Understanding Animation: The Evolution of Bugs Bunny

As every animator knows, the very initial idea of a character is never solidly considered. It is always built upon, always altering, always evolving, providing the animator with developmental practice. Prior to this course, I had rarely considered character development, usually sticking with the first or second "draft" of a character (keep in mind, I mainly did stop-motion, so characters were literally built and never conceptualized with drawings prior-hand). Thus, in order to understand this process further and develop my skill for it I looked into the evolution of the Looney Tunes character Bugs Bunny.

Bugs Bunny's first official appearance under that pseudonym was in the Tex Avery episode "A Wild Hare", whereas before that there were several prototypical appearances of the character. According to the book "Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Grey Hare", Bugs Bunny was "born" on the 27th of July in 1940, and ever since then has been evolving visually, but also characteristically. What struck the audience about this character was his ever-growing nonchalance towards the myriad of situations he was thrown into, and soon enough became a mascot for Warner Bros. During Bugs' early era, he was named as "Happy Rabbit" and was perfectly matched with a jocular voice (similar to that of Woody the Woodpecker) that became famous with the audience, after which it was decided that he was to be cast again (and the development started from that point in time). What interests me the most is that Bugs Bunny had solely evolved due to his success: his early designs extremely resembled a rabbit. With him becoming the star, the cast and Leon Schlesinger focused on his design profusely and started designing him to appear more elegant, taller, appearing more "human", something that matched his newly-introduced witty intellect. However, the template design is the one from 1948 which has constantly been built upon for future films with slight appearance changes because that was the image of Bugs that was vested in everyone's mind, so it would have been horrid to significantly alter his looks. This even reflects on today, as many fans of the "old" Bugs Bunny can relate to even the newest re-run of Looney Tunes since the voice matches, and the essence of his appearance does as well. Conclusively, it is how a character is adored that changes his/her vigor, and constantly sticking to one design (or using the first one that pops in your mind) adds a level of monotony - something that's UNACCEPTABLE in the cartoon world and industry.

Set, Series, Sequence: Ink-Pen Graphic Style Development

Attempting to eliminate the profuse use of over-lapping lines, I approached the next drawings differently. I first drew the outline of the picture with pencil, erasing any mistakes easily as I only drew the lines lightly. Once the general contours were drawn, I went over them with a 0.1 drawliner only once. Prior to this, I had always drawn my characters/backgrounds with the initial swipe of the ink pen, completely forgetting that ctrl + Z doesn't work in real life. Nevertheless, pencils used to be my main drawing/sketching tools, not drawliners. Taking this into consideration, I now shifted their use for outlining purposes, as to avoid unnecessary over-lapping. Plus, with the dark embrace of the lines, I used different thick lines for different situations, thin ones being for inner details, while thick ones for the outline. Along with this, as I have not used color much in my previous sketchbook drawings throughout the years, I colored parts of the drawings (those which draw detail) with coloring pencils as they do not cover the ink. Practicing with this technique I will gradually develop a style along the lines of graphic cartoon-realism, with the thickness of the lines complementing the figures.

Penciled outline visualized drawing of the insult "Broccoli Brains"












Finished version of "Broccoli Brains"

Set, Series, Sequence: Initial Re-Drawing of Broccoli

First off, before settling in to assign different styles to different ideas, I had to envision broccoli and how it is to be drawn. Personally, I haven't had my fair share of broccoli, and if I were to draw it directly from the images of the vegetable in my mind, I'd just draw a tree and color it differently. However, the trick is to draw it without color, get the contours right, so that when someone sees it identifies it as broccoli, and not a tree. Luckily, Google Images are a plentiful source of how broccoli looks like accurately, and I used all sorts of pictures (from broccoli clip-arts to the real deal) to serve as my "muse" of drawing a chunk of broccoli. Incipiently, I shall draw broccoli in a graphic ink-pen style with a combined sense of realism and cartoon-visuals. Nevertheless, soon I shall start doing color and experiment with styles I have yet to accustom to, because that's how we practice, right?

