Sound is often recorded separately from a film or animation. A foley artist will use common objects to replicate sounds which would typically be found in each scene. Whilst watching the visuals, the artist will match the sounds with where they should be, this creating a foley track. I decided to research how artists will create these tracks and also what kind of objects they might use. I found a few ‘how to’ videos which, if I were making a foley track, would like to take inspiration from.
The two above videos would be helpful when creating the LRRH animation as there will need to be background sounds to go with the spoken parts. – Things such as trees swaying, twigs breaking as someone steps on, footsteps, doors opening, floor boards creaking, material moving, window smashing, woodsman using his axe, wind, breathing, knocking (on wardrobe door) etc. These small sounds make the animation become more genuine, and also add tension to the scene (eg not knowing where the twigs are breaking from – eg wolf sneaking up on her) (also her creaking the door open to add suspense). Having these sounds can add to the eerie feeling to the animation – this being important in my LRRH film to add to the scary atmosphere of the story. These above videos were really helpful in allowing me to see how I could make some of these sounds could be made and what kind of objects could be used to make them sound realistic, for my final animation. I think adding a foley soundtrack to the LRRH animation would add more depth into each scene – also in Coraline, it is clear to hear that a foley track has been created for the film – this also influencing me to use one with in my LRRH animation..
Due to isolation I don’t have the access to any sound recording equipment/ a suitable place to record. However, for animation lab we created a small foley track for the silent animation shown above. This exercise was very interesting and educational. It was fascinating to create sound from normal objects e.g belts, chairs, water bottles, forks and even using my voice for certain parts. We used a small voice recorder and just played around with what sounds each object was capable of creating and then adding them to the film using Premier Pro. In the future I would like to experiment with a wider variety of sounds and try animating for different types of films. Having this practice will help me when creating my foley track for the Little Red Riding Hood animation, as I started to get a feel for how to create certain sounds which may be helpful in LRRH. Creating something like this would be important in my animation as many of the sounds will add to the atmosphere of the animation. It could be used to add suspense and fear to the overall LRRH story.
This is a really nice example of how foley is used within animation. Any sound that you would normally hear is created using objects which can mimic those sounds. For example – Metal on metal, door closing, footsteps, bed springs, mugs clinking etc. I think that using a foley track as detailed as this would work really well with my LRRH animation as it will make the movements feel more authentic with in the animation and will make the animation more intriguing for the audience. I looked at this particular video as I thought it was important to see how foley is used, specifically in animation, which will in turn help me when creating a foley track for my Little Red Riding Hood animation. This example video also gave a good indication to what kind of sounds need foley – even the smallest of sounds eg clothes rustling and floorboards creaking are really important to the overall sound/feel of the animation.
For my penguin animation, I have taken alot of inspiration from The Snowman, from the design to the sound. What I really like in this animation is the absence of spoken language and instead using an instrumental track throughout the entire film. This is how I would like to do the sound on my penguin animation as I think emotions can be more intense when shown through music, rather than spoken dialogue. In The Snowman, the main instruments used are wind instruments such as flutes, clarinets and trumpets – with the occasional piano. For the happy parts of the film, flutes are played lightly and are typically higher in pitch, this making the happy or excited moments noticeable, to intensify this, trumpets are also used. To show apprehension and fear, deeper instruments are used such as clarinets (eg throwing snowball at window and being told off). These deeper sounds are also used in the film to portray his sadness. This is a running theme through the animation which makes the viewer familiar with the sound standing for sadness. Near the middle, violins accompany the flutes which add to the happy and jolly atmosphere of these scenes. To show the peak in the story, a collection of wind instruments are played loudly, creating an intensity of emotion at this point. Instead of using a foley track, things like turning on the light switch are shown through instruments such as a xylophone with everything else in that moment being silent. This almost adds a humour aspect to the scene. – I think this would be a good way to add sound to my penguin animation.
I think this approach could work well with the penguin animation as there is going to be many changes of emotion during the story (like the snowman) and I think that having an instrumental track will emphasise these emotions clearly. For example, when the baby penguin leaves the house and is excited to meet new people, higher pitched and more ‘hoppy’ music could be played in order to match his upbeat mood. When he becomes intimidated by the amount of other penguins, the music could be slower and have more suspense in it, probably played with deeper instruments. As he starts to get bullied by the other penguins, the music could become louder, quicker and overall more intense (like what happens in the snowman), then slowing down when he has walked away and is sad and alone. The music could then come back to a happy and lighter sounding tune as he bumps into his new friend who accepts him. I think creating a track similar to what i have just described will really help to portray the baby penguins emotions. – Also, the penguin animation is going to be very delicate in its design, so I feel as though having the charming sounds of instruments only, will compliment the style of animation.
