Character Animation Influence

Animation began here at the Atom Pancakes HQ. Having the character finished and his personality understood, it was needed to research comedy shows or animations, in which our character could relate.
Arthur Winters being a British character we mainly focused on British comedy, aiming to use the 'Britishness' so visible in this type of comedy.


Faulty Towers

The first British TV Show we researched was Faulty Towers, more specifically the character of Basil Faulty. Basil Faulty, played by John Cleese, is a great example to associate with our character. Firstly, as he is very "British", having most of the mannerisms we want to apply to our character. But also because he is very short tempered just like our character, losing the plot and acting funny when in that state.



Jeeves and Woosters  

Another British TV Series we have looked at was Jeeves and Woosters. In this case, the character of Wooster played by Hugh Laurie. Once again, this character is full of "British" charm. Jeeves is a very posh character who behaves in a proper English manner, however as he loses his temper he becomes rather silly.


Mr. Bean 

   
The famous Mr. Bean, played by Rowan Atkinson is another character we researched. While the two previous characters the main focus of the research was to find the Britishness needed to apply to our character. Mr. Bean was included in the research for a very different reason, he is a character who doesn't speak much, therefore all his comedy come from his acting. This way of creating comedy through only acting will help animate character, Arthur Winters.


Fast Show 

Fast Show was a British comedy TV Show which consisted in a variety of TV Sketches portraying funny situations in a wide range of places.We chose to look at these because it emphasizes the idea of one actor acting as numerous characters. This research is crucial to understand how Arthur Winters will behave when acting as  any of the other characters.

Concept Art: Arthur Winters: Initial Character Sketches and Alchemy Silhouettes

For the past week and a few days I have been working on getting a few designs for our character. I previously posted the research and some information about the character to work on. So here is the the sketches I came up with, it is still the beginning of the designing stages so it is a lot of room from improvement. I will also be waiting for Jordan and his interpretation of the character. Just so I have a wider range of designs to work upon.

The first attempt is a digital sketch of character based on silhouettes created in alchemy.

With that done, I then tried to draw some more variation of characters, this will allow me to reference and choose what things work best for this character.

Meeting: Monday, 22 August at 5PM

Hi guys, Just to let you know, atom pancakes will be holding a meeting tomorrow at 5 p.m., sorry for the late schedule, but i wasn't sure when it would fine for me, as that i will start my new job very soon.

In this meeting we will be going through a few things.

- The script

- Initial character sketches

- Initial environment sketches

- Listing of Locations and props needed in the animation for further development.

Hope to see you then, bye for now !!

Characters Initial Influence Maps

With a new idea cooking in our studio, all our new condiments have to be fresh. With different characters in this idea, we have to research everything from scratch, however it is always an enjoyable thing to do as it allows us to better understand our characters and their surroundings. As much we liked the other characters they wont be in this idea so their research is part of the past, now the focus is on this character and to better understand him I have quickly created a profile sheet of the character with no descriptive content so it allows our designers to freely design the character, and also quickly put a few influence maps that can be used as reference when designing it.

Initial Profile Sheet

Name: Writer (Name to be Decided) (like Walter, Alfred)

Biography: Arthur Winters is a recognised author in literature, however when he prepares to write his new book, ideas slip his mind and he is left with nothing. For an accomplished author not having ideas is like a crime. After some time of reflection and thought gathering, he thinks he has yet another masterpiece, however the real struggle begins when he tries to write his ideas for the new book.

Age: 40-45

Race: Human

Speaking Style: Calm, Polite, Formal (Academic Level). 

General Demeanour: When normal he is excited about his books, when he has an idea he overreacts and becomes silly. 

Career: Novel Writer

Prejudices: Loves to write books, but lately unfortunately he is not lucky enough to have an idea. 

Best Qualities: enthusiastic, determined, polite, has common sense.

Worst Qualities: melodramatic, silly, sometimes frustrated.

Weaknesses: when overreacting he behaves silly, allowing gags to play on him.

An additional research on the clothes of the period so we have a rather accurate character.

New Concept

Today I'm posting the new idea. Well its more than just an idea now, as the rest of the team knows.
The animation was originally going to be a sci fi in space with an alien family and a robot dog. However, that idea just fizzled out when none of us could decide how it was going to end. (and the the length was steadily increasing to what would probably be a 15 minute animation.)

