Set design for little red riding hood…

For my initial idea of set design the trees would have been warped, almost like a walk way specifically for little red riding hood to walk through. This may have been influenced by the tunnel connecting the two worlds in Coraline. I wanted the overall feel of the set to be dark and scary with lots of fog, creating an eery feel to the wood scenes. I played around with colours also, as you can see the image on the right has a more blue tinge to it. I feel like this makes the scene look colder and more dangerous. I wanted to keep the design of the trees simple and to make them look dead and decrepit, this to add to the sense of fear throughout the story.

After completing my first set design idea I decided that I wanted the woods to look more like it was never ending and completely surrounding her. I decided to draw the trees upright and placed randomly, as would be in a forrest. To create the never ending feel I put trees far into the distance, changing the colours to lighter and toning down the opacity. This gives the feel that she could easily get lost amongst the trees and adds a bit more mystery to the story. For my colour palette I decided to stick with dark and quite musky colours to fit the theme of the story. The trees again being simple and with no leaves, and also varying in different shades of grey to mimic distance. For the sky, I chose a dark purple as in many Tim Burton animations the sky is a colour not always representative of what the real life sky would be. I like this as it adds an element of magic within a fairytale. I then used a dark murky green for the ground as i though black would have been too harsh and brown may have blended in with the trees. To blend the sky with the ground i used a musky yellow as this gave the effect of fog which adds to the eery atmosphere. I think the yellow works well and I would like to stick with it throughout the woodland scenes.

I felt as though the above design needed a more atmospheric look. I thought the background (sky and ground) looked quite flat and needed more depth added. To do this i decided to add black to the very top and very bottom of the drawing. Once blended this mad it more clear that the story is set at night and gives a better feel for the type of story ahead. I then decided that I wanted to add more fog into different sections of the image. I. Wanted it to look as though the fog was seeping through the trees and surrounding her as she walks further into the forrest. I really like how this looked as i think it gives alot more dimension to the design, allowing you to visualise what it would look like once made for the stop motion animation.

For the grandmas house i wanted a simple small cottage design as this is in many version of the fairytale. I decided to give it a fenced off area as this, to me, gives a sense of security and safety, which is what you would usually associate with grandparents. However, this is purposely contradicting what happens in the story. She goes there with a false sense of security and is instead walking straight into danger. After designing the grandma, i decided to stick to the purple theme and create the cottage to stand out from its surroundings. I wanted the cottage to look inviting and light, to do this i also gave the cottage its own patch of grass which completely stands out from the forrest and darkness surrounding it. I like the way the cottage reflects the grandma eg being colourful and bright, just like in Coraline when the old ladies are very kind and inviting, but also at the same time being very eccentric and bold.

Kept this design dark and foggy to match the rest of the animation.i really liked how this turned out and will be using it for my final design

I wanted the bedroom to be dark so that the wolf could slowly be revealed through him coming into the one dim light of the room. This also added to the scary aspect of the animation as the danger is lurking in the darkness and LRRH Is completely unawear.

Little Red Riding Hood Character Design…

After doing some research into animation styles and short folk tales, I have decided to do ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ in the style of Tim Burtons ‘Coraline’.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD –

After doing some initial character designs I decided to us this decided to use this design as the final design for little red riding hood. I like this because it has some of the original characteristics of little red riding hood – eg the hood/cape and also her carrying a basket. Even though this design has some of the original traits for the story I have tried to put my own spin on it. I have made her more modern, like wearing jeans and trainers. I also decided that I wanted to change her ethnicity for the original tale. I did this because in many fairytale stories, the characters are traditionally white/Caucasian. I thought that making her race different and having her with a black ethnicity would allow the story to be more inclusive and may even encourage further the use of different ethnicities within animation.

I wanted to keep the colour theme dark as this would fit the aesthetic of the animation. The story is supposed to be scary and tense, to portray this I created the characters to match this through the use of clothing and accessories. I kept the original idea of her having a red cape of as this would stand out in comparison with the backgrounds. I gave her features that many black people have such as her hair. Her hair, I decided, should be in the style as an afro, this allowing her ethnicity to come through and show that it is something to be proud of. For small pops of colour I decided to give her yellow hair clips and yellow shoes. This contrasts against the rest of the dark colours and in some ways shows her innocence and youth.

