Not too long ago I had a friend who is still in school approach me and ask whether I would help with her Duke of Edinburgh Award. For this she wanted me to teach her how to animate by creating her own short animation.
As she isn't confident in drawing we both decided that stop motion with everyday objects would be the best approach. She came up with the idea of animating shoes in a shoe cupboard. These shoes would get excited every time a person would walk near the cupboard and open the door hoping to go out...just like a dog would.
With this idea in mind she then chose three different pairs of shoes, one pair was black sparkly high heels, the second brown brogues and the last a white pair of converse. I adapted a character sheet that I've used to write up about characters that I have created to make it simpler and more appropriate for her characters. She then filled it out! ...
Character One
Full Name: Conor Martin
Nickname: Con
Age: 15
Colour/s: White but dirty
Size: 7
Nationality: British
Accent: Southern British
Physical Disabilities: None
Abilities: Video Games
Favourite Colour: Red
Greatest Fear: Mum not coming home one night
Daredevil or Cautious: Cautious
Optimist or Pessimist: Pessimist
Introvert or Extrovert: Introvert
Extremely skilled at: Video Games
Extremely unskilled at: Sports
Mannerisms: Always seems bored, tries to be the man of the house but it doesn't work.
How does the character react in a crisis: Tries to act like he doesn't careless but he actually does.
How does the character react to change: Doesn't mind...
Where does the character live: Cupboard
Where does the character want to live: Away from family
Does the character like animals: Yes
Do they like music?..What kind: Dubstep
Connor is the son of the high heels, grandson of the brogues and has no father figure in his life.
Character Two
Full Name: Edith Martin
Nickname: Edie
Age: 68
Colour/s: Brown
Size: 7
Nationality: British
Accent: Southern British
Physical Disabilities:Warn down and slow
Physical Abilities: Jigsaws and Knitting
Favourite Colour: Lavender
Greatest Fear: Family leaving her - being lonely
Daredevil or Cautious: Cautious
Optimist or Pessimist: Pessimist
Introvert or Extrovert: Introvert
Extremely skilled at: Knitting
Extremely unskilled at: Hearing
Mannerisms: Neat freak, likes to be in control.
How does the character react in a crisis: Cannot control herself because she panics too much.
How does the character react to change: Panics and becomes scared
Where does the character live: Cupboard
Where does the character want to live: Wants a bigger and cleaner cupboard
Does the character like animals: No because they are dirty
Do they like music?..What kind: 1940's Jazz/Swing
Character Three
Full Name: Laura Martin
Nickname: N/A
Age:38
Colour/s: Black Sparkly
Size: 5
Nationality: British
Accent: Southern British
Physical Disabilities: Bit off balance
Physical Abilities:Partying
Favourite Colour: Pink
Greatest Fear: Breaking a toe nail
Daredevil or Cautious: Daredevil
Optimist or Pessimist: Optimist
Introvert or Extrovert: Extrovert
Extremely skilled at: Partying - social
Extremely unskilled at: Being a Mum, not very domesticated
Mannerisms: Excited, bubbly and over the top
How does the character react in a crisis: Freaks out, is all over the place.
How does the character react to change: Likes it, gets used to it very quickly
Where does the character live: Cupboard
Where does the character want to live: Away from her Mum, finds her to be a nag
Does the character like animals: Yes
Do they like music?..What kind: Dance music.
Next came the storyboard, we knew what the idea was but we didn't know what was going to happen in the animation and what scenes and shots we were going to have.
This is the final sequence that my friend decided on. And so from all of this came the actually animation...
In the creation of this animation my roll was advising and guiding my friend with how to animate, setting up the set for the animation, lighting, rigging and as she had never animated before I helped her with the timing of the movements and how many frames to do for each shot. The only part that I got hands on with her was when she did the shots where she was opening and closing the doors and picking up the shoes, for this I took the images and moved the eyes of the other two shoes if she asked me to do so! My friend created most of the sounds herself and a couple others I made. After this I showed her how to put together, add sound and edit the animation!
Overall I feel that this is a brilliant first animation and my friend did a brilliant job of it.
I loved working with someone that was younger and had never had a go at animation before, it was great to see her enthusiasm and to see her having such fun with it! I found this exercise very refreshing and I wouldn't pass up the opportunity if came my way again!
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