Anyway, after a lot of discussing, we have now completely changed our story. Its not a sci fi for starters.
It is about a famous writer who is stuck for ideas. He is stuck at home in the middle of winter, somewhere between the 1920s to 40s/50s.
It is the story of a writer who goes through a phase of misfortunes while struggling to write the perfect story for his next novel.

So this is what the main post is for. Here is the basic story structure, complete with an additional list of optional extras that can fit into the animation.
It's still got a few tiny gaps, which will be filled in by the time the final script is written. It mostly positions the three of the main gags in the timeline.
____________________________________________
___________STORY STRUCTURE________________


___ACT 1_______________________________
----------------------------
// Establish the setting //
The story takes place in a writers office in his home.
The camera pulls in on this 1920s house, closing in on the window with a light on.
It is snowing. (since it is clearly winter, there is less daylight. The whole film takes place at night, but it is not exactly late at night… yet )
----------------------------


----------------------------
// Establish he is a famous writer //
The camera pans round the walls of his room. Showing the many photos and newspaper cuttings of his success as a writer. There are also many books and lever arch files and boxes on his shelves, Showing the titles of many books he has written. (The names of the books can be a play on some real famous books.)
----------------------------



___ACT 2_______________________________
----------------------------
// Coming up with an idea //

Standing up, the writer is fills up his glass. He puts the bottle down. // Then cuts to a close up of his face.// He is thinking. Then takes the pen from a pot for the first time.

When he first picks up the pen from the pot, the lid is so lose that he takes the lid and leaves the pen behind. He then takes the pen after putting the lid down. (honestly, its not his day!)


occasionally the writer would take the hanky from his pocket and wipe his face / brow.

/// This is where we mix in some other little gags ///

He pauses for a second and puts his pen down. As he wipes his brow again, the pen slowly starts to roll off the table. It hits the floor and busts the nib. Rendering it unusable. (but filled with ink) Realising that he cant write with it anymore (unless it can be mended), he puts the (lose) lid back on and puts it in his pocket. (the clip on the outside of the pocket)

He finds just one pencil in his draw and continues to write with that until the lead snaps. (which is almost immediately)

So he puts it into the electric pencil sharpener. It unfortunately gets stuck in there and it keeps eating away at it until there is only a pathetic bit of pencil left. He persists with writing with it from then on.

He pauses again. and takes his hanky out. (by this time it is covered with ink as the pen has leaked!)

He wipes his face / brow. Before revealing his face the camera cuts to behind him and the desk. He looks at some of his papers that are out on the desk. Thinks he is getting no where, so he just makes a moaning sound and gradually smacks his face on the first piece of paper on the desk. The camera come to face the writer and he then rises back up going 'ERHHHH' with a piece of paper stuck to his face. The paper gracefully un peals and you can see an inky imprint of his deformed face on the paper.

He soon realises that his hands and face are covered in ink, and he then takes the pen out of his pocket, and once again, the lid only comes out. He then takes the pen out too and throws it all in the bin.

(he may decide to leave the room at this point to get cleaned up) /// Time passes ///

To the side of his desk, he starts to toss the ball against the wall, he stands up, gets an idea (maybe looks out of the window and into space), then the ball bounces back and hits him.

/// Either at this point, time passes again and he is now typing on the type writer, or we see him start to type straight afterwards. ///
----------------------------


----------------------------
// Typing the idea out //

The lamp switch keeps switching itself off at various moment int the animation. (who knows why… its a dodgy switch!)
He first looks at the lamp when switching it back on. The next couple of times he isn't even looking, but still keeps switching it back on every time it switches itself off.
(For whatever reason, the lamp and fan are moved backwards slightly on the desk - make more space for his notes, for a particular chapter he is working on perhaps?)
The last time it switches of, he accidentally switches on the fan, so instead of the light coming back on, the papers in the pile of typed paper one by one from the top start flying off of the pile in a curly fashion. He quickly switches the fan off and puts the lamp light on instead.

He has now mixed up his pages of his book.