Image I used for re-drawing broccoli

Set, Series, Sequence: Ideas and Style of Approach

Now comes a new module, Visual Language, which is solely oriented on developing one's drawing skills, be they observational or pulled out of their minds. The first study task, whimsically named "Set, Series, Sequence" is an orderly, organized, but amusing project where we are assigned a word and are expected to let our imaginations flow freely and draw anything and everything associated with that word. For a more ironic sake, I got the word "broccoli"... rough. However, I immediately started plotting ideas, associating broccoli with what it resembles, and which notion it carries in society. I wrote down all initial ideas that sparked in my head in my sketchbook and drew a symbol next to them as to not forget the essence of the drawing. Plus, I devised a method of approach for this project, which is draw all images on A5 paper, but trying different styles with different tools in every one (one with charcoal, one with pastel, etc...). I believe firmly that this project will help me develop not only my signature drawing style, but also get to know different methods of drawing, sketching, and painting, which helps create variety in one's art (no one wants to be a monochrome square).

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Critical Session and Animatic

While development unfolds, it's more than important to receive constructive criticism from peers, fellow practitioners, and even people who have nothing to do with animation. All these diverse opinions can reflect on your projects and improve them for the better, because no one is able to keep an eye out for every single detail on their own work (plus, some of the egoistical biases might distort the views of one's own work). Thus, as a part of this module we were expected to present all of the work we had created so far to the class and our proctor as to receive some feedback. A thoughtful part of this module, the crit session allowed me to cascade my style of animation, techniques of development, and animation of my project to my fellow credible peers, as well as to receive a professional tutorial record. Overall, I loved the session. I was given compliments on my structured approach, but also was informed that being too pragmatic can be limiting when it comes to the creative process. I fully agree: sometimes I just stick with the ideas that come the moment a light-bulb flashes over my head. I was given lovely advice on incorporating elements of the initial ideas I had within the current one, as every little idea has a certain amount of gold in it. When it comes to character development, although there is only one, was perceived as good due to the depth I went into while designing the character with different styles. The animatic I had produced was credited as being clear with a good story, which for me is the most important factor of my future animation: entertainment and keeping the audience's attention. Most important of all, I saw everybody's whimsical and vibrant ideas, which is what I found most helpful at the session - observation! Wonderful progression!

Understanding Animation: The Aesthetic of Stop-Motion and Puppetry

Scene from "Dimensions of Dialogue"

During last week's session of Animation: Process and Production we went through a presentation on the linear history of animation from its very roots. Starting from the chronicles of animated entertainment, we were introduced to the technological and mechanized marvels of the Pre-Film era such as the phenakistoscope, the praxinoscope, the zoetrope, etc. While all of these revolutionary and innovative gadgets initiated and drove the progression of animation as we know it, it had been up until circa 1899 when film had started growing its roots. With further development of techniques of animation, we were able to identify the dispersing progression of all kinds of animation. I, personally, was intrigued by the very incipient upswing of stop-motion, and being motivated by the presentation went on researching about how the technique had progressed to this day. Initially, what caught my interest in the presentation was the animation "Matches an Appeal" by Arthur Melbourne - Cooper, which is frequently identified as being the first film (plus stop-motion) in existence. What intrigued me about it were the puppets used - solely made from matchsticks, like doodle stickmen. Furthermore, as the presentation progressed, we were introduced to Wladyslaw Starewicz's animations which used beetles as armatured puppets, shedding light to the progression of puppet-making in animation. More elaborate than the matchstick-men, the beetles introduced a level of eeriness and grotesque atmosphere in the world of stop-motion animation, as the characters mimicked life more profusely with the characters being something existent in real life. More so, the beetles were the among the first armatured characters in stop-motion, as when Starewicz noticed that they moved when he did not want them to he reassembled their limbs with wax as to become more flexible and stationary during animating. Having said this, one animator that had been significantly inspired by Starewicz is Jan Svankmajer (one of my favorite stop-motion artists), which also incorporated a macabre feature in his animations. However, unlike Starewicz, Svankmajer elaborated upon his characters and made them in a surreal manner - crafting characters out of a variety of materials. One such example would be his film "Dimensions of Dialogue" which presented vivacity in characters (as they appeared human-like, done with clay). Personally, I believe Svankmajer to be the initiator of puppetry due to his use of various elements to craft his characters, where from that point on many stop-motion armatured characters had been created with the same materials. Interconnecting this with my trip to the Manchester Animation Festival, the figures used for the making of "Shaun the Sheep" had been extremely intricate with inner iron armatures for optimum stability, which goes to show how with time people have mastered the art of puppetry and stop-motion.

