Development

Pinning down the IDEA

With the initial idea and first finalized idea I write down different ideas and quickly sketch down the idea.

Breaking down the ideas into "Story Beats & Story Moments" by Maurice Noble.

Location : Ordinary Malaysian old town flat, a lively neighbourhood with rows of shop houses and ‘kopitiam’ coffee shop
Time : 10 years ago. Although it was set 10 years ago, the environment did not change much compared to now. What make the difference is the design of the building, utensil and prop used.
Time of the Day : Morning 10 a.m where the girl (age 4) play with her toys in her room. Afternoon 1 p.m when the girl (age 7) came back home from school.
Props : The difference between children kitchen utensil and adult kitchen utensil. Packaging brand which can be easily recognized as Malaysian home decoration. Props design such as bowls, storage cupboard, floor tiles and other appliances has to fit in the environment. For example, one will not find ceiling fan in a British house, but in Malaysia house there will be ceiling fan. It is due to the climate. All these little details will make a little difference.
Mood : Ambitious girl, fun, warm and lovely relationship between the mum and daughter.

Story Arc

Exposition

Rising

Climax

Falling

Resolution

**Breakdown the story and the character characteristic**

Characters Development

From the few ideas pin down, I started with some sketches of the little girl character design.

The very first of facial expression for the girl and trying out some hair accessories. It was just a simple design with the thought of silhouette of the character design as the costume will not have any chance to enhance that.

A quick digital sketch of the girl's room layout

Experiment with different head shapes for the character

As the process keep going, I start to research character poses for the girl in age 4 and 6. I used photo references I get from internet to quickly get down the poses I might have it in the animation / concepts.

Age 6 : The body feature will be elongate from the

** Droop shoulder, because the bone structure is not fully formed. She is still growing but her motor skills has fully developed.

Age 4 : The face and body still contain baby fats. her movements is slightly restricted as in height or motor skills of a younger child is not fully developed.

At this stage, I start straight from character poses rather than the character design. Next, I focused on character development for the main character, little girl. There are 2 stage of her age, when she is 4 and when she is 6.

A quick shape design of character below to move on character sheet.

The problem I found out later was I should have done the character design before moving into character expression sheet. I don't like the character I designed and I will explain why next to the image.

I do not like the facial expression of the character sheet. I find it is not a strong character to represent South East Asia characters.

In contrast, I like the colours of the costume design.

**Revisit the character design, colours, when the environment is done. **

Storyboards

During the lecture with Bianca Ansems, I did my quick thumbnails storyboards with Bianca. She pin point some adjustment to the composition and how I can improve the camera angle. (It was explained in Project Management as well).

Take out the POV shot, it is not necessary in the story

Establishing shot,

Slow camera track, straight cut into the window.

These transition shot is telling information which is good

Focus on the relationship between the mum and the child. For me I feel the story elements her is the relationship between the mum and the child.

Give a nice ending of the story. Your story is sweet and simple.

** Comments made by Bianca Ansems

The panel is not necessary, the audience will understand the POV. Think about staging, composition.

Next I am collaborating with the sound students to try to create atmospheric and foley for my piece of animation. So I export my storyboard into animatic to get the timing for the sound design. As a part of professional approach, I use Boords to design my storyboards with the action and sound description.

It can be accessed online here : https://app.boords.com/storyboards/q6vo75-my-first-omelette

Protected password : pfm17

and I exported a PDF version of it.

This is the first version of the animatic. After the tutorial, there will be a slight changes in the storyline.

I update Chris regarding the changes so that he will not work blindly on the previous version.

Redesigning the characters

Because I do not like the expression sheet and character design I did before, I took expressions of myself to redesign according to the reference.

Restructure the story line

After discussing the first story line with Dan, some changes to be made in order to keep the story short and sweet.

(Feedback is documented in Project Management)

New storyboard is updated with slight changes in story. Instead of going to the market, it is cut short with her mum is celebrating birthday for her in the kitchen with the present and ingredients for her first experience in cooking.

(Updated version of storyboards, where the market is replaced with the kitchen)

The main setting in the story now is just the girl's bedroom and the kitchen.

