Storyboards

26/01/12

As a group (Shazam) we was assigned a task to produce a storyboard for our advert. Paige was voted by the group to be the main illustrator for the storyboards because her drawing skills are outstanding. We then wrote out each shot for each keyframe and a brief description of what the action is involved in the image. This is a visual outlook at what the advert will evolve like a storyboard also makes it clear on what is expected in the advert. I wrote a script for the advert because I have provided many successful scripts in the past so I was confident in doing this task and by doing this it was easy to produce a storyboard. Making a storyboard makes its easy to follow when producing the advert, but there may be slight additions or subtractions. We also reenacted and filmed our storyboards and script ourselves. This is an important technique Aardman used when making the the advert Nytol as it helps to understand the timing gestures of the characters and the adjustment of the narration to fit each key frame.

2D Development

Each member of our group planned a mind map of how we can adapt our 2D animation. We held practical sessions to help us understand the developmental gestures with the 2D characters and watched video clips such as the Alan Carr animation and the Nikki from Big Brother cut out animation. As our 2D animation we decided to use cut out animation because we found it to be the most successful and easiest form of animation we could do. We cut out pictures from magazines and from the internet to try and make the characters look realistic and similar to ourselves. We coloured in the drawings and began shooting our 2D animation we used the Nikki from Big Brother animation to compare and contrast our animation and watched how they moved their cut out pieces to make an effective 2D animation.

Pre-Production

18/01/12

Previously, in our animation groups we began our pre-production for our 3D animation advert. I produced a production schedule which is a plan of what will be in throughout the production, when it will be done and who it will be completed by. We also created mind maps to brainstorm ideas of our 2D and 3D animation. We merged together our ideas and displayed a final mind map for each animation. Other pre-production tasks that other members of the group (Shazam) completed was plans/drawings of our character and set designs. I didn't think that pre-production was at all important because in previous assignments the pre-production has either been completed at the end or changed. By completing all of the pre-production first I now fully understand how it works and it is much easier to follow when producing the advert.

Proposal

Today in my production group (Shazam) we individually wrote a proposal which we need to present to our client. I particularly wrote about our specific target audience which is both males and females aged 18+ and why we have targeted this certain audience. I have also discussed the results we received from our questionnaires. We surveyed 16 people and asked them questions about debt and beating it because this is our chosen subject we wish to advertise. I described our research content and how we developed our ideas together from researching and brainstorming. For example I researched different beating debt adverts on the internet to get and idea of what different aesthetic qualities have been used in adverts and how we can attract our target audience to our advert. I included the fact that we produced a mood board to show the style of our animation and the visual look for our story outline. The fact that our target audience is at an age range of 18+, I explained how we would organise a focus group. Which is a group of members of our target audience that watch our advert and give us honest feedback, this is so we can evaluate our strengths and weaknesses and to improve our work if were to do it again.

Animation Styles

I have previously studied the different style techniques in animation. for me, the most interesting aspect was how Drawing and Rotoscoping can combine together. At the time I did not know that Rotoscoping was used to draw real life movement to create an animation. For example Max Fleischer's character Betty Boop was drawn by tracing the movement of a human lady dancing to make the animation realistic as possible. Having learned the techniques in animation I now feel confident in that particular area.