Leaving the animation on photoshop

The reason why I have moved my animation onto my dads computer on toonboom harmony is because it is less of a frustration and easier to work with in my opinion, the timeline and the frames work together perfectly instead of getting mixed up and reorganising them over time. I am currently near the end of the first scene and after I finish I'll try and finish the second scene and then give them to Tom to edit back at college.

So far, so good

The plan we have at the moment is that my partner will be doing the animation in college while I do the animation at home, working on a different scene. The reason I am doing it at home is because the software I am using is on my home computer and I can't move it to another device as it is a stand alone.

Shooting Day: 1

Today, we finally began shooting. We went to the small forest area in the college and shot the scenes of the Traveller and The Snowman alone as we didn't have any more actors at the time so we'll have to wait till tomorrow to do.

Planning of the animation

At this moment of time, we are still discussing of what animation we could use. There are many softwares that seem to make this animation easy, however, will have to research and see if they can be useful. So far, we have covered two animation softwares we think that might suit our animation. There is FlipNote Studio, a animation software on the Nintendo DSi that is a hand drawn animation only using the stylus. The other is ToonBoom Studio Harmony, where the rotoscoping is improved and easier to make use of.   

Wonder - The Idea

What inspired me to do a animation like Wonder was when we were researching different animation types through the net, one that took my eye was the John Lewis Christmas advert, the animation they did looked like a pop up book, a bear and a hare that celebrate Christmas in a magical way. Then, imagining a animation that was like a story becoming alive was quite engaging, like a side scrolled adventure all on one take. As days went by, I discovered a game called Limbo which was a about a boy on a adventure to rescue his sister in a grim world, when watching each walk through, ideas began to grow in my mind. With these two ideas stirring together I could have a unique ingredient that will mix story telling with dark fantasy type genre, the boy some of the objects in the game are silhouetted, which inspired me to make some of the characters and the objects in my animation like that, which forces the audience to imagine of the what the characters would look like without the silhouette.

       
(Above) A Image of the game 'Limbo'

However, this was just an idea, far from developing into any sort. But then, discussing with a friend, he had a idea of his own for a animation, about a snowman who wanted warmth and would eventually die in a peaceful way at the end of the animation. We talked about it for a while, exchanging ideas until I mentioned about my idea, about a traveler of some sort, walking through a landscape. He liked that idea, in conclusion, we mixed our ideas together and developed a story line. A traveler taking care of a snowman to take it on a journey to get warmth.
 Moreover, we made ourselves do a little homework, we designed characters and tried to fill in the gaps of the story. During this course of time, I was interested in the genre of the apocalypse, I watched several movies and played certain games to feel the atmosphere within it, such as 'The Road' or 'The Last Of Us'. What made these quite similar was that it is the journey and the relationship between the two characters that makes it so important and engaging, which is was the aim for the animation. It gave me the sudden idea of setting it in a post apocalyptic world so the relationship can bond when in desperate times, even with little dialogue, you can tell by the actions of what the characters are doing that the relationship is becoming stronger.

   
(Left) The Road (Right) The Last Of Us

Once we had the idea settled, we thought to give it some structure, we want the animation to look simple and to give the gist of reading a book, however, also making it a dark story, making the characters make hard decisions and to make sacrifices. And that sometimes happy endings are sad endings as well.  

The Pitch

Wonder - Script

ExT. outside of Forest - Day

It is a foggy, cold landscape, as the wind howls through the outskirts of the murky forest, a lonely SNOWMAN sits still in the empty snowy space, looking at the ground. The bushes and trees rustle against each other, being pushed by the wind.

 Minutes feel like hours for the Snowman, as he sits still, wondering in his empty mind of what his purpose could be in life. Suddenly, coming from the left, a weary, middle aged man in a long coat approaches the snowman. THE TRAVELER at first walks past the Snowman but then looks back at him, knowing that it wasn't a everyday snowman.

THE Traveler

Are you lost little one?

The Snowman

Warmth... I need warmth...

The Traveler instantly knows where to take the snowman and so he picks some snow and makes arms and legs for the snowman, placing them onto it. The snowman stands up and admires its arms and legs, looking up to the Traveler it smiles and begins to walk back and forth.

THE TRAVELER

Come on then, I know a place what has warmth.

The Traveler gives the sign for the snowman to follow, the snowman, in a slow speed, follows the Traveler, carefully taking each step as if its tip toeing.

As the two continue their journey for warmth, the two hear some noises, the two then pick up the pace of their walking. As the noise of muffled footsteps get louder, the traveler hides behind a tree whilst the snowman stands still. The cause of the noise is a group of bandits, all equip with heavy blunt weapons and scrap metal armor. The noise of rattling chains and boots that sinks into the thick snow echoes through the air, making everything else silence. The Traveler's breathing becomes heavy and the snowman remained still, confused of whats going on. The bandits look up and down the snowman and smirk, they walk on, however, one is left behind and attempts to smash the snowman. The bandit gets ready to swing his club, until, leaping out of the bushes out came the Traveler, grabbing hold of the club and then punching the bandit square in the face. Causing the bandit to collapse onto the thick snow. The Traveler then draws his sword and thrusts it into the bandits stomach, causing the bandit to yelp quietly. The Traveler takes the sword out of the bandit's stomach and drags the body behind the tree, then joining the snowman to see if he is alright.

 the traveler

We must press on. Come on.

Ext. forest - EVENING

 The two enter the forest, hearing the natural sounds of owls and crickets. The sun begins to slowly hide behind the snowy hills, causing the sky to change color to a blood orange. The Traveler and The Snowman continue to walk, stepping on branches and twigs, causing loud snapping sounds. On serval occasions, The Traveler will turn and whisper to The Snowman to be quiet.

  

The Traveler

Shhh!

Suddenly, the two stop by the sounds of twigs snapping in the distance. The Traveler points his sword forward and slowly continues to walk, whilst placing his hand flat on The Snowman's chest. Everything goes quiet and all you can hear is their soft footsteps on the wet mud. In front of them, they see a group of bandits sitting around a fire, cooking what seems to be a roasted duck on a stick. The Traveler and The Snowman slowy creep round them by hiding behind the bushes and trees, until, by accident, The Snowman falls over and causes a loud rustle noise in the bushes. The bandits all get up and draw their weapons, approaching the bush all armed and ready. In the nick of time, The Traveler pops his head out of the bush and throws a stone in the distance, causing all the bandits to look. The two run for it, the bandits follow, grunting and yelling in anger.

Bandit 1

Come ere you scum!

Bandit 2

I want to break all your bones and eat the marrow!

The Traveler and The Snowman continue to run, jumping over logs and fallen trees along the way. Until they reach outside the forest.

 ext. Cliff - NIGHT

Coming out of the forest, The Traveler and The Snowman reach a cliff, leading into a deep, dark what seems to be a never ending abyss. The Traveler looks back at the bandits and then points into the distance, indicating The Snowman of that is where the warmth is. He then takes The Snowman apart and throws each limb across the other side, The Snowman rebuilds himself and gets up, full of confusion of why The Traveler would do such a thing. The Traveler on the other side of the cliff, waves goodbye and draws his sword once more and heads back to deal with the bandits. The Snowman slowly turns and walks in a slow pace.

 ext. Field - night

The Snowman continues to walk, everything is quiet now, all he can hear is the sound of crickets and the wind. Light begins to show in front of The Snowman, he picks up his pace and becomes face to face with a lamp post. He stands under it and closes it's eyes. Gradually melting. As time slowly went by, The Snowman was nothing but a lump of snow, with two coal like eyes on the top and the carrot on the side.

The end.