So, Sandra and myself met around one to work on our animation. In retrospective, it turned out to be a really good idea to story board on Illustrator, since this way, our main characters were easily transfered into the Flash environment. Although we did not need to redraw any frame, we did have to discuss the main ideas and what we wanted the main characters to do, so we did had a small white paper to work on nearby.
The only big “problem” we encountered was the fact that once we “cloned” the characters, and started working on them it turned out that the program - or our lack on expertise on it - decided to apply those changes to the original character. Hopefully we have saved the original work, and now we know that we have to be really careful regarding this.
Finally, and after some discussion, we have “added” a couple of actions, and taken away some others. We think it works better this way, and are eagerly waiting to see what the class has to say.
The more I read about how to Story Board, whether for a “live” shoot or for animation, the more it reminds me of “Understanding Comics”. It is becoming clear that we are working on the invisible, on the being able to produce adequate triggers for the audience. When we present our projects in class, it is obvious that the audience wants to fill in the gaps, wants to interpret what is being presented as something that is familiar. There is almost a desire to identify the particular situation and empathize with it. We, as audience, as human beings in the face of other’s work are almost compelled to “fill in the blanks”.
Because of all this, in the end “less is more”. In my opinion, the best advice (if it could be taken as such) the hand out gives is: “Like all forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye”.
So, animation is not necessary – or not at all – meant for children. Is just another way to illustrate ideas or thoughts, and we have to concentrate of delivering the story in a compact fashion. Thus it is indispensable to have a plan, i.e. a GOOD Story Board to be able to perform at an adequate level.
Sandra and myself (since this exercise was meant to be done in pairs) met over dinner, and decided on the story line, as well as “divided” between ourselves who was going to do what according to our schedules.
The finished story board is a post, under this same category (animation) and is called “Gol!”. Enjoy.
This is our (Sandra’s and mine) animation storyboard. Enjoy!
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