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Concept Art and Character Sheets

Among the final steps before beginning with the production of an animation is the creation of the concept art and character sheets. During these stages, animators draw the designs of the characters, backgrounds, and scenery elements which are later to be utilized as the animation is being made. Every animation studio goes through this stage, for example the studio of the re-making of Danger Mouse had prevalent character sheets that conceptualized the "rejuvenation" of the new characters as well as the atmosphere the backgrounds brought. Within my project, the background is simple - an ambiguous cosmos with little detail, thus I focused on the elements in the scenery instead of the actual background. Because space is relatively vacant, I drew the miscellaneous which will be floating/moving in the background for the sense of smoothness and prevalence of animation. Placing the scenery aside, the soul purpose of my character sheets and concept art was to create several designs for the main character and then decide on which sheet I shall use. Not forgetting peer feedback, I scoured throughout my college studio and showed my designs to fellow animators, getting accurate constructive criticism. For example, one of my peers was quite fond of the Tim Burton inspired 3rd design (they are labeled in my sketchbook), however stated that the very first one would be easier to animate. Furthermore, he also stated that the consistency of the character expressions is more conveyed in the 3rd design instead of the first (another peer's feedback is on the character sheet). I attempted at appropriating different styles for all of the designs in order to encompass a broad variety of possibilities, because who wants to be dull and monotone, right? Nevertheless, now that I have conceptualized the idea, the atmosphere, and with this step the design it is time to head on to the animatic, which will appropriate the motion and layout of all elements, right before I start on the productive step of the animation.

Understanding Animation: Contemporary Context - Idle

As stated previously, animation as a communicative tool of ideologies and messages can be perceived in different contexts, one being the intended and the other a subjective perspective. In order for animations to be thoroughly understood, every aspect of their presentation must be taken into consideration: from the way the visual aesthetics insinuate a concept to the verbal communication between characters. However, animations differentiate in an intended context which has to do with the time in which they are published. As I looked at animation from a historical context in my previous post, now I shed some light on the contemporary. "Idle" is a short animation by Jonah Primiano, published in 2015 on Skwigly. The animation features two men: one of a more younger generation and one belonging to the late years of adulthood. The adult's high stature of employment is depicted by his appearance and dress code, while the young is dressed in a white t-shirt. Nevertheless, both of them have expressionless faces which insinuates their dehumanized essence by the corporate expectations of their lives, as well as the similarities which they share. As the plot unfolds, both characters enter brisk series of flashbacks which shed light on their lives, as they get lost during communication by stuttering before beginning to talk due to their absent-mindedness. Although the adult has a secure job and is a part of the community, he feels empty as he is engulfed by the clutches of monotony. This is evident through his flashbacks, constantly repeating the same routine of work, while he tries to disprove that notion by stating that everything is alright and that he's just been busy - busy with rumination. While the adult tackles this concept, the young is portraying flashbacks of how he denied fulfilling his dreams by exerting laziness and allowing it to diverge his interests. All in all, both characters feel desolate as their circumstances have drained the life out of them and portray existential doubts about their lives. Thus, the animation dwells on the 21st century's concept of corporate dehumanization and monotony, and along with the technique of the animation (which is a minimalist 2D traditional style with charcoal) the eerie and bleak tone is even more so expressed. At the end, from a contemporary context, they are both lost souls with no faces... people have lost their way.

