Character Design and Storyboard updated

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Pre-Production Reviews Week12

OK, let’s start off with the SCRIPT that I submitted awhile ago. Recently I got the feedback from Jack that I should think about what my character feels and if I can do it right my animation will be a powerful piece. The story is quite sad but then I feel like there’s something missing that won’t make the audience heartfelt/cry! I just don’t know what it is until Jack pointed it out that how my character feels when she decides to leave the house, and I think this is it!!! All I need is a few more shots of Mya making decisions because without these shots everything will just too abrupt. The only thing bothers is that if I add more shots I’ll have to go back to the storyboard and modify it then bring it in the animatic... but I guess there’s no other way!  

                My CHARACTER DESIGN is 99.99% locked up. After a while of testing and showing to other people in class and teachers, some think yellow/brown is good but then others think the background is too busy and the colour just got lost in it. Most people went with Purple and Red, however purple still seems to get lost in the background. Finally it was down to Red, everyone agreed Red is the colour to go. I think Red can make the character stand out but not poor enough even I already added a few patches on her clothes. But so far I’m happy with it but still indecisive about skin colour wether (light orange, pink or red) but that won’t be a big problem because after the 3D model is done I can experiment them with it. I cannot guarantee the 3D model will look exactly like 2D model sheet. There might be some slight changes on 3D model.

                I went through my script again and noted out most of the character’s emotions and so far I have only 7 FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. I got the expression sheet given by Jack and I used for my character but after I showed Jack, It wasn’t good enough even though it seems fine to me. So I had to change it a bit and now it’s better. Those expressions are pretty much the same because my character is sad all the time however still different. I know there should be a few more and I figured out as the animation goes.

                CONCEPT ART and LAYOUTS are the two things I need to spend a bit more time on it because I’ve been doing/fixing storyboard and animatic (the animatic doesn’t have sound or music just yet, because I’ve been jumping in different works and do a little of this and that) . I only have 1 layout that I did earlier to experiment the character’s colour schemes and 3 more to go. Since the character design is locked now I can start composite my character with the backgrounds for concept art.

                So far I have 2 pages of MOOD BOARD which has to be 4 pages and each page is for each scene, but my script only has 3 scenes... annoying much! Recently I’ve been working on Animation Test as usual I forgot most of the things in 3D Maya so I needed some help from Jack to set up stuff for me. So far I have one shot done and going to work on the next shot, this time I’ll try to do it by myself and see if I can remember all the steps!     

                Other stuff like thumbnail, video blog etc... are already done. For some reasons I feel like I haven’t done enough of work and I only have 2 weeks left before the holiday starts... I guess it’s because I did not try to finish one thing first before I start on something else. Overall according to the pipeline I think I’m in the right stage.     

                                

Script (Adding)

Today I got the script feed back from Jack and there's something that I need to think about is the moment Mya  leaves to die. Does she reconsider returning , get angry, feel despair... what does she feel?
So I sat down and wrote down a few things...

This is when the Lady pushes Mya out of her house and closes the door.
Mya picks up the photograph she spends a moment looking at the house. Fade.
Finally she decides to walk away in despair
While she walks, she sees some woods lying on the snow
She stops and stares at it for a moment then looks to the broken photograph and
She decides to move on.

or

She sees some woods lying on the snow
She stares at it for awhile
She looks back to the broken photograph
She kneels down but not to pick up the woods
She gathers snow and starts building snowballs   

The problem is that I will have to add more shots and my animation is already long. But that won't bother me. Jack really got the point that I need a reason why Mya decided to leave, that's suicide and it's a big decision.

After she spends a moment staring at the house she finally walks away, and in her mind if she goes to pick up more woods the Lady would let her in. However while she looks for woods the photograph reminds her of her parents, so she decides to build the snowballs and then bring the woods home. Unfortunately the snowballs were built but she's too weak and exhausted, and she fell to her death. 

I think this answers the question!!! and I don't mind addding a few more shots as long as it make sense!!

This is the refinement of the character's facial expressions.

Checklist!!!

Checking the Preproduction checklist here are things that I've done

1. Script Premises
2. Script Synopsis
3. Script Treatment
4. Character Design
5. Expression Sheet
6. Colour Schemes
7. Thumbnail
8. Storyboard (i need to write the discription for each shot)
9. Model Sheet
10. Task Pipeline
11. Animatic (so far happy with the timing but need to do the rough sound design)
12. Video Blog
13. Animation test (still working on it)
14. Layout (I only did one layout, 3 more to go)
The 2 things left to do are Mood Board and Concept Art.

So far I'm quite happy with where I'm at the moment, but that doesn't mean i'll be slacking. I'll try to get everything done so that i can start on 3D modelling.

Animatic

This is my second version of Animattic even though i didnt upload the first version. Mainly i adjusted the timing and the angle of the shots, and this seems to be alright.  

Animation Test

Currently working on the animation test that I need to pick a shot/scene which involves a lot of animation. Base on the live action footage as the reference i need to roto the arc which then applies to make character. (This shot is when Mya being pushed out of the house). This is not the finish version, just yet!    

Facial Expression

This is 6 facial expressions of Mya and there will be more expressions later on.. I just had a lecture about facial expression which I can combine 2 different emotions together, and i reckon it will help me alot.