"METRO" by Jacob Wyatt

Another animation made in a similar style to what I would like to achieve. Here, the characters are made up mainly of solid block colours, and in particular regard to the fox, become simple lines and shapes to convey their movement, and yet everything is clear and easy to follow. The backgrounds also have an interesting style, made up of mostly abstract and geometric shapes at first before gradually becoming more organic. What I also find interesting about this animation, is that not all the scenes fit the entire frame, some only taking up small square areas, and the most iconic being a narrow strip showing the character entering the area full of pipes, which really gives a stronger feeling of grandeur and scale to the scene. It almost seems like it was arranged in the same way a comic book would normally be, and incorporated into animation.

Rosalina's Storybook - Super Mario Galaxy

Some more inspiration for the style I want to use in this animation comes from a storybook inside the game, Super Mario Galaxy. The images are all drawn in a pastel effect, with soft colours and selective details used to tell the story of the little girl and her adventures in space. While the colour scheme here is more adhered to a younger audience, the style of the girl is similar to what I'd like to aim for, and the pastel effect is what I would like to apply to my own work.

"Crayon Dragon" by Toniko Pantoja

Crayon Dragon from Toniko Pantoja on Vimeo. This is another piece of inspiration for my animation, not only is the story clear and easy to follow, but the character design is similar to what I'd like to try out with my animation; bold, block colours with few lines used to define certain features. I like the use of desaturated colours too.

"Heart" by Jamie Caliri

This stop-motion animation is one of the inspirations for the stylistic choice I intend to use for my animation. I particularly like the shapes that the characters and environments are made up of, and how the details are only used very selectively such as for the faces. Also, while my animation will be hand drawn, I would like to incorporate a cut-out paper feel into the style, so it almost has the appearance of a living picture book.

Introduction

Hello! My name is Penelope Carmichael, I am a university student studying Computer Character Animation, and this is my project blog for my Final Year Project.

For my project, I intend on creating a short 2D animation, using software such as Toon Boom and Photoshop, to tell the story of a woman who is just about to get married, however her husband is nowhere to be found. My intention is for this animation to be quite artistic and stylised, using simple shapes and a limited colour palette to portray the characters and their world with, though my main focus is going to be on getting the story itself across in the most successful way possible.

Here I will be posting all the progress I make throughout the course of working on my project, including research, scripts, concept art, works-in-progress and, of course, the final animation once it has been completed.

I hope to be able to use my skills to the best of my ability within this project, and I am also looking forward to learning new skills along the way.