Project 4- Identity : Project Proposal

The title of my fourth project is Identity. I feel it is a fitting title for a project where I will explore the way my personality has changed over one of the most eventful periods of my life. Everyone has a story to tell, however not everyone has the courage to tell it; I feel like I now have the courage to tell my own. I have decided that the best way for me to tell this story would be through an animatic due to how creative I can be with the imagery and symbolism I use. Learning to animate is something that I have wanted to do at UCA from the very beginning and I have since produced small works with it, such as the walking teapot from Project 1 and the advert from Project 3. It is something that I really enjoy and want to do more, but in order to practice more fundamentals first, I will produce a keyframe animatic instead. So, I am intending to use the skills I have learnt at UCA so far to produce a short (30-60 seconds) animatic to a song that I hold close to my heart. I will not use any text; I will use imagery and symbolism to emphasise and compliment the lyrics of the song in order to tell my story.

When it comes to my influences for my animatic, anime is a big one. It has been a big part of my life over recent years in that it has given me an escape from reality and inspiration for my creative work. So, my natural starting point for my research into inspiration for the main aspects of my animatic (colour and symbolic imagery), was episodes of anime that have stuck with me over the years. I watched these episodes again with a fresh mindset- instead of watching the show for the plotline like I did the first time, I studied the different techniques they used to create different effects on the scene, the tone of the episode and the emotions it would invoke within the viewer. Studying these tried and tested methods will be key to making my animatic work the way I want it to, since my inspiration is the same medium as I am intending to use. My research is mostly targeted within the realm of Eastern animation rather than Western, since Eastern culture uses much more symbolism than I have seen in the West.

To make my animatic, I am going to use a well thought out storyboard to plan all of my keyframes. These keyframes will be drawn using animation references I gathered in order to make them look as natural as possible. I will string them together and time them correctly to the music I have chosen. The main software I will use to achieve this will be Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro. To make sure I can complete my work on time, I have set out a weekly schedule and what needs to be done by the end of each week. By the end of Week 5 of the project, I will have produced my storyboard fully. By the end of Week 6, my keyframes should have been completed in a rough pass, to make sure I know the placement of everything for when I clean it up. Week 7 is reserved for cleaning up the keyframes from Week 6, editing anything that needs changing. I will use Week 8 to iron out any last issues I may come across, making sure that everything is perfect for submission. I will also use this time at the beginning of Week 8 to evaluate my work.

The way I intend to review my final piece is by watching it fully with an outsider’s perspective – what would someone without the context of the piece take away from it – as well as showing it to my friends, family and my peers to ask their opinions. I will ask for their thoughts on what they did or did not like, their thoughts on what was or was not successful and anything they feel I could have included but did not. I will take on board any critique given so that I can sit with my piece and figure out what I would do differently to improve it if I were to make it again from the start. If even one person watches the animatic I produce and is able to identify what I was going for without me giving them the context beforehand, then I will deem this project successful.

Harvard References

1. Funimation (2013) The World the Girl Saw - Battle for Trost (2), Attack on Titan. [18:45 – 19:07] Available at: https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/attack-on-titan/episode-6-the-world-the-girl-saw-battle-for-trost-2-623901 [Accessed 15/03/2021]

(Crunchyroll doesn't allow screenshots)

2. Funimation (2013) Attack on Titan - OFFICIAL English Subtitled ED. Available at: https://youtu.be/QBlYYOsdG-U [Accessed 15/03/2021]

3. Marc (2019) Carole & Tuesday Ending 1 "Hold Me Now". [0:52 – 0:56] Available at: https://youtu.be/N-xG7vmJV0c [Accessed 15/03/2021]