Beatboard
This was our beatboard, where we were trying to figure out a story with the words COMPETITIVENESS, OPERA and WRONG DOOR. Setting the story in a opera theater but still with human character, only later we changed them with animals.
References and first sketches of character design
As a style guide we had two illustrators for kids, Kevin Waldron and Delphine Durand. Later I've also looked for other references, for facial expressions and forms to find some inspiration.
In these first sketches I've drawn only the opera singer Francesca.
In these first sketches I've drawn only the opera singer Francesca.
Other images as references.
My first concept and sketches for Francesca.
Characters Design
Trying to develop two character with a graphic style for kids of 4-6 years old it has not been easy at all. Some times it was a bit frustrating, but keeping on and sharing our drawings with the other of the group helped me to find some solutions. And because we decided to draw them as animals we chose for a tiger and a parrot, with possible alternative like a crocodile.
Clean up of Evan
I wasn't responsible for the clean up of Evan using it later as reference for building a 3D model. However the design made by Daniel (the first one below) wasn't quite understandable to build a 3D model so we told him it had to be corrected and I would have done it, The colours were good, we liked them the only problem was about the proportion. Ironically after that, we had to do again the design of this character because it looked too human.
Storyboards
For the storyboard I did two different version for a specific scene. In the first one we see Evan going up through the lift. However animating that scene would have taken a lot of time and it would also be too much long for just one minute of animation short. For these reasons I did a second storyboard where Evan is behind the stage instead being under the stage. It has been chosen the second one, that has been redone by Shannon because I had to start modeling Francesca.
3D concept models of the tiger Francesca
Having some problems on figuring out 3D model of Francesca from the finished character design, I did a quick 3D model of her using the program Sculptris.
3D model of Francesca
Thanks to my small experiences on building a 3D model it wasn't too much difficult creating the 3D model of Francesca. However it took more time than I thought because of small constant changes on the model, like making the vest more circular, enlarge her belly, modifying her neck ecc. I didn't do the legs under the vest because they would be anyway covered by her dress, this also made it easier her animation movements. Another thing that I've changed was removing the 3D breads, because in the final model with the textures they really looked weird, especially for a kid's cartoon.
3D model of Francesca with texture
To apply the textures on Francesca I had to do the UV Mapping. Because we didn't have a workshop on how to create a proper UV Mapping in 3D Maya I had to look how doing it through internet tutorial and later asking some help to my teachers. While doing the model was manageable, I had to do the UV Mapping five/six times before it was enough good. It had been really stressful and frustrating, constantly checking if the colours on different parts combine each other or not. To increase the difficulty was the fact that we decided to draw and animate 2D facial expressions instead of creating a 3D mouth and 3D eyes taking inspiration for example from the cartoon JellyJamm, so I had to check every time if the eyes and mouth where put to a right position or not.
References for ideas about textures.
Textures used for the model.
Animation SHOT 3 & 10
I was responsible to animate four shots of the project, but I encountered some frustrating problems with the animation of the models and because we didn't have much time left before Christmas I animated only the shots 3 and 10 and after that I worked on the facial expressions to apply as textures, while the other two shots have been taken by my other group's members. Camera and light's setting have been done by Monika Lesiecka.
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Textures, facial expression and lip sync
I was responsible to do the textures of Francesca and the facial expressions of both characters. With Evan we noticed that in the animation was difficult to distinguish the face so after some experiments and suggestions, I removed the white on his face, changed the eyes from a circular to an elliptic shape and turned his eyebrows from red to black. Small changes have also been done with Francesca from the character design reference, giving more an idea of a texture gold on the plates and her helm, removing the white and black dots on the mouth, and the black line around all her eyes. With the help of Ian and some experience done with a MA short animation project, doing the lip sync had been enough easy to do.
Old textures
Lip sync in After Effect
Final textures on UV Map
Title and END, credits
Based on the last panel of the storyboard I did, I drew the title and end's credit with shapes that remind the musical notes. I chose to draw this style because all the story is set in a music theatre, and all the time has melodies, so I thought it was nice and appropriate. Later I also did the credits using the colours of the "The End" panel plus the background of the stage.