Because I knew that she would have to be viewed from different angles, I decided to design all of her. I did front, back and side view, just to get an idea of how these angles should look prior to animating.

THE HUNTSMAN –

GRANDMA –

Initial character designs…

This was my first design for little red riding hood. I had the idea of her being quite sassy and to look older and tougher than she really is. I wanted her to have long hair which could be interesting when animating to show wind/body movement of that scene. I wanted this character in particular to be wearing trousers, as in many fairytales the main female character is dressed in skirts or dresses which sometimes seems to hinder their fighting skills. I wanted to stick to the red theme of the cape, but instead of it being the conventional red cape I wanted to see how a coat would look instead. Throughout all of my character design I kept to a similar style to Tim Burton as he was my main inspiration for this preproduction. Keeping features such as big eyes, thin body, big head and small nose and mouth. Once finished I realised I didnt really like this design as I thought she didnt look how i would have imagined her. I think she looks quite aggressive, however in the story she comes across quite shy and child like.

Again, sticking to the Time Burton theme, i kept this designs body quite thin with big eyes and small facial features. However, tried to see how she would look with a different shaped head. Tim Burton uses unrealistic shapes and sizes for his characters heads and bodies, I wanted to incorporate this technique into my own designs where possible. Because I didnt like the coat idea in the last design i decided to go back to the original story and have her wearing a red cape. I wanted her to have a different spin on this though, so designed her with the hood down and her whole head exposed. I liked the idea of having contrasting colours within her clothing as it would show a childlike side and a quirky side to her. For this i decided to use bright yellow for her top as this added a vibrancy to the outfit, in comparison with the rest of the dark outfit. Again, I liked the thought of her wearing trousers, so designed her wearing dark blue jeans. From the last design, i liked the long hair feature so wanted to keep it for this design. I decided to put her hair in plaits just to try a different style of long hair from the previous design. I honestly wasn’t very keen on this design as i thought her head was completely the wrong shape and would defiantly use a different head shape for her in future designs.

For this design I wanted her to be different, style wise, to the other designs. I noticed that in many fairytale stories, the characters are typically have a white ethnicity and long flowing hair. I wanted to try and break this stereotype by bringing different ethnicities into my work. I really like this idea and think I would like to use her in my final design. I also wanted to make her hair completely different to the previous designs, I decided to stick with her ethnicity and give her afro hair, something I feel show be celebrated and shown more in fairytales. I kept the red cape but this time tried it with the hood up instead of down. I liked how this looked as it felt more true to the original story. Again i had her wearing trousers and a different coloured top. However thought the previous design had too much contrast and bright colours, so toned that down for this design. Because none of the previous designs were carrying a basket (which in the original story she was), i designed her with a basket which she would be taking to her grandmas. I liked this small feature as it gives a sense of purpose as to why she is in the woods in the first place. I made her head much smaller and more narrow than the previous design and think this works much better. I also made her eyes slightly bigger and more round than the previous designs, I decided I preferred this much more. I still gave her the Tim Burton features such as small legs and arms and smaller/ pointier facial features. Overall, i really liked this design and would probably use this for my final character.

For this design I wanted to see what she would look like if I based her off of Coraline herself. Even though I really liked this design, I felt as though it was too close to the character of Coraline eg her face shape/ body shape. I did however change her hair which I really liked, it looks flowy and as realistic as this style allows – and as though it would be nice to animate. I again, decided to keep her in the cape and jeans which contrast each other. I feel as though I would still prefer to use the previous design as I feel as it good idea to move the characters away from the original characters from the story, to really make it my own.

For this design of the woodsman I decided to look at another character from Tim Burton. I tool inspiration from the Corpse Bride’s ‘Victor’. The aspects I took from this character were his big eyes and narrow face. Also keeping his narrow facial features. Keeping with Tim Burtons style I made the woodsman have a small body frame. I gave him laid back clothing, which is opposite to Victor, however I wasn’t very keen on this. I decided not to go with this design as it wasn’t how I envisioned the woodsman to look. He looked to ‘polished’ and didn’t really look like he would have been working in a manual labour job.

