Animatic Feed back and thoughts

For my animatic I would need to make a few changes. The story wasn't clear enough as most would assume it's just a flashback rather than a flash forward and that the story is a bit of a scramble. Because I just chucked in Hansel and Gretel story it didn't tie in very well. The idea of using lightening to show the skeletons is a good idea and may use that in my refinements. I should also create something else to help with the flow of the story.

Maybe instead of creating flashbacks, should I just create the opening of the game using the cinematic approach? keep the opning of the forest and the boy going through it and try and make the start of the story?

It is a hard process of trying to figure out if I should stick with the trailer of the game or an opening. I think I will need to have a look at more game trailers to get an idea of how to go through with it.

I could perhaps create a cutscene in the game. American McGee Alice Madness Returns uses this approach by having paper cut outs acting out the cut scene and using the same cinematic. Their designs are very unusual but it relates to the original Alice in Wonderland Book.

 My designs will be illustrated rather than paper but it is something worthwhile to think about for the cutscenes.

Lewis Carrol Alice in Wonderland book Illustrations
https://libr280bookstudyblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/de_alices_abenteuer_im_wunderland_carroll_pic_25.jpg

American Mcgee Alice Madness Returns paper illustration cut scenes
http://img00.deviantart.net/15fe/i/2011/070/1/9/what_do_you_mean__rabbit__by_jack8642-d3bdzg2.jpg

I have found the video of all the cutscenes of American McGee Alice. Hopefully I can try and create a cutscene for part of my game.

I will say this video/game is not for the light hearted so apologies

Using cinematic approaches works well when referencing to a book. It worked well for Harleys Mad Love (see first blog post for video) as it is based on a comic book. 

When making the designs, I need to make sure everything is in layers and have minimal movement for the characters. I can do this with the puppet tool on After Effects as it connects the joints and moves the character more like a puppet, which is what I am looking for.

I created something like this in HNC which lasts only a few seconds as I was new to After Effects at the time. I know the timing is off and it bends more than it should as I didn't put the layers right. But now I know what to do from my past mistake and hopefully create a cinematic with the tool.

Illustrations and video

From the storyboards I recently made I have just completed the Illustrations and a rough animatic.I went over each drawing and used minimalist graphics until I fully reworked the story. The main character is still a base at the moment and will be working on him this week for creative research.

First scene is the front of the forest. I used subtle black and grew to give an eerie feel:

Front forest

Second scene is the main character through the forest. Instead of sticking to grey and black i decided to use different shades of purple which worked well against the blue sky and black shadows

Through the forest

A close up of the main character. The arrows indicate the tree branches coming in both sides, surrounding the boy.

Close Up

Flashback to fighting the wolf. Again used purple for the grass. I added the skeletons in now to show the story. Lightening shows where the flash will be. Arrows indicating movement of the wolfs head and tail. The goats will also be floating around too.

Big Bad Wolf

Because i just thought of this, it is just a sketch but i will be illustrating it very soon. This shows the character jumping away from the witches knife as Hansel and Gretel look on.

Hansel and Gretal

This is a quick drawing of a book. Once the flash back is over it shows the boy which zooms out to pages in a book. I'm not sure for the background as of yet. The big arrow indicates movement of the pages flicking through.

Open Book

The last illustration is of the closed book which will be the ending of the trailer. It will have the games title on front as well 

Close book

I have completed my animatic which is very rough with still images but i will be animating them once i re worked the illustrations. Here is the video:

Storyboards

I've made up a few storyboards that I am going to use for my animation.  Everything is quick sketches so nothing is on point atm but will be redrawn on illustrator. In my animation I want a deep voice over, someone with a bass in their vocals like Christopher Lee and Brian Blessed, to tell the story but that won't happen until much later on when it is all complete. 

The start of the animatic is the opening of a deserted and empty shadow of the  forest. Eyes will flash between the dark trees and the branches will slowly be swaying. It will then zoom into the forest and open up to a boy going through it with the brothers grimm book in hand.  The eyes of the boy will look around and leaves will slowly fall to give it an eerie feel.  The next scene it will be a close up of the boy, trees coming from the side and we will zoom into the boys eye with a flash and it will open to him fighting a large demon Wolf.  Lightening in the picture will flash and you would see the skeleton of the Wolf and Skeletons of the 7 little goats.  It will then go fast right and open up to another of the grimm story.

 Since I already done the rough animatic I quickly sketched up the witches house with hansel and gretel in a swinging cage so that's not done in illustrator as of yet because I need to work on character design for the witch.  In the animatic the cage will be swinging and the boy jumping slowly away from the slow large knife coming towards him.  It will then zoom Into the boys eye and flash to white.  The next scene will be zooming out of the boys eye in a close up shot.  Red eyes will lit up behind him in the forest.  It will then zoom out the whole picture, revealing his story in a book.  The book will close and will have the title of the game.

This is a lot of illustrations to do but it will work.  As long as I keep a steady flow of the pace it will tie in with a cinematic theme.

I have already finished a very rough animatic of showing the illustrations.  By next week I will rework some of the illustrations and start to properly animate.

Here are the quick sketches of the storyboards.

Front of the forest

Boy going through forest

Boy confronting wolf ( Have not made the wolf as of yet)