Assignment 2: Animatic

My finished second assignment, the animatic.

 

(I nedded to upload the video to YouTube, since the file was apparently too big for blogger)

I think this animatic presents a general feel of the animation I want to deliver. Contrary to the storyboard, I left the animatic black and white, since this is just a rough sketch and I will probably change and add several shots during the animation process. But I do realize that this decision may have weakened the effect I want my animation to have later on, which is dependent on the colors present in the second half.
The moving backgrounds in the beginning were a mistake. They appeared after I tried to animate them for a different shot that I didn't include in the final animatic and I couldn't find a way to correct them anymore. Albeit I still think that they present a great effect and make the buildings more imposing by letting them sway and change size slightly. The part where the wall moves will have to be corrected though.

Futhermore, I still have some ideas on how to improve the animation/shots and the impact they (hopefully) make, but I have yet to implement some of these. My research for these changes will probably be included in one of the next blog posts.

Here are generally my ideas of what I want to implement in the future (a question mark generally refers to things I have yet to try and/or am still unsure about):

Art/Design

• striking color aesthetic with washed out colors instead of a strict black and white color scheme in the first half (?)
• thinner outlines
• more expressive face and body language
• high angle shots to represent powerlessness/weakness (beginning)
• close-up when looking around the corner
• extreme close-up when opening eyes in the other world; slow zoom-out
• narrow passage
• frame within a frame = location (e.g. doorways, windows, furnitures, props, actors)
• beginning: lifeless/expressionless and dark eyes without light
• beginning (style): old, greasy; old black and white movie (?)
• fragment of the crack: colorful and sparkling/glowing

Animation

• introduce Iris with a shot of her legs and how she walks (sluggish, slow)
• convey character through small animation details (body language, eyebrow and eye movement)
• tiny anxious glances; rapid eye ovement while turning head left and right
• more desperate to justify the decision to go into the unknown
• falling face-down/stumbling while running
• cut from inhale to exhale; transition by having somebody/something move in front of Iris
• more extreme facial expressions = squash and stretch
• discovery scene where Iris sees more cracks, so that she knows where to run to!
• other people are fading in and out (transparency) = makes it even more unreal
• more energetic turn around in the end
• secondary animation/action = something always has to be moving!
• bouncy hair = squash and stretch
• parallels between beginning and end with opposite actions (sad - happy) (?)
• shot(s) looking up to the crack: expressionless shot of face; shot of crack; expressionless shot of face; realization; shock; shot of crack opening up further

Sound

• beginning: muffled, chaotic, overwhelming
• end: quieter