I really liked this character design. I based him off of ‘Mr Bobinski’ from Coraline. He is an older man with an incredibly large belly and very thin limbs. His appearance is very ‘out of the ordinary’ which is what originally drew me to him. I thought he fits the stereotype of a ‘woodsman’ in comparison to the last design. I have him plain clothing which was quite scruffy, trying to give the impression that he has been working inside. I kept with Tim Burtons style and gave him an unproportionate head, however, experimenting with giving him smaller eyes. I liked how this looked.

I then went back to the first design to see if small changes would make him suit the role more. I changed his clothes into more appropriate work clothes. I really liked the outfit and would probably keep this for my final design. I then gave him different hair and more facial hair, I really liked how this character turned out, however, still didn’t think it was right for the role, so I moved away from it.

For my final design, I based this character on ‘Wybie’ from Coraline. Wybie has a larger head which I incorporated in this character. I also made his facial features (especially eyes) smaller as I don’t think the previous big eyes work very well. I kept a few features from the last character such as his clothes and hair. I would like to take this design further and use it as my final woodsman design.

For the grandma I decided to look at the women characters in Coraline. Firstly I looked at the ‘mother and the other mother’ from the film. I took inspiration from her size and shape and also her facial features. I decided to change her clothes to suit and ‘older’ person, I gave her pyjama-like trousers and a sleep jacket, with slippers. I also gave her glasses to add to her. I tried her with medium dark hair, however I think this made her look too young and I decided to change this.

I changed her hair, changing to match her clothing colour, I much preferred this. I also decided to see what she would look like if I made her slightly wider. I think I prefer he being slightly lager. I also darkened her skin as she is related to Little Red Riding Hood, whose final design has dark skin.

Even though I liked the previous design, I decided to look at another character from Coraline. I used one of the old ladies from the Pink Palace as inspiration for this character. I think this character worked slightly better as the inspiration character was already of ‘grandma age’. I also decided to change her clothes to even more stereotypical ‘grandma’ clothes. I much preferred this design and would defiantly use this for the final design.

For the wolf I again used inspiration from one of Tim Burtons designs. I really liked how this design turned out. I think it embodies what I want to portray within the wolfs character. I want him to be scary and look over everybody in an almost patronising way. I like how he is on two legs, almost giving him human characteristics. His arms look as though he is about to swipe somebody up. I gave him large death to add the danger aspect to him, and I almost gave him a long tongue and made him drooling, as though he is ready to eat someone.

I kept the overall design the same, however changed his colour from black to grey. I di this so his outlines would be noticeable and makes it easy to see features such as his arms and ears and outline of the fur. I much prefer this version of the design. I also kept his yellow eyes as they can stand out as he looms in the darkness.

INSPIRATION IMAGES –

STOP MOTION PUPPET – RESEARCH –

Little Red Riding hood will be a stop motion animation, meaning I would need to create physical models of the characters. This video was helpful as I didn’t really know much about making thee puppets before watching it. This video gives you an idea of what materials you would need for each puppets and how to create them. Because I want my animation to be free flowing/including realistic movements, I would need to either buy an armature with pre-made joints (to give each character fluid movements). OR i would need to create my own armature from the model wire and create joints by adding putty to the joints, giving the armature moveable limbs and separate bones. It was also helpful as it gave cheap alternatives that you could use (useful for making my LRRH animation as I wouldn’t have the funding from a company behind me).

https://www.animationsupplies.net/armatures.html – this is a link to a store which sells a variety of animation supplies. I was particularly interested in the armatures they sell. Because LRRH is going to be stop motion and the characters will need to be made from armatures, this was handy to see the different types of armatures which are available and at what prices.

Scrip and initial ideas for ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ …

For my first preproduction I decided I would like to base my animation off of Little Red Riding Hood. This is a well known fairytale which sends a very real message out to children, the message being to not talk to strangers. For my script I will be using Charles Perrault’s version of the tale. I want this animation to become a ‘short’ meaning it will only be a few minutes long. However, I have decided to change this script so it is more ‘straight to the point’.

