29 October 2009- Second consultation of Week 2

I had another consultation today with Mr. Ronald concerning character designs.
I revamped my main character’s design, and also drew in some designs for the secondary characters.

Unfortunately, Mr. Ronald said they all look so different from one another, that there is no way my main character can be seen as an outcast anymore.
He said that the important factor in the designs is that the main character, since she is an outcast, must really be different from the other characters.

Further emphasizing what he said before about ‘outfits and colors are not enough to make the character different’, he gave some suggestions of how to make the main character look her part:

* Make all the forest residents the same kind of animal, so she will really look out of place.

* Give her extreme ‘ugly’ features compared to the forest residents (long nose, pimples, shaggy hair, etc) so she will really look out of place.

Maybe I go with the first suggestion, since I am not so sure if I want to ‘distort’ my main character.
Will revamp character designs and work on (hopefully) final storyboard over the weekend…

28 October 2009- First consultation of Week 2

I showed Mr. Ronald my character design for the main character, and my loose storyboard sketches. The main issue, from what I can comprehend, was mainly on my character design.

Character Design: He was okay with the ‘black-cat-in-Goth-clothing’ concept (I think), but he said that the main character looks too general, and it needs more definition that it is a female (kind of similar to the feedback Laurie and Hanis had been giving me).
So to make it more female-looking, I guess I have to add some curves, a more girlish hairstyle, eyelashes, and maybe some lipstick.
Another factor is that since she is the ‘outcast’ character, she has to look very different from everyone else, not just in color and clothing, but also in facial features and maybe body shape (maybe a bigger nose, smaller eyes, etc.).
However, I am not so sure if I am so keen to ‘disfigure’ my precious main character that way…

Storyboard: My storyboard lacked a variety of shots, and most of the shots were straight-on side views. Also, it did not show the proper use of camera tilts.
Mr. Ronald advised me to use more three-quarter shots instead of side-views.
Not only that, he advised me to look through my thumbnails, and see if there are some shots/scenes that I can re-use and recycle to save production time.
Guess I have to re-do my storyboard, and very much more detailed at that…

Since I am planning to have another consultation with him tomorrow, and I have no time to re-do storyboard, I might as well re-do my character design (since that is the issue) and show him then.

22 October 2009- Second Consultation of Week 1

I consulted with Mr. Ronald on my edited story…he seems really okay with this new story idea and told me to do some storyboard thumbnails.

I asked him on the new title ‘Please Be My Friend’, and he said that it is not catchy enough. He asked me to sum up the story’s motive in one word. I gave him the word ‘Understanding’ (considering how this story is about an outcast), and he told me to use it as the title. I thought about it for a moment, and I asked him about the pun ‘Miss-Understanding’. He said it was okay, so now my main character is a female.

Concerning character ideas (since I wanted the main character to be an animal normally disliked by people), he suggested to do research on what animals may be disliked by normal society. Finally, I decided that my main character would be a female black cat dressed in Goth-Punk clothing.

So with main character and story idea given the green light, it’s time for me to proceed with loose storyboards. Will consult again next Tuesday…
(picture above is character design for main character)

21 October 2009- Slight story edit

I had dental appointment today, so did not go for consultation. Don’t worry, I have LOA.

Anyway, after thinking about going for anthropomorphic characters, I decided that ‘Fading Light’ is too dark for such potentially adorable characters (since when animals are not cute?) so I decided to do a few edits (though the edited story may sound more like Edward Scissorhands now):

*Change the title from ‘Fading Light’ to ‘Please Be My Friend’.

* Change the dark macabre grungy town at night to a happy cheery forest at daytime…simpler to draw trees than buildings.

* Give the story a happy ending: unlike ‘Fading Light’ where the protagonist ‘corrodes’ and dies, in ‘Please Be My Friend’, the protagonist finds a friend.

So yes, these are the edits I made…only problem now is the character designs.

For the design of the protagonist, I want it to be an animal that people find…”taboo” or something.
I am thinking:

* Dog (unclean to some people)

* Pig (unclean to some people)

* Goat/Ram (represents The Devil to some people)

Will consult again with Mr. Ronald tomorrow…

20 October 2009- First Consultation of Week 1

I had consultation with my lecturer, Ronald, today, and this is the agenda for the discussion:

* Show him the Learning Contracts and Story Questions for my two FYP ideas

* Show him the loose drawings I did for my FYP ideas

* Get suggestions on improvements and which idea to do

So I showed Mr. Ronald my two story ideas, 'Fading Light' (the tragic ventures of a child-like being in the town he ends up in) and 'Love Letter' (the mental dialogue between a girl and a boy caught in a 'relationship').
He said both stories are very interesting, though they need further development.

He advised to go with 'Fading Light'...explaining 'Love Letter' is too complex and may be hard to understand, and the character designs may be beyond my capability.

So, we discussed on possible improvements for 'Fading Light':
* He told me that to use human characters will prove rather challenging (considering my drawing capabilities), so he advised me to make the characters anthropomorphic (animal-like), since it will be easier to stylize.

* Try to put my writing into visuals; visualize how things are going to look in the animation.

* Change the story a bit...it can get too 'dark' and 'graphic' at times (he pointed out that 'Fading Light' can be somewhat like 'The Ugly Duckling').

I plan to see him again this Thursday...so my action plan until then is re-draw the character designs for 'Fading Light' and maybe change the settings from a village to a forest.

Although I am not so sure of the 'anthropomorphic' bit...I am afraid it may defeat the purpose of 'Fading Light' altogether...*really want to stick to humans*

19 October 2009- Briefing

Today was the first day for our FYP...the final run.

We had some briefings from Mr. Ronald and Mr. Alan on the important dates, submission criteria and what to expect.
Tomorrow, I plan to show Mr, Ronald my Learning Contracts and Story Questions which I did up for my two ideas during SIP.

Not only that, I have also done some loose 'character designs' and 'layouts' for both ideas during SIP:











Hopefully first consultation goes well tomorrow...