OUAN504 - Animating, Characters Discussion

As one of the last scenes I had to work on personally, I was relatively used to the way I was working and this was one of the easier efforts in terms of animation and camera work. I had in mind a shot from above, like an aerial view slowly moving further away revealing more of the scene. This was a fairly simple set up and contrasted to some of the more complex and dynamic scenes that Wing and I had set up. During the scene the characters use action to present to the audience the idea that they are deliberating and discussing something, the use of the map in the centre of the shot reveals to the audience enough information to recognise what's going on. The intention was that after this slow pan shot, it would cut to the more fast paced and highly contrasted scene of the 'strong' character digging in the barn with a spade. The previous shot to this was a character grabbing the poster off the wall so hopefully this should reveal the fact that the 'plan of escape' is written on the reverse side, as hinted in the first posted scene where the reverse side is revealed. I spent some time making sure the scene read well and that the characters were in appropriate locations, with the smaller pig in the centre looking between the two other characters as the scene goes on, as if they were listening to the 'higher ups' or the wiser characters. Furthermore, this is a subtle form of character development in that the audience will recognise the relationship between the characters and the roles they play within themselves. Even if the whole story is revealed within a one minute time frame.

Due to the subtlety of the motion in the scene I did want to make it as natural as possible, and hopefully less mechanical or robotic. I tried to include as much overlapping action as necessary to achieve this as well as thinking carefully about how the different characters interacted during the short sequence. Thinking about the limitations of this scene, as others, if I had more time I would have created a much more dynamic and realistic scene. Perhaps including the characters passing the map between them and moving around more instead of moving their arms and head but pretty much standing in the same place. This also goes for if the animation itself was longer. In a sense this has enabled me, and encouraged me to think carefully and be as economical as I could in terms of making sure each scene and the action that takes place within it is communicated effectively to the audience. Early on in the production, it became apparent to Wing and I that one of the main challenges with the production of this animation would be making sure despite the complex story (given the time we were allocated) we would have to develop every aspect with the intention of making the story apparent to the audience in every way possible. This is where the simplicity of the movement, the shot that focuses entirely on the action intended to move the narrative forward and finally, the use of characters, props and staging to encompass the premise of the scene in just a few seconds.