Applied Animation: Creating the Final Storyboard 2

So creating the storyboard is fully underway and we'd agreed that when it came to animating we would stick as closely as we possibly could to the storyboard. I am the one developing the final storyboard but I informed the others that if they have any new ideas they could let me know and I'll figure out how to work it in. But basically the final storyboard needs to be really strong meaning every frame needs to have the right camera angle so Matt can take the panel as a guideline of how to create the background. The final storyboard has taken quite a bit of time but looking back, it has definitely been worth doing in order for everyone in the group to understand exactly what they are doing. The storyboard has also taken so long to create because I needed to pay extra attention to detail.

For example in the above panel I use exactly the same shot as the one that takes place ten years before. So when it comes to animating this shot it should take a lot less time as the animator can just use the same scene with the same animation roughs but then alter the visual aesthetic to show that the college has been decimated.

The same can be said for the above images. I feel this should be a fairly successful technique as any way we can be manage our time more effectively has got to be a good thing.

I really liked the idea that as time goes on and over the ten years as the character's mental stability begins to crumble, and their lives crumble, the environment around them literally crumbles. So in the end it looks like the college has been abandoned for years and left to rot. This kind of represents what the characters have done to their own lives but I think we all liked the idea that these are just minor details that are never really addressed. So I knew I needed to work this into the storyboard too give Matt an idea of how to create the background designs around the storyboard panels. So researched abandoned places on Google images and found lots of details that I could work into the storyboard to give the impression of abandonment, for example graffiti and just random objects scattered about.

I feel like this idea serves the narrative very well because even though I think we all feel the actual idea is strong, there is a worry that it could be a bit boring if it is just documenting animators making an animation. We want to create a different world for these characters to live in which supports the idea that this animation is not real and is a satire.