The animation will start from when Little Red Riding Hood is already in the woods and walking. After a while, she will encounter the wolf and have a short conversation, and will become scared. As she continues, she will see her grandmas house and enter. Once inside she will once again encounter the wolf who is pretending to be her grandma. They will have a conversation and it will soon come to the girls attention that her ‘grandma’ isnt actually her grandma. As the wolf decides to try and eat the girl she will scream, alerting the attention of the woodsman, who leaves his work to help the girl. In Perrault’s version, the wolf eats the girl, however, in my version the woodman will get to the house on time to stop the wolf. Once the woodsman has stopped the wolf, the wold jumps out of the window, leaving the girl to fall to the floor. Also in the Perraults version, the wolf has eaten the grandma, however in my version the grandma has been locked in the wardrobe and once all the commotion has ended, they hear the grandma and end up freeing her.

For this story I have decided that stop-motion would be the best and most effective animation technique. This meaning that the characters would all be models made from armatures allowing them to be 3D. I think that the background would be some what flat, with some of the surrounding objects also being 3D models so the characters can fit in with the set. I really like Tim burton’s style of animation and would want to look further into his work. I feel that Tim Burton’s style would work well for this script as he mainly does ‘scary’ animations, and the script i am using could be seen as scary.

Pre Production Research…

To start off this module I decided to start researching the behind the scenes of animated videos/ movies, to try and get an idea of what is involved when going through the pre production stage. I did this as I wasn’t entirely sure about what pre production was.

I looked at this Coraline behind the scenes first as Coraline is one of my favourite stop motion films. I was really interested in how the film was made, especially how the set was designed and created. I found this video really helpful as it allowed me to see how many different aspects to pre production there are, on a scale this large. For example, set design/creation, character design, model making, rigging/ mechanics behind the props, costume design, etc. For me, this opened up more possibilities for how to create/ what to think about for creating future animations. I want to use this approach for my first preproduction of Little Red Riding Hood as I think stop motion would give it a sense of reality and add to the scariness of the story. I will also use the Tim Burton style in my preproduction as I think his style intensifies the horror aspect of the stories, and also to give me good starting point to plan for my animation. I like the use of sound in the final film to this bts – it adds suspense to the film, making the viewer feel on edge from the beginning. This sound track is also accompanied by spoken words to tell the story (each character talking throughout). For Little Red Riding Hood, I will be using this approach as I feel as though the tense music would add to the scariness of the film, but also I think it needs spoken language too.

I chose to look at the pre production of this animation because I was interested in the hand drawn element of the animation. I’m really interested in hand drawn and digital animations, this includes the best of both worlds and I would like to explore it further. This video was really helpful as it demonstrated the roles of background design, character design, layout production (which is something I would like to learn about), and the programmes used to create the animation. They start off with 2D images and create them into 3D animation, this is something I would potentially like to explore further. It was helpful to see the finished animation and then be able to see the preproduction that had gone into it. I think in my preproduction’s I would prefer to combine drawn animation with stop motion as it gives a more realistic quality to the story.

I like the idea of creating an animated music video. I was interested in this one because of how stunning the animation is and how much charm it has. This video also has behind the scenes within it, this was helpful to see how the animation was created, next the final animation. I really liked mixture of hand drawn animation and stop motion animation. The characters are flat images but are animated to look like 3D objects – I find this method fascinating and would like use it for my penguin animation. The set design really took my attention, most of the set were physical and hand made models, made to look like a real forest, things like trees, the ground and even the presents at the end of the animation. I like the idea of creating a stop motion animation using flat images/illustrations (similar to this animation). This could be a good approach to my second preproduction (penguin). I also like the use of music for this animation, it is allowing you to feel emotion without any narrative. I have decided that I will use this method for my penguin animation, however may not include vocals on to my sound track as I feel as though the example animation above was animated specifically for that song, whereas mine is being animated to tell a story, and the sound track would be made to fit this.

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