08.04.24 – Introduction to Lip Sync, including choosing your audio, and moodboards

We were introduced to the second elective, Lip Sync. By the end of today’s workshop, we had to pick an 10-15 second audio that we would animate to. I was stuck between audios from Coffee or Peppermint by Jack Stauber, or the bathroom scene from La La Land. I thought one of the first two would be interesting as they were pieces of music that also leaned into dialogue (especially Peppermint, which was an argument between two people), but the bathroom scene would be easier (less abstract) whilst also giving me more room with more characters. In the end, I chose La La Land.

10.04.24 – Talking about narrative structure, scripts, beat sheets and storyboards

For today, we had to prepare moodboards and initial sketches. For my animation, I was thinking of something somewhat similar to the actual clip, although probably a cooler colour palette around pink and purple. I didn’t have any sketches to present, although some ideas of what I was imagining, which influenced what I looked for on Pinterest. Some pins I had included mirrors as I was thinking about camera shots.

I’m not fast at working, so I want to keep the number of camera shots to a minimum so that I draw less backgrounds (I’m also not great at backgrounds either). However, to compromise, I think a mirror shot would be interesting where we see all the characters moving around in the bathroom and reflection. I wouldn’t have to cut to different shots between the girl (talking to Mia) and Mia. It also gives me more of a challenge as I would have to animate characters twice at different angles.

12.04.24 – Character design, construction, turnarounds, diversity in design, and aesthetics

We had to prepare our final (or near) storyboard for today, as well as an animatic using the frames we drew. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the workshop going over character design in-depth.

weekend

Over the weekend, I made character turnarounds. I was sticking to a simplified version of my own style as it is what I’m most comfortable with drawing consistently enough for an animation, though simplified for the reason of making the production a lot easier later. I want to keep the characters in easy clothes to animate too.

I avoided colouring the characters in these as I didn’t have a background yet. I want to sort that out first before giving them colour to see if they would fit in or clash colours.