Animatic: Final Version

 I've completed my animatic! There's still some inconsistencies with the shading, and the audio could probably use another edit, but these are things that will get changed in the actual animation process anyway. This animatic will help me greatly in the animation process with understanding what motion, timing and keyframes are needed. I'm excited to use this as reference while making my film. 

Script: Updates

During the development of my animatic, I've made some changes to the script, including the addition of an interaction between Sunny and Alistair in which they share their pronouns with each other and talk about Sunny being misgendered at school. 
I've removed the lines from the teacher, they didn't feel relevant and would have required an additional voice actor. 
I've also adjusted the interactions between June and Alistair, and Alistair and Sunny in Scenes 4 and 5. 

With this version of the script, I feel like the story captures the feelings I want it to evoke. I previously had some worries about sending the script to my voice actors and not achieving the right mood or feeling from the film. I feel this version captures the essence and I feel ready to source my voice actors now. 

Work In Progress: Animatic 2.0

Here's my current draft of my animatic. See last version here. 
Since the last version, I have rerecorded the audio, edited the timings of interactions, added more updated drawings, changed the camera angles in Scene 3, and made some other tweaks. I still need to finish updating the drawings in scenes 1 and 2, add sound effects and music, and flesh out the panic attack in Scene 5 further. However, the animatic is over a minute shorter than its previous version and it flows better than it did before. I've changed Scene 4 considerably and I feel like it's much more resolved now. I'm looking forward to working with the audio from other voice actors so that there's more variation and contrast in the voices - I'm not able to achieve much variation just using my own voice.
Once I've finished updating the drawings, I'll see if I have time to shade everything, but the animatic might be partially shaded, partially lineart. This is fine though, as the shading was largely an exercise to see how characters interact with backgrounds, and give me some insight into creating the backgrounds themselves. 

Animatic 2.0 (20/03/2022 Version)

(Here's a playlist version of each scene as invidual videos)

Experimentation: Colour and Lineart for Environments

In developing my environments for my film, I'm thinking about how I will approach colouring the backgrounds. I did a small test on a section of the background for Alistair's room in different styles of colouring and shading to get a feel for how it would look in the rest of the shot. 
Here's the full image I'm working from: 

Lineart of Alistair's room

I've chosen a section of this piece to experiment with colour and lighting to test how the rest of the piece will look. This will also inform the style and palette I use for colouring and shading the rest of the backgrounds in Alistair's room, and the style for other environments for the film. 

Lineart

Monochrome test in green with plant and light details

Monochrome test in yellow with light details

Colour test using colours based on colour script - adjusted

Colour and lighting test using colours from script and coloured lineart

Looking at the final test in the context of the whole space

I like how the final test with coloured lineart looks up close, but I'm not sure if it's going to lose its impact if the whole background is done in this style. Looking back to this piece below from Steven Universe, I'm considering how coloured lineart can be used strategically in direct sunlight, while maintaining darker lineart in the rest of the piece. 

Background from Cartoon Network's Steven Universe

I want my work to evoke the same gentle, warm effect that this piece captures so well. I'll need to keep experimenting.

Experimentation: Representing Anxiety/Panic Attacks

 I'm experimenting with an idea of showing my protagonist's slow build-up to the panic attack that they have in the film through the use of deconstructed shapes. I started with this gif testing the idea to see how it would look in colour. 

I then tried this idea out in my animatic, taking it further and having the shapes start to swirl around, representing the swirling thoughts that would happen in this state. 

Test of these deconstructed shapes in Scene 6 when Sunny has a panic attack

Following this, I tested using this method earlier on in my film, whenever Sunny is experiencing stress/anxiety/anger, they start to slip into this state. I tried using it only on the mirrored version of them at first, though I'm unsure if this would be inconsistent because it doesn't only manifest in reflections later on. 

Test of deconstructed shapes in Scene 1 after Sunny fights with their mom

Animatic 2.0 (7/03/2022)

 Here's an in-progress look at my animatic with the shaded backgrounds I've been creating, with edited script and timing. 
I've added some lines to the script and experimented with shading the shots in the to get a sense of how they will look when animated. 

Character Sheet: Teacher

 In my initial development of the film, I had only included a small glimpse of the teacher in the animatic. As I've been working on my Animatic 2.0, I've realised I will be showing the teacher in full onscreen, so I created a character sheet for her. 

I've coloured her in blue to match the rest of the classroom in my colour script (seen below), showing the classroom as a place of restriction and discomfort for Sunny, whose yellow shines in stark contrast. 

Progress: Shaded Shots for Animatic

For my animatic 2.0 I have created some greyscale shaded environments with characters in them to get a sense of the scale, shape language and tone of each shot in my film. So far I have all of Scenes 2 and 3 completed, and backgrounds for Scene 4.  

 

Research: Panic Attacks in Animation

Content warning: the media below includes themes of mental illness, panic attacks and self harm.

My film features a panic attack experienced by the protagonist Sunny. They are overwhelmed by being misgendered at home and school and their difficulty with their school work. In my animatic I have depicted the animatic with an experimental animation style, using messy lines and odd shapes to represent the loss of control and normality in that state. I've had a look at how panic attacks have been represented in other animated media to get some ideas about how to best represent it in my film. 

Cindy J. Aaronson, What causes panic attacks, and how can you prevent them?, 2020

The video above uses inverted colours to visualise the feelings of confusion or unreality during the moment of a panic attack.

illymation, Panic Attacks, 2019

This video uses swirling colours to represent the confusion and cyclical thoughts during a panic attack. 

Karla Monterrosa, 18 years old and I think I'm having a heart attack, 2018

This video uses a flashing array of objects, shapes and colours to represent the racing thoughts of a panic attack. 

All of these animated videos use the medium of animation to represent feelings that are difficult to otherwise represent visually. The each use different techniques to capture the feelings of confusion and uncertainty that accompany anxiety and panic attacks, such as inverted colours, swirling colours and shifting shapes. 
In my own work, I am experimenting with how I can represent these feelings in my character to represent what they are feeling. 

Experimentation: Developing my animatic

In developing my animatic, I am using reference images to ensure that the perspective on my environments is geometrically correct, and that object interact with each other in a logical way. Through this process I am learning about perspective and scale. 

I'm currently working on Shot 2 of Scene 2 of my film, showing a view of the classroom. Here's my progression from initial sketches to my final animatic version. 

Storyboard sketch

Storyboard

Animatic 1.0

3D environment using an app

Animatic 2.0

References:

 3D environment from Floor Plan Creator app on Android

Chair reference image from https://vintage-industrial-furniture.co.uk/en/shop/vintageindustrialseating/vintagechairs/item/oldschoolchairs/. 

Work in Progress: Background sketches

 

colour sketch of Sunny's bedroom

work-in-progress sketch of the classroom

concept art of Alistair's kitchen

sketch of Alistair's bedroom