"Idle" - http://www.skwigly.co.uk/showcase/idle/

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Mood Boards

Mood Boards are assemblages of images, materials, pictures, and text which present a certain project's style or concept by displaying its visual elements. As a part of the developmental process, whilst drawing the multiple possible designs for my characters and background scenery, I compiled a mood board which is to present the different elements within the animation. Furthermore, in contrast to what other mood boards might present (which is the tone of the animation, among many factors), my mood board consists of the different styles that inspired the creation of my own, as well as the character elements of my future animation. For example, there is a drawing of sharp teeth on my mood board which is similar to my design of the dragon in the animation (for relevance, check my blog post on character design). Thus, with this mood board I wanted to present the elements more than I did the tone of the animation, for the tone itself is quite arbitrary and whimsical - wacky, to say the least. Finally, with one of Terry Gilliam's cut-out elements I wanted to present the juxtaposed styles of animation I shall use while animating, one being the 2D drawn (which is something I haven't quite done previously) and the other being the computer-style cut-out of the Ketchup Construct that is to hit the main character, changing his direction of movement. By the end of this entire project, my purpose is to gain a more profound experience with 2D drawn animation, as that will further develop my eclectic skills as an animator.

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Dismissed Idea

Inevitably, out of the two storyboards I had to pick one idea and progress with it. Unless I wanted to complicate matters by animating BOTH ideas... not happening. Thus, I chose the Concept of Wonder, and dismissed the Concept of Suicide for several reasons, both technical and practical. The Concept of Suicide was supposed to be supported by background music (Morphine's "The Other Side", as convenient as it sounds), which simplified the total process by eliminating the hardship of assembling a myriad of sound effects. However, by using the soundtrack I assume that I have copyrights for the music, which I don't due to the fact that I'm not well informed on how Morphine handles their copyright legislations, and I didn't want to stumble upon unexpected problems. Which brings me to my next reason: the lack of animation. For the majority of the animation the main character's soul would cruise around an ambiguous space in a simple form, which eliminates my portrayal of animation techniques - something that might have jeopardized my final grade in terms of the animation. Additionally, I wasn't satisfied with the designes I made for the story, shedding some light on necessary improvement. Lastly, I dismissed the idea because I personally believe it to be too depressive... why not flabbergast the audience with a small level of whimsicality? It's something the Concept of Wonder should do, effectively, as now I progress into assembling a mood board to better assist me with the style of the animation, as well as character and background desings.

Understanding Animation: Historical Context - The Ducktators

Animation can be used for a myriad of purposes, be it to convey a clandestine message through vivid or not-so-vivid imagery, to present a concept of philosophy or such, or to just amaze the audience with a whimsical feat of visualizations. Through the ages, people have created animations with all kinds of purposes, all of which were differentiating as the years passed by: from descriptive, to political, to philosophical, to entertaining, etc. Thus, we can pull a distinctive line between the historical and contemporary use of animations throughout the ages, and what better way is there to prove a contrasting point than with examples. For example, "The Ducktators" is a black and white cartoon animation produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and released by Warner Bros. in 1942, which was created to be perceived through the perspective of WWII. The animation is a satirical allegory against the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or the Nazi Party of Germany's regime which waged the Second World War by implementing the concept of fascism. In other words, the animation promotes propaganda by implying buying war bonds (such an example would be the poster from which the human soldier detaches). Moreover, the animation's true purpose can only be digested through an understanding of historical context (as a purely contemporary one will not do), for without it the reference to Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, and the infamous motivational phrase of the Nazi Party "Sieg Heil" would not be comprehended as intended. By using abundant metaphors, the animation ridicules the three main "geese" and their ideologies (one such example would be Tojo Duck getting attacked by a turtle with his own sign of the Japanese Mandate). Conclusively, "The Ducktators" is a cartoon based on historical practice, where animations were used as subtle communication tools which delivered messages to the audience in a whimsical and educational manner. The power of animation knows no bounds!