(Updated version of animatic)

Camera Angle

Deciding on camera angle before moving to previz to make sure I get the time and spacing right.

**Why did I choose some of the camera angles?**

3D Previz

3D Previz with chosen camera angle and character placement.

Having the previz ready helps me in the process of 2D animation in terms of composition.

Finalised characters

I had finalised characters for the girl and mum.

Age 4 : I remove the polka dot dress as it will be easier for me in animation later. The design do not change much.
Age 7: I change her age to 7 instead of 6. this is because I want to give her a solid identity as a Malaysian child. Age 7 is when children are compulsory to start their primary school. The school pinafore is unify in the whole country. So i decided to give her a school pinafore.
Mum : Sharper chin, rounder nose. The previous design is too serious as mum.

I took her advice and get my storyboard done digitally in Photoshop.

Environments

I start with layout designs and give it to Jake to model them in 3D.

2D Layouts : by me (Foong Mei)

3D Blocking : by Jake Preedy
Lighting : by me (Foong Mei) *explained under EXPERIMENT TAB*

Paint over and Colour Test

After getting the 3D model from Jake, I set up different camera angles and paint on top of the 3D model to create a 2D style. I start with black and white tonal value and I change the colour of the asset.
Lights were added to replicate the natural and realistic light. With the help of lights i set up in Maya, I can easily get the highlights that I want to show in a 2D space.

First of all, I want to have a colourful bedroom to show that it is a children room.
As for the kitchen I decided to use monochromatic to give a more sense of seriousness and also try to bring out the ingredients colour in the shot.

I sent the layout and colour choice to Celine Desrumaux (Production Designer for "The Little Prince") she gave me feedback as below.

Paintover and coloured by me (Foong Mei)

Exterior Design (Establishing Shot)
**Research Image and developing stage**

After getting her feedback, I really have to rethink my colour script at this moment. She made me think that my colours does not goes with the story. She said " Colors should support the story not the contrary!"

I came up with colour script to see if both the colour and story came together.

I tried a different colour bedroom to see if it is really working. I tend to keep the kitchen not that colourful. After having the colour script I see what works and what doesn't work.

Without wasting my time at this moment, I came up with detailed colour piece.

2D Animation

This is the first time of me trying out an entire 1 minute 45 seconds 2D hand drawn animation.

I overestimate time taken for me to finish the animation. I tried my best to finish the animation in 6 weeks.

First of all, due to time constraint, I start my animation straight ahead. I have rough sketch, clean up and colour in. This took me long time to do. In order to save my time, I mostly skip to clean up animation and colour in. The method is not recommended but I have no choice.

I realize my animation looks so stiff and almost not alive.

This is because lack of secondary animation and arc. I did try to attempt, but the result is still because I did not separate the body part. In later line animation that I able to finish, I separate the body part and I found it is easier to achieve the effects.

I can say that my animation is only the first pass. I wish to have more time and try to animate perfectly either 2 or 3 shots rather than the entire animation.

Debating whether the room colour should be blue or orange?

Feedback for blue : Sense of realism, morning, happy, character stands out more

Feedback for orange : Warm, evening, same colour coordination with the character

I chose the blue bedroom in the end.

As for the kitchen, I want it to be warm and happy as it portrays below.

Props Design

Props design elements.

Research.

Props in the scene will help to tell the place. I keep it subtle, everyday use props in Malaysian home.

*Some of the details is not added yet, depends on the time available in the end*

I had my props design in the early stage to help me with the story development as well as the characteristic of the character design.

The cheeks shape is weird,

I change it to be rounder next

The development transformation for the age 6 girl

Facial feature development. Came up with finalized facial feature

Sound and Music

Unfortunately, sound and music were unable to deliver on time. It is because I did not able to finish an entire animation.

Although it was not able to deliver on time, the communication between sound and music student has been good.

I keep updating them with my progress and they come back with first draft for music.

It is my choice, wanting to have a perfect piece in the final and not just simply sound and music.

As for the sound, because the tight schedule, he was not able to book a studio for Foley. Chris promise to work for the sound even though his portfolio unit is over.

We are working to aim completion for each other submission unit and Degree Show

First Music Draft