In my tutorial with Fred he suggested that I do the 3-6 stings and then if I don't finish them all I can just have three. But I decided to go for 30 seconds straight because I feel like the structure suites me better. And the way I was working last time was that the actual animation were lots of short clips that all related in a theme, then the music linked them together. So I decided I should go with the same structure as last time because it was a lot less complicated to think about once I split it into the shorter animation and the song lyrics helped with the visuals.
I tried to find songs first by googling songs about forgetting but all that brought up was people forgetting about their ex lovers. I wasn't really sure what to be looking for, I wanted a song that was apt to the message I wanted to convey. In the end it was between the three songs linked above. I chose Elbow in the end because the lyrics could be made to sound like its talking about the dementia with the influence of moving pictures alongside it. Albatross I decided was too slow and calm to fit the message and the style of animation i'm doing doesn't seem to hand itself to that kind of melody. The daydream song I cut as well because it was too happy and had a 'springy' pace, this tone would just be too 'up' to convey the serious side of it.
I listened to the song a couple times and picked out a 30 second clip to put my animation to, I broke it down into 5 second sections and started getting my ideas down. An idea I had from the previous animation was to have Pratchett running at a line in the centre and as he hits it wool streams out the other side; done with dragon frame and hand drawn put together on photoshop. One of the lyrics in the song says something about finding a plot to bury his heart into and I liked the idea of having him literally bury his heart into the plot line of a book. I mean it's what he already does in his writing, he puts his heart and soul into it and he's always working. I read a quote where he said as soon as he has finished writing a book he has to start the next one even if its just putting some ideas down on paper; he can't stand to not have a book on the go.
Some advice that Fred gave me was to know exactly what I'm going to produce before I make it. So I planned out my animation in 5 second blocks and decided exactly how long each clip would be.
I wrote down all the short cuts I could take so that I could save time because time is what I'm short on now.
Then I did a check list of all the things I have to draw and how many frames. I think it's easier to keep going and get on with things when I can see my progress ad seeing things getting done. A check list is great because I can see the list of what I have to do going down as I work instead of just feeling lost in the sea of work I have to do and getting hopeless and want to give up.
So the first thing I did was draw out a turtle a couple times to get the feel of it. I wasn't sure where, on a scale of realistic to full cartoon, I wanted it to be.
I was getting annoyed at turtles because I didn't like how any of them were turning out, so I took a mini break and drew a little falling Pratchett. I really liked how it turned out, isn't it weird how you always like the ones you're not trying with.
I tried to draw it big and I just couldn't get it the same so I left it un-inked. This is an issue I will deal with when it comes to those frames.
I really like the elephant eating a plum. It's mouth is so wide and ridiculous, but elephants are ridiculous anyway; their trunk is like an arm. They have an arm in the middle of their face. Weird. But fun to draw. Thinking of doing it spraying water out of its trunk because I like animating wobbly things. Like when I did Pratchett's head pulled apart and it snaps like jelly. You can be really crazy with the lines and just play with the whole process of animating.
Went back to the turtles and decided to finally just go and get some reference. So this is my revised turtle, you'll notice some new features such as; actually looking like a turtle, owning a body and regular sized eyes.
Halfway into drawing my frames I felt like the turtle was a bit too complicated to redraw so much. Then I compared the first frame with the one I was currently drawing and I'd creating the magical shrinking turtle instead of the majestic, calm, aquatic beast I was aiming for. What went wrong I think is that I just didn't take enough care with redrawing it, also since it was a complicated shape I probably should have used a stencil because that worked when I did the feet kicking the water.
I decided to just simplify it because I'd rather it was simple and well made rather than complicated and badly put together. I did it front on because that way I'd only have to move the fins and the body and face would stay in the same place so I can repeatedly draw them and there's less chance of a shrinking repeat.
I finished my frames for the elephant. Its pretty simple and not a lot moves but I think it's good to go with simple for these first seconds because they're acting as a kind of introductory scene. So if there's too much going on in such short clips it won't be recognisable and that'd the purpose of these clips.
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