Before I made a decision to animate using Photoshop, I wanted to test the characters and more importantly how I would make the camera zoom out. This is a big thing for this particular animation as the characters don't move that much, and the whole story is about more candles being revealed and the interaction between them.
I opened up my original drawing of my candles in Photoshop, and tried resizing and repositioning them so that there would only be so many candles on display. I started of by trying to get just the first two candles in the shot. I resized them to the height I wanted them to be, and placed them in the centre to try and create the shot that I had planned in my storyboard/animatic. The problem was that the other candles are too close together, and so they don't move out of the frame. In order for me to do this, I would have to move the image to the right of the frame to push the other candles out of the shot, but this would just look odd as there would be too much white space on the right. So that wasn't really an option.
A Diagram I Produced to Explain What I Mean. (Clearly, I am a Diagram God).
I then had to consider what I could do to overcome my problem. Here's what I came up with:
- Alter the storyline: I could have the candles placed into shot one by one. This would be slightly more effort to animate, but a perfectly good way to introduce the new characters.
- Adjust the storyboard: I could change the shots that I use. By using close ups I can focus on just the two characters and not have any others in the shot.
Quick Camera Zoom Test
I decided to test my second plan very quickly. I knew it would work in the sense that I'd be able to get the characters I wanted in the shot, but I was unsure how this would look visually, hence why I tested it out. I think it works quite well. Granted it seems to move a little quick, but it is just a test, and I shall be able to neaten this up when I come to produce the actual animation.
Watching this back though, I realised there is a problem with this method when it comes to my opening scene. I wanted the male candle to be placed next to the female at the beginning of the line, but I didn't want you to be able to see the rest of the candles, which you would be able to do if I used this method, as in order for it to work I have to start off with a close up of the first two characters.
I was unsure how to put my thoughts into words, so here's a diagram incase I didn't make it clear.
I could just roll with it, and start off this way, but I really want the viewer to see that he gets placed on the cake and then lit. I like that is a subtle giveaway to the ending, but you only really realise (maybe) at the end of the animation.
To overcome THIS problem, I could have the first male candle placed next to the female character, that has already been placed, BUT none of the other characters are there yet, as they have yet to be placed. I can let the candles do their thing, and then zoom in on the characters faces/flames. At this point the other candles can be placed without the viewer knowing, and I can commence with my original idea.
Sounds good to me.
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