PRODUCTION DIARY

BROTHERS

Prie Mahendra – UP689999

CT6APME

INITIAL IDEA■ I wanted to use this unit as an opportunity to showcase my 2D animation skills, as I understand that I am

not the most creative soul when it comes to a narrative. Therefor throughout the project the goal would be to show what I could be capable of, showing my strengths as much as possible. I also wanted to use this opportunity to redevelop a character I had sketched for a weight lift project during my 2nd year.

■ I felt this would make things a lot easier for me as the character would be based around myself, therefor any action or reaction would be of my own. I believe this will help me get into to animation a lot more, and bring out some personality to the character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahjT6SdGrmw

Due to the character being based around me, I would make the project something I would enjoy, so I wanted to make it some what comedic but in a harsh manner. I wanted it to be dark, maybe not everyone’s taste but something that would push boundaries. However going too far make me look insane and unemployable so a middle ground had to found.

Cartoons were a big influence from this point, I wanted different styles, forms, values from different animations. I made it a point to become familiar with what would be a great importance to the project. I watched ‘BoJack horseman’ as the lead character had the general outlook on life for my character. ‘The MarvelousMisadventures of Flapjack’ To find the character bond from two of the lead characters; Flapjack and K’nuckles. Therefore I needed to introduce a secondary character to juxtapose the characters behaviours to bring some interest to the project. This idea was reinforced by ‘Regular Show’ but I also had a great interest in the background art, a watercolour texture. Also seen in ‘Chowder’.

Character Reconstruction■ After watching a lot of cartoons, I realised my character was very clunky, almost robotic and lacking

emotion. Even though I wanted to emphasis his character to be extremely care free, emotionally detached and very lazy; I felt that the character form would be a problem to animate. So I roughed out a new shape and did very quick initial sketches of possible reconstructions.

Inspirations - Character

https://vimeo.com/12077673

Character perspectives and designs. Over the top animation with rotoscope inputs.

https://vimeo.com/12460189

POV shots, I liked the idea of this.

https://vimeo.com/78139587

Character movement and style

https://vimeo.com/30981875

Lack of background is a good idea, also very stylized.

https://vimeo.com/122063865

Style

https://vimeo.com/18031056

Very stylized, seems easy to recreate. My

kind of style.

https://vimeo.com/85088905 https://vimeo.com/85088906

https://vimeo.com/145897706

Almost minimalistic with use of lines, very cool

https://vimeo.com/144736865

Great style, potentially what I want to do.

https://vimeo.com/146344070

General Inspiration

https://vimeo.com/146226360

https://vimeo.com/40752722

https://vimeo.com/134001795

https://vimeo.com/56895435

https://vimeo.com/51986379

https://vimeo.com/25472085

https://vimeo.com/88034794

https://vimeo.com/142261582

https://vimeo.com/145836531

https://vimeo.com/50600924

https://vimeo.com/49726263

https://vimeo.com/89339015

https://vimeo.com/117249231

Original Storyboard Concept

Initially, I imagined two brothers asleep in a shared

room. The lazy older brother at the bottom bunk

and an energetic eager younger brother on the top.

The animation would be about the older brother

has been given the responsibility to take his

brother to school and pick him up. The child is

eager, the older brother on the other hand would

rather do anything else. You see the clashing

personalities throughout the film, one lazy, slow,

unmotivated. The other always happy, energetic,

unaware anything that could ruin his mood. They

arrive to school late and the younger brother does

not take this well, he’s thrown over the gate,

through the window and into his class. Making it

just as the bell rings for the class to begin. Making

happy as ever. The older brother heads home only

to get distracted and forget to pick up his brother.

Credits roll to show a time-lapse of the younger

brother waiting through kids leaving, rain, car

splashes, the cold night before it ends.

The initial idea had a base, but was boring and weak

narratively. I could see that and was told the same. My lack

of creativity with stories had become a problem and slowed

down what had been a good start to the pre pre-production.

A couple of weeks had past before I finally came up with a

new aspect to the story, hopefully giving it the drama

needed to keep the audience entertained or at least

focused.

Character Reconstruction ■ During the weeks I was contemplating the storyline to fix the kinks, I continued to

develop my characters and backgrounds, gathering reference images to help guide

me to what I could clearly see in my head, but could not yet get out.

AnimaticThe animatic has progressed and the storyline is much stronger than before. I try to get the urgency of time

from the older brother as he has something planned for the morning, only to find out he’s only waiting for a

parcel. However I am still not completely happy with the storyline as is and am working towards changing it

once again; everything up till to school will be kept and improved but there after will be changed.

■ This is the improved first half of the animatic as it will be. The rest of the story is

defined in the script.

Style

■ The final style I’d like to achieve would be close to what I have created on my man

character design sheets. With watercolour background, similar to what is seen in

‘Chowder’, and very minimal sketchy outlines to go with this. Therefore I will also

implement this method onto my character design.