Bernard - Girly Girl Scene First Draft, Incomplete

What we have here is the first incomplete draft of the

Animating The Girly Girl Scene!

Other Girl Characters!

These characters are basically the same as the main girl character, the only difference between them is the hair. This was due to time issues as drawing out three individual characters would have taken to long. But for the scene they are going to be in that should matter to much. This is because in the scene you only actually see all of the main girl bird. The other two birds that i have drawn you can only see the upper halves of so it wasn't really worth spending a lot of time re-drawing them just to see there upper half. 

The hair styles that i have chosen for the other girls were chosen as they are simple to draw in flash and you can see the hair style with out having to complex drawings. The only reason that i have focused on changing the hair so much is because the body are the same therefore i needed something that shows the difference between them.  

Main Girl Character!

So far the girl characters out of all the characters i have already drawn had to be the hardest. This is because when drawing them i needed to get across they were girl birds but also they fact that they are meant to be attractive. The main way that i have made the bird look like a girl compared to the boy birds was by my choice in colours. I have decided to go for the colour purple for the girls as that is a stereotypical girl colour. The reason i didn't go for pink is because i didn't want the birds to clash with the pink birdhouse. The hair plays a huge part in defining that they are girls because with out the girly hair style you could easily mistake them for boys.

Another big problem that i came across when drawing the girl characters was there different face expressions. I needed the characters two looks, cuteness/attractiveness however i also needed there expressions to be able to go from that and then go to looking anger and mad. As you can see above i think i have captured these emotions quite well and keep the main features the same by doing simple things by raising there cheeks and dropping there eyelids. 

Overall i feel that the out come of the girl character is a lot better then i had expected it to be. It took a lot of doing and a lot of re-drawing but overall i feel its been worth it. I feel that i have captured the essions of the girls cuteness and attractiveness by the use of the hair style, eyes and the bow. I feel another key feature that makes this work so well are the shapes of the body. This is because its not a very big shape therefore you don't get the feeling of over powering but its not an odd shape because that shows there either muscly, fat or just a bit of a misfitted.

   

Drawing the Girly Girl Background!

When creating this background i had one aim in mind and that was to make the bird house look like a bird house and also make it girly. As you can see there is a fair bit of change between the first and the second picture as the shading was reduced and the detail had started to be added. As i went on my main aim was adding good details and make it look very girly. At the moment i am not 100% sure with my final outcome, but i will do a focus group to find out whats people think about them and could be improved. 

The reason that i have chosen to do a birdhouse for this girls scene is because its seemed appropriate for the feminine style and was a cuteness of a birdhouse is just like the girls are meant to be, which is cute. On the bird house i have decided to put bunting round the birdhouse. This is because bunting is seen as a young/ childish things to do and reinforces that this birdhouse is full of girls. I chose to put a white wooden fence in the background as in all the background i want some sort of fence to keep the continuity between that backgrounds. The colour white was chosen as its symbolizes purity and innocence just like the look i want to girls to have in the scene as they are meant to look appealing to Bernard.

Due to the lack of time i to create the backgrounds, i wanted to either put a mansion in the background to symbols wealth or but a city scene in the background to represent a rich city girls. Howver because of my time constrictions i had to put some hills in the background to fill up the space and they were fast to create. However this actually works quite well for the continuity side of things as the opening scene has hills in the background so putting hills in the background of this scene reinforces the area they are in.  

Girly Girl Stereotypes!

The reason that i have made this reader profile for the girly girls is because i wanted every stereotypes of a girly girl in one place so when it comes to animation and creating the characters i can always have a reference to what i think they should be like. I have taken most of my inspiration and most of my ideas from the film 'Mean Girls' (the background) this is because Mean Girls is one of the most popular girl films. This is because the girls within the film are the complete stereotypes that are associated with girly girls. These stereotypes are things such as popularity, wealthy, spoiled, attractive and normal very judgmental.  

Jock Scene Draft 1!

Animating in Flash!

Been able to animate in Flash is something that i think I have improved massively on. Compared to my first animation attempts that i did back in September, you can really see the difference. The reason for these improvements is by doing trail and error and watching tutorials on the internet. One of my biggest inspirations would have been from the digital artiest 'Jazza' who's wide range of YouTube tutorials on animation in flash and drawing in Photoshop. Even though this is my third scene that i have completed animating, there is still a lot to improve on and a lot more to learn, but by the end and this project i aim to be very confident about making short films in flash again.  

The Other Jocks!

When it came to drawing the main jocks friends in this scene i wanted to keep the continuity of the stereotypes the same. To do this i have kept the main features the same such as the colour, wing positions, expressions and the abs the same. The reason i have done this is because if i drew them all differently then the audience wouldn't think they belonged to the same social group and it would look strange. 

The difference between these characters and the main character is the fact that these guy firstly don't look as good but also the size difference of the characters. You cant tell right now as they are just pictures but these characters are actually going to be around half the size as the main character to amplify his power to the audience. Another thing that is different it between the main jock and these jocks is the fact that they don't look as big. I have still chosen shapes that still get the message across that they are big, by making the shapes wider. This look gives them the impression that they are very muscly but not very ripped. They are also missing the peck lines unlike the main jock just to show that he is bigger once again.  

