Then comes the style frame
Here was my first stab at how I wanted the film to look. I wanted my main characters to be these little derpy creatures, and like my childhood sleepovers, I wanted them to be surrounded by hearTthrob magazines, pizza, soda, some game consoles, and those little smiley face potato fries. Those were a staple in our house.
It all starts with
a moodboard
The first step I took was to gather inspiration and set the tone for how I wanted the film to look and feel. I was going for a nostalgic, childhood slumber party vibe with a dark, but cute undertone.
Character Design
One of my favorite parts of the animation process is the character design. These were inspired by the flour sack exercises I'm sure most animators are very familiar with. Much like loaves of bread, they're just little rounded rectangle guys with tiny limbs and little snoots. I wanted them to have really dumb, blank expressions, but the emotions would come through with their body language and subtle facial movements.
Background Designs
After whipping up the initial sketches during the storyboarding phase, I passed some of them off to my teammates to clean them up and fully render them. Here's some line work as well as some finished backgrounds that made it into the film.
OUIJA
A Tale of Two
MISCHIEVOUS Twins
For my senior film in college, I made a fully 2D animated short about two sisters having some questionable fun at their sleepover party. When they accidentally summon a demon, they've got to act fast or get sucked into the underworld forever.
I got together a group of other students to help me bring this to life, and I'm genuinely so proud of it. This was my first experience collaborating with a team on animation, and I learned so much. Let me take you through our process.
The Animatic
Once the initial sketches and storyboards were finished, we were ready to move onto the animatic to get the timing where we wanted it. It's really rough and messy, but it was the framework for the final project. I also voiced the characters myself while my roommates weren't home one night.
I did most of the keyframing and had some help animating some of the in-betweens as well as some of the special effects. This whole project was such a great collaborative learning experience. It taught me how to manage a team, let their special skills shine, manage tight deadlines, and stay organized with tons of files.
Then comes the style frame
Here was my first stab at how I wanted the film to look. I wanted my main characters to be these little derpy creatures, and like my childhood sleepovers, I wanted them to be surrounded by hearTthrob magazines, pizza, soda, some game consoles, and those little smiley face potato fries. Those were a staple in our house.
It all starts with
a moodboard
The first step I took was to gather inspiration and set the tone for how I wanted the film to look and feel. I was going for a nostalgic, childhood slumber party vibe with a dark, but cute undertone.
Character Design
One of my favorite parts of the animation process is the character design. These were inspired by the flour sack exercises I'm sure most animators are very familiar with. Much like loaves of bread, they're just little rounded rectangle guys with tiny limbs and little snoots. I wanted them to have really dumb, blank expressions, but the emotions would come through with their body language and subtle facial movements.
Background Designs
After whipping up the initial sketches during the storyboarding phase, I passed some of them off to my teammates to clean them up and fully render them. Here's some line work as well as some finished backgrounds that made it into the film.
OUIJA
A Tale of Two
MISCHIEVOUS Twins
For my senior film in college, I made a fully 2D animated short about two sisters having some questionable fun at their sleepover party. When they accidentally summon a demon, they've got to act fast or get sucked into the underworld forever.
I got together a group of other students to help me bring this to life, and I'm genuinely so proud of it. This was my first experience collaborating with a team on animation, and I learned so much. Let me take you through our process.
The Animatic
Once the initial sketches and storyboards were finished, we were ready to move onto the animatic to get the timing where we wanted it. It's really rough and messy, but it was the framework for the final project. I also voiced the characters myself while my roommates weren't home one night.
I did most of the keyframing and had some help animating some of the in-betweens as well as some of the special effects. This whole project was such a great collaborative learning experience. It taught me how to manage a team, let their special skills shine, manage tight deadlines, and stay organized with tons of files.