Finished Christmas Card animation!!!

My festive Christmas Card animation is complete! I managed to finish a day before the deadline, for once I wasn't in a mad rush to finish on the day of the deadline. It's quite relaxing! But, it was my intention to finish a day early so I could have a day to edit or tidy up the animation, so I'm happy I kept to my schedule!

 I cleaned up some particularly scribbley lines and made some minor changes that my tutor suggested. One of the suggestions was to give more colour to the Elf. I tried various ways of doing that but felt the colour was too distracting. My animation is supposed to only have a little bit of colour to draw in the eye of the viewer not focus the eye on one point completely. My animation is essentially only a line drawing. It's simple and effective which is one of the traits I like most about it.

It was fun making this animation! I tried making it amusing for the viewer to enjoy and judging by the giggles and smiles of my fello classmates who watched it, hopefully I succeeded! What's the point of a Christmas card if it doesn't make you smile?

So here it is! 

Enjoy!

Christmas Card Progress

Here is a sneak peek of my work in progress, just to show all the layers etc. Proof I actually did the work! 

Christmas Card Storyboard

view of santa reading one of his letters which says Lucy wants a cat for Christmas.

View of Elf walking towards assembly line with cat in hand and then places the cat on the assembly line.

Elf tries putting a festive bow on the cat but the cat refuses and struggles. Eventually the Elf succeeds.

Elf then picks up the cat to place it in the box but again the cat refuses.

Elf struggles to push the cat into the box till finally the cat loses his grip and falls in. Elf immediately puts lid on the box.

Elf is relieved and takes a break as the box moves along the assembly line offscreen.

There is a sudden crash sound coming from the left which blows the surprised Elf to one side.

Elf reacts with dismay about the destruction that occurred offscreen. Cat casually walks back on screen.

Elf buries his head in his hands and sighs. Cat looks at screen and meows. Merry Christmas appears at top of screen.

Character design and sketches

 Grinch and Swat Elves designs.

 The Grinch.

The Swat team Elf.






Cat presents designs.

Sketchbook sketches.

Digital sketches.

Animation screenshots.

Christmas Brief Idea 2. Grinch and Swat Elves.

This idea involves the typical Grinch trying to spoil a families Christmas but there is a task force ready and waiting to stop him.

Research 

Netgun

Storyboard

1.zoomed in on house window of family around their Christmas tree.

2. zoom out the window to the outside to the front garden.

3. the Grinch sneaks up to the house in the garden looking evil and mischievous.

4. before the Grinch can spoil the families ChrisTmas, a swat team jumps out of different places in the garden who where lying in wait.

5. they shoot the Grinch with a gun that shoots out a net and captures him.

6. they casually carry the Grinch away, job well done! 

Think I'll go for this idea!

Christmas Brief Idea 1 Cat Present. Decided!

Hmm the basics of this idea is following what a child asks for christmas through the toy factory. In this case someone asks for a cat because it's typical to ask for a puppy and I didn't want to go for the usual stuff. I also thought a cat would be more amusing because they're a bit more stubborn and disobedient than dogs.

I love Simon's cat!!! It's really funny and expressive and what I love most is how simple it is and the quality of drawing!

Quick Draft Storyboard of idea

1. View a letter to santa asking for a kitty.

2. Santa gives the signal and an Elf fetches kitty in the 'Christmas Kitty Kennel'.

3. Kitty is scooped up and prepared for shipping off, grooming, red bow and bell on it's next etc. Kitty resists a bit.

4. All clean and pristine Elf tries placing cat into the box up it resists again. Eventually gets in the box.

5.  Moves along on the assembly line belt till it gets to the slay.
6. Finally freed on Christmas morning bit worn out.
.....or something like that!

Concept behind my idea
I remember as I child I always asked for some kind of pet for Christmas because I have always loved animals. It's typical imagery to see children asking for puppies for Christmas and the child opens a box to find a puppy with a bow around it's neck etc.
Then I started thinking about what would that actually involve? Obviously the parents just go to the pet store, but thats boring! what I mean is, what would it involve for Santa and his Elves? I say it would be difficult for those little elves to handle a cranky cat or animals, only one of their daily troubles I imagine! So I wanted to animate an amusing struggle for the poor Elf as he tries preparing the cat as a gift. Cats being one of the most stubborn animals I know of, his task will not be easy!

I've decided to the animation in simple line drawings, no colour! Unusual for a Christmas animation but I like the simplicity of it. I'm using 'Simons Cat' animations as my main reference. Perhaps I will add small pieces of colour in vital areas of the animation to draw in the viewers eye e.g. 'Merry Christmas' title at the end.

My tutors said to develop my own style. So in this animation I have my own style of drawing with my usual scribbly lines and with an anime influence. It's simple which is something I love doing…I don't like complicated stuff, not because I'm lazy or anything, I'll make it complicated if I have to… I just prefer the simplicity and effectiveness of some animations and I want to imitate that in my own way. I wanted to draw in a sketchy manner but I know thats difficult to achieve in Flash because its vector based and corrects the strokes into clean precise ones. I'll still draw away like I usually do and see what happens.