Stephanie Ciccarelli – Producing an Animation – jobs within animation –
This page was really helpful in allowing me to see the vast amount of jobs that go into producing an animation. Knowing how many jobs roles are usually needed within the production will help you to budget for a film and what to spend money on. It was particularly helpful for me to get an idea of what kind of job roles i would need for my low-budget, short film – Little Red Riding Hood. It highlights many of the main important job roles that I would need to fill in order to make my Little Red Riding Hood animation. ^^^^^^^^^^
Category: Staff Fees
Producer – would be needed in the producing part of the animation (I would hire someone to do this as producing isn’t something I have experience in).
Director – I would be the director of my LRRH animation as I know how I want the overall animation to look
Other Roles – I might hire an assistant director in order to help me make decisions for the animation
Category: Storyboard
Supervisor
Artist – I would also be interested in being the storyboard artist for my LRRH animation, as again, I know how I would like my animation to look – being a storyboard artist is also something I am very interested in – this would defiantly be needed for my LRRH animation.
Supplies & Materials
Other Storyboard
Category: Audio
Song Fees/Rights/Copyright
Coaching
Production – I would need to hire someone to produce the background music for my LRRH animation as I wouldn’t be able to do this.
Musicians – I would need to hire some sort of musicians in order to create the sound track for my animation.
I would need a foley artist/artists to create the foley track – I would like to get involved with this process as I am also interested in this – however, might not have time to do this if I am director too
I will also need voice actors as in Little Red Riding Hood, there will be dialogue between the two main characters
Instruments
Rentals – If the musicians didn’t have their own instruments, its possible that I would have to rent a studio/instruments in order to create the sound track.
Session Fees –
Travel and Accommodation
Category: Animation Direction
Editor – I will need an editor as this isn’t something I have much experience in, I would like to hire someone who can make the film look as professional as possible – also someone who could edit the whole thing as LRRH will only be a short.
Assistant Editor
Dialogue Editor
Editing Equipement
Supplies and Materials – will need to hire SET DESIGN AND CHARACTER/ MODEL DESIGN ARTISTS – i will need to pay for material needed in order to create the set and the models as LRRH will be a stop motion short animation
I WILL ALSO NEED ANIMATORS – this is something I am interested in – I would need a small team of animators to animate the set, eg, trees moving from the wind, doors opening etc. Also someone/a small group of animators to animate the characters, eg, characters movements, movement of clothes etc.
Overtime
Travel & Accommodation
Other Fees:
^^^^^^^^^^^^
some more important information that i gained from the mentioned above page – these are things i will also need to take into consideration when planning and creating my Little Red Riding Hood animation –
Discover Who Your Audience is for Your Animation – For my Little Red Riding Hood animation, my target audience would be around 12plus, as it would be classed as a scary film – having it targeted to this audience means they won’t become too scared by it and are the more likely age group to want to see it/ and be able to see it.
Select a Subject for Your Animation – selecting a subject is important – I opted for using an old fairytale story which many people would know and be familiar with. Little Red Riding Hood.
Create an Animation Budget – I would have to figure out how much I could realistically spend on this animation – depending on how much money there was, would determine what roles I would keep and which roles I would have to get rid of, during the preproduction/animation process.
Account for the Amount of Time to Produce an Animation – I would need to create a schedule for the production of my animation. For example, giving a specific time period on all of the specific roles such as set and character design and production, the storyboard production, animating process etc. Having a clear schedule would make it clear to everyone how long they have on their section and when they would need it completed by – this allowing me to stick the finishing deadline.
Audience – 12plus
Message – the animation needs a clear message – for LRRH the message is you shouldn’t talk to strangers and to always make sure you’re safe when walking alone – having my animation made into a short will hopefully ensure that this message is given clearly and wouldn’t be too long so that the audience wouldn’t lose interest
Storyboard – would need a clear storyboard which indicates camera angles and character movements – also to indicate light and dark scenes – this making it clear to the animator on how they should be animating a scene
Resources and approvals – would need to ensure that all resources are accounted for in order to make the animating/ creation process go as smooth as possible.
