NCI:503 Contextual studies 2
Storyboarding and character concept design essay evaluation

For this module we had to write an essay that was related to a specific topic that we were interested in and chosen to pursue for a future career.

For me I chose storyboarding and character concept design since I have produced multiple ideas from them before, along with creating backgrounds and personalities for each of the character’s.

To help fully structure the essay I used one of the college’s library example manuals to plan out the paragraphs and break down the topic step by step.

When I first began with the intro I described the evolution of cartoon character designs and the multiple styles such as water colouring that have greatly changed over the years ever since the 15^th century and beforehand.

I then listed down the numerous choices explaining where they originate from, how the techniques are preformed and how they are still used today for modern projects.

When it came to the argument section I explained the debate about when it comes to the artist wanting to make their work public and gaining positive feedback to continue it further, while it depends on clients and the targeted audience’s opinion. I then explored what the artist could do either change the characters design to meet the clients expectation or go and search for another client who would actually approve of their work and not overlook it unfairly.

As for the similarities section I researched many animated and live action films that if one looks closely there are multiple scenes that have the same styles, techniques or appearances. Even though I did look up artists and illustrators such as Don Bluth, Pixar and DreamWorks from the reading and reference list, I decided to go a little off track and look up examples that weren’t included on the list, finding results that would help describe my topic.

By looking at Disney classics such as Robin Hood, the Aristocats, the Jungle Book and the Sword and the Stone you can see that their specific scenes in the film that have been recycled to save time reanimating the whole scene, for example there’s Baloo the bear dancing with king Louie the orang-utan that was later reused for Little John dancing with Lady Clucky and there’s two dogs who leap on to Arthur licking him on the face, that was used again for when Mowgli was greeted by wolves.

Within the Walking with Dinosaurs TV series and Ice Age films the similarities between those two is that the production teams all researched their chosen characters that were all prehistoric and decided what habitat they would live in.

I then explained why it is really necessary for both a script and a storyboard is required for when it comes to producing a film even if it is a 3D animated one. With a descriptive script it allows you to visualize the characters, which will eventually lead you to break down the story into separate scenes so that you can fully illustrate a storyboard with detail. It also gives you a chance to check which scenes are not actually required for the animation.

Before finalizing a character design, you can go over your concepts again and see what areas need improving allowing you to decide when your character is finished.

As for the advantages and disadvantages I narrowed down what could be beneficial for the illustrator and what could be unsatisfying for them. With the advantages an illustrator can work with a team who have their own areas of talent, allowing one to tackle the challenge independently relieving them of time consumption. This also allows you to ask a co-worker for their opinion on your work to see if it is perfect the way it is or needs a little improvement.

Disadvantages on the other hand can be very harsh towards the artist such as having a very limited time schedule to complete a project that has been rushed and isn’t finalized, not having the required materials to produce the project, the expense of software and having their work unfairly chucked away.

I also added what advantages and disadvantages there are for me personally, such as being able to bring my own characters forward in a comic book series and trying to overcome the obstacle of working outside my comfort zone.

Along with the similarities section I also looked out for the differences in similar projects. I researched many TV series such as martin Mystery, Totally Spies and Avatar that all look like they were made as anime’s, but really they are anime-influenced that were produced in separate countries like America, France and Italy. Apart from them I also included the differences between Walking with Dinosaurs and the Ice Age films, for example even though they both have stories and based in the prehistoric times the ice age characters have distinct personalities and backstories unlike the dinosaurs who were just portrayed living life by instinct.

Then came the reflection and conclusion section where I reviewed the topic myself and explained how it is of great use for my own character development, along with comparing the agreements and disagreements for its use in todays advanced technology while concluding that is really important to include it in the developing stages of producing a film. 

Another important chapter that I elaborated on was who the targeted audience the idea is aimed at along with pointing out the age limits, different types of theme and multiple choices for a characters personality. I even researched where many iconic characters and vehicles originally came from such as doctor who’s Daleks were inspired by pepper pots, while the star wars spaceship the millennium falcon was influenced by a hamburger with two fries sticking out the front with an olive on the side.

For the last finishing touches I added a list of requirements for when comes to piecing together a script, storyboard and a character design such as the main plot, style and techniques. Along with that I personally wrote why I would prefer storyboarding compared to the more technical side of 3D animation, I even added the bibliographies and references of the artists I researched pointing out the ones that I found most appealing to look up.

Overall I found it quite challenging to piece together this essay breaking it down into separate sections and researching a topic that I am really interested in.

Twice weekly report

During these past two weeks I have been trying to put together this essay based on a topic that I am interested in which is a combination of storyboarding, character concept designs and script writing. Once again I have found this assignment quite challenging breaking down the paragraphs and piecing the correct words together for the arguments, differences, similarities and many more. To help structure the whole thing I used a college aid booklet from the library to easily tackle each step along with researching what is both different and similar in development for animated or live action productions.