Backgrounds

I tried out different ways to draw the backgrounds for the animation, the first couple of drawings were drawn in photoshop using pastel brushes, the last one was drawn with charcoal on paper.

Silhouette animation

Some examples of silhouette animation sequences I've finished, the backgrounds still need to be drawn behind the animation. I have two options for the rocking chair sequence were the chair could be either posterised or made into a silhouette.

Stop motion

Below are a few examples of stop motion I have animated for my film. I tried some shots from different angles and some extreme closeups of the objects. I used a tripod and a cannon camera to take the photos and then exported them into quicktime.

Opening sequence

This is the set I've used for my opening sequence, I've gathered random items like jewelry and ornaments that I've being given over the years, and some things from my childhood such as an old dress, books and toys. The set it lit with a spotlight from the right side. The following pictures are from when i was testing to see what difference the lighting settings make on the camera. I went with the last one as it takes out a lot of the yellow from the tungsten light.

I then filmed the opening scene for my film. At first, I tried filming the panning shot that I had planned from my storyboard but since there wasn't sufficient space, it didn't work very well.

I then discovered that the spotlight made interesting shadows of the objects when moved around, so I then used it to make the introduction sequence.

Animation.

So far I've finished some five second sequences of animation for the film. I've completed the line-art and colour but I still need to draw up the backgrounds for both. The frames are drawn at 12 frames per second.

Storyboard

To come up with the scenes for the film, I did some brain storming of various 15 second scenes and quickly sketched small story boards for each one to see how they might act out, I then chose my favourite scenes and drew out my film storyboard.

Film synopsis:
The camera pans across a room and focuses on a table full of clutter, camera focuses on jewelry box, the box opens and the jewelry pours out across the table circling a locket in the middle of the circle.



The camera pans across a room and focuses on a table full of clutter, camera focuses on jewelry box, box opens and the jewelry pours out across the table circling a locket which come outs in the middle of the circle.



The locket opens up to show a picture of a rocking chair which starts to animate, the scene fades to a room were a child and her grandmother are sitting on the rocking chair, the child gets down and walks across the room to the piano where her older sister is playing, the child watches and the camera focuses on the hands playing the piano.



The camera switches back to the view of the locket and the locket snaps shut. The jewelry spins around the locket again. The camera focuses in on opened locket with a view of a garden. Some children and pet dogs come running down the path.



Then there are random sequences of the garden and the animals. The scene finishes with a view of the cherry blossom tree while the child and her mother walk under it.



The locket closes up and the jewelry moves back into the jewelry box. The scene then fades to black.

Drawing style tests

The following are little rotoscoping tests I've done from some photo sequences. I tried out plain pencil lineart, lineart plus paint colour and coloured sketches.