The Classical Elements: Planning Cont. and Development

After long consideration, I have decided to go with the birthday candle idea. I really loved all the ideas that I was able to come up with, and it's a shame I can't work with all of them (although, it is likely that I shall return to some of them if I get the chance), but the birthday candle one seemed to be the most popular with those whom I shared my ideas with. It also didn't sound overly ambitious and figured it would be the best option considering my skills are fairly limited at this stage. So I began developing.

Just when you think I've learnt to scan in my sketchbook, BOOM, a wild photograph appears.

Similiarly to my last project (my giraffe animation), I knew what the main storyline was going to be, but I was unsure of what was going to make the animation last 20 seconds. So to start with, I came up with ideas for what the candles could do to make it an interesting animation. My main ideas were either to have a love story between two candles on the cake, and have the male try to get closer to the female and when he finally gets close enough to introduce himself and try and win her over, she gets blown out, followed by himself. My other idea was to have a long line of candles that get introduced one by one, the last to be shown to the audience is a novelty number candle which gives away that they are sat on cake, and then they are blown out. 

I was leaning more towards the second idea. It seems more comical and entertaining, and it was also an opportunity for me to explore facial features and emotion without using sound or speech. Granted it wouldn't allow me to consider many principles of animation, but this way I would be able focus on creating lovable characters, as well as including a range of different camera angles, which I wasn't able to do on my last animation. 

Because I had a more solid idea in mind in terms of a narative, I began to design my candles.

When I started drawing, I was actually thinking about my first idea, and designed a simple male and female character, and how they could be represented and distinguished between, colour being a very stereotypical way to do this. It was then that I thought that the animation could have portrayed a homosexual relationship, and based my fifth candle on the gay pride flag (very stereotypical I know, my apologies). It was only then that I came up with the idea of having a long line of candles with different personalities. 

I tried to alter the shape and the facial expressions of the character to portray different types of character. I also considered the part that colour and pattern could play in creating different personalities. 

Designing different candles gave me the idea to give each candle in the line a different personality. I really, really like this idea, and think it will add to the comedy value of the animation. I also think it will be more entertaining to watch, as well as animate, and this way it will allow me to explore more facial expressions.

Due to there being a range of characters, I could also try to impliment my first idea. The first two candles in the line could be an ordinary male and female, and for a few frames the male could try to jump towards the female. This will allow me to consider how the character will move, and it is also an opportunity for me to consider a wider range of principles of animation. Not to mention it being a way to fill more time.

Now that I have an idea of what I what my characters to look like, I shall start to plan and develop a storyboard. This will allow me to put my idea into perspective and to see whether it will work. This also means that I can finalise my characters and decide on how many I want, and what I want their personalities to be.

Edit: I randomly got the idea to draw a "gothic" or "emo" candle, so I went with it and started to consider other stereotypes or personalities.