Sebastian Kaczmarczyk
UNIT 13
TASK 3
Further Research
28th of March
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Today, I started researching my target audience as information included in the brief was not detailed enough. However, it still was a good starting point as it gave me a general idea who should I research.
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Knowing that my target audience are children aged from 4-14 and their families, I decided to user an ACORN guide and look for groups with high percentage of couples with children and high UK index.
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Further examples of my research can be accessed in Task 5 as some of my pre-production includes sketches and tests.
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I read some chapters of the ACORN user guide, which contains information about a range of different social groups. I noted everything interesting in my sketchbook. Due to the lac of time, I will have to finish this task at home and then write about my findings tomorrow.
However, I did not have time to upload it to my site nor to talk about my findings in depth. It was mostly because I had to finish working on an animation for client and because there is a lot information to choose from in the guide.
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Also, I decided to use ACORN because I assumed it could be a valuable source of information on my audience. I was interested in seeing whether it would give me ideas or not.
29th of March
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I have finally finished gathering data from ACORN.
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FLOURISHING FAMILIES:
​Wealthy families with mortgages. Parents may encourage schoolwork and children tend to achieve better-tan-average exam grades.
This group is younger than other affluent groups. They tend to spend less on items but might be buying more frequently, so their overall spending is actually increasing. Some are quite active, enjoying sports, playing golf, going to the gym or walking. They spend more on pop music and multimedia entertainment than most, and buy from supermarkets more often than other groups. PC ownership is common and they are comfortable with new technology.
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I found that this group is more wealthy than others and that it is rather active as well. There is almost no information about children, though. However, I can make an assumptions that those children have similar lifestyle to their parents, and thus are rather active.
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It might mean that creating something related to outdoor activities might be a good idea.
I have unnecessarily started writing about this group's wealth - it is not connected to my brief in any way, as my animation is not supposed to be distributed to be sold. I took it into account, and stopped analyzing things like one's wealth.
OLDER FAMILIES, PROSPEROUS SUBURBS:
Well educated. Puzzles, management and strategy games may be popular. Like gardening, golf, arts.
43.7% are couples with children, 104 UK index.
I do not think that this group can be included in my target audience, since it has just 104 UK index and only 43.7% of this group consist of couples with children. It means that this group is of average size and less than half of it are couples with children.
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Still, I will take it into account.
WELL-OFF WORKING FAMILIES WITH MORTGAGES:
Young families with many pre-school and primary school families. May cater for the children's future. Young active people, eating out, reading magazines, watching DVD, going to the cinema. These families watch thrillers, comedy, sci-fi, drama and kid's animation. They like cinema, football, gardening and golf.
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57% are couples with children, 121 UK index.
Unlike the previous group, this one consists mostly of couples with children and is much larger. It means that a big chunk of my audience belongs to this group. Another very important thing, that most of children in this group belong to my target audience's age as well.
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Based on what I found out about this group, I might consider creating something sci-fi.
LARGE FAMILIES AND HOUSES IN RURAL AREAS:
Large families living in sparsely rural communities. Many children, particularly teenagers. Religious, charitable. Children tend to achieve better exam results than average, although result might differ by gender to a greater extent than is typical for these level of achievements. Children prefer the cinema or their computer. They like cinema, videos and football.
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51% are couples with children, 123 UK index.
Another big group. This one, however, is a bit too old for my audience.
SECURE FAMILISE:
All life stages are represented in this category. Younger singles and couples, just starting out on their careers, are the dominant group.
These families might include young children, teenagers or even young adults.
YOUNGER WHITE-COLLAR COUPLES WITH MORTGAGES:
Likely to have just started or be starting a family. There are many pre-school children. They like satellity TV, DVDs, rock or pop music, magazines, cinema, computer games, football, golf.
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45% are couples with children, 108 UK index.
This group is not big, but still contains young children. There is not really any interesting information about this group.
WORKING FAMILIES WITH MORTGAGES:
Often with primary school children. Many families have a PC, which may be used by children for education and playing computer games.
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50.2% are couples with children, 120 UK index.
This group is quite big but does not give any information other that children like to play on the computer.
HOME-OWNING ASIAN FAMILY AREAS:
Almost 40% people in this type are Asian. There are many children and young people in their 20s. Education and self-improvements are important. Home PC is primarily used for education, reference and careers. Children areas achieve average exam results, with girls outperforming to a greater extent than usual, notably in maths and science. Religious. Strong sense of family. They are interested in cinema, computer games, videos and football.
49.1% are couples with children, 117 UK index.
