DVD concepts

DVD concept

Life Cycle of a Fern Pre-Vis with sound (draft)

Sound is a draft recording of the script which is subject to change, and is not the best quality until I get my microphone back to record a final recording. Hopefully I can get feedback, be it on blogger or in person, to make any changes to the animation, as I am willing to change a lot, from music and speech to the actual animation itself.

Life Drawing 18/05/10

Script for Animation

Hello there, I would like to introduce you to the world of Ferns. Now Ferns, are just like houses, and as houses are homes to human beings like you and me, Ferns are homes to spores. Now this particular Fern is home to Mr. Forrest, but we can't see Mr. Forrest, oh no. Why you ask, because Mr. Forrest is getting ready for a date! But it has been an awful long time, and I wonder if Mr. Forrest is suffering from a case of the butterflies. Now I personally think Mr. Forrest needs a bit of a push. There we go! and he's off, look at him go! Oh, look, I think I see his date, Ms. Fearne! And so their date entails, awww don't they look cute! But unfortunately, what comes up, must come down, and their date slowly comes to an end. But before they leave eachother, they have the longest chat ever! And as they speak, they begin to grow in confidence, into Gametophytes! Now, Mr. Forrest is ready to give Ms. Fearne his number! But he doesn't send his number to her via bluetooth, oh no, he send his number via a raindrop! The date finally comes to an end, and Mr. Forrest has the biggest smile on his face, oh aren't we pleased for you Mr Forrest!

Super Mario background influence

After settling on producing a 'comedic' Animation, I wanted to change the artistic style and palette of it. In order my comedy to be easily readable, I've decided to use a minimalist style. This, along with my decision to use a LittleBigPlanet-Steven Fry-ish narration over my animation allowed me to create an association with the art style used in Super Mario. I've drawn my ground level and am currently unsure as to whether I should have a sky at all, as I think this style connotes a flipchart which itself has comedic connotations which will allow me to draw over the course of the animation.

Narration influence

The narration for the introductory level of Littlebigplanet, done by Steven Fry, influences the tone that I would like to set for my animation.

3rd Story line

A spore, named Forrest has bagged a date with another spore named Fearne!
Forrest wants to leave his house, but he gets butterflies... (a butterfly flies across the screen)
Forrest needs a little push from a friend, in this case a raindrop!
Forrest then plucks up the courage to leave his house, and begin his journey to Fearnes!
Fearne leaves her house and both her and Forrest fly through the air on their date. (images of a cinema and a restaurant fly past the screen)
Both Forrest and Fearne land on the ground as their date comes to an end.
They begin to talk to eachother and 'grow' in confidence into Gametophyes.
Eventually Forrest sends Fearne his number, or sperm, via bluetooth or a raindrop.

Maya Spore Release

Maya Release of Sperm from Antheridia

Maya Blend Shapes Gametophyte growth

Maya Blend Shapes and 3D tutorial

Animatic

Not the best representation of my final piece as I expect my final animation to be atleast 1 minute long. The Animatic is sped up. This gives a gist of what I believe is to happen, I also plan on taking this into Final Cut Pro at uni and adding zooms in, but I'll upload it as is for now as I would like some feedback from Alan tomorrow on how feasible this is in Maya. I will also update this animatic with sound once ready.

Storyboard

Fern and Gametophyte concept art

Through Lip cell concept art

Antheridia concept art

Antheridia reference images

Fern concept art

Target Audience research

In order to find out the best way of communicating my animation to my undergraduate audience, I wanted to find out the preferred learning style for undergraduate students. I found a study that carried out research on undergraduates at Michigan state University. Fleming's VARK inventory tool for assessing individual learning style preferences was administered to undergraduate physiology majors. This test analyses four types of learning methods: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinesthetic. Although this was carried out on Physiology students, I believe that the results will prove useful as they are undergraduates none the less, these are the results:


The results show that both male and female prefer multi-modal learning, which is a combination of all learning methods. Having said that, the next highest result for women is Kinesthetic and the least is Auditory which doesn't make the results. For men, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinesthetic area all tied and Visual does not make the results. This makes me realise that I will have to include a combination of Visual, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinesthetic information. This will prove extremely difficult as it the majority of animations are made of visual and auditory information and do not require any actions from an audience.

Plot for SECOND Idea!

Raindrop falls onto Fern...................Camera follows drop

Fern releases spores...................Camera follows 1 spore

A further fern releases another spore..............Camera follows both spores

Both spores fall to the ground next to each other................Camera still on both spores

Both spores grow into mature gametophytes..........Camera pans up as gametophytes grow

Rain drop falls onto male gametophyte carrying sperm.........Camera zooms in on raindrop (with sperm inside the raindrop)

Rain drop (with sperm) falls onto female gametophyte fertilising the egg...........Camera follows raindrop

Story structure

I wanted the camera to follow the action in this animation (similar to how the camera follows the Kite in Dan's Kite 2D animation). The animation begins with a raindrop falling onto a leaf. The pressure from the raindrop causes the leaf to move downwards. The raindrop falls to the ground. The camera follows the spores as they disperse from the underside of the fern, and fall to the ground. The spore grows into a gametophyte. Another raindrop falls and hits the gametophyte this time carrying sperm with it. It then falls to the ground and fertilises an archegonia.

Fern in environment

I've created this drawing of the colours and area that I would like me Fern to be in.

Life Cycle of a Fern and research

I have decided on doing the life cycle of a fern. As I looked over each life cycle, I attempted to envisage my animation coming together in each cycle. 'The Life of a Fern' and 'The Life of a Slime Mold' were the two where I could not only picture it coming together in 3D, but I could also see it coming together in an aesthetically pleasing manner. As these visions were only based on the .pdf's given by Dr. Klappa, I further looked into each life cycle. I found more revealing and clear explanations aswell as images for the life cycle of a fern, this finalised my decision and I will now begin with sketches of my visuals before moving onto a storyboard.

Having looked at the Life cycle of a fern, I am edging towards creating the part of the life cycle from the dispersal of the spores to the release of sperm from the male gametophyte.

I would also like to aim my animation at undergraduate students. I believe doing this will provide me with an opportunity to create more complex visuals such as increasing the speed of movement in some objects and onscreen activity aswell as using a variety of camera angles without compromising the effectiveness of the communication.






This video, despite its less serious delivery, provided me with a basic knowledge of the overall life cycle of a fern. This actually is a good example of how certain methods of delivery can benefit a number of audiences, however, I do believe using this particular method of delivery would prove difficult in elaborating on certain parts of the life cycle.