Being that I’m going for a 2D animation pilot/pitch episode for my thesis, I feel that that two main factors to focus on for the project would be the software/tools I used for production and the overall quality of the content. These are rather large in scale in the sense for prototyping, and since I’ve resolved my search for an animation software, I’ll be focusing these prototypes for now on the content that will be present in my thesis project. I’ll likely be incorporating more prototypes and experimentation with the tech I’ll be using, but for this month, I’d really want to focus on the characters and the writing, since I’m comfortable enough with the technology side of things for the moment having secured the arrangement of software that I can potentially use for my project. Besides you can’t have a decent story without interesting characters and writing! For the first two iterations of prototypes (the 9th and the 16th) I’m going to focus on the designing the characters.
Nov. 9 – Character Concept and Design
These characters have existed in my mind for a while. I written them in context before, but some have received more attention than other the last time I’ve used them altogether in any medium, writing or animation. Now that I’ve dug up a decent amount of 2D animation experience under my belt, it would be good to take the time to revisit these characters again, to sit down a really flesh them out— figure out what they look like, how they’ve move, and interact with each other in a space, and how I can translate that to an animation canvas. There are definitely some design decisions I’ll be needing to think about when redesigning them: how should they look? Do they appeal to any specific audience? Any particularly inspired style I should design them in/after? I’ll be playing a lot with character sketches, designs, and concepts for these characters. These prototypes will likely be realized in the form of character sheets/sketch-ups, character bios, character poses, and/or expressions to help get a wide range of locomotion, personality, and interaction with their surroundings.
Nov. 16 – Audio and Animation Tests
Having (hopefully) cemented a definitive style in the characters’ appearance, I’d like to then see if I can move them the way I envisioned them. Instead of stills, poses and expressions, I’ll take this a step further and put them to screen and animate them in short sequences (walk cycles, turnarounds, emoting, etc). I’d also like to explore audio in this phase of prototyping as well, since I plan to at least implement spoken dialogue from voice acting. This is also to test the animation software on how well it can register and manipulate audio compared to other programs. For example, Adobe Animate has a frame picker for voice syncing and can import/stream audio, but it can clip that audio file through scenes if not formatted properly within the app. Krita also has an audio import feature, but I need to experiment with that more, which would be a perfect opportunity to do with the prototyping I’ll be aiming to do that week. The first phase is figuring out their movement, and this second phase will be about seeing their movement. These prototypes will include some short animations to get a proof of concept of how these characters will behave in a 2D setting. We’ll be seeing how they move in real time, and maybe even hear what some of them sound like to further broaden and get better sense of their personalities.
Nov. 30 – Lore, Story, and Worldbuilding
This will most likely be the biggest hurdle when prototyping, and the one I’ve decided to dedicate the most time to as the third prototype phase. This one is also the last as I’ve already a basis of a story laid out (this is based from a fiction I wrote, so I have a general idea of where I want to take it), but I still need to take the time to really dive into it. This story’s world is expansive, and there are sectors of lore that would probably prove too much to explain in the allotted duration I’ve set for making this animated pitch episode (I’d definitely need more than 5, even 10+ minutes if I wanted to disclose the entire lore, which simply isn’t practical at this point in time to do.), so I’ll really need to hunker down and condense the story into a way that can be shown to the audience without overwhelming them. This is why I chose to make a pitch pilot, as it gives me the leisure of selecting a specific point in time, or even create a separate but relevant plot point, in the narrative that can explain key portions of the story that can be easily digested. To effectively explain this plot piece of the story, I want to break it down into 3 basic writing objectives I want to accomplish, being the main ideas that I’d be focusing on and aiming to get across to the audience clearly follow:
- Character Breakdown (Who are these characters? What’s their relationship to each other?)
- Call to Action / Mission (What are these characters doing? What’s driving their motives?)
- Conflict / Raising Stakes (What obstacles are our characters facing? Why are these obstacles so problematic?)
This will certainly have multiple drafts either leading up to or after the initially presented prototypes, since I’ve so many ideas I’d like to play around with, but definitely need to tie down so I have a clear-cut path for producing an animation for the story I want to tell. Most importantly, I’ll be making sure this flows in a consistent manner and makes enough sense to be followed as a storyline. These prototypes will include various drafts of a scripts, but may include other formats such as rough storyboards and separate documents revolving around explain the lore more in depth, just as future reference for me to work with as well as give a broader understand to those who may pique interest in my story and would like to learn more.