Reason I ask is that I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to get in for today's class :( apple have sprung the second of a possible four interviews on me tomorrow evening and since I'm already in London for the weekend it makes sense for me to stay an extra day. Sorry guys i just really need the job! (cant spare the money for all the train fares >.<)
Just in case I cant be there at any point today I'm gonna put down what I can, which isnt everything as I'm away from most of my work.
I think a rough structure I quite like is:
>title frame, vertical shot of the box cover
>fades to a stop motion photography scene of child's hands constructing puzzle
>last piece doesn't quite fit
>child leaves piece on the puzzle - puzzle piece lines fade away to leave just the child drawings/puzzle characters
>house, sun, trees, dog etc spring up around (as if being drawn) the family and the parents welcome the child.
>fades back and the puzzle is now complete and all pieces fit perfectly.
>credits
I liked the examples Jade's posted so far, another I quite like is in Kina Grannis' music video. It's perhaps not quite a child-like as we're aiming for but I think it shows how even if we're going to be animating really simplistic characters we can still have some fluid animation.
This is the best and most creative example of stop motion photography that I could find. I know we're only planning to animate the hands but i think this style works really well. I quite like the way it's not completely smooth and quite jerky, this type of movement might enhance to the portrayal of the child attempting and not properly succeeding to complete the puzzle.
Finally I've got a different take on stop motion photography. Might not be quite what we had planned but I think it's at least an idea we could play around with. I quite like the idea of perhaps the puzzle characters walking out of the box etc. in this styled piece, perhaps with frame by frame children's drawings rather than photos.
If I cant make it in today I'll make sure to catch up with Jade as soon as I get back. Also if you need any help/want some more ideas I'd be happy to play around with some ideas for a logo on illustrator. If you've got one you guys all like then I also wouldn't mind looking at ways we could animate our logo on screen.
Hey John, firstly Good Luck for the interview!!
ReplyDeleteToday we basiclaly discussed and finalised the story idea which is as follows:
1. Title Scene
2. A frame made of the outter ring of the jigsaw which has been constructed - you know when you put together a jigsaw and do the outside pieces first so your left with a square? That! :)
3. The kid (6yr old boy) places a photograph of his family into this square which has been ripped in half. This photograph is going to be in high detail to represent the reality compared to the childs dream "perfect family". Imogen says she is happy to draw this up
4. Boy places the first of the inside jigsaw pieces into the RH corner. We thought the best way to create this jigwsaw would be to have it as 20 pieces - 5 across and 4 up - this way it will ensure that none of the characters heads are split up by the jigsaw pieces. Each individual jigsaw piece is going to be animated slightly to help bring it to life, all will be in the style of childrens illustrations. This piece in particular will have the moms face animated smiling as well as a cloud with floats between this piece and th already constructed border.
5. The second piece is placed down at the bottom left corner which is going to be filled with the dads feet and body and a small dog
6. The third piece is placed down in the top middle slot, in this is the blank sky and an animated kite which floats betwen this jigsaw piece and the border.
7. The fourth piece is placed down in the top left corner and is the Dad's face which is smiling also.
8. The fifth piece is placed down in the bottom right hand corner. This is the moms body as well as some flowers in the house's garden.
9. The sixth piece and last peice is placed down and is the child.
10. However the peice doesn't fit so is seen to be rotated by the kid to try and make it fit.
11. The kid tries to smack the puzzle peice into the slot which fails.
12. See the hands drop down in defeat and the puzzle lnesbegin to fade away to leave the whole picture which is animated
13. The animated parents crouch down and hug the child and small hearts float between the family above the heads
14. "My Perfect Family" Logo appears in the frass at the bottom of the jigsaw
15. Credits
The animation is still going to be shot via pixelation with the childs hands being shot placing the jigsaw pieces and the animated peices being made by tradtitionally drawn animation.
When talking this through with Andy though he said that the model (in this case the hands) needs to really understand animation for instance know not to mave between takes and this could be problimatic using Tom's little brothers so to maybe consider using one of our hands? Plus, it would be worth shooting the stop motion in one of the unis stop motion studios so we have more control over the lighting and can leave the set while on break and no no-one will mess with it etc.
Hope this helps