Nick Sharratt Animation - An Update
Recently we have taken on the task of animating some of Nick Sharratt's stories from his book "Vikings in the Supermarket." This is a blog entry that gives a little bit of an update on what I have been doing in the process of this animation, with feedback from Nick Sharratt included.
The Storyboard
Of course, I firstly needed to listen to the song which Nick had provided which would run alongside my animation. The song was mostly exactly the same as the text within the book, but also included a chorus which I needed to take into account.
The fact that the illustrations were already provided for us made things both easier, but also difficult in some aspects. It was good in the sense that all the character designs and the basic layout was already provided, but also difficult because you have to be wary of changing Nick's drawings too much. For example, changing facial expressions and adding poses that he has not drawn himself, yet still trying to keep the illustrations in his particular style took some thought.
I eventually came up with a storyboard that fit the song nicely and would provide Nick with an idea of how I would animate his story.
The Animatic
Following the storyboard, I proceeded to make an animatic. This allows you to time the storyboard to the music so that you are more aware of how the frames will fit together. I tried to make the animatic as detailed as possible in relation to the amount of frames I drew as I really wanted Nick to be able to see how I would move the characters and use up the screen space. This also helped me get an idea of how my animation will finally look, taking into consideration the transitions between frames and the ways characters will move.
Feedback
After I had finished both the storyboard and the animatic, I sent them off To Nick Sharratt, via my tutor, for his feedback and so he could tell me of any changes he wanted me to make. I received a response very quickly and I was shocked to read that Nick did not really have any changes!
I was very happy with this feedback and was glad to see that there was no major changes. I had already planned on animating the moment of which each animal bits the next, so it was good that Nick pointed out that I had not made this clear in the animatic.
