For the art style of the characters and overall colour palette I have drawn huge inspiration from an artist known as Strangely Katie whom I follow on Twitter. I love all her illustrations and characters she has created, she has even created a web comic, soon to be printed, called Princess Princess featuring a queer couple, another element also reflected in my own work. Below are two pieces of artwork from her website, Autumn Witch (left) and Little Warrior (right). I wish to take influences from both images such as the absence of line art and the warm, pastel hues.
Visit her website here.
Current animation trends for 2016 includes the classic illustrative style which is why I have decided to go with hand drawn assets and a painted background to give it that very 'natural' and hand- made feel. This also links in with the trend of multiple media and combining various styles to create a whole new and unique look.
Current animation trends for 2016 includes the classic illustrative style which is why I have decided to go with hand drawn assets and a painted background to give it that very 'natural' and hand- made feel. This also links in with the trend of multiple media and combining various styles to create a whole new and unique look.
The narrative itself involves my character Eve, an anthropomorphic deer, walking through the forest pulling a wooden wagon behind her, inside it contains a stuffed toy bear, a sun hat and a cake. It is unclear where exactly she is travelling to until the end of the animation. Along the way she manages to lose all three items in various ways; the toy bear is given to a weeping rabbit boy, the cake is stolen by an owl when it falls out the wagon and the sun hat is given to a badger lady as she needs shade from the sun. Once Eve reaches her destination she is greeted by her girlfriend Flo, a fox, but he no longer has any gifts for her, instead she pulls out a flower from the ground and gives it to her and they hug. A simple story that hopefully displays a variety of messages such as helping others and you do not need material items to show love to one another.
I believe my animation will succeed in the industry as it relates to current trends such as a unique, Disneyesque style and original characters particularly popular amongst younger artists and those active on social media. It also deals with the very prominent social issue of homosexuality, something that is also discussed widely online and I hope people will watch my short film and just love it for what it is.
The key characters include:
- Eve (the protagonist) - a deer travelling through the forest pulling a wagon loaded with items.
- Flo - a fox, she is Eve's girlfriend and is waiting for Eve to meet her.
- Rabbit Boy - he is seen crying holding his injured knee, however he manages a smile once Eve gives him the toy bear.
- Owl - swoops down to grab the Eve's cake once it has fallen out of the wagon.
- Badger Lady - is seen shielding her eyes from the sun and sweating from the heat, then Eve gives her the sun hat and she goes off humming to herself
There will be no words spoken within my animation, however I do need someone to make a variety of noises such as sighs, grunts and hums, I will need both a female, for Eve, Flo and the Badger lady, and male voice artist for the Rabbit boy. I also need to record my own sound effects for various events that take place within the animation, this includes footsteps on grass, birds singing and wagon wheels turning.
b) Story board
c) Anyone, including children, will be able to view this animation as it poses no threat, however the key audience I have in mind is teen-young adult as it is a fairly simple story which may not appeal to young viewers wanting a more exciting short. I would've thought it would be more popular amongst females due to the mostly female cast and connection to animations such as Bambi which may be seen as a more female orientated film. This animation will also appeal to members of the LGBT society as it contains two lesbian characters. As there are no words spoken, the animation and its story will be able to be understood worldwide. I think this animation will appeal to anyone interested in unique art styles and original characters, particularly those who create them themselves, I also hope to inspire other novice animators and artists who wish to begin creating their own animation and characters.
Animatic
As you can see some scenes have slightly changed from my original story board, including when Eve reaches into the wagon to retrieve an item we see a close up of her paw rummaging in the wagon rather than remain in a wide angle shot. I decided to do this because it helps make it more obvious as to what the character is doing and makes it a little more interesting than just staying in the same view throughout the entire animation.
d) Production schedule
e) As far as I know, both the narrative and characters are ideas unique and regarding music and sound effects, I wish to create it all myself and I have a friend composing a piece of music that will play throughout the animation. The animation would be successfully cleared by the BBFC as it contains nothing unsuitable for children such as intense violence or drug use. The story is completely fiction and the characters are not affiliated to any real person therefore it could not break any infringement or copyright laws. However, the fact that the main characters are in a same-sex relationship may unfortunately offend some people with homophobic views particularly those of an older generation. Having said this, it is not made completely clear that the two are actually in a relationship and could just been viewed as a platonic friendship which I would also be fine with. Once I have spoken to the artists and received a signed form I will have permission to use their voices and the piece of music and will be sure to include their names in the end credits.
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