Animation Short, Treatment File

Poster

Concept / Narrative
It starts off with a view of a dark urban city. At ground level of the busy streets people are going about their usual business. However these aren't normal looking human beings, these are round headed and big eyed creatures of all shapes and sizes. Through all the hustle and bustle of the street the camera focus' on a certain part of the street and notice a dark figure sitting in a dark alleyway, unnoticed by passers by. Next we move to his point of view watching the people walk by. We then look at this character sad and alone in this dark place. This sad character is called Shadey. We watch Shadey sitting by himself as if all hope is lost for him. He tries reaching out to others but his creepy dark gloomy appearance scares them away. Giving up Shadey sits there, then suddenly the area around him begins to glow a soft blue colour. Shadey notices and looks up. Slightly above we see a small floating blue orb character glowing and filling the area with light. Shadey goes to poke/ touch it because he's never seen anything like it. The orb pulls back and flies off. Shadey fascinated and happy that he was acknowledged gets up quickly to chase after it. A small child like character notices the light orb and pulls on it's parents arm, but the parent takes no notice and pulls the child away. So others have seen this orb character.
 We then follow Shadey as he dodges people and traffic after the orb. He sees the orb hovering around near ground level. We see the orb floating around happily.and then it's suddenly scooped up in someones hands. However it's not Shadey but two mean looking thug like characters bullying the orb. Shadey catches up to them and confronts them trying to free the orb. Out of anger and annoyance one of the thugs throws the orb to the ground and smashes it. Devastated Shadey kneels by the broken orb who has lost all its light. Angry Shadey attacks the thugs. The fight fades into the background and we focus back on the broken orb.  
Suddenly a faint glow comes from the glass. A blue smoke like figure rises out of the glass. A sudden burst of blinding light fills the screen. Shadey covers his eyes and the thugs are obliterated. A panning shot from Shadey's feet to his head reveals he has transformed into a new, lighter, happier self. We then see Shadey's face surprised and then happy staring forward. We then look back at his hand which are now holding someone else's hand. A female figure fully formed from the blue smoke is now before him.

Technique & Approach

I plan on making this animation using various softwares: photoshop for the background images, Flash for the character movements and possibly After Effects for added effects such as smokey effects and light glows and polishing up the animation and finally Audition for putting the sound together at the end. I will draw my backgrounds to the size required of each scene/ setting on Photoshop, I want to hand draw every element digitally. I want to put emphasis on light glows and reflections and character expression in this dull city, through contrasting tones of light and dark but balancing both so it's aesthetically pleasing.

Aesthetic / Mood Board

Simply drawn backgrounds, sketchy, limited dark/ dull colour palette.

Dull tones/ colours. Gloomy sense.

My own drawing. Emphasis on light in a dark space. Character style.

Possible added effects, glows/ shines.

My example of a hand drawn gif. Drawing frame by frame for the characters movement.

My quick drawing. Similar quality of sketchy lines for backgrounds. Simple lines and colours or tones. Enough detail but not too much. Water colour type colours?

I would like to capture similar light glows and expression.

I like the sketchy line quality and would like to do something similar.

Similar background quality I'd like to achieve. Good sense of depth, lights and hand drawn qualities.

Really nice light glows and dark tones.

Nice hand drawn line quality.

Audio

For my animation I plan on making it a silent movie type animation, so no dialogue! The expressions of the characters and the moods they portray will hopefully be enough to tell the story. However, there will be a mixture of sound effects and music to set the scene. I'm not sure not the music just yet. I want perhaps quiet gloomy type music at the beginning and louder quickened pace music towards the middle where Shadey chases the orb with hope, gloomy sad song again when the orb breaks for a sense of tragedy and upbeat happy music again at the end. The music gets happy and sad though out the animation at appropriate moments. It'll hopefully give the tone I want.

Sequence of Events / Shot List

• Opening scene - High angle establishing shot of the dark city.
• Slow zoom into the city.
• Fade to new scene of a section of the busy street at ground level.
• Fade to a particular part of the street, viewing a alleyway on the main street, people walking past going about their business.
• Point of view shot + low angle shot from the inside of the alleyway watching people walk by.
• Point of view + low angle shot, panning upwards to reveal main character, (Shadey), sad looking sitting on the ground from his side profile.
• View from behind Shadey as he crawls over reaching out to one of the passers by.
• High angle point of view shot of Shadey looking all depressed reaching upwards to someone.
• Low angle point of view shot of the passer by all freaked out and walks away.
• Point of view low angle looking at Shadey back sitting on the ground all depressed. Notices blue glow and looks up.
• Over the shoulder shot - view of the light orb.
• high angle view from the left hand side Shadey trying to poke the orb.
• High angle point of view shot of Shadey's hand and the light orb pulling away.
• Zoom outwards slightly revealing more of the scene and light orb flies off.
• Focus on Shadey from the front for a moment, then he gets up and runs to the left, camera follows him when he stands up.
• Low angle shot of Shadey from behind as he pauses for a second before turning the corner and ready to leave the alleyway.
• Zoom in on child character staring at the camera.
• Point of view low angle shot looking across the street to see the light orb float away and Shadey in pursuit.
• Back to zoom in on child pointing forwards and tugging on his parents arm before being tugged away himself.
• One point perspective shot of Shadey running through the street, camera follow the moves he makes.
• zoom on Shadeys face as he notices something ahead.
• Establishing shot of orb in the distance.
• Zoom in on orb, front view floating along and then suddenly captured.
• Zoom out establishing shot of thugs bullying the orb.
• Zoom out left hand side, over the shoulder shot, Shadey catches up and notices the thugs.
• Front view of thugs, Shadey appears from the right of the screen confronting them.
• Zoom in on annoyed thug who throws the orb to the ground.
• Zoom in high angle on broken orb.
• Focus zoom in on devastated Shadey.
• Low angle Shadey kneels by broken orb.
• Zoom in on angry Shadey, jumps to the right off screen.
• Zoom out low angle establishing shot. focus on Shadey and thugs fighting.
• Fight goes out of focus and zoom back into the broken orb which starts to glow.
• Pan upwards from the orb as the smokey figure rises from it.
• Low angle shot focus on figure for a second and then a burst of light.
• Shot of Shadey covering his eyes.
• Shot of thugs obliterated by the light.
• Panning shot from Shadey's feet to head, transformed into a better self.
• Focus on Shadeys head and shoulders as he looks forward surprised.
• Focus on Shadey's hand lightly holding another hand.
• Low angle shot focus on female figure going from smokey to fully formed.
• Closing scene: Zoom in on Shadey's hand again lightly holding the now fully formed girls hand and they both gently tighten their grip.

The End.