Style & Technique

I thought a lot about this. I want to adopt a cartoon style for this short film. Something very similar to that of Pixar's Presto. I think that short film differs from every other Pixar's short film in that it looks very traditional. The kind of music, the opening titles that say "A Pixar Animation Cartoon" instead of the usual titles, the snappy kind of animation where the character suddenly reacts fast and moves quickly. Very traditional Disney type of animation. I think that style may really appeal a lot to kids. I discussed this with Alan today, and he wished me Good Luck. And he meant it, because to achieve that kind of style is difficult. In the real world, there are many people working on that project. In my case, its just me.

Now here are the technical difficulties. First off, I need to build a squash and stretch rig. I can't do without it, simply because of the way my style is going to be. I want it to be exaggerated. It's a slapstick comedy, and nobody is going to enjoy it as an animation piece if its not exaggerated. That's my personal take on it. I can do without a squash and stretch rig, but I don't want to. I've read a little about it, and it seems very technical and confusing. I came across a book on rigging. I plan to borrow it and research on this squash and stretch rigging techniques in this week and the next, by when hopefully I should be well prepared for production.

My drawing is horrible, and having to do a really good animatic seems scary. But I need to rely heavily on it, for the animatics will determine the number of shots I need to animate, and the timing for each shot. Audio is another aspect of the production. Sound effects shouldn't be a problem - they are readily available at my fingertips. I'm worried about the background score.

As for my story progression, I thought a little bit about my ending after my discussion with Alan during consultation. Having cleared the fact that mine would be a slapstick comedy, Alan suggested that in such cases where two characters are fighting over something, neither of them would usually get it. And I was thinking about that too. I remembered a lot of fables where such things happen, and it made sense to apply this in my story as well. I was thinking, what if in the climatic sequence of fighting over the can of pork and beans, the can actually flies out of the kitchen window? Or it just spills over? Or a mouse comes out of a mouse-hole and drags the can over and eats the contents while the two men are still fighting? Lots of possibilities. I should be fixing on this soon, after which I will proceed with the middle part of the story, which is the build up to the climatic sequence. After that, I would move on to design the characters and then the storyboards probably.