Here are some screen shots of artwork I have created so far, theses are some of the objects that will be in my animation such as the compost bin with the lid separate so I can animate it to open and close. There is also the food waste, compost, shovel and the opening text. These have also already been stylised with my patterned elements and some gradation in the colour of the pattern.
These are the different poses of the main character I have drawn so far. In comparison to the objects and background she doesn't use any gradients, patterns or texture and is filled in with plain base colours and some minimal shading by using the same colours in a darker tone. I've done this as I want her to stand out and not become lost within the background and other animated elements.
Here I've taken a screen shot of a scene in my rough animation in after effect to serve as a sort of mock up depicting what the art direction should look like, combining the patterned elements and the simple colours of the character and the textured background.
Here are two videos showing the processes of how I draw and shade the characters and how I make my hand written font for the animation.
After getting a rough half of my animation done I turned to my peers and some people with experience in the industry for feedback on it and if there are any changes I should make so I could keep these points in mind when I carry on the rest of my finished animation so I won't have to make too many changes after I have finished it. This was the feedback I was given by some people.
It would be useful is some labels or annotation was added as to what the objects in the animation are 'food' 'compost' 'composting bin' etc as they are shown. Rather than the animation starting with a fact start the opening with a title of what the video is Add 'Did you know?' before stating the fact, change the wording of the fact slightly to make it shorter and give more information throughout the animation. Close the animation with an encouraging message to the viewers to enforce your idea and the purpose of the video. At the end give information on where you can go to start composting for example a website url otherwise the viewers will watch the animation and then be unsure of what to do next for example where to get a compost bin. A simple phrase saying 'Find more information at:' and then a web url should be enough to cover that.
List each thing/ object as an introduction in sync with the music before the actual animation is shown 'fruit' 'bin' 'waste' and then show the person/character interacting with those things. Cutting and editing needs to be choppier and in time with the beats of the music and have a faster pace. Animation style of 'paper cut outs' need to be consistent in the whole animation with the style of the art.
Flipping the flat artwork around to turn the character is not a particularly successful animation, instead have the character simply turn by appearing as facing the other way.
I went to research places where I could get royalty free sound effects for my animation and found a site called freesfx.co.uk in which you can search and download mp3 files for sound effects. Using this site I found some sound effects I want to use such as a popping sound water falling/ watering can sounds and sounds of dirt moving and being scattered. I think using sound effects in my animation can be quite effective as I'm not using a voice over in my animation and the only audio that exists for it so far is the backing track.
Here is the list of sound effects that I have saved that I may want to use later in my animation.
This is my initial story board sketch. A few changes have been made to the storyboard since I drew it out the it still follows the same basic concept and plot. The idea is that it will start out with the title of the animation and then go on to state some information. It will then go through with the animation with annotations listing items as the story going on. The depiction will consist of a female character throwing her food waste into a compost bin which then turns into compost. She then get's a shovel and picks up the compost throwing it onto some soil and then pulling out a bag of seeds and scattering them. The seeds will then grow into crops and it will then go to a screen with an encouraging message towards the viewers and some information on where to go to get started.
This is the animatic I put together using the sketch up of my storyboard and cutting it to go in time with the music I chose to have. I pitched my animatic along with my design ideas in my pitch and the feedback I was given was this.
"Your design process and decisions are clearly outlined in your pitch. You have given some clear pointers to your art direction decisions but a full mock-up of one of the screens of your storyboard would demonstrate it much more fully"
I think from this I am going to do a quick mock up of what my animation would look like in style and I will put this in my sketchbook I also decided in the end not to imitate or follow any of the art styles from artists I looked at and instead chose to just go with my usual style.
In my pitch I showed and explained my mind map for ideas on what topic to focus my animation on, I then gave some information, research and links to a website covering areas of my chosen topic. I also showed some of my own initial sketches of artwork and experimenting with different styles and what my final character design is. I explained my initial sketches of my story board before showing my animatic and my chosen colours and patterns for my animation and explained what object each pattern would be applied to.
As I was picturing my animation in my head a soundtrack I know from my childhood came to mind instantly and i could see it fitting together. Although I had a track in mind already I searched youtube for any other music choices I might be able to use if they fit better. I knew I wanted to use mostly an instrumental sound track rather than a song with vocals and lyrics and It felt more natural to me for my art style and animation, so I searched up music from some artists or series which I knew had instrumental music tracks.
I found this sound track from an old harvest moon game which I thought seemed like it would work really well for my animation as the melody follows a repetitive loop which works for a 20 - 30 second animation as well as the instruments being used sounds mostly like acoustic strings and guitars which to me felt very summery and country side like which goes with my idea of growing your own fruit and veg in your garden.
This is an instrumental track by Eric Lau which I really like as it's quite calm and tranquil. I didn't want to use a track that felt to over powering and energetic as I wanted my idea for my animation to feel more easy going and enjoyable rather than something that you would have to use energy to go out of your own way for. This track also has a steady beat and drum rhythm going throughout it which makes it easier for me to animate in sync with the music as I can change my scenes and angles on every other beat or so.
Here is the track I originally thought of which I wanted to go with my animation and after looking at some other music choices I have decided in the end that I will go with this one. My reason is because this track has that steady beat in it which i'm looking for so I can animate in sync with it but it also has a happy sounding melody in it which isn't too over powering either and still quite calm and steady paced. I feels summery and fun and the melody is quite catchy but it's not overly energetic sounding which is just what I want. I think it will suit my drawing style for my animation too as it is a bit of a cutesy and fun style with bright and earthy colours like green, brown and blue.
I then found an another track which is also from the animal crossing series which is featured in another game and uses a very similar kind of theme with it's instruments and the beat as well. It also still has that very happy sounding tune without sounding too over powering and is still quite mellow and calm. I may end up using this track but I will try and play around with both tracks and see which fits better for my animation.
Here is some screen shots of objects I have created for my self promotional poster I have made these items by drawing out the shapes and then using them as a clipping mask over a texture. Each of the items are a part of a representation of me and my interests and my creative tools. I have created these items using textures and colours and simple shapes influenced by Manoou's geometric and textured style on Behance.
These are also some quick sketches I did of two poses that I might want to draw myself in. I might do a combination of the two and use the body or just the legs angle of the 2nd photo with the face and maybe torso angle of the first photo.
