Unit 66 - Animation Production: LO1 - Plan for 2 to 3 Minute Animation.

a) selection of form

I plan on creating an animated short film which I feel would work best as a televised cartoon or to be distributed online.

b) selection of animation type

My chosen form of animation is 2D digital animation. I chose to use 2D digital animation as I believe it to be an easy form of of animation to create that still allows for some effective visuals and works best for cartoon drawing style. I plan on creating the visuals in Illustrator and Photoshop and then, using the final images, converting them to Flash to edit and animate them into the final film.

c) selection of genre/style

My animated piece with be a fantasy adventure with a sub-genre of comedy, targeted at a young audience. The fantasy derives from the use of mythical creatures such as mermaids and giant seahorses, the adventure comes from the exciting antics of the sailor whilst in the sea and the comedy is to be expected from the cartoon designs and will be presented in visual humour. The cartoon style also makes it more appealing to kids and a younger demographic.

d) narrative and/or character development

The story for my animated piece will be told visually, with a silent narrative. The plot will be linear and is a traditional voyage and return story. The protagonist, a sailor, serves as a main plot point as we, the audience, follow him as his ship is wrecked and witness him and how he interacts with different aquatic creatures.

The sailor is somewhat something of a pirate, though with no mean-spirited nature so that the audience will understand that he is the protagonist and the character that they should be rooting for. Pirates are often portrayed as the villain, so I have worked hard to make sure that he still has a pirate design without looking villainous. For example, I have given him a smiling and upbeat persona with a colourful fashion sense, avoiding dark colours so that he is not mistook for an evil pirate at any point.His lanky design is to make it look more comical when he is swimming, with his moving arms and legs being exaggerated.

The character development lies in the fact that the sailor seems to be quite a cowardly character when confronted by a threat, but still remains confident in his attempt to rescue his new found love, the mermaid, and will face any obstacle to reunite with her.

The designs for the sailor are shown below. I have displayed him performing different actions and emotions.