StoryBoard reflection

Semester 1

NCI445 sequential imaging

For this task I was asked to produce a storyboard based on the sketches of anything I traced in the Hancock museum that could either be related to actual fact or fiction.

I decided to base a story on this colourful patchwork elephant doll called Phillip the flip-flop elephant that somewhat bears a similar appearance to the children’s book character Elmer the patchwork elephant. In my earlier drafts I was originally thinking of having Elmer and Phillip be cousins and have adventures with other patterned animals but decided to keep the story original and much shorter. For my character designs I mainly got my inspiration from a few images from the website Dreamstime.com before settling with illustrated versions of baby animals from the Super Cute Animal and Pets Design Draw Now! Sketchbook, created by Christopher Hart to make the animals look more cute and to give the viewer the idea of them being young. The main focus behind Harts book is how to sketch an animal in the form of Japans manga technique.

Phillip the flip-flop elephant 

Photoshop colour overlay

Once again before I began work on the actual storyboard, I drew up another stickman prototype to help plan out the main plot of the story. The main plot of my storyboard is about three animals an ostrich, a zebra and Phillip the elephant running for their lives from a hunter and head for an amateur witch doctors mud hut for help. It is there that the witch doctor casts a spell that was suppose to make them invisible but since he’s an amateur in magic he causes the zebra and ostrich to shrink down to the size of a mouse while Phillip ends up having a colourful patchwork pattern cover all over his body. With the hunter closing in the witch doctor gets an idea to give him the slip, so he places Phillip up against the doorway making him appear to be a pair of curtains. Eventually the hunter is easily fooled by this and walks away, but then due to Phillips heavy body weight the surrounding walls begin to crack causing the entire mud hut to collapse on everyone burying them in hay, they all end up laughing where the zebra makes a joke about them being a needle in a haystack.

Original storyboard

For most of the colouring in I mainly used the bright and dark colour tones used on Photoshop to fill in the gaps and used a few images such as wood texture and long grass texture to give the witch doctors mask, headset and skirt a more realistic appearance and to save more time for filling in extra white gaps. I also used the same method on Phillip while using a different colourful patchwork pattern for his magically changed appearance. Once all the colouring in was finished I decided to add in the speech bubbles, with a little bit of separate colours to tell which character was saying what.

As for my two other ideas I once again based my characters on relics from the museum. My second storyboard draft is based on an ancient Egyptian mummy named Istari who is trying to get some sleep in her sarcophagus while two dinosaur skeletons a Tyrannosaurus rex and a Iguanodon are up late making such a racket. As she complains about being the oldest thing in the museum who needs her sleep, the two dinosaurs point out that they are much older than her and that she doesn’t know how to have fun which not only aggravates her, but also provokes her to challenge the two to a contest of games to see who knows how to have fun better than the other.

They first have a karaoke singing contest, then a game of tag, until finally around midnight they have a game of bowling where Istari rolls a cannon ball towards a bunch of ancient Canopic jars and gets a strike, once she cheers and turns around to ask the others what they want to do next the T-Rex and Iguanodon have already fallen fast asleep exhausted from all the fun they had.

Hancock images

   

I also had plans for another storyboard featuring a prehistoric dinosaur bird named Archaeopteryx, where it would show a young Velociraptor hatching from an egg who daydreams all her life of wanting to fly, to a full grown adult, then a scene where she rapidly evolves into a Archaeopteryx since many palaeontologists believe modern day birds evolved from raptors. However seeing that I would only have enough time to produce one storyboard I just left the two as scripts.

Scripts

Phillip The Flip-

Flop Elephant

By

Sam McCoy

Version 1

Sam McCoy

67 Thornley Road

Walbottle

Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE4 4NE

EXT. African savannah mid afternoon-present day

Three young animals are running through the tall grasslands passing a nearby jungle, from a silhouette hunter.

Ostrich

(Looking back and shouting to her equally scared friends)

Faster guys he’s gaining on us!

Cut to

2

All three of them notice their friend the witch doctor’s mud hut in the distance beyond another patch of tall yellow grassland.

Zebra

(Shouts to both of them)

Quick! Let’s hide in the witch doctors hut.

Cut to

3

All three of them run in to ask the witch doctor for help which he offers.

Phillip the elephant

(Looking towards the witch doctor with a exhausted expression on his face)

Doc, you’ve gotta help us there’s a hunter right behind us!

(Witch Doctor kneeling down on one knee to listen with a surprised look on his face)

Witch Doctor

Ok hang on this should do the trick.