(from then on, the switch is permanently stuck down with Sellotape)
----------------------------



___ACT 3_______________________________
----------------------------
// Burning all the work //
With the book almost finished, he lights another cigarette. When he waves the match out and placed into the ash tray, it didn't quite go out.
the writer finishes the last sentence of his finished book. It a moment of relief and happiness, he does a 360 degree spin in the chair. He accidentally hits the side of the desk with his feet/legs/knees. This causes the whole desk to rattle. The match in the ash tray falls in the bin. He quickly straightens up the pile of pages. (as if - phew, best be careful)
He takes a sip of his drink and places it in the easiest place. (to the Right of the type writer)
Types 'The End'. and slides the slider over. Knocking over the drink and spilling it over the side of the desk and into the bin, where it quickly ignites and as the flames crawl up the side of the desk, it reaches and burns the pages of the book.
----------------------------



___The Writers mannerisms_______________________________
He has common sense, but is slightly forgetful. (mainly when he is directly preoccupied with something else)

eg - He is constantly putting his cigarette out on the table and not in the ash tray. When he realises (almost instantly) he drags the ash tray under the scorched patch and puts the cigarette out again.

If you see several scorched patches, showing that he is doing it all the time.

Its not exactly a gag, and the audience may not, and doesn't need to pick up on it, but it (if only subconsciously) adds character to him for the audience.


___The Little Gags_______________________________
Maybe he has a cold, (considering its winter). He sneezes or is about to sneeze every so often in the film. (A cause for some other gag perhaps)

He types out an entire page and makes an obvious spelling mistake in the last sentence of that page. (the whole page needs retyping!)

Every so often he gets his finger caught in the keys.

A page falls on the floor, but has drifted under his desk. (really awkward to get to!)
He then decides to take the bottom draw out to make it easier, but unfortunately, there is another board of wood in the way.

He tries to open a locked draw so he ends up pulling the handle off.

or maybe - He has a stiff draw and when he tugs at it, some of his drink spills over the paper.

while stuck for ideas, he goes to his shelf. He finds one of his lever arch files with lots of old notes. As he slowly starts to pull it from the shelf, once its almost out, pages and pages of unclamped notes fall out over the floor.

or maybe - he has this untidy pile of books, notes, pages etc, that is precariously balanced. He hesitates at first, as it his last resort for ideas. He attempts to take a page from the middle of the stack, and like a game of jenga, he carefully takes the page out. He is successful, but as he walks away the pile falls over.

____________________________________________
___________END OF STORY STRUCTURE_________

While writing this I was also needing to check the dates of inventions such as the electric pencil sharpeners, light bulbs, swivel chairs, Sellotape etc. I also found some images that might be useful later on, for when it comes to designing the props for modeling.


I never knew until now how typewriters worked, but there is a ribbon (in this case black ribbon) that is wrapped up and suspended between two reals.



From what I've found out; the arms with the letters on portable typewriters (generaly) proportionaly take up more space.


Where as with full size typewriters, the arms with the letters fit in a smaller space.

You can see here that there are two letters on each arm. (caps/non-caps)


I doubt that we will be making a typewriter that actualy works, but this might be useful.


And here are some other images that might prove useful too.





I found some interesting videos about typewriters as well.
This one shows how a typewriter is constructed. (if you skip to about 4 minutes in, there is a stop-motion animation of all the components building themselves together)


This video shows exactly the correct posture for type writing. (might be useful for animation.)



So That is the new idea. No doubt the old ideas we had will get a mention in the making of!

A Flock of Pixels

Characters Initial Influence Maps

With the main idea cooking on one side, we have already decided what characters our story will have. I introduce shortly the characteristics of each character

The technology lover dad, who relies on it in most of his life, however he doesn't know how to use it. The Mum a rational character who relies on reason and common sense to resolve many cases. an then we have the robot pet, who for the holidays have lost his favourite toys, so he tries to sabotage the trip.

Being in charge of character design, I have created an initial research map for each character in which every member can see it for inspiration. By any means, these maps are not final and they will discussed tomorrow in our 3rd meeting.

Also I have created a quick influence map for the breed of alien. As you can see by the maps, they are quite they broad and have no conclusive look in which the aliens should fit, this will allow our designers to try new things and varied designs.

Art Direction Influence Maps

One of the subjects we discussed on our last meeting was the direction in which CG World will take. After a few options, Jordan Buckner, our Art director supported by all team members decided to go with a Pixar style animation, because not only it has a commercial look but also it is easier to connect with the audience via comedy gags.

