Now Entering the Pre-Production Stage !

I do not own or take credit for this image.

I felt as if maybe I dove into too much too soon, but then it was a surprise that I had much of this process already covered in the past. Although it was a great refresher and I caught many flaws in my pre-production that I would have caught in a bad time during production stages. That is why diving back into the pre-production process and researching ways to develop a solid short was a great idea by Professor Redding. 

I became interested in an article I found by researching some storyboarding techniques and just refreshing my memory overall in the development process. The article by Julia Camenisch “ The Perfect Plan: Storyboard and Shot List Creation” is by far an amazing recommendation for anyone looking to get into the swing of pre-production. The emotion and color of your pre-production is one thing to never forget, you want the most of your process to be developed in order to convey that concept and idea to your team. Storyboarding is where I began my research and development process in my pre-production. Just like Julia Camenisch said, “Why is it so important?”, because we are the only ones that know exactly how the short takes place and how it should be developed. But not everyone else does, and the fact that you plan out each scene in a series of frames or segments helps to develop your overall progress, troubleshooting ideas and situations that may arise, and gives you something to fall back on when in doubt or have hesitations in ideas and development. Having a strong storyboard and story overall is something to have completed before exploring the next step. That is why during my research and development, I took a few steps back and took advice and advantage of learning more about storyboarding processes, how developing the overall of the short in the pre-production process is what matters, character development ideation, and a bit of quad-flow development. (only because it is relevant to my current studies for other courses.)

After exploring more of what Julia had to offer in her article, I stopped before I got too far in the pre-production process, because as she said the most important place to start is the storyboarding. Dermot O’ Connor is an amazing animator and illustrator, I took his 2D animation: Tips and Tricks, Essential Technical Aspects of Animation, Animating in Photoshop, Learning 2D animation Principles, Animation foundations: cartoon characters, and many others on linked-in learning. He offers a Animation Foundation course called Storyboarding, and since I learned so much from him in the past I thought he would be a great addition to my research and development throughout my Capstone project. I am currently not finished with his course because it is a bit longer than I expected, and I wanted to explore his tips and tricks within my own storyboarding as I explored the course. Currently in the stages of the process acts and sequences, and giving ways to describe camera movement/placement and staging and composition along with the direction of action in the storyboarding. Something that my storyboards extremely lacked overall. I wanted to take what I learned and make notes on the boards before I redid them and finished them for the overall storyboarding pre-production process. It is better than spending more time focusing on his tips and tricks because it gave me more insight into the way more short is structured. 

Sharon Ross on linked in learning, although a 2D designer for Animation has several different consulting/hand in many other developments of shorts throughout her time in the industry. She did not only work on many of the tv shows and films we saw as children or growing up, her hand plays a major role in storytelling and storyboard development. The slight 10 minute interview/description of her career was a great refresher to taking a break and hearing that the time spent in pre-production is more than well worth it in the stress developed in production.

Although my ADHD kicked in severely this week, I remembered that last semester I was diving into Mary Jane Begins Character Development and Design course on linked in learning. I wanted to finish that because I only had a small amount left in her course to finish it. I chose to research and develop my character development and design through this course because she is an amazing artist and has a way of seeing things in character development that I normally would miss. She also has a way with explaining great tips and tricks to develop your character, elements of developing a believable character for the audience, and her take on style meets substance. Giving forth your own style, but getting a positive reaction from the audience/viewer is all what matters in the end. 

I wanted to reference some other areas that I explored within Creating Characters For the Entertainment Industry and how the development of the story development is key to understanding a way of developing the characters around the story. Although I am ahead of this step it seemed relevant to the tasks at hand.  (Unfortunately I cannot scan or take too many pictures of these books because they are copyrighted etc, these are some images that are featured throughout the selling points of the books.)

I do not own or take credit for this image.

I do not own or take credit for this image.

I also explored some of the Topology Workbook vol.1, Topology Workbook vol.2 because it was relevant to the development of the characters in the software in the future, but also relevant to the development of my current studies of anatomy and sculpting in my independent study this semester. 

I do not own or take credit for this image.

I do not own or take credit for this image.

And of course here is a little present from the The Animators Survival Kit, Buy it! Live by it!, keep it at your side forever!

I do not own or take credit for this image.

I cannot wait to dive into the ideation and iterations of my storyboards and character development and have them structured/developed for my next post, and continue pursuing the pre-productions phases, tips and tricks, and all the other resources I may come across in pursuing my Capstone project.

Works Cited/References

Anderson, Kenneth, et al. Creating Characters for the Entertainment Industry: Character Design for Animation, Illustration & Video Games. 3dTotal Publishing, 2019.

Begin, Mary Jane. “Welcome - Learning Character Development and Design Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 12 Apr. 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/learning- character-development-and-design/welcome?u=76811570.

Connor, Dermot O'. “Exercise Files - Animation Foundations: Storyboarding Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 26 July 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-storyboarding/exercise-files?u=76811570.

Connor, Dermot O'. “Welcome - Animation Foundations: Drawing Cartoon Characters Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 31 Aug. 2015, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-drawing-cartoon-characters/welcome?u=76811570.

“Sharon Ross: Designer for 2D Animation - Sharon Ross: Character Designer for 2D Animation Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/learning/sharon-ross-character-designer-for-2d-animation/sharon-ross-designer-for-2d-animation?u=76811570.

Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2019.

Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook: Volume 01. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2018.

Williams, Richard. The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators (Expanded). Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.