Major Project - Submission

Art Of Shelf Life

Major Project - Updated Pre-Vis

After receiving feedback from my minor project hand in, I have revisited my pre-vis and edited the opening sequence. In this version the chicken sees the brand new dolls house on display and imagines life inside the home. This prompts his journey up the shelves.

Major Project - Fashion Doll Finished Model

Major Project - Modelling the Fashion Doll

Major Project - Adding Dynamics: nCloth

To add movement to Susie's hair, I applied nCloth dynamics to the hair mesh. By using the Paint nComponents Attributes tool, the cloth dynamic was limited to the bottom portion of her hair. The video below shows various tests using different presets in the nCloth attributes. 

Minor Project - The Art Of

Minor Project - The Art Of Shelf Life

Minor Project - Character Development

At the end of my story, the rubber chicken is found by a young girl, Susie. Susie is alone just like the toy. She doesn't fit in with other girls who have perfect hair and play with fashion dolls. When she stumbles upon the rubber chicken, she loves him because he is as unique as she is. I want her to look odd and gawky so it would make sense that the chicken would appeal to her more than a perfect 'Barbie' type doll. For her clothing designs I researched children's clothes from the 60s.

Minor Project - Skinning

Minor Project - Finished Model and UV Layout

 

 

Minor Project - Modelling the Rubber Chicken

 

 

 

Minor Project Pitch Presentation

Minor Project Pitch

Minor Project - Script Changes

Having discussed the possibility of making alterations to my original script, I returned to the story and began exploring some changes that could be made. Whereas the story was created using the three things; an egg, a contortionist and a joke shop, I now have the opportunity to move away from those restrictions.

Original Script:

Shelf Life by MeganHowett

Script Changes:

Rather than the animation beginning with the rubber chicken being taken out of it's nest, and the journey becoming the return to the nest, he could start in a 'bargain bin'. The focus of the chicken's journey is to get a spot on the central display where all the new and popular toys are shelved. This would take place in a toy shop, rather than a joke shop as I feel this gives more opportunity for toys/characters to come alive.

Act One - The toy shop is full of children laughing and playing with toys, especially those on a large display in the centre of the shop. A rubber chicken watches from a bin in the corner, wishing someone would pick him up and play with him. The shop closes and the children go home, leaving a mess of toys on the floor.

Act Two - The rubber chicken climbs out of the bin and makes his way through the mess of toys. (Possible obstacles: jack-in-the-box, fun snaps, lego, dominoes, scalextric/train set, jacks, play doh)

Act Three - a) The chicken climbs onto the shelf just in time for the shop to open. 

b) The chicken fails to climb onto the shelf. However, a child enters the shop, finds him on the floor, picks him up and takes him home. 

In terms of style and era, I was thinking around the 1950s and I want the toys included in the animation to create a sense of nostalgia. The shop itself would appear older and dated but the display shelf that the chicken is aiming for would show toys released in the 50s, such as scalextric (released in the late 50s), play doh (first launched as a toy in 1956, however existed as a wallpaper cleaner since the 30s) and etch-a-sketch (available in the late 1950s).

Minor Project Proposal

For my minor project I would like to revisit Shelf Life, my short story from our year one Storytelling project.

I want to re-edit the animatic to better tell the story as I feel the original is hurried, due to the 1 minute time restriction of the original project. 

Potential style influences:

I would redesign the environment, focusing on making it feel huge, as though it's being seen through the chicken's eyes. I found a series of paintings by Lyndon Stokes called Ants Eye View, below is an example of one of the pieces. I think this sort of warped perspective could work well with the story, making the chicken's journey seem more monumental.

Lyndon Stokes Times Square NY

As I plan to have the animation told for the chicken's level, creating a strange perspective, I feel that the characters design could add to this as well. I like the idea of extreme proportions in the character design, for example in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Flint's body is long and skinny in comparison to his  head, whereas his dad is square with short legs. Also, because of the chicken's stretchy, rubber material the whole world could be developed to feel soft and bouncy.