CT6MAJAN - Preproduction

University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 3 - Major Project Animation

The storyboarding process proved to be quite tricky. While the message in the audio clip was indeed dramatic, we had a hard time coming up with appropriate images to accompany it. We have tried as much as possible to avoid showing exactly what was being narrated, but that put us under more pressure instead, since we had to come up with other symbolic images. 

We had decided to both come up with ideas, compare them, and then choose the best options. 

My experience from the previous year, in working with ink, has influenced the first few iterations of the storyboard. Because I was confident with my After Effects skills, I wanted to make a movie with mostly silhouettes, double exposure and ink bleeding transitions between the images. 

Mihaela's concept pieces: 

 

My animation tests, based on her concept:

Both I and Mihaela participated in the brain storming process, but we decided to split our work load and focus on different things: while I was still working on the sound design, she decided to draw the actual storyboards. 

1st version:

Meanwhile, we have decided to focus on the idea of the fire and therefore the animation had two main symbols: the candle and the firefly.

Final version:

Since, again, that seemed to be too literal, we tried to take another approach. The answer came after being shown the movie "Boy" (https://youtu.be/SIOUfrlnMx0). While still keeping the silhouetted aspect of it, we have tried to give our animation a more gritty look, which suited the audio.