Evaluation of Module: Animation Skills

Now comes the end of our first module, Animation Skills. This module has marked my entrance into the world of animation and has introduced me to the vast variety of manners in which the inanimate can be brought to life. Prior to this module, I had only been properly affiliated with the technique of stop-motion, but as I progressed with the module so did my desire to utilize many of the abundant techniques of animation that I had not even considered before. Furthermore, my style has always been more spontaneous and erratic than organized; I rarely scripted my animations and went on creating them as my creative thought patterns guided me without any direction. However, this module has been successful in teaching me the importance of pre-productive planning, as sometimes without an organized approach an animator might stumble into a difficult quandary. For example, during our last two briefs, it was expected of us to create a storyboard to articulate our ideas and visualize how the animation is supposed to look like as the final product.

The different study tasks and projects we got gradually guided us through the wonders of animation in a profusely steady and consequent manner. In other words, I experienced no confusion when it came to the tasks at hand as they gradually developed. First, we had the Storyboard Project that placed significance on pre-production, followed by Explore brief which motivated us into broadening our perspectives of animation (flip-book, pixilation, Pose to Pose, Photoshop animation). As all of these exercises prepared us for the final brief, we were given a brief that expected us to create an animation using any style or technique based on a theme. With this, I had attempted at making a cutting stop-motion animation in a Pythonesque style; something that I would not have done without the research that this module motivated me to do. Furthermore, this module engaged all of my peers into providing each other with constructed criticism, which is something I consider extremely beneficial to one's progress. For example, during our Telling Stories brief, the module required all of us to look at each other's work and stick notes with personal thoughts and criticism which gave us different perspectives to consider. Alongside this, with the Explore brief we were motivated to create our pixilations with another peer, an experience that solidified our collaborative skills with other another. More so, by learning and applying the 12 Principles of Animation we understood the basics of animation and were given the foundation upon which we will build to vivaciously mimic reality through art. In order to assert a level of professionalism, this module placed significance on the documentation of our work (through blogs) and the necessity of research for the broadening of one's perspective in terms of animation. For example, with the Identify brief students were expected to explore a range of different animations and analyze their techniques and styles through blog posts, which for me was highly beneficial. Overall, this module has enriched my animation skills as well as my utilization of techniques, or in other words, has opened the doors of becoming a professional animator.

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Storyboarding

Now comes the second part of the developmental process: the storyboard. It is the stage where one articulates their ideas in a more visual and meticulous manner: by drawing the story's most important still images. This is done with the soul purpose of giving an optical perspective of the future animation to the audience, but also to yourself as a reference. I drew the storyboards with the hopes that they are coherent and explanatory in terms of action, movement, and tone. Moreover, with adding arrows in the panels that guide the movement of the character or shot, I've added another level of organization, which is a useful storytelling skill I've acquired throughout this course. Thus, I chose two of the initial ideas I had and made two storyboards in total: one for the Concept of Suicide, and the other for the Concept of Wonder. By drawing two of the ideas I liked the most, I have now plundered into a difficult choice on which story to animate, what a quandary... One's existential, the other whimsical. One's depressing, the other uplifting. One tackles suicide's coping promise, the other a confusing turn of colorful events. I'll have to choose. Furthermore, in the storyboards general appearances of the characters of both animations are presented, as I shall now enter the realm of individual character and background design.

Animation Exercise: Flipbook Motion

During our previous module, we were expected to create 3 flipbook animations which portray our understanding and prowess of traditional animation. Moreover, the flipbook sequences were to help us exercise the application of Squash and Stretch, one of the 12 Principles of Animation we studied and researched about. During my development stage of the flipbooks, I stumbled upon the difficulty of properly drawing the volume of the ball as it bounced up and down, due to the fact that the individual papers of the flipbook were not thin enough for proper translucency (as I could not accurately draw every frame based on the previous one). However, after several tries and several wasted flipbooks (3 wasted, if I'm correct), I prevailed at the end, as I created a smooth movement of image sequences which I scanned individually for the assemblage of a GIF image.

After doing the bouncing sequence, I took the liberty of doing a more free-form and flexible animation of a gun firing a single bullet, then dissolving into thin air (as if it were David Copperfield's gun). The sequence is smooth, however, the recoil of the gun does not seem that natural as it only moves up and down and does not tilt backwards. But still, it's an efficient and successful attempt and traditional animation seeing as this was the first time I've ever tackled real-life drawing of animated motion.

