. I did not write much about them, though - I simply read more about them and give them more thought.
I did not manage to write enough about each brief. I think that it is nothing bad at the moment, since it is very early anyway and I do not have my 3 final briefs either. Thanks to this session I have a pretty good idea what to choose, but I would like to consult with someone else before doing so. Also, I think I should have written more about each brief and that I will try to do that tomorrow.
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I decided to check that many briefs to see what all of my options are: I wanted to see what's the best choice for me.
Brief Choosing
The diagram above shows my thoughts on the project so far; what do I expect from it, what I would like to work on to improve and what I would like to produce. Most importantly, I would like to continue my research from the previous unit and create something based on that research. In addition, most likely I am going to work in Illustrator, since I am interested in developing my digital drawing skills even further. Other than that, I would like to work on my reflections since they might be descriptive but not enough evaluative; it is not something related to my brief choosing but is still worth mentioning.
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Having all that in mind, I have chosen 3 brief that suit my requirements the most. I believe that completing them will surely allow me to achieve what I just stated above.
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Beano's Character Redesign
The first brief has been set by a Beano Studios a digital entertainment network for children and the world's longest running comic. They would like me to reimagine their characters for "the new entertainment world". The crucial part of this brief is having to redesign one of their female characters:
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Angel Face
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Beryl the Peril
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Billy the Cat (reimagined as a girl)
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Ivy The Terrible
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Secret Agent Sally
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The Belles of St Lemons
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Valda
in a way that is short, narrative, new, exciting and not constrained. Another very important thing about this brief is its target audience of 10-12 years olds in the UK and outside, as well as their parents.
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I really like the theme of this brief, however, I do not like constraints on this project - having to redesign Beano's characters. I usually do not mind doing such things, the thing is, I do not like these specific characters and how hard is to find them for research purposes.
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Disney's Narrative Driven Comedy Cartoon
Unlike the first brief, this one gives me a free hand as to what I would like to do; it simply asks me to create and animate an optimistic lead character. This brief target audience are 4-14 years olds that could invest in my character, use it as a source of learning or expressing themselves alone or with friends and family members.
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Disney wants my character to be surprising, unique, expressive and with strong personality. They also empathise that visual aspects of the character are not as important as its depth and movement, which I really like since it sounds like an extension of my project for Unit 12.
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Animation Career Review's Superhero Animation
This wants me to create a short superhero animation. I can create any superhero or modify any existing one I want, as long as it is entertaining and precisely matches the audio.
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In the end, I have decided to choose Disney's Narrative Driven Comedy Cartoon as my final brief since I see a lot of potential in it. Not only it suits my interests but also allows me to use my previous experience and research to do something *new*, as in I did comedy-driven comics and character animation but I have never done both together.
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Another reason behind my choice is that I have somewhat disliked alternative briefs; I did not like Beano's characters at all and I would not want to be forced to work on them for the next three months. There was nothing I hated about the superhero animation, however, I did not find it interesting enough.
I have spent quite a lot of time checking different briefs without going into details. I am not sure whether it is good or not, since I was able to read many briefs, but on the other hand, going analysing them more in depth could affect my final choice.
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I chose just those three briefs out of so many, because I believed those three not only suited my interested but would also be a good way to show my skills. I choose exactly 3 briefs to analyse as I wanted a low number, to not spend too much time on them, but relatively hight to still leave me with options to choose from.
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Considering my previous units, I think that it works pretty well for me.
This brief has been set in The Walt Disney Company EMEA's stead by Orion Ross in 2011.
The main objective of this brief is to create and animate a character. That character should be "with heart and optimism", strong personality, holds audience's attention, surprising and unique. Also, this character should help the audience express themselves and teach values, with the audience being 4-14 years old, watching alone or with friends and family.
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For this brief, it is crucial that the character is animated well, as it is much more important than its design.
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Also, this brief discourages creating retrospective designs, meaning that I cannot use "Golden Age" designs as references.
SWOT
PROPOSAL
IN-DEPTH BRIEF ANALYSIS
I am supposed to come with an innovative approach while designing my character, which might be difficult - it is not easy to break conventions in interesting way, while not breaking brief's constraints. Also, I am supposed to not think about what is a 'norm' in animation and instead do whatever works best for my character, which should give me a lot of creative freedom.
I definitely cannot try to reproduce old designs and animation, as it is clearly unwanted by the client. Instead, I should do something more modern.
I have to create a narrative-driven comedy cartoon, where the lead character has to be lively and optimistic. It means that I should not aim for direct storytelling - via character dialogue or monologue, or through environment, but to focus on action.
My target audience are young children, between 4 and 14 years old, who might get engaged in what they see on screen, especially when it educates them. They might watch it alone or with friends and families, meaning that I have to take their parents into consideration, while creating my ideas.
This project requires me to create an animation that is 30 to 60 seconds long and to create a presentation (currently, I am unsure whether it means a PowerPoint presentation or actually presenting my work myself), which shows all of my creative processes during the pre-production and production.
I have to design a character with very powerful personality that will get audience's interested the moment it shows. It is supposed to be unique and relevant, and appropriate for young children and their parents. It means that my character should be a young child that can be appealing to adults.
Also, my character must be very expressive; not only because it is stated in the brief but also because it has to tell a story through action, which might be hard to achieve with expressionless characters.
Even though I have to design a very joyful character, its look is not very important. Instead, I have to focus on creating good looking movement and poses, as they are crucial for this brief. Also, this movement has to tell a story, which might be hard to achieve.