This is our second animatic that I re-did. I used the images from the colour script to put it all together so it’s a little more consistent because it’s all done in the same art style, and the colours. I did realise though however, that there’s some parts missing at the beginning, just before the hand passes the glass. It stretches on for a long time in the animatic, but after a group discussion, we realised that we missed out one setting where the character it sitting at the bar, which then follows onto the cup scene. So it isn’t in this animatic, but it will be in the final animation!
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For this project, I had to create a mythological creature for the modern world. I had to use my animation skills to showcase a variety of ways on how my character interacts with the modern world. I was to show this by creating 3 sequences of any time length, showing the dynamics of my character and to create a Character Bible, my own bestiary book of iterative designs and concept art.
I found creating my character a really cool process, as I’ve never really been into Mythology before. I didn’t really know where to start, so I began looking into different mythologies. I took a liking to water mythologies in particular, and sea creatures. I began doing some designs soon after looking at various water-based creatures, and had the idea of creating a water serpent, that would lure in sailors or other animals to feed on with glowing lights that were attached to it’s body. The Angler Fish really heavily influenced me – and how it uses its glow stick like organ to lead in other fish. I had done some iterative designs on my water serpent, developing different styles and designs to form a final character. As soon as we were introduced to the project, I immediately knew what animation style I would like to work in. I chose to do stop motion, because it’s something I love doing, and felt like I was improving in but I also wanted some kind of 2D aspect because I hadn’t done 2D in a while and I thought I’d push myself. However, due to the idea I had of a water serpent that didn’t have legs or arms, it was going to be difficult to animate a character like that in stop motion, without the proper equipment. I also didn’t have any way of gaining underwater images for the modern photographic background we were asked to use. So I had decided against that idea, and started fresh. I did eventually come to an idea, still sticking to the water creature theme and it being based on the Angler Fish. I decided to look into humanoids and the mythologies around them, as they had limbs and designs I could work with in stop motion. I really still liked the idea of having a swamp-like/dark woodland creature that uses this glowing light that brings others in, so I based my character’s behaviour and general idea on that. I came to the conclusion that I wanted a character that was quite evil, and was something others were afraid of. I had based my designs and story of my character on deceit and manipulation and eventually had a name for my character, which meant deceiver (Tamaa).
Having coming to this idea, I was easily able to come up with a backstory of my character. My main focus was greed and manipulation, and that it feeds off of other’s greed. Basing my character off of these themes, allowed me to easily pick a colour scheme of dark greens and greys as they are considered as evil colours.
Making my model didn’t take too long, and I was soon animating and figuring out what I would like to do for my sequences. I had decided for my dynamic pieces that I would do a walk cycle, a sequence where Tamaa would be interacting with a cast mate, by entrancing him into a sleep-like state, so he is unable to move, by using his glowing flesh on his head and then finally showing the strength of my character as he throws the cast mate about, and drags him out of shot. At first, did some test shots of each sequence, when my model was only half finished. This allowed me to get used to the idea of his movement, and what kind of spacing I would be looking at when it came to my final shoot. I think the tests went okay, as my material proved quite easy to work with. I liked how the tests turned out, but they did show me areas that I needed to work on. Like my walk cycle for example, I needed to work on my weight and effort, as the model ended up ending a little heavier in the back compared to my drawings. Each test had shown me different results, but ultimately, I think I need to work on the weight of my character when he walks around in each sequence, and that I need to tone down my spacing in between movements, as it would go from one position to another too quick.
During filming my final films, I had some difficulty with my model, as it wouldn’t stay upright and became unbalanced with the extra-added materials making my walk cycle no better than the tests that I had done previously. The model slightly just shuffles along awkwardly which I don’t like, and feel like it could be better. I do like my second and third sequences however; I liked the movement of Tamaa and ideas in general. I feel like I made much slower movements, making the animation flow easier, and look less jumpy. Collectively, without the backgrounds/sound design,
I think when it came to editing, was when I had most fun with this project. I really enjoyed doing sound design for my sequences! I had looked into different types of lizard sounds and alien noises, for my character. I thought it would be cool to have a clicking sound each time he went to turn his head, which is usually only once or twice. I looked around for a while, and found two clicking noises, one, which does a singular click, and the other, which has an echo at the end. I also added in an alien light ray kind of sound as Tamaa uses his fleshy light during one of the sequences. I think this worked really well, with the atmosphere of the animation, and it gave it a really cool effect. I didn’t really want any footstep sounds for my character, because the walk cycle was so quick, and I couldn’t really find anything that fit it, so I had decided to add in background noises instead. I used a forest ambience sound for my backing track to play quietly whilst the main sounds like the clicking and the light ray sounds played as Tamaa interacted with the cast mate. I think the sound I have works really well in my animations and I’m really proud of how my animations turned out overall. At the beginning I was a bit worried, as I felt that they weren’t that great with how wrong filming had gone, but with sound and my edited photos, I think they look pretty good. The only thing that did annoy me with editing, was I wasn’t able to get most of the blue screen out from my animation. I find that there is a small blue outline that surrounds my character, that I wasn’t able to get out without erasing my character completely due to reflections, but there are some areas where the blue works, as it darkens my photos a little bit more, and almost gives off an mystical feel to the animation.
Overall, my animations are not perfect, but I do still feel like I am improving with each project that I do. This has been a very stressful project in the unit, but I have enjoyed it. It has pushed me as an animator working with a design I haven’t done before (not human). I really did enjoy the project and editing all my animations and putting my character bible together. I really liked the combination of stop motion and 2D that I used for my character, and it’s something I would like to try again for a new project.
Unreliable narrators have been admired by readers and writer alike since Holden Caulfield set the gold standard—and they’re more popular than ever in today’s bestsellers. Here are 8 reliable ways to make your characters just unreliable enough to keep readers guessing.
Some helpful tips on how to write Unreliable Narrators! This was super helpful understanding the Unreliable Narrators trope, and how I could improve my story on these simple 8 tips!
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These are a few examples of books that use the Unreliable Narrator trope! It was cool to see some examples of books that used the trope in their writing, it was helpful to look at writing styles and why the author’s chose to write this way.
