Telling Tales - Week 3

 During this week I decided to draft out my storyboard so that I have a clear idea of the storyline and how long each scene might take.

 These storyboards visualise how the mouse is seen as the prey first before he turns around to reveal his scars and gun. The tables are then turned and the prey has turned into the predator. I'd like to interpret this as a symbol of humanity, we as humans are the weak vulnerable mouse but with the tools/weapons we become the deadliest predator.

 Images of my mouse character from different angles, for my animated turn around.

Telling Tales - Week 2

Sparrowhawk and Peregrine Falcon

During this week I focused on creating more designs for my characters and possible weapons for my very main character (who will need them to turn from prey to predator)

As shown above I look at birds of prey and tried drawing up an anthropomorphic Sparrowhawk. However I decided I will use a realistic design for the bird of prey.

Poses

Above I considered medieval weapons for my prey character but felt I was focusing to much on medieval weapons like the mice in 'Mouse Guard'. Therefore I considered using more modern weapons like guns and knives which I believe will work well.

Concepts for final main character design

Below is my final design for my main prey character. However, by the end of the animation he could be percieved as the predator. As noted in the image 'eyes of a predator face forward' most animated animal character designs' eyes face forward despite their species. This could be even more distinctive in my story if I keep the bird of prey anatomically accurate, as it is in real life. This will emphasise how stylised my supposed 'prey' character really is because a prey's eyes, like mice, don't point forward but to the sides.

Gangster Mouse

Telling Tales - Week 1

During this week I focused on relating everything I needed for the title I chose, 'Predator Prey'.

Especially smaller predators and prey as my immediate inspiration for the title 'Predator Prey' was the comic called 'Mouse Guard.

'Mouse Guard' Moodboard

The idea of mice using weapons and tools like medieval warriors gave me the idea to portray a twist in which animal is the predator and which is the prey. Mice most naturally are percieved as the prey but give them the weapons and skills to kill larger animals (such as predators) they turn into the predator. I also thought this can be percieved as how weapons for us as humans has made us into the most deadliest of predators.

Other anthropomorphic creatures Moodboard

Considering the mice in 'Mouse Guard' are quite anthropomorphic in how they stand and hold/use weapons I considered other anthropomorphic creatures as shown.

Designs I made this first week:

Character Head Concepts

Character Bodies Concepts

Character Final Concepts

One Final Character Concept and Range of anthropomorphic hands

Chosen Medium (Drawn Animation) - Angles

When considering the best medium to show angles drawn animation is the fastest way. However, a CG environment would be easier to get any angle from since you don't need to draw the scene again from a different angle (though rendering CGI takes longer). There are many animations CG can achieve easily compared to drawn. Even past few Disney films are CG and has been a few years since their last drawn animation, though this can be by preferred choice.

Mob Psycho 100, episode 1

As shown above in this drawn anime series the entire room along with the characters has to be drawn animated. The animator would need to have a good idea of what the room looked like from each angle and where each character is placed.

Attack on Titan, episode 24

A combination of drawn and CGI for different parts of the animation can be used to take advantage of the benefits of both methods. As shown above, the characters and any objects interacting with them are all drawn which doesn't take up much time, whereas the CG buildings in the background cover a huge area and it would too complex to draw them all from every angle.

Chosen Medium (Drawn Animation) - Time

 

With my prefered medium the amount of time spent drawing is a main factor in making a drawn animation the best quality possible. The way a character(s) moves is the most important factor of making a great animation, even with simplistically designed characters. Depending on the detail 2-3 seconds could take hours, several days, weeks or months.

"Terkoiz' Showcase Content" from Hyun's Dojo

 Above are simply designed stickmen yet they move and fight with great detail. This shows that detail isn't so important in animation but given more time an animation with just as much fluid movement (or more) can be made with great detail. Within the 12 principles of animation factor like timing is mentioned but none of them include the importance of a detailed character.

The Boy and The Beast, Kumatetsu vs Lozen

This fight scene from 'The Boy and The Beast' shows great detail in the movements and design of the characters. However, obviously this would take a huge amount of time to draw and animate. Every detail such as the hair, fur and clothing are repeatedly drawn over and over again in each frame (considering most big studios animate 60 frames per second).

Tales of Earthsea, Dragon

However, considering other mediums like CGI and stop motion which take longer drawn animation does not involve as greater effort.