Schedule – this is vital when planning an animation – I would probably be in charge of creating these schedules as this would be my responsibility.
Studio Pigeon – How much does it cost to Produce Animation and why?
This source didn’t have much information, but there was a small bit of information which may come in handy in the future. Because I am wanting to produce a 3D stop motion short animation, it was interesting to learn that, 3D animation production costs alot more than producing a 2D animation. From this article, the cheapest it could be is 10,000USD – per minute with no characters. This obviously wouldn’t work for my animation as there are characters in Little Red Riding Hood, and the animation couldn’t work without them. Some animations can cost up to 200,000USD – these are for more complex projects with multiple characters and advanced features. Even though this would be good for the making of LRRH, this would be a difficult amount of money to come up with on my own, so, I would probably need investments from an animation company.
This source wasn’t very helpful to me when trying to research the budgeting for a stop motion film. It reiterated that 3D animation is much more expensive than 2D, but didn’t specify a price for the kind of animation I would be created.
For my initial set design idea I decided to do some rough designs of an igloo – this to go with the Antarctic aesthetic. I liked the idea of having the penguins living in igloos, this stems from the child’s show ‘Pingu’. I wanted to keep everything, but the characters, neutral/ pale colours – 1. to keep to the design close to how an actual igloo would look (eg. white and blended into the background), and 2. to make sure thee characters stand out and for no attention to be taken away from them by the background. I also duplicated the image to have a rough idea of how it would look in the actual animation (a town of penguins).I then took the igloo design and placed it on a larger scale background. the background I decided to use was a sort of ‘ice cliff’ which was enclosed by ice wall, with only a small gap to get out of. I wasn’t keen on this design as think the concept of it looks to unnatural and almost claustrophobic. I would prefer the background to be more open and realistic. SKETCH OF NEXT LANDSCAPE ^
Not only did I take inspiration from ‘The Snowman’ for my character design, but I would also like to take inspiration from it for more se design. I really like how soft and naïve this style it. I will be taking some aspects of this design and placing it within in my own penguin animation design. For example, I will be taking the subtle colours within the background eg white and different shades of blue. I also like how the textures of the pencils/brushes that have been used in this design, I will also take this and apply it to my designs, by making sure to leave the texture there. I also think this will give it a much more hand drawn feel. I think this style will work really well for my penguin animation as I want it to possess lots of emotion which the audience would be able to connect with. (I think the snowman does this really well, which is why I have taken inspiration from it). I also like the subtle colours which appear soft, I have decided to use this in my penguin animation design as I think it fits the theme really well. For this design, I kept the idea off an ice cliff, however, created it much more open space and realistic. I added hills/mountains in the far background to allow the image to have depth to it. I also added the sea as a big part of the scenery, again to add layers to the image and to try and embody what the real landscape would look like. I really like the subtle colours in the design, it almost gives a soft effect to it. I stuck to different types of blue for this image as it wouldn’t allow the characters to blend into it. As a final touch I decided to add a setting/rising sun in the sky, giving it a bright orange glow to it. Because of this, I added sweeps of orange on all of the places where the sun would naturally hit in the image, remembering to add the orange highlights to the clouds. I think adding this ties the whole image together, connecting the sky to the land. I also kept some of the textures in the design, from the brushes used, this inspired by the Snowman’s design. I really like this effect. Keeping the same landscape I then added a few igloos to see how the animation could potentially look. Again, I kept the igloos grey/blue so it was obvious that the were made out of snow. I made some of the igloos smaller to make them look as thought hey were further away, this giving the scene even more depth.I then added a few tiny images of the penguin designs I had already completed to add life the design. This gave me a feel of how realistic my characters need to be, as a more cartoon version of the penguins wouldn’t have fitted with the landscape theme. From this, I decided that the more realistic penguin designs that I have created would go well with the background style. I really like how this idea has turned out as it still has a ‘dreamy like’ effect over it.