Cut to

4

The witch doctor jumps in the air to cast a spell spreading his legs and waving his magic-staff that produces a purple surrounding aurora, while shouting the incantation.

Witch Doctor

ALAKAZAM!

Cut to

5

The entire scene is covered in a big puff of magical purple smoke with the word poof inscribed in the middle, to not only make it look like the transformation has occurred but also saves time of producing a complicated transformation.

Cut to

6

After the smoke clears everyone looks at each other to see if the spell worked correctly. The ostrich and the zebra have shrunken down to a very tiny size, then look up towards Phillip who has been given a colourful patchwork pattern all over his body similar to Elmer, much to the surprise to everyone else. This is all due to the witch doctor because since he is an amateur he cannot preform spells properly.

Witch Doctor

(With a shocked expression)

Oops.

Zebra

Look at us we’re so tiny

(Looks up at Phillip)

Phillip

(Looking at his multi-coloured body)

Except for me, look I’m covered in colours.

Ostrich

(Looking up at Phillip)

You look like a pair of curtains.

Cut to

7

Upon hearing the ostrich say “curtains” the Witch Doctor gets an idea on how to fool the hunter so he uses his magic to lift Phillip up in to the air (surround by a purple aurora) and places him in the doorway of the hut.

Witch Doctor

Hmmm I’ve got an idea quick go up against the wall.

Cut to

8

Scene Shifts to the outside of the mud hut with Phillip’s backside poking out of the doorway appearing as an actual pair of curtains to fool the hunter.

Cut to

9

Nearby the silhouette hunter is easily fooled by the Witch Doctor’s plan and walks off into the distance.

The Hunter

(In a angry agitated voice)

Drat! Lost them.

Cut to

10

The surrounding wall of the doorway where Phillip is standing begins to crack meaning that the structure cannot support the young elephant’s heavy weight.

Phillip

(Staring at the cracks with a nervous expression on his face)

Uh guys I think I’m a bit heavy.

Cut to

11

The Witch Doctor notices the cracks and concludes what is going to happen.

Witch Doctor

(With a Shock Expression)

 Uh Oh.

Cut to

12

Scene shifts to outside again where the hunter has vanished, the entire mud hut has collapsed on everyone, the animals have returned to their original states and while everyone try’s to dig themselves out they all end up laughing of what has recently just occurred, along with the zebra making a joke out of the outcome.

Phillip

(With his trunk Popping out of the hay)

Hahaha!

Ostrich

(With her left wing sticking out)

Haha!

Witch Doctor

(With his skull staff sticking out)

Haha!

Zebra

(With his tail sticking out)

HAHA! Hey guys we’re needles in a haystack.

The end.

Two old fun fossils

And a grumpy old mummy

By

Sam McCoy

Version 1

Sam McCoy

67 Thornley Road

Walbottle

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE4 4NE

EXT. Hancock museum Newcastle England 9.00PM present day

Scene begins in a slightly lit ancient Egypt exhibit where a mummy is sleeping quietly in her sarcophagus with faint voices in the background.

Cut to

2

Two dinosaur skeletons a Tyrannosaurus Rex and an Iguanodon are seen laughing with each other expressing how much fun they are having.

Cut to

3

Scene moves back to the sarcophagus where the mummy opens the lid and pops her head out with a half closed sleepy eyelid.

Cut to

4

Istari leans up against the exhibition glass, bangs it with her arm and faintly yells at the two dinosaurs who are seen smirking from a distance.

Istari

(With an irritated expression on her face, looking towards Rex and Iggy)

Would you two please keep the noise down some of us are trying to sleep.

Cut to

5

Rex

(Lowers a mischievous look toward Iggy and replies back)

Come on Istari all you do is sleep, come on lets have some fun.

Cut to

6

Istari

(Putting on a proud and snobbish appearance, placing her arms on her hips)

May I point out that some people as old as me require a certain amount of sleep; I am after all 2,000 years old.

Cut to

7

Iggy

(Lowers a mischievous glare towards Istari and replies back)

So what? We were before your time 65 million years to be precise and we were hardly lazy.

Cut to

8

Istari

(Gasping with shock and irritation)

LAZY? LAZY? WHO ARE YOU CALLING LAZY I”LL SHOW YOU! I… I… I CHALLENGE YOU TWO TO A COMPETITION TO SEE WHO IS THE MOST FUN

PERSON IN THIS MUSEUM!

Cut to

9

Scene moves to the three of them singing in to microphones the first challenge is a karaoke singing contest.

