With my 3rd year just starting I have embarked on a journey to the fictional Atom Pancake Studios. Just like a normal studio we have divided tasks, just so the work load won't be too much on one person. Based on people strengths each one of us has a few tasks in pre-production stage. For now here is the proposal of the project which will also give more information about what we want to produce and achieve.
Atom Pancakes- Project Proposal
For our project, we decided to create a 2 to 3 minutes animation, revolving the events of one specific character in his environment.
Our animation ‘Final Chapter’ follows Arthur Winters, a 1930’s accomplished crime writer, who is writing his next crime masterpiece. With the editor’s deadline approaching, he is pressured to finish the book. Although it seems like a easy task for a well-known writer, all that the pressure leads him to have ‘writer’s block’ and getting stuck on the ending of his book. With a matter of luck he finds the lost piece of the puzzle which helps him to finish the chapter. However the real struggle, begins when he tries to write it down.
With this animation, our objective as a studio is to emphasize on the importance of a story based on one character and one environment. We want to achieve a short film with great art direction, amazing computer generated work and ultimately beautiful animation. Throughout the animation we will also want to explore different 3D and 2D techniques, to help us tell the story more intuitively.
Finally, the final goal is to hopefully be able to feature our work in an animation festival, this will only be able with good marketing campaign, either online or at university, with the aim to publish our studio and our work to the world.
Although it only started this week, our studio gathered a few weeks back and tried to get our project slightly ahead. With the different tasks divided for pre-production, my job is to work on the character designs and draw storyboards.
What follows is the initial creative work and research that I have done for the character. on the following post I will feature the development of the character and final designs and informative sheets.
Hope you like it!!
Character Profile Sheet & Research
Name: Arthur Winters
Biography: Arthur Winters is a recognised novel author, however when he prepares to write his new book, ideas slip his mind and he is left with nothing. For an accomplished writer not having ideas is like a crime. After some time of reflection and gathering thoughts, he thinks he has yet another masterpiece, though the real struggle begins when he tries to write his ideas for the new book.
Age: 45
Race: Human
Height: 1.70 m.
Body Type: Skinny, Average Height, Waistline Above Normal,Long Hands and Feet.
Face Type: Skinny Body Face With Salient Cheek Bones, Small Eyes and Big Nose.
Complexion: Pale Colour With little Wrinkles, and a Mole ( Not Dark)
Eyes: Hazelnut Colour Eyes and Often Uses a Monocle
Hair: 1920's to 1940's Hairstyle, Full Hair with Bald Sides.
Facial Hair: Well Trimmed Moustache, but as the animation progresses he gets also a stubble.
Clothing Style: On His Torso, He Wears a Well- Ironed Long Sleeve White Shirt a Tie Covered with a Sleeveless (Dark Green) Polo. (Maybe w/ Braces). His Trousers Are Beige and Slightly Short with Polished Brown Shoes.
Speaking Style: Calm, Polite, Formal (Academic Level).
General Demeanour: When normal he is excited about his books, when he has an idea he overreacts and becomes silly.
Career: An Acclaimed Novel Writer
Prejudices: Loves to write books, but unfortunately he is not lucky enough to have an idea.
Best Qualities: enthusiastic, determined, polite, has common sense.
Worst Qualities: melodramatic, silly, sometimes frustrated.
Weaknesses: when overreacting he behaves silly, allowing gags to play on him.
Initial Character Sketches
For in-depth information about the project, check our studio blog at:
