Project Brief - Animated Short

Characterisation and Motivation

In this exercise you will be given a set of instructions for an animation exercise.

The animation takes place in one setting and you have a fixed viewpoint (theatrical staging) and there should be no cuts – we won’t be exploring film language in this brief.

- A character is sitting on a chair

- The character stands up

- The character walks towards a door in the room and goes out

You will be given on a separate sheet a description of your character and a reason for their action. From this information develop Character Design sheets for your model and your setting. This means designing a character that fits the description and designing a setting for the character. The setting needs to have a chair and a door in it.

Suggestions: 

- Write out a production schedule with rough dates for the various stages.

- Develop a mental image of what your character will look like and make some quick drawings
  exploring your character’s appearance. 

- Draw some sketches of the setting. Draw up a plan view - overhead - to work out the placement of
  doors, windows, furniture etc.

- Do some research.  Find some imagery in books, magazines, internet, real life or wherever and use
these to develop the character further. This can also be useful for deciding what kind of clothes they might be wearing and for the design of the setting as well – what kind of room it is, what the furniture is like etc. The idea is to turn your character from a stereotype into a more specific character.

- Having come to a decision about your character, draw up some turnarounds and some emotive
  sheets In thumbnail form, draw up the action of the animation.

- Once you’ve worked out in your head and your thumbnails what you want the character to do, draw
  out a layout drawing of what you want your character to do.

- Discuss with the tutors the form that your animation will take e.g. stop-motion; drawn; CGI and so  
  on.

- Animate.