This group is both very big and suits my target audience's description pretty well; there are many young children who are interested in learning new things.
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Overall, I did not find any useful information; it only allowed me to pin-point which groups belong to my target audience, without expanding on that. It did not tell me more about their interests and what they would like to see, with the exception of their liking to play football.
Even though I think that I should have spent this time differently, it still was valuable to gather all this information; it showed me what I should not look for. I think that next time I should research what kinds of animation children and adults like to watch and why, instead.
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What I wanted to find here was some information on more specific interests of families with children, such as what kind of animation they enjoy watching (Frame-by-frame? CGI? Comedy? Adventure? Etc.).
18th of April
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Today, I have decided to look for similar products and find out why they were successful or not. Also, I have concluded that it would be the best to research Disney's latest works, in order to see how they approach the subject of creating animation for young audiences.
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Unexpectedly, I found out that Disney did not produce too many animated movies in the last five years; instead they had other companies to produce them, while DIsney was only responsible for their releasing.
To my surprise, the latest animated produced exclusively by Disney is Moana, which was released in 2016 - I expected to find at least one animated movie released in 2018.
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This movie tells its title character's story of her adventure to save her island from Te Ka's poison by restoring Te Fiti's stolen heart. It is filled with comedy, powerful action scenes, singing, feel of adventure and overall brilliant 3D animation.
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Video below shows one of the last scenes, where Moana gives Te Fiti her lost heart. I think that it looks simply amazing, especially fire and water particles. Another thing I really like here, is how Te Ka moves; they way she swings her body to attack and how she ran on all four to get to Moana. It is the kind of movement I would like to recreate myself.
I found it very interesting that before creation of this movie, John Musker and Ron Clements (Moana's directors) went on a research trip to Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti, and that their research has greatly influenced their idea. Initially, they wanted to create a movie telling a story of Maui, a demigod from Polynesian mythology, however, during their trip they heard that the people of Polynesia have stopped making long-distance travels around three thousands years ago, which is why Moana focuses on why people are scared of the ocean.
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Apparently, it took 5 years to produce, including 9 different versions before Oceanic Story Trust green lighted the movie; Musker and Clements recruited experts in order to create as accurate product as possible.
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The movie was received very well, as it grossed over $643.3 million and received a lot of praise for its story and animation.
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However, Mona was also criticised for its "appropriating of Polynesian mythology" and promoting "blackfacing" or "brownfacing" (using masks and make up to create a caricature of a black person) through Maui's suit, which could be purchased.
Another movie created not so long ago is Zootopia (or Zootropolis), directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore. It tells a story of the first rabbit police officer in an enormous city populated by anthropomorphic animals and how she uncovers the mystery of animals going savage and attacking each other, even though "preys" and "predators" are supposed to live peacefully, together in Zootopia.
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Just like the other movie, this one is in 3D.
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I really like Zootopia's story, animation, character designs, models and environment design; entire city looks great. Also, I think that it is amazing how Disney's animator managed to create such natural-looking fur.
The idea for this movie came from Byron Howard's desire to create an anthropomorphic movie, where animals live in a world created by animals for animals, unlike other movies.
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During my research, I found out the reason behind this movie's brilliant designs and animation; animators spent 8 months on researching animals in Disney's animal kingdom and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where they watched how animals moved and how they looked like, especially their fur colour. It led to 800 000 different forms of mammals being featured in the movie. Apparently, in order to create as realistic fur as possible, Disney's animators went to
19th of April
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Today, I have decided to research what my clients would like me to stray away of. In the brief, they clearly stated that they do not wish me to reciprocate any old work. I think that researching such movies will allow me to avoid creating anything similar.
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Pinocchio tells a story of a wooden puppet that wants to become a real boy and its adventures. This movie had groundbreaking animation at its time, in the area of realistic movement of vehicles and natural elements (smoke, rain, etc.).
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Personally, I like how characters move together (like while holding each other) and the way waves move, and how water drops spill.
Interestingly, Disney's animator found it very difficult to draw Pinocchio naturally - he looked like a piece of wood and not like a child - and it took them a lot of time before Kahl presented his design.
Thinking that checking just one traditionally animated movie is not enough, I watched two short cartoons made by Disney; 'The Wise Little Hen' and 'Silly Symphony - The Tortoise and the Hare'.
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At the moment, I find it hard to pinpoint what exactly to look for and what to avoid while animating. Nevertheless, I have a vague idea what I should do; avoid creating scenes with 'long wind-ups' (like when the Hare has a pretty long preparation before throwing a ball), repetitive movement (in old animations characters tend to repeat an action a few times before moving on to the next one).