The Main Jock Character!

When i was coming up with the idea for this character, the reader profile that i created for jocks really helped me out. This was because very stereotype of a jock i could see right in front of me, therefore i could put all these aspects of that into the creation of the character. The main feature that i made sure this character had were things such as he had to look big and muscly because jocks stereotypical play sport and goes to the gym. 

In this character i fell as if i have really captured his strength and anger. I think the use of the upside down triangle as worked really well as it give the character the impression of been strong. Another thing that i have added in to reinforce that the character is meant to be strong is by giving him some pecks and abs. These are all stereotypical feature of a jock. The hair that i have give him is meant to represent as mohorch as these are associated as tough guy hair cuts. Another key feature of the character that makes him look stronger and tougher then the rest is the size of his wing span. I have purposely made it much larger then all the other character and when it comes to sizing the character he will be much bigger then all of the to show his power over the rest. 

Jock Scene Background!

The third background in my short animated film is the scene for the jocks. I decided to base this scene with a house in it because i wanted it to represent a frat house you would find in America. The other key features that i decided to add into the scene was a football field, or the football post and score board to represent the the football field, and the telegraph poles as that's where the animation will be taking place on. 

When i first started to create the image on Photoshop i didn't realizes how complex drawing a house was going to be. For example, all the bricks on the house were individually drawn and shaded to give it a realistic look. I then had to place them in appropriate positions and shade them were needed to make it look like its meant to be more stuck out then the rest. After i had done that and drawn all the key feature of the house i then realized that the frame positioning was all wrong and the house on my drawing took to much of the frame up and it looked wrong. Therefore i decided to enlarge the house and place it further off the frame. This seemed to work and it made the framing of the stage a lot more even and better then it did on my drawings. 

After that i then added in the telegraph poles. These are the same telegraph poles as the ones in the opening scene as it didn't seem worth wasting more time redrawing them when there are only in one scene for 30 seconds. But if i do get some spare time i may go back and re-drawn them anyway.

Like in all of my scenes so far there is some sort of fence in the background filling up the background space to make the scenes more exciting. For this scene i wanted to uses a hedge as i thought that this would be an easy thing to create and look visually good. But i was very wrong. Creating this hedge was very hard to do as i couldn't get the correct texture of the hedge and it just looked like a a solid mess. After playing around with the settings on Photoshop and lots of trial and errors i finally came to a hedge that i was happy with and decided to keep it  

Stereotypes Of Jocks Reader Profile!

After seeing how effective these reader profiles were in As-Level i have decided to produce them for my stereotypes of all my character stereotypes. This is because when it comes to drawing/ animating the scene i want to be able to see all the this associated with jocks in one place so i can get a feel of how they look, act and move. 

I have found this very helpful when it came to drawing the backgrounds and the characters for the jock scene. This is because i can read through what and how the jocks should be like and see visually what they  are like and look like and get an image in my head that i can transfer into my drawings to create the scenes, characters and the animation.   

Possible Backing Music

Second Scene Ready For After Effects!!

This is the first complete version of my second scene for Bernard. As you can see it is very pixalated as the full resolution version file size was to big to be able to upload. Another thing you may have noticed is the lack if editing/ no editing. This is because the Adobe Flash, the software i am using to created the animation only an animating software and is editing software. This means that i am creating the movements and positing of Bernard on Flash and i will then copy all the open layers and reconstruct it on Adobe After Effects to incorporate the editing.

As this is the first draft of the second scene i can see my self changing it as i get more and more feedback from my peers. Depending on the reacting and comments i may see some big changes or little changes to this scene. However i am confident to say that when the editing is finished on this scene i feel like people will like it a lot more as the main focus on this scene is Bernard's emotions which you cant really see in this because of the low quality.     

Second Background Path of Bernard Mostly Completed and Started Face Expressions!

Different types of Animations!

Second Background Staring to Animate!

After drawing the background, i then got straight in to animating the second scene. What you can see is just the first ideas for the movements that Bernard will do in this scene. What you  can see now i will end up changing most of the movement already. You cant see it because it is so zoomed out but there is a foot in the nest actually kicking Bernard out which will be zoomed in on in the editing. In this short clip, the one part that i am most unhappy with is the washing line movements as they look really artificial and not very realistic at all. This is something i will improve as a move things around until it looks realistic. 

Drawing the tree for the Second Background!

Second Background!

When it came to drawing this background, i want to capture a normal home environment. However i didn't just want an ordinary bricked house and the setting for my short film is in the middle of know where so you'd be more likely to find a wooden house with a porch. This really makes it obvious that its meant to be a house. I then wanted Bernard to be kicked out of his nest so i had to link the tree into the scene somehow so what i did was put a tree in the background and linked that to the house by a washing line. 