To plan for perspective of this animation, I decided to draw the above design from far away and slightly above. This gives an indication as to the actual shape of the land and could also be helpful for far away shots which may occur in the animation. I then added the igloos and penguins to see how they would look from this angle too. Just to test out what whether the animation should involve, I decided to take the design and add a snow storm to it. For this I also made the sky slightly darker. However, I decided against this design as I feel it would be too distracting from the actual animation. I also got this idea of the snow from the Snowman also, however, I don’t think it works as well for my design style. I wanted to see what the scene would look like with snow in the foreground (like in the snowman), however, thought this may make it difficult to see or focus on the animation, so i decided against it. I then decided to design a less rough igloo. I kept the colour palette to blue and white. However, I didn’t really like this design as it looks ‘too fake’ in comparison to the landscape and character design. It also ended up having a some what ‘glowy’ effect to it which I also didn’t really like. I much preferred the last igloo design I did . Moving away from igloos, I decided to experiment with a house/ log cabin design. I thought this might be a different approach to how most animations involving penguin habitats would look like. I decided to place the house in deep snow, with the idea of the baby penguin trudging through it, to show his size. I also gave the house a quirky shape so that the overall mixing of the penguins and the houses wouldn’t look too odd. I quite like the outcome of this design and would possibly use it for the animation.
I decided that I needed to use reference picture of real life penguins in order to get my designs correct, for example, shape and form of the penguins. I also wanted to use reference pictures to be able to study the penguins movements, this was a helpful practice.
after looking at these photos I did a few digital sketches on my ipad of realistic penguins. This allowed me to get a feel for drawing penguins and also capturing some of their movements and traits. I focused mainly on the penguin chicks in my sketches as that is the main character in the story, however did do some observational drawings of the adult penguins too. I really like how these sketches turned out, I like the softness of the drawings and the penguins personal characters come through. I decided to keep the sketches black and white, with only a small amount of orange on the adults. I liked this outcome as the sketches came out tonal and emotive.
After doing these sketches and liking the outcome, I decided to look for some drawn animations which had a similar feel to them. I came across the snowman which I feel has the same qualities as my sketches. Both styles look very soft and almost childlike. I really liked the design of the snowman as you can clearly see the pencil outlines which add to the hand drawn feel. I would like my final designs to have this certain quality. I also really like the dull colours used within this animation, it adds to the softness and ties everything together. However, this pops of bright colours eg orange add a nice vibrancy to the animation, almost bring some life into it.
After doing these first initial sketches I decided to try out other styles of design to give me more variety to chose from for my final designs.
For the above designs I decided to simplify to drawing, adding less shading and more block colours into the design. I feel as though this gave the penguins more of a clean cut appearance, whilst also giving them a soft looking texture. I also included the clear outlines as noted in the previous designs, I liked this effect. I imagined the penguins wearing different clothing items eg jumper, scarf, mittens and ear warmers. I liked the idea of having the penguins possess some human qualities so that children may connect more with the characters. However, I wasn’t as keen on this design as I feel it got rid of a certain charm that the first lots of designs had. I feel as though these designs would make the animation lose its emotion and effect. – I think using the more realistic drawings would fit more with the animation.
Due to my ipad breaking during this lockdown I can’t expand on these designs. However, if I had my ipad I would have developed the first set of designs further, to make them more suitable for the style of animation. I would like to add clothing to the penguins to try and bring a more fun and child-like quality to the story. Also if I did this I would be able to decide a name on the main baby penguin, which I would then use in the title.
For my second pre production I will be using this short clip as my script with a few added changes to the story (especially the ending). I was originally going to base this animation around global warming and its effects on Antarctic animals – however after looking at documentaries about this I decided I would like to do something a little more light hearted. This clip gave me the best of both worlds, Antarctic animals and light hearted content. The story will follow the baby penguin closely as he will be the main character.
My idea for this animation, after doing some initial animation research, is for the final product to be a digitally hand drawn animation. the story will start with the mother/father penguin getting the baby penguin ready and prepared to leave the nest and go and explore his surroundings. On his travels he struggle through the ics and snow and pass many penguins on his way. He will then arrive at a place where all the baby penguins meet together and become friends. As the baby penguin approaches the other babies , his noticeable height difference becomes clear and you will see the other baby penguins looking and whispering about him. As he tries to make friends he get picked on and push/ shoved. He becomes sad and walks away from all of the baby penguins. However, as he is on his own outside of the group, another baby penguin, who is extremely tall, bumps into the small baby penguin. They are both sad about being picked on and decided to play a game together. They then become friends.