Animation Project: Pendulum

In order to improve the use of the principles of animation, we were assigned to animate a moving pendulum hand-drawn style. For this exercise, we were to use the ease-in and ease-out technique so that we may produce a realistic movement of a swinging pendulum, one that applies to physics. For the sake of accuracy, I first drew all frames geometrically on a single piece of animation paper, and thus numbered all of the frame pendulum balls in order to avoid confusion once overdrawing them one by one. Furthermore, the pendulum's line has a constant length (11 cm), and the size of the ball is an unchanging factor as I drew it with a small circular gear. The final animation of the pendulum is 12 FPS (frames per second), unconventional in comparison with my regular style of animation (25.5 FPS), however, effective in portraying a realistic illusion of a pendulum's movement.

Animation Project: Storyboard

We were instructed to create a storyboard which was to present a nursery rhyme, however, with our own twist to the plot. I did "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and gave it an existentially-nihilistic warp. I intertwined the plot of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" with the myth of Sisyphus, who is cursed to push a rock up a hill for all eternity, embracing monotony and the misery of routine. By using the colors black and red, along with a sharp contour style of drawing, I was able to exhibit a more obscure and bleak representation of The Myth of Sisyphus by using the Itsy-Bitsy Spider as a symbol to produce an allegory. Furthermore, as the final and conclusive exercise of this project, every student was obliged to look at some of their peers' work and supply them with constructive criticism. For my storyboard, I got short, but concise responses which signify the responses I elicited; the kind that I wanted to see.

"Great commentary"
"I like the use of selective colouring!"
"I love your style and philosophical approach!"
"This shot (9th) is awesome!"
"Moody and abstract, textured and atmospheric, effective use of color, however, very scary."

Induction Learning: Photoshop, and Animation Through Photoshop

Inductions are always extremely useful in assisting students with their artistic and academic endeavors, or so I think. Recently, we had the final Photoshop Induction, through which I learned that animations could be made in the program (I had already been fluent with the interface, however, had only used it for designing still images). Thus, I created my first short computer animated sequence through Photoshop, ever! A little morbid, some might say, but profusely flowing in a smooth manner, appealing to the eye (even more for those who crave mutilation and the spewing of guts and blood). Drawn extremely simple, I believe with the induction I understood several uses of Photoshop to which I was unbeknownst prior-hand. Furthermore, we also did practice the movement of the pendulum, as we needed this exercise for the further development of our short hand-drawn pendulum animation which portrayed the use of the technique Ease-In and Ease-Out.

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Generation of Ideas and Brainstorming

Today, we were assigned our newest module: Animation Process and Production. During the module briefing, we were introduced to the main aims of the module, the outcomes, and all the work we are expected to produce, all of which will develop our skills as animators and creators. The main assignment around which all other investigative and documentation tasks revolve is creating a 25 second 2D narrative animation to be titled "The Other Side". Furthermore, as we fluctuate through the developmental stages of creating an animation, we are to document our progress in a professional manner so that we are susceptible to peer constructive criticism as well as improvement.

The first stage of animation development is the generation of ideas through different cognitive methods. I chose brainstorming, where I jot down all inchoate visual ideas that come to mind when processing the words "The Other Side". Initially, we are all prone to conceptualize ideas as "The Other Side" is provocative of detailed images, from those which associate Heaven and Hell to simpler quandaries of a part missing its complementary. As I brainstormed, I devised 4 ideas, all tackling different concepts of existence and fantasy.

1. Concept of Suicide
Morphine's "The Other Side" plays in the background as we witness a man bleeding out under a bridge with a gun near his corpse, surrounded by the night's melancholic darkness. His soul ascends into the star-spangled sky, as it whimsically dances around being surrounded by all kinds of apparitions of beauty and exuberance (for that is how Heaven is perceived as). However, as he reaches the final light, the sequence ends and we are shown that this was all but a thought in the man's head, who is still alive with a smile on his face. After he dreams of this, he then pulls the trigger, whereas now in reality, he only disappears into the ether, portraying the nothingness that follows death.