As you can see the hand drawing has a hedge in the background and the digital version has a fence instead. This is because when i tried to make the hedge, i couldn't find a technique that maker it look like a hedge and not just a mess. So i decided to change it to a garden fence and it stand out more as the edge of the garden. 

The Opening Scene with the Bernard!

Editing With Adobe After Effects!!

This project is going to use a lot of different software to create the final out come. This is a print screen of Adobe After Effects. What i have already done here is, i have created a background in Photoshop as a background, then i created the animation movements in Adobe Flash and no i have combined them both in Adobe After Effects. I have also added things like gaussian blur to add a scene of depth the the background. Its taken me a while to get the hang of the software but now that i have warmed up to it now its becoming a lot easier to use and create better outcomes. 

Bernard's Main Face Expressions ready for Flash!

 

I have drawn all these birds in flash. The reason for this is because this way i can easily change the wings, beak, eyes and anything else that needs to move easily. The way i have made these in Flash is by making them into a 'Graphics Symbol'. What this allows me to do is move the the bird as a hole but when i want to change his expressions i can click in the bird (graphic symbol) and change the past for different expressions. **See my video for more** I haven't done the feet and the hair yet but they will be done in the same what that the expressions have been made.

Drawing Bernard Wings!!

Bernard Opening Scene Mark 2!

 **I had manged to fix the quality but it wont upload**

When scrolling down the blog you may think that this animation is the same as the one i had done previously (below) however they are different. After looking at the animation i found it hard to watch. This was because of the position of the animation. I had released that the first attempt was only in the top third, meaning you had to move your eyes to focus on the animation. It also made it hard to look at the rest of the scene. So in this one what i have done is i have cut the bottom of the telegraph poles off and moved them down to make the stage more central making it easier to watch and gives me more room to play in. 

First Proper Draft of the Opening Scene!

For some reason the colours in this animation have gone very strange but i will try and sort this problem out. But as you can see there is a huge difference in the quality of the animation compared to my first/ practice attempt.  In this one i have added in the background (shown further down my blog in the quality this should be in). I then added in the text that i have created for the animation. using the same method as i used before, i was then able to quickly create this short clip. I also improved the movement in this animation as i have been watching lots of animation tutorials showing my all the short cuts and effects i can do to an animation to make them better. I think i am going to come back to this and change one or to thing after looking at it with a fresh mind. The main thing that i am going to change is the height of the telegraph poles. This is because at the moment the main story is going to be on these telegraph poles, but they only take around a third of the frame and is at the top. So if i bring it down to the middle third of the frame i think it will make the animation easier to watch and focus on what is actually happening. 

Text Coming into Opening Scene Practice!

Using Adobe 'Flash Professional' i have created a very simple opening to my animation. The reason i have done this before going straight into it is because i wanted to see show easy it was going to be and weather or not i was over estimation what i could actually do. So to represent the telegraph poles i had just put two wooden poles. After that i put in the wire and the text. After playing around i then found my self getting better and better with flash and it was also getting a lot faster. After no time i had created the initial bouncing of the text. I then decided to challenge my self even more and make it fly back into the air and come forward. I did this by copying the initial bouncing in and then inverting it backing it the same movement but backwards. I then removed frames in the time line to make it faster then the first bit to give it the effect that its been flung into the air.  

Focus Group!

To get an idea of what i should include in my animation i interviewed two of my class members to get there point of view. I asked them seven questions on topics such as the style of animation, the character and the themes. I had also given them some pictures that i had drawn of the characters to look at and give me there opinion on the characters so i could change them if necessary before animating them. 

I found the answer that they gave me very helpful. This is because they said i should aim it more at the younger aged audiences so i will now make the character more friendly, they also said to do the animation using animals and to keep it simple and not to complex for the younger ages. 

Background for the Open Scene!

Due to my inspiration from the animation 'The Birds' i have chosen to do my animation on telephone wires as they are easy to draw but when done properly give a really good look. I have chose to do simple colours and haven't gone into tones of detail with the colouring and drawing. I gave gone with the conventions of cartoon more then realistic animation as i am not very experienced in high quality animation and this is easy enough to do in the time that i have. 

Attempting to Draw the Female Bird!

So far out of all the drawing that i have done, this one is the one that has stumped me the most. For some reason i just can not get this drawing right. I have tried numerous different shapes for her body but none of them seem to work. I had come very close at one point to finding one that i liked, however after asking my peers if they liked it, the feedback that i got was they thought the bird looked very young and i'm going for a teenager. Another problem that i am having is weather to give her hair or not. I will keep on drawing female birds until i get one that suits all the girly girl stereotypes. 

Bernard's Emotions!

When drawing these characters in flash it can be really hard to get face expression right. So to help my self out i decided to draw these 6 different emotions. I chose these emotions because these are the faces i think he is most likely to use in the animation or at least the most common ones. To makie the emotion correct i got a few people to pull these face expressions and i took a pictureof the face expression and used that as my guid to drawing them on Bernard. Having these next to me when drawing these on the computer should help me massively improve the quality of the aniamtion.

Face Expression Examples!