When Balls Go Bad - Update

At the moment I have started to animate the scenes for the 20 second "When Balls Go Bad" animation. So here is a wee peek at what I have done so far:



The dog jumping on the shelf took about 2 days and I drew up various versions of the movement till I was moderately happy with it. I will come back to it later and neaten it up. This took a long time to animate but I also think this is the hardest part of my idea to animate.
I did look at videos of dogs jumping along with using my own memory/experiences (I did have to be a bit inventive however as I have never seen a dog knock down a shelf before!!). I also thought a bit about the previous project, almost treating the dog as a ball himself - the arc of his jump, when his body would fall faster or slower etc.

So far I am really enjoying doing the actual animating, and even though this is just a sketch that I will later build on, it is very exciting to see the little story and canine character coming to life!

Storyboard Animatic

Here is the animatic of the storyboards I have drawn up for the "When Balls Go Bad" animation. The basic idea at the moment is; my canine character trying to get the ball, the ball being let loose and starting a chain of reactions which quickly dismantles everything in the room, but the dog is then rewarded for his efforts with the ball and the biscuits that fall of the shelf! The room is still meant to be an 'inventor's' studio sort of room. I was originally thinking of a WW1-period theme for the setting (from W. Health Robinson's sketches) but I don't think this is really relevant/worthwhile for such a short animation so I have left that out. However, I wanted to have the bunting in there as it can fall off the wall easily and make the room at the end look more messy!
Anyway, here is the storyboard animatic to give a general idea of how the animation will flow, the timing and how the short narrative will progress. Now to move on to the actual animating!

When Balls Go Bad - Further Research

I have been looking into several more inspirations lately for the "When Balls Go Bad" animation. My intial idea was to have a dog feature briefly, playing with a rubber ball, which would get the ball moving in it's environment (probably a room in which the ball would cause havic). After some brainstorming, I made this quick test to see how difficult it would be animating the dog. It is not the best animation I admit! But I think that animating the dog will be doable.

After looking at W. Heath Robinson's sketches, I really wanted to incorporate this sort of style in my animation. I especially like the WW1 cartoons, so I have been thinking about a WW1 setting. Also, that the dog and ball may be in a room that belongs to an inventor that makes contraptions like those in Robinson's sketches. The ball could then set of these contraptions and cause the sequence of events that will alter the environment. Thinking up the inventions however is the tricky part!! Here are some more of my sketches for this idea:

I looked about for a little more inspiration also from artists and videos. The very start of the opening scene from Back to the Future occured to me - the camera follows a line of contraptions/inventions (and a lot of clocks) which in the end opens a can of dog food. I found out also that this scene was inspired by Rube Goldberg. I would definately like my animation to have this sort of feel; a bit of narrative and a conclusion to the sequence of reactions, eg. like the dog food can being opened. This is depending on it being not too difficult and time-consuming to animate of course!

I also saw these concept sketches for 101 Dalmations of the London flat (from the book Before the Animation Begins in the ECA libary). I loved how messy and detailed the room was with all the objects and furniture. Also the sketchy pen lines that add to the busyness. This reminds me of a sort of inventors/creators room, in which my animation could maybe take place. Although with that amount of detail it would be very time-consuming to create, but I still really liked this illustration and have found it inspiring.

That is where I am at so far! I am hoping to get my storyboards drawn up this week so I can then start animating as soon as possible.

When Balls Go Bad - Project Research

Looking through the various links on the project brief, there are a few that have really caught my eye. First of all, the video I was most impressed with was the "OK Go" music video based on Rube Goldberg style mechanisms. I really like the humour in this video and the extravagant mechanisms. Although random, the sequence of events are linked to the song which I think makes it more like a definate 'film' and more enjoyable to watch that just a un-related sequence of events. It is fun and silly but also has more of a point to it and a clear conclusion (the band being blasted with paint, which felt like a conclusion to me as I was wondering why were they covered in paint throughout the video! This for me brought the film together). I also felt the Honda advert was successful in this way.



The "OK Go" video led me onto researching more into the American Rube Goldberg and the very similar British artist W. Heath Robinson (both also on the portal). They are both very similar in their work, but I particularly liked Robinson's style for the intricacy of his illustrations/inventions. Also like the "OK Go" video, there is much humour in their cartoons. I especially liked Robinson's WW1 cartoons of very unusual "weapons" and war devices: http://www.ideafixa.com/voce-nao-desenha-nada-w-heath-robinson/

For my animation, I would like to use the same sort of style as W.Heath Robinson has used in his cartoons. I would also like to put a little bit of narrative into the animation; to give the sequence of events caused by the ball a bit more purpose!