Cut to

10

Scene shifts to a corridor where Istari is running from Rex and Iggy in a game of tag while she anxiously tries not to trip on her bandages.

Cut to

11

Scene shifts to a bunch of ancient Egyptian canopic jars all lined up then knocked down by a 17^th century cannonball winning a strike, revealing that the third game is makeshift bowling.

Cut to

12

Istari jumps around

(With an excited expression on her face and one eye closed)

STRIKE! I win!

Cut to

13

Turns her head around to Rex and Iggy behind her.

Istari

What do you want to do next?

Cut to

14

Istsri has a head close up while she looks down to see Rex and Iggy sleeping and snoring, exhausted from all the activity.

Cut to

15

Scene turns back to Istari’s face, where she lets out a gentle sigh and lowers her left eyelid.

Istari

Ha-ha ok you two win, next time let’s play jokes on the night watchman.

The end.

The life and evolution of a raptor

By

Sam McCoy

Version 1

Sam McCoy

67 Thornley Road

Walbottle

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE4 4NE

Ext. China Early morning 65 million years ago, cretaceous period.

A prehistoric dinosaur egg begins to hatch, where a newborn raptor pops her head out and yawns for the first time.

Cut to

2

She is greeted by her mother, who shows her the surrounding landscape full of different types of dinosaurs. She looks up and notices flying pterodactyls, then asks her mother.

Young raptor

(With a curious look on her face)

Mam, how come we can’t fly what sort of dinosaurs are we?

Mam

 (Looks down and replies with a joyful smile)

That’s because we are raptors dear, we don’t have wings we have claws instead, we are built to run.

Cut to

3

The young raptor looks at her claws, and looks back up to the pterodactyls passing by.

(With another curious expression)

Young raptor

Hmm, I wonder what it would be like to fly?

Cut to

4

Scene skips to ten years later, where the young raptor is now a teenager who still mostly daydreams of wanting to fly. She is seen playing with a pack of other raptors.

Teenaged raptor 1

(With a big happy smile)

Ready or not here comes the flying raptor!

Teenage raptor 2

Oh no here she comes.

Teenage raptor 3

Run for your life!

Teenage raptor 4

You’re not going get me nah nah!

Cut to

5

Teenage raptor 1 chases after teenage raptor 2 with her claws wide open waving them up and down.

Cut to

6

Scene shifts to teenage raptor 1 chasing after teenage raptor 3, where apart from waving her claws faster she attempts to jump higher and higher.

Cut to

7

Scene shifts to a forest clearing where all three of the teenage raptors run into each other.

Cut to

8

Then from a top of a large boulder Teenage raptor one jumps into the air and lands on all three of them.

Cut to

9

All four of them begin laughing and begin to express how they feel.

Teenage raptor one

Ha-ha that was fun let’s do it again tomorrow.

Teenage raptor two

Ha-ha yeah next time let’s all pretend to fly eh?

Teenage raptor three

Ha-ha ok am up for it.

Teenage raptor Four

Ha-ha who knows maybe one day we actually will be able to fly.

Cut to

10

Teenage raptor one looks up at the sunset sky and thinks to herself

(With a gleeful smile)

One of these days I will learn to fly.

Cut to

11

Scene shifts to another ten years later where it shows the full-grown raptor walking around a lake.

Cut to

12

Then the raptor is given a close up shot, where she rapidly begins to evolve.

Cut to

13

Close up of her back, she begins to grow colourful feathers all over her body.

Cut to

14

Close up of her claws, wings begin to sprout.

Cut to

15

Close up of her mouth begins to harden into the shape of a beak.

Cut to

16

Scene zooms out to reveal her entire body structure has shrunken down to the size of a modern day bird.

Cut to

17

Her evolution has fully become completed, finally transformed in to a prehistoric bird known as Archaeopteryx. She then begins to flap her wings up and down.

Cut to

18

She takes flight to the sky where a close up scene of her face is seen, where she breaks the fourth wall.

(With a smile and a wink)

I told you I would learn how you fly.

The end.

As a last minute assignment we had to produce a small animatic sequence on after effects using the edited scenes from our storyboards. At first I found it a little bit difficult on how to move the images around and how to import them, but with a little help and time I eventually got the hang it, being able to make a few scenes slide from side to side, go around in circles and zoom out a little.

Overall I found the project very interesting; especially when it came to producing my own scripts and storyboard from a figure I came across, even though it took me a while to piece it together. I also found this project a little bit tricky with the After Effects software, but with a little more practise I’m sure to use it professionally next time.

SWOT analysis

• Learning how to use the After Effects software to slowly move the still images.