Research and Questions

After thinking about the brief for a while I decided on a suitable idea to get started. My idea was to create a short 30sec animation in the style of 'Creature Comforts', an 'Aardman animation' piece.

Copyright Aardman Animations

After purchasing and watching the DVD I felt I had a better grasp for what I was after and what I was attempting. Although Aardman is clearly going to be a point of inspiration I didn't want to blatantly rip it off so with this in mind I will try to create my own unique style. The extras of the DVD were extremely useful and helped me find a starting point for the animation; audio.

The main task with getting audio is to find people who would speak to me in a natural way but at the same time capturing a slight unease along with attempts of political correctness that people give when they know they are being recorded. Hard to explain, but what I was after was audio that you might find when the public are interviewed for radio, possibly about a subject they know little about...

The questions will also be key. I've devised a list of questions that hopefully prove original and topical and also play up to the fact that an animal could be saying things quite contradictory to their enviroment. I was hoping for a good juxtaposition between the audio and the animal acting that would add to the humour.

Some of my questions and ideas:

How do you feel about global warming? - (A penguin on an ice cap)
What do you think of Jamie Oliver? - (Rat going through some bins in a playground)
How do you feel about insects? - (Ant eater afraid of ants)
Have you got any phobias? - (Bird afraid of heights)

The ideas around the questions are scenarios that would be great if they happened but until I finish recording and sit down with the footage I will never know what options are present.

I will record as much as I can this weekend when I visit Birmingham (There is something about the accent that I find appealing).

Introduction

The following blog is in place to document my work and methods towards the 'Advanced Character Animation' module at Thames Valley University. I plan to update this blog on a regular basis.

Unfortunatley at this current time the '10 sec Club' website is closed for a few weeks due to a virus. Hopefully this won't affect students too much....

Regardless, my first task is to get some of my ideas on paper for Assignment 1/2 and post them up here.... hopefully the site won't be down for too long...

A brief explanation of the assignments are as follows:-

Assignment 1 (15%):

Presentation of character project proposal (Also submitted as a written pitch)

Hand-in: Hard copy 500 words, illustrated.

Hand-in to Tutor after presentation

Week 4

Assignment 2 (45%):

Portfolio of character studies and up to 30 secs of character animation

Hand-in: Portfolio and DVD of film.

(students must have given demo in weeks 10 or 11)

TC308.

Week 12

Assignment 3 (40%):

Finished published artefact and documentation of production process and submission procedure for venue, with proof of submission

Hand-in: 500 words, hard copy. 10-30 secs animation with sound.

TC308.

Week 14 (at latest – could be evidenced earlier)