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I spent the last two days on looking for modern and traditional Disney movies, reading articles about them, and watching them.
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It allowed me to partially understand what is expected of me in this project.
I did it in order to;
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know more about my client and their work; it would allow me to understand their needs more as well as to know how they approach their audience.
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to see some competitive products; how they are made and what kind of stories they tackle.
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to understand what my clients wants me to avoid.
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Watching those animations gave me some initial ideas I would like to expand during the next session.
9th of May
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Today, we have been visited by Luke Panayiotou, a successful CG artist and a background artist. He talked a lot about his previous work and studios he worked on. Most importantly, he explained to us the way he climbed the ladder and how he became successful. According to him, it is crucial to do things you want to do, gain all skills you can and use opportunities that come up.
9th of June
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Today, I would like to talk about my inspiration during this project.
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Firstly, character designs and animation has been directly inspired by rabbits from this video:
First inspiration was the white rabbit with black bottom and head. I liked that he looked as if he was wearing a pair of trousers, that I designed my Big Rabbit after him, who just like him, is white but has real black trousers.
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The other rabbit inspired me to not only design a character but also to design its movement. As you see on images on the left, it moves in a quite unique way - first its front thrusts forward and then its back hops to catch up. I think it looked really funny and that I could make it even funnier as an animation. I decided to take it to the extreme.
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That is how I designed the Long Rabbit that is a literal spring.
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Another big inspiration comes from Disney's classics. It was the growing up scene from the Lion King, where three characters walk on a fallen tree as background change. At the same time, we see one of the character grow form a put to a lion. This scene is a great representation of passing time as a journey through life, where the world around you changes literally.
I like this scene especially because of how effectively it presents life-long journey in a very short period of time. It makes the scene very powerful, while making it more engaging (long scenes might cause viewers to lose interest).
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The only things I do not like, are the actual transitions between backgrounds. It is obvious that they put them one on another and just changed their opacity. It does not look too appealing. If I was the one to make this scene, I would just move from one background to another or make it blend naturally (like covering the scene with a tree very close to camera).
Today, I would also like to write about some primary research I had no time to document before. Last month, I have been working for Flow Creative on their animation for the British Council. I was responsible of animating scenes in After Effects using their assets.
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It was a great opportunity for me to get some insight on my project from the industry professionals; both directly and indirectly. From their lead animator I learnt how to use After Effects plugins to animate puppets and how to create a folder structure like theirs. Using puppets in my project is not something I considered at the beginning, but ended up using to save my time, which I explained at the production stage. As we progressed with their project, I was told more and more about how they work; how they work with their clients, how they create and approach storyboard, how they work as a team with external animators.
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Here is one of scenes I animated:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JkRY8iUk5kDtyfbWurDdaUmKjXq8AewJ/view?usp=sharing
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To make this scene I had to create puppets. work with alpha layers (series of identically shaped layers with different effects applied to them) and think of ways to make it appealing; even though I was given the storyboard, it did not include what was supposed to happen in each scene, just the key points. I knew that I had to show 'excitement' and 'great ideas' but I had to figure out myself what that meant.
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I found it very interesting and enjoyable, as it allowed me to approach the problem creatively, which led to some interesting development (like camera movement and transitions).
While designing my rabbits I have not only took the inspiration from the real ones but the fictional ones too. I did that to see how other artists designed their characters that are similat to mine.
Judy Hoops comes from Zootopia, movie I already mentioned before in my research.
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She is a great example of an anthropomorphic character. Even though she is a rabbit, her poses look like of a human; something I planned to incorporate in the Big Rabbit. She has also very strong personality, which can be seen in her actions and animation.
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Just from the image on the left you can see how optimistic and confident she is. Her design is also very friendly.
Roger Rabbit from Who Framer Roger Rabbit? is a character designed and animated by Richard Williams, whom I researched before.
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I was not really interested in his design as it did not leave any impact on me. Instead, I was very interested in his overly exaggerated expressions (image on the right). Showing a range of expressions is something that my character should be able to do as well.
Thumper from Bambi is the oldest one of the three, designed according to the same princliples I learnt from researching Preston Blair.
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This character was deliberately designed to be cute, to immediately befriend the audience and to appeal to everyone.
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From what I know, it is because of his small curly body, big head, eyes and feet. This character inspired me to design the Fluffy and Short Rabbits that share some traits with Thumper.
I did not research those characters to directly use them in my project. Instead, I looked for what made them successful and thought of ways to use it with my style. Because of that, similarities between those characters and my own are not so obvious, but can be seen once pointed out.