Hello! As mentioned in my last post, I changed my thesis idea sometime around the middle of the semester. While this has certainly set me back a bit, I think this was the right choice. I am still attached to my ASL with Alice plan, but it was simply too large a project and without collaboration with any Deaf creatives (I wouldn’t want to ask for so much free labor, and can’t afford to pay them what they’re worth at the moment). I would love to pursue this idea in the future if I can get some Deaf animators on board for their input and help with accurately portraying their language and culture on screen, but ASL with Alice will have to wait for now. My new thesis will simply be called Gracie, after my dog who it is based on.
Here’s a recap on what Gracie is:
2D animated short of my dog (Gracie), based on the true events of her escape and 24 hours out of the house back in October. She’s a rescue from what seems to have been a pretty bad previous life, and something triggered her into a panicked episode where she somehow yanked herself out of her collar and ran. It will include some of the actual events, but most will obviously be made up since I didn’t actually know where she was. It will focus on Gracie’s emotions and adventure, and the humans will not be a focus at all – it’s about seeing this from her point of view and showing the range of emotions dogs are capable of. I’m shooting for the 5-10 minute range, but most likely the shorter end of that.
I won’t post my whole formal proposal here as it can get a bit boring, so I’ll go through some important points! Here are some of the specifics of my project:
-2D animation, looking into Toon Boom Harmony Essentials which is a subscription software, used for Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, Your Name, and Archer, among others! I may also try out Synfig since that one’s free and I have to wait until after Christmas anyway because that’s when I’m getting a new laptop (thanks mom & dad) and this 2015 MacBook Air cannot run Toon Boom
-I have actually not created a 2D animation with real 2D animation software before but I have made some crappy hand drawn animations, a really tedious animation in Procreate by making a lot of individual layers, some fun stop motions, and 3D animations, so I’m not terribly worried. Only a little worried
-Music will be created in collaboration with my boyfriend who is very nice and very willing to help compose! He is a talented pianist, and I can play flute and trombone if whatever he comes up with suits those – I also have easy and free (I’ll probably buy them a coffee) access to a trumpet player, saxophone player, french horn player, drummer, and bass guitarist who are all good friends, and some others that may be questionable since I’m not as close with them. But yeah, I’m not great at composing but I think this will turn out well thanks to boyfriend and friends!
-I will try to make as many of my own sound effects as I can, and hopefully be able to get a good recording of the real Gracie barking to use. For sounds I can’t make myself, I’ll just use sounds from online.
-So far, I’ve been working on beat boards, Gracie’s design, and the storyline. I made a rough timeline from now until the end of the project:
December
Finish up on character and environment designs
Storyboards
January
Begin animating, work on walk/ run cycles
Animate intro
February
Animate ending
March-April
Animate middle section, as much story as time allows
Work with Daniel on music
Make/ find sound effects
May
Finish up music and sound effects, finishing details
The reason why the order I have listed above is beginning, end, then middle is because I’m not sure I’ll have the time to animate the full story that I’d like to. The story will still be apparent with just the intro, a couple middle scenes, and then the ending, but I can’t do without the intro or ending and they are arguably more important to the story than the middle section. I will try to create as much of the content in the middle as time allows for, but at least with the intro and ending completed first, I will ensure that there will be a complete story no matter what.
Any feedback or advice would be appreciated 🙂
Hey Stacie, I really like your new project and think your idea is really nice. I think making your own sound effects like having Gracie bark and your own composed music really helps I just hope it will really do the video justice and be able to help convey the emotions of Gracie during the piece. Because I think if the background music or sounds don’t really help the thesis or convey Gracie’s emotions it could hurt the thesis. I wonder if you’ve thought of narrating the piece while Gracie is walking around or you intend on having the music fully convey Gracie’s adventure and emotions throughout the whole project. Either way, I think it can end up really well. I also do like that fully mapped out what you’re going to do month by month. Good luck.
Hi Stacie! I know how you feel about leaving ASL with Alice behind for now, I’m also still very attached to Sleepover Society 🙁 I think that your new plan is very well laid out and definitely manageable. I think it’s smart to do the beginning and end first, since Gracie obviously needs to escape and come back. This should help to alleviate some stress/pressure, since you won’t have to rush to get a segment done. Whatever you are able to finish will look great! I think the emotions of the film can be conveyed entirely through music and you won’t need voice actors at all. This will also help with keeping your team small and manageable instead of having to hunt people down to send you lines.
Hi Stacy! I think your new plan sounds very cute. It’s really interesting that you found inspiration from something that happened in real life. Your digital drawings are always really good so I think you have the skillset to be able to pull this off really well! And you seem to have a lot of connections for music, which is great. I would recommend trying to learn that animation program ASAP though. I find that sometimes it’s best to just force yourself to make something with it that isn’t necessarily your final project, since I tend to get bogged down when first learning a program and sometimes that kills my motivation, which you won’t want for your thesis. Perhaps that is just me and the way I learn, but I can say from my own half-year thesis experience that I wish I started learning how to use FL Studio sooner so I could get into recording easier. Overall, I think this will turn out well and your choice to change your project due to lack of funds to properly pay Deaf creators is very admirable.