Here is a couple of influence maps showing how we want our animation to look:

Family Situation Gags Research

Having the outline of the story set, the next task is to come up with a few gags, related to a family days out. Most of the situations come from our own experience, but we can also see them being used and reused in films and animations alike. So here is a couple of those situations:


The Famous "Are there yet?" scene from Shrek, Dreamworks

The scene is iconic in the film and it also marks donkey as an annoying and bored creature, yet so funny!


Pixar Short- Mike's New Car

This short animation by Pixar is just great, because it is full of great day-to-day gags involving cars an their technology. Mike's (green monster) personality actually fits quite well with the dad in our alien dad.

Pixar's Finding Nemo the EAC Current   

I chose this scene just to show how adaptable the human world can be to the animal world. In the film, the EAC Current is meant to resemble a high speed motorway, this small connections will be need when adapting an human situation to an alien world.

Illion's Planet 51, Alien Family set up 

I just chose this scene because of the character design of the aliens, although from another planet they pretty much resemble to us, we could use this in our advantage to connect the alien species to a day-to-day human situation.

Planet 51, 2009, Ilion Animation Studios

Here is some more research, having as a genre a scifi/ comedy. I felt it was needed to get some research done on the subject. The film is Planet 51 and I chose it because not only deals with sci-fi, but also adds comedy, it is nonetheless a good take on the sci-fi genre, creating interesting pastiches of scenes memorable to us, but also adding slapstick comedy.

I have selected a couple of scenes from the film to show you what I mean.








Synopsis:

'Lem is just an average teenager working on getting the girl and furthering his career at the local planetarium - except that he's an alien. At least to U.S. astronaut Captain Charles T. Baker who lands on Lem's planet hoping for a quick flag plant and a hasty return to earth and his millions of screaming fans. But on this alien planet the media has tagged spacemen as brain-eating, zombie-creating monsters, causing Baker to run for his life and into Lem's house. Now it's up to the green native to get the clumsy astronaut back to his spaceship before military dictator General Grawl and mad scientist Professor Kipple manage to exterminate the Earthly visitor'


Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762125/

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Stephen Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a real landmark of the genre. It has come to represent sci-fi from the 70's and 80's and it's style lives on in more contemporary films. The film follows Ron Neary after his brush with UFO's leads him on a wild chase to answer the questions. It is a stunningly shot film and it has a magical pace that is bound to have an effect on every viewing.

The art style is key to this film, it set the standard for future films and really brings a glowing magic to the screen. I won't post too many images or videos as I really recommend watching it for the real magic, but here is a theatrical trailer.

Definitely give this film a watch, hopefully when we start uni again we might be able to get a lecture theatre and watch it on the big screen.

Burning Safari (2006)

Burning Safari

'From the 3D World showreel. It’s Monkey vs Robot Aliens in this high-speed short from a group of talented young French students determined to bring the energy of 2D animation to their first 3D animated project.

Who knew that when the aliens came, they wouldn’t be little green men but boxy little shutterbugs? In Burning Safari, a toon-inflected 3D short from a cohort of students at leading French animation school Gobelins, the aliens are on a photo outing. It is their misfortune to encounter a curious monkey just after landing. Chaos ensues, and as so often happens when worlds collide, things end extremely badly for all concerned. At least in this case, the consequences are as hilarious as they are hideous.'
Source: Computer Arts @ http://www.computerarts.co.uk/downloads/3d__and__animation/burning_safari


More info and for making of videos: check their website on: http://www.burningsafari.com/

Moon (2009)

We discussed the idea of suggesting films and research that may help us and inspire us, so I have decided to make my first suggestion the fantastic 2009 film "Moon" by Duncan Jones. The film was made on a tiny budget and so it really is a story of ideas and intelligent narrative. It also pays homage to a vast array of classic sci-fi films which we will cover later. The pastiche of certain films is extremely interesting and something that I'm sure we will examine within the animation.

It's narrative is obviously a huge appeal of the film, but what also makes it very suitable for us is its small cast and environment. The film is mostly shot in a single Lunar base with a single actor. For a short animation this is very apt, as we will need to create a perfectly formed world with little characters and create fanstic worlds in small sets.

Looking forward to seeing some suggestions, this project is already very very exciting. Check out the trailer below...