I love the rivalry structure you've established here - and the contrast of 'noise-making' and percussion between your two characters; it instantly gives your story more grist and more bone-structure - and character design opportunities. I want you to look specifically at Preston Blair's Cartoon Animation PDF on myUCA/Story/Unit Materials to assist you in putting together two very distinct characters - you've got a nice 'class war' going on there - as well as the inevitable creative vs. technician conflict - and you should absolutely ensure that you establish the strongest visual cues for these two characters. Just watch however - your storyboard is suggestive of a very 'mid distance' approach to staging your story - and this is often born of a lack of confidence of drawing figures from more dynamic angles; think about using the full range of camera shots available to you - and what the thematic contribution is of a 'mid shot' as opposed to an extreme close-up; you'll want to get much more variety in there - and think too about the power of montage in ratcheting up the tension and the conflict. In regard to the visual depiction of the notes, I think perhaps you should avoid depicting them as actual notes, but rather as balls, sparkles, waveforms - something a bit more synesthesiac - because this will make better sense of the juggling; and it means too, that the 'shapes' made by the noise coming from the technician can contrast with more variation. Some useful additional references in depicting abstract stuff such as 'notes' and music - check out this amazing animation by Michel Gagne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVWKtXDvr04
Gagne was also responsible for designing the sequences in Ratatouille which depict 'taste' visually.
For example, you could have montage/abstract sequences in your 'duel of sound' in which the action moves away from the physical space of the concert hall, and into a more abstract space in which we see the various noises competing on screen for supremacy.
Re. your written assignment - a confident, cleanly articulated mission statement. I genuinely look forward to reading it :)
OGR 14/02/2012
ReplyDeleteHey Chrissie,
I love the rivalry structure you've established here - and the contrast of 'noise-making' and percussion between your two characters; it instantly gives your story more grist and more bone-structure - and character design opportunities. I want you to look specifically at Preston Blair's Cartoon Animation PDF on myUCA/Story/Unit Materials to assist you in putting together two very distinct characters - you've got a nice 'class war' going on there - as well as the inevitable creative vs. technician conflict - and you should absolutely ensure that you establish the strongest visual cues for these two characters. Just watch however - your storyboard is suggestive of a very 'mid distance' approach to staging your story - and this is often born of a lack of confidence of drawing figures from more dynamic angles; think about using the full range of camera shots available to you - and what the thematic contribution is of a 'mid shot' as opposed to an extreme close-up; you'll want to get much more variety in there - and think too about the power of montage in ratcheting up the tension and the conflict. In regard to the visual depiction of the notes, I think perhaps you should avoid depicting them as actual notes, but rather as balls, sparkles, waveforms - something a bit more synesthesiac - because this will make better sense of the juggling; and it means too, that the 'shapes' made by the noise coming from the technician can contrast with more variation. Some useful additional references in depicting abstract stuff such as 'notes' and music - check out this amazing animation by Michel Gagne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVWKtXDvr04
Gagne was also responsible for designing the sequences in Ratatouille which depict 'taste' visually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xizttM_Cbuc&feature=related
For example, you could have montage/abstract sequences in your 'duel of sound' in which the action moves away from the physical space of the concert hall, and into a more abstract space in which we see the various noises competing on screen for supremacy.
Re. your written assignment - a confident, cleanly articulated mission statement. I genuinely look forward to reading it :)