11 Second Sound Clip

For the next 4 weeks, we were set to create an animation to go alongside an 11 second audio clip. As usual, i chose one of the most challenging clips (argggh... why do i do this to myself?? -_-')... anyway, as this blog server doesn't really support audio clips, i've written out the dialogue, as accurately as i could:

MAN: Have you written it?

WOMAN: I-i can... No

MAN: (interrupts) Have you written it?

WOMAN: (interrupts) An outline!

MAN: (pause) Okay, but i-it's just an outline, right?

WOMAN: Yeah!... Sort of

MAN: Sort of?!

WOMAN: Yeah, it's just not typed

MAN: Not typed?!

As soon as i started to brainstorm for ideas, I realised how hard it was to find a story that would suit the context of the dialogue...

IDEAS

1. "Homework Slaves"- 2 characters (computer and computer mouse?) forced to do hwk, acting as if they're scared of being punished. [May be hard to animate these objects]
2. "Homework Hut"- Trainee Openings. A superior questions a trainee on their progress on doing the hwk. [doesn't quite work with the worried dialogue]
3. Pencil talking to computer- the computer's just generally panicky... no plotline.
4. Kids- Bully picking on girl to go his hwk/forge note from parent? [doesn't quite work]

First of all, when looking at the clip from a glance, it seems that the man wants something written for him urgently... but when looking at his 3rd line: "okay, but i-it's just an outline, right?", doesn't agree with the idea, so in the end i had no choice but to actually reanalyse the situation, and realised it actually makes more sense if the man DIDN'T want something written.

5. "7 Deadly Sins"- Angel and Devil are speaking about a list of the 7 deadly sins pinned on the wall. Devil displays some attributes of the 7 deadly sins, he's talking to the angel who's just written them (pencil in hand to show she's written it), when she explains that they havent been typed, this is to imply that they will be official and the devil will suffer.

After choosing my final idea, I thought i'd start the character designs before breaking down the dialogue and acting.

Examples of some sketchbook work so far:

I found character designing quite difficult as it's not something I'm familiar with doing, i've learnt that in the future, i should break down the character's body into shapes so they're easier to imagine when drawing them from different angles.

I apologise for the really truely crap photos, i'm not rich enough to own a scanner :(.. sad times