My script video ends with the baby penguin been alone and doesn’t really end in a happy way. However, I imagine this animation to be for children so wanted to alter the script to have a meaningful message and a happy ending. The meaningful message, i see the animation having is, that all differences are okay and even if some people don’t accept them, other people will and that you’re never alone in how you’re feeling. Also I want this animation to have the message of how bullying makes people feel and how it can look from the ‘bullied’ perspective.
my script video ^
In my animation I will defiantly be closing in on his size compared to the other baby penguins – maybe being quite drastic. Making him look vulnerable and weaker than the others.
some examples of hand drawn animation styles –
The two above animation’s we a good source of reference for what a rough hand drawn animation can look like. They were both very fluid in movement and because they were just outlines, they allowed you to see more of the mechanics behind the animation, for example, how the animals should move etc. However, I wouldn’t use this style as I don’t think it would work very well with the story I would be animating and I think these types of animation can sometimes look boring and or rushed. As my penguin animation is going to be hand drawn, these were good examples of how I could create ‘test animations’ to figure out the movements of the penguins – however, I would want my finished penguin animation to be less sketchy looking and full of colour.
I much preferred this drawn animation as I looks as though a lot of time has gone into it. I like the use of colours (especially the pastel colours, which I would like to use in my animation). I also like the ‘not too polished’ look to the colouring in part, I would like to include this in my designs for my penguin animation as I think it adds more charm to the hand drawn appeal, keeping the animation looking simple also. From this animation, I also like the use of thin dark lines to outline everything. I think using subtle dark lines would work well in my penguin animation so that everything in the scenes will stand out and not all merge into one.
After considering the hand drawn aspect of animation, I was still drawn to the Lily Allen music video including the drawn and stop motion aspect of animation. I think this could work really well for this particular animation.
I like the idea of the penguins in my animation being drawn and printed out (like in the above video), but having most of the things around them as being physical objects. I think there’s something quite magical and touching in the example video, something I would like to bring to my penguin animation. I think having the penguins as individually drawn puppets will give them more flowing movements and will also allow them to portray more emotion (instead of reusing some of the drawings, every single drawing would be slightly different). I sometimes feel that some stop motion only films lack the raw emotion that you can find in drawn animation. I would defiantly like to experiment with this particular style for this preproduction.
Before creating my storyboard I looked at few ‘how to’ videos, as I had never really made a real animation storyboard. I wasn’t very sure how detailed the storyboard needed to be and also how many different frames you would need for each key scene/movement. Watching tutorials on this helped me to gain a better understanding of this process.
I also made a storyboard Pinterest page so I could get some inspiration for what type of storyboard to create. A lot of the examples I found were pretty simple drawings which I didn’t really like. However, I found some more detailed examples which I think give a feel for the mood of the final animation. I have decided that I am going to try this more detailed approach when creating my storyboard, showing the overall atmosphere of my story. – eg dark and scary.
MY STORYBOARD –
1 – camera angled up at trees – dark colours, dusk time of day
2 – camera starts to pan down as though someone is looking down , gets darker and foggy
3 – camera pans down to behind girl as she is walking – foggy and dark
4 – she gets further away, camera starts to pan round to her left
5 – camera pans round to her front (wide shot), she seems happy
6 – camera slowly zooms in on her face as she hears a noise
7 – hears the wolfs voice, she starts to look worried and stops
8 – silhouette of wolf appears from behind tree, girl turns head
9 – camera zooms closer to her as she speaks, focusing on her cold breath as she speaks
10 – camera starts to zoom back out as wolf speaks, around them is very foggy
11 – midshot, she looks worried and cautious, starts to walk
12 – camera starts to focus on the trees behind, looks asthough she is walking into the camera
13 – girl out of shot, camera zooming in into the trees
14 – jump cut to girl looking/ approaching the cottage, close shot of her
15 – camera follows, she walks slowly to house
16 – close up of her hand on the door and it starting to open
17 – midshot of the corridor with the door almost fully open – she calls to grandma
18 – camera switches to front view of girl, door closes behind her, she gets called into the bedroom, looks suspicious
19 – camera switches back to behind her, walking towards the door, taking hood down
20 – creeks door open, more light seeps through. Shes hesitant.
21 – overview shot of the dark room from behind the girl, silhouette of wolf seen in bed
22 – she walks in and sits down, camera zooms in slightly deeper into the room
23 – same camera angle. Wolf blinks and eyes glimmer in the darkness
24 – cut to close up of girl speaking, she looks shocked
25 – cuts back, however is slightly closer to the two of them, wolf speaks
26 – same angle. Wolf moves head slightly and his ears catch the light
27 – cuts back to close up of the gils looking even more confused and shocked , she speaks
28 – same angle as 26 but slightly more zoomed in. Wolf speaks.