2. Concept of Reincarnation
A man appears in a shimmering and radiant space, absent of location. He is completely confused as to where he is, continuously questioning his environment: "Where am I?", "What is this place?" "Did I die from...". As he tries to finish the last sentence, an ambiguous entity appears before him, complete mute, turning him into a soul in the form of an infant as he casts him back to Earth.

3. Concept of Mysticism
A little more whimsical than the previous two. A baritone-rich and soothing voice narrates the scenery of the light side of the moon, as an astronaut ever-so-nimbly floats around, as the stars illuminate the surface of the pale lunar craters, as serenity embraces peace. And all of a sudden, juxtaposed out of nowhere, the narrator turns to the dark side of the moon, where Pink Floyd is being played as moonlings and Moai heads made of moon stone party and dance without limits. Ends with narrator saying "Oh, well...".

4. Concept of Wonder
Ambiguous space where only clouds are tangible platforms, as a man without legs is "standing" on a cloud, yelling out "Where is my other side?". He skips through clots of clouds with weird creatures and constellations performing whimsical feats in the background, still searching far and wide for his legs. After a while, he finds them residing atop a cloud chunk, as he happily jumps towards them filled with satisfaction, reuniting his two parts. Once he does that, there are 2 seconds of him standing on a cloud, right before he protrudes through it, falling down from ascension with a massive "thud" after an anticipated long fall.

The second step of development is storyboarding two of these ideas, making them more coherent and detailed for further production.

Animation Project: Theme of Surprise Production Development and Finished Work

Now comes the production and post-production stage, where all the animating and movement is done prior to the main compiling of

The magazines I used

the final project's resolution. The initial stage of production is setting up the equipment properly. I did my animation in one of the stop-motion studios in Leeds College of Art, which had already been supplied with a light-box, as well as pitch-black walls (which are to minimalize light-flicker in animations due to their absorption of bright light). The technique in which I did the animation was stop-motion with paper and magazine cut-outs serving as elements from which the main character and background scenery are created. All of the supplies I used came from various art and 3D design magazines, as I piled them together using stick-glue and tape. Furthermore, this was my first attempt at a cutting stop-motion (although I've done traditional stop-motion animation for years), and I'd say a successful one at that, for I had achieved my succinct motive: creating an animation in the Pythonesque style of Terry Gilliam, just without all the medieval tropes. Once all of the animation was done, I had compiled everything in Cyberlink Power Director, including the sound effects which add atmosphere to the entire plot (not to mention the ambient). I'm very satisfied with my outcome, and believe that the documentation of every development process is fundamental for improving techniques in future endeavors, as well as allowing others to reflect critically upon your work. College, ahoy!

The studio in which I worked

"Unexpected" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAtotXpGxD4

Still image from this project

Animation Project: Theme of Surprise Storyboard Development

Incomplete Storyboard

Alas, submission term dates are approaching, and we are tidying up our work. Our final Studio Brief of our module Animation Skills required us to create a 5 - 10 second animation that explores one of the following themes: Surprise, Lateness, Love, Hate, Longing, Happiness, or Fear. During the initial stages of our brief, we were to generate ideas and articulate them through developmental work of storyboards, as all films/animations are properly scripted with an organized idea of how the final work is supposed to look like. Initially, during the very first hours of the introductory briefing, my mind was stumped; I was having a lack of inspiration. I settled with the concept of Love, and even had a general visualization of the plot, however, due to the fact that it had been too complex and vague in communication, I disregarded the idea and went on for a new one (this can be seen in my sketchbook). Surprise, I said, I'd love to create a bombshell cartoonish skit and crush everyone's expectations. Thus, I devised a storyboard that meticulously elaborates upon my visualization of the project; a still shot of building tension and anticipation, utilizing several of the 12 Principles of Animation, and then all being shockingly broken! The storyboard says it all.

The final storyboard, which the animation is based on