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Softwares

In terms of production software, I mainly use Adobe Illustrator (AI) and Adobe After Effects(AE). In the early stage, I mainly used AI to draw animated characters: boy, girl, and puppy, animated scenes and some small objects, such as bicycles and schoolbags. And import these characters into AE for bone binding. In the middle of production, I will adjust the action of the animation character in AE and make animation shots according to the storyboard. Then import the appropriate music in AE and edit the video sequence. Finally, render and export the animation.

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Styleframe

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MoodBoard

In terms of animation style, I considered for a long time and finally decided to make an MG animation. The reasons are as follows:

1. It's not always easy to tell a complete story in a minute, and it's even harder to express the right emotions. This requires good narrative and pacing. One of the advantages of MG animation is its rich picture and strong sense of rhythm, which is very conducive to expression.

2. Compared with other forms of animation, MG animation has a faster transition. Considering that there are three different scenes in my project, MG animation can make my transition smooth and fast.

3. I'm not very good at hand-drawing. Using AI and AE software can make up for my shortcomings. For me, MG animation is a good choice.

pictures from Internet

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Storyboard

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Storyboard

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Case Study:’Feasty’

I carefully referred to and analyzed the best animated short film "feast" at the 87th Academy Awards. This cartoon mainly tells the story of a stray dog that was found, adopted, and named Winston. Winston was well taken care of in his new master's house. We ate all kinds of delicious food. Until one day, his host met the girlfriend that holds healthy life concept, Winston did not like green food at all. Fortunately, his annoyance was relieved when his owner broke up with his girlfriend.  Winston faces lose, decadent host, finally understood the master's mood, help host person got his girlfriend back eventually.

In this animation, there are many talented and attractive points. 

The first is the shooting angle. In the aspect of expressing different perspectives by changing shooting angles, animation has the creative freedom that real shooting does not have. "Feast" takes full advantage of the dog's low angle of view, the story of another mainline: the details of the owner's life cleverly arranged in the foreground or background of the camera picture. Because the space that low angle can show is limited, make such arrangement not disorderly. This design not only enriched the content of the picture but also increased the pleasure of viewing. Through this low angle of view, the audience can see the food and clothing of the dog Winston objectively, but also with its ignorant angle of view, for the audience is vaguely inadvertently understand the owner's life. In animation, when the dog Winston just a accept food puppy, director, mainly from its right side, placed in the middle of the picture to the left, and when it was confused about the master mood, director, placed it on the screen the location of the center-right, perhaps the director wants to express the thinking, awakening, and the change of the role.

The second is film editing. "Feast" is an animated work that follows the development of life with time continuity and revolves around the "eating" of the dog. As a result, 30 percent of the footage is naturally connected through the actions of Winston. Winston's happy and gloomy movements before and after each meal lead the audience directly to the next moment of eating. For example, Winston looked at the master who had picked up the vegetable from the snack, and the next shot connected the scene which the dog had seen, leaning weakly on the table and looking sadly at the master who had the vegetable. In the conflict between the host and his girlfriend, the girlfriend opened the door and left, and the host rushed to the refrigerator. In the next scene, the host started to eat too much food at the dinner table. Here, through editing, the action of the characters breaks the previous plot rhythm and moves to the later story develop naturally.

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‘PUPPY’ Story

This story mainly tells about a puppy, a stray dog, living a poor and hungry life, one day, it did not find food, hungry squatting on the road. Then a string of chickens appeared in front of him. The boy saw it pitiful and gave it food. Puppy immediately ate the delicious skewers of meat. At this time, from their side by a girl, the boy saw her from a distance, blushed, but did not dare to speak. All these are watched by puppy. It caught up with the boy's bike and carried off his bag. Startled, the boy ran after the dog. After running for some time, he found puppy squatting not far in front of him. He was about to get angry when he saw the girl he liked was beside him, and her bike was broken. The boy plucked up his courage and went to help the girl. At the end of the story, the boy, the girl, and the puppy go home happily.

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‘PUPPY’Story Spine

Act 1.   Once upon a time, there was a stray dog. 

Act 2.   One day a boy gave Puppy a chicken kebab. Because of that, the dog was grateful to the boy. Because of that, the dog snatched the boy's bag, and create opportunities for the boy to communicate with the girls he likes。

Act 3.   Until finally they came home together.

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‘PUPPY’Story Arc

This animation uses the standard Traditional animation narrative structures. At the beginning of the short film, it introduces the background environment of the story, followed by the first plot point of the short film -- The boy fed the stray dog food, and from then on, the boy and the stray dog formed a bond. Then came the biggest conflict in the story: The boy's favorite girl appeared. When the second turning point occurs: The dog carried off the boy's bag, the story reaches the climax, the boy met the girl he liked and went to help her repair the bike. In the end, together, they went home happily. This narrative structure is complete and delicate, making the plots very compact.

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Narrative analysis

The narrative of the animation《the box》is in a dark box, there lives a group of tree-rooted but humanoid tree-people, all of whom look dim and groggy. One day, a new life was born inside the box. It was different from other spirit of the same kind, the young tree people energetic, rich feelings, it is curious about all the unknown things, and has a strong desire to explore. Other tree people to this alien cynicism, constantly suppressed. As the young tree man showed his character again and again, he was hit again and again, and his personality was constantly compressed, and gradually to assimilate with other tree people, resistance, struggle, hatred in this narrow space launched. The young tree man pulled his legs out of the roots and jumped out of the dark box world.

This short film uses the standard Traditional animation narrative structures. At the beginning of the short film, it introduces the background environment of the story, followed by the first plot point of the short film -- the birth of little tree man. Then came the biggest conflict in the story: the tree man's personality was very different from that of the others. When the second turning point occurs: the young tree man is severely suppressed and his personality is about to disappear, the story reaches the climax, the young tree man breaks free and climbs out of the box. In the end, the author also left a suspense, an old tree man's eyes flashed the same light as the young tree man. The ending takes the film's moral to another level. This narrative structure is complete and delicate, making the plots very compact.

The coming-of-age story is a little darker and more complex, with disturbing emotional violence, nightmarish graphic character designs, distorted skin tones and blurred colors. But outstanding expressiveness and attention to detail, reasonable action, sound and story push make the characters more vivid. There are many contrasts in this film: it is a claustrophobic dark world, but there is funny humor and joy; the young tree man, with childlike character, was in sharp contrast to the other inhabitants. These contrasts reinforce the theme of the story, which is the contradiction between personality and rules. This is a realistic metaphorical animation, and real society can be regarded as this box. In the process of growing up, people are bound by various social rules and polished, and finally, like everyone else, How to keep their true character is the problem that needs to be reflected upon after watching this short film.

Reference:

Dušan Kastelic.,2019,Thinking Outside “The Box” by Dusan Kastelic,viewd 02 Aug 2019, Accessed at:https://www.stashmedia.tv/thinking-the-box-dusan-kastelic/