29 – zooms in slightly more. Wolf sits up and moves to side of the bed and smiles. Teeth shine in the light. Girl speaks
30 – wolf stands and emerges into the light, wolf speaks. Girl looks scared and tries to move backwards
31 – camera zoom closer to the two of them. Girl screams as wolf gets closer
32 – screen dark, camera zooms out from aa extreme close up of the axe hitting wood, zooms out further to see the woodman. Hears the faint screams and stops his work
33 – man starts to follow the sound of the screams. Walks past left side of camera
34 – quick shot of the woods as the man has left
35 – midshot, man sees house and hears more screams
36 – same angle, man runs towards the house
37 – close up of man trying to push open the jammed door. Hear him struggling
38 – he budges the door open and camera follows/ travels with him running towards the bedroom
39 – swings open door. Semi close shot of wolf trying to eat girl. Man is out of focus close infront of camera
40 – camera closes in on the wolf and girl, man out of shot. Wolf sees the axe and drops girl
41 – same angle. girl falls to the ground as wolf starts to jump out of the window.
42 – camera starts to zoom back out slowly and see girl fully on the floor.
43 – wolf is fully gone. Man drops axe and runs to the girl. Camera closes in on them
44 – camera still closed in on them, girl and man stare at eachother in disbelieve and relief. Man makes sure she is okay
45 – both hear knocking, camera moves back and starts to pan to the left
46 – girl cautiously walks towards the wardrobe, camera panning with her movements
47 – girl opens wardrobe doors and grandma bulges out
48 – grandma out of wardrobe, girl hugs her, all look happy. Camera starts to pan back to centre
49 – camera pans slightly to the right and starts to zoom in on the broken window. Goes straight past the man
50 – camera continues to zoom to the outside. Final shot of the woods and then into darkness
For my storyboard I took the advice from the videos and Pinterest pages and decided to keep a grey and black colour palette. I used dark grey to shading and overall darkness. I used black to outline everything within each image, this to make each object stand out. I then used light grey for everything else. I liked this way of drawing as it make the story look tonal whilst also keeping it simple. In a few of the images where a lightbulb is present within the image, to show this I just a faint yellow/orange colour. This allowed me to create highlights and made it easy to differentiate between man made light and natural light.
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.
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 –
After designing the huntsman in this way, I decided that is was too similar to the character ‘Wybie’ from Coraline. His hair and clothes were very similar in particular, so I decided I wanted to move away from this look. However I do like his face and shoes and his baggy style of clothing, I will probably keep these in my future design. I also like that he is carrying an axe, this would help him fight off the wolf towards the end of the animation, this also shows what type of work he does.For my final character design of the huntsman, I decided to change his hair in longer dreadlocks. I feel like this goes with his personality and look. I really like how this looks as it gives him a rugged and unkept appearance. Again I decided to give him with a black ethnicity. I did this as in many stories the ‘black man’ isn’t really portrayed as the ‘hero’, knowing that the huntsman is a hero in this story, I thought it would be nice to change this non inclusive tradition. I decided to go for dungarees as I thought these were more appropriate for his work, I kept his clothing baggy as I liked this on the last design. I added a few extra bits onto his clothing though. I decided to add rips into his jeans to show wear and tear and also to enhance his grafting job. I have kept the axe and his boots the same as the last design as I think these go well with his look.
GRANDMA –
I wanted the grandma to fit some stereotypes of an ‘grandma’. For example, wearing a nighty, dressing gown and slippers. Also for her to be wearing glasses and to have her hair in a bun. I think this is a familiar portrayal of an old lady, for many people. I based this character from one of the old ladies from Coraline. This particular character is slightly larger in size and wears quite bold colours. I really liked the idea of the grandma being quite quirky and being obsessed with one particular colour. This colour being purple. I decided to play on this and make pretty much everything purple, even her hair and makeup. I also decided to match her to her house, making that various shades of purple also. I also like that she is dressed slightly brighter than the other characters, i did this because the grandma isn’t seen until near the end of the story. This is when they are all out of danger and the atmosphere becomes alot brighter.
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 –
CORALINE
VICTOR
MR BOBINSKI
WYBIE
MOTHER
OLD LADY
TIM BURTON WOLF DESIGN
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.
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.
Sapphire's Animation yr2 