Storyboard project...

After talking to Kathy about my final storyboard, I'm quite positive about it and the style I did it in. I really enjoyed this project as I think at the moment it is the pre-production and drawing/designing side of animation that I like the most. I have added in a few extra frames from the pictures I posted before and will post the final storyboard as soon as I can. I'm glad I did do the extra frames as I think it helps to pull the story together and you can now see better what is happening step by step, as well as adding some more interesting angles.
I decided not to do the storyboard in colour as I personally think that, at this stage they tend look better in black and white and I also feel a lot more comfortable initially working in this medium. Perhaps when they are more developed and the concept art for the piece has been thought about a Little more I would add colour and re-produce a few of the frames to test colours and conceptual design.
If I were to change any part of the storyboard, I think I could have worked a little more on the end few scenes just to get more detail into them and have them draw a little better. I would also quite like to develop this story further..maybe make an animatic from the storyboard and eventually I would really like to create this as a short animation. Perhaps a project for me over the summer!


Now that I have completed the storyboard project, I think it is important that I focus on the Hayle project. Having met with my group before the weekend we managed to do some filming which should help us to recreate the movements we want for Winnie and also for me to focus on her facial expression and lip sync a little more. This weekend I have been working on the lip sync and body movement of the old winnie character in the opening scene of the animation. I think, as with this part she is simply sitting and talking directly at the camera (or maybe person behind the camera)it is important that we get as much character and personality into her as possible through lip-sync and body language. So far I have done one very short test of the first sentence she says. This worked quite well but I don't think the mouth timing was quite right. To continue this testing I have created standard mouth shapes for syllables and letters that can be put together hopefully to create what she is saying. I have then focused on the body separately and created some movements and hand gestures she may make when talking. After finishing these tests today I am hoping to scan them tomorrow to put them with sound so that they can be discussed with the rest of my group and I can focus a little better on what needs to be changed and fitted with the sound and speech. It will also help to put the facial and head movements together with the body movement to really bring the character together. By tomorrow we should also have the backgrounds and concept art completed so that we can put that and some movement test together to see how it look and what can be changed and improved.

Due to these two projects I haven't been thinking much about the 2D character and lip-sync project. Although this could be very helpful towards the Hayle project, particularly for the part of the animation I am working on, I obviously need to put the Hayle project first as it is the final group project. I really would like to continue with my own 2D character and learn a lot more about working in 2D however along side the other projects.