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.