Chelsea Butler

It took me a lot longer than I anticipated, but I updated my story for my animation. Its very rough and unrefined, and after finishing it I realise that I could've added in more details and panels to deepen the story (perhaps showing the ghost realising that she really is a ghost and is "no longer of this world"). I also realise that I need to practise drawing different camera angles and perspective, so I plan on reasearching into that a bit more at a later date. I may update this storyboard as I progress with rigging my characters and create the environments, but I think this gets the main point of the story across.

This is my updated storyboard for my animated short. I wanted to change the story slightly so that it became more lighthearted whilst still keeping the fundamental elements (the main character being a ghost, a romance involved).

After having a discussion with Alan, we both felt that there was more that could be added to the storyboard in terms of emotional variation. In this version, I have added in extra scenes such as Linette and René’s initial meeting to better establish the relationship they have. I’m still figuring out the in-universe physics, but I feel that this version feels a little more resolved.

After a previous discussion with my tutor Alan, I decided to revisit my storyboard and alter the animation sequence and setting. Rather than having the characters traverse Paris, it would be better to just have them interact in one environment, which will be a park bench with a view of the Eiffel Tower behind it. In terms of character interaction, I wanted to make it a bit more playful. Since Linette is a ghost, she may want to use the fact that René can’t see her to her advantage and have some fun. I feel like this would also accentuate her quirky personality, but also imply a sense of familiarity with the two, as if this meeting isn’t the first. 

For my Premise project, I decided to create an initial storyboard to help me visualise how the animation could potentially unfold. My main focus in this storyboard is to keep the camera close to the character’s faces to evoke a lot of emotion through their expressions and body language. The beginning of the storyboard shows the male character, René, seeing flashbacks of himself and his love, Linette, spending time together, so I need to now consider how I will portray these memories through either editing or the actual animation. Another thing that I need to consider is how to texture the 3D model for Linette when she becomes a ghost. The idea is that she will be slightly transparent but not to the point where she will be hard to distinguish. I am now currently considering how I can push the characters designs even further and also incorporate the Art Nouveau style in to the final animation.

For my animation, I’ve decided to create some rough storyboards so I can get down what I think the opening scene would look like. The idea was to show René looking at the Eiffel Tower, grieving the loss of his love Linette, and as he looks around the park, he sees flashbacks of times that they spent together. This is so that I can introduce the relationship between the characters without making the film too long. I feel that I might struggle with this a little as there is a lot of ideas that I want to include, but I don’t want to make it too lengthy. I am going to continue roughing out how I think the scenes will play out.