Final Animation

Plot:

Jay is a little boy with a big imagination. After eating mum's gummy worms, he imagines himself as a boss of a mob group attempting to get away with the heinous crime. With his group "The Three Little Bears" composed of : Carlson, a toy figurine and loyal body guard who is far less fearless than he looks - and Jay's teddy bear which stays right by his side on his desk. Their cat whiskers is a ferocious lion who will be let lose on the mob's rivals (poor mum). 

The animation shows Carlson giving Jay the information that mum is on her way - and jay responds to let the lion loose on their rival. We then see the grand unrevealing that the lion is the small kitten Whiskers, and Jay is really just playing in his garden. 

WWW:

• Timing and spacing 
• Character design
• Background design
• Perspective
• Use of different camera angles

EBI:

• Sound quality/ mixing was better - I struggled to find appropriate sounds and edit pre recorded ones appropriately
• Some of the line work - most of it won't be noticed by a viewer but it did annoy me
• Confidence to do real lighting - though not having any on the characters gave a comic book feel to them which helped with the fantasy vs reality 
•  More complex actions (Even though I think these fit the theme of crime more - I think I could have demonstrated more complex motion in places or with another theme)

Concept Art

Thinking of the final outcome, I designed the background for the end of the animation first. This is because I didn't want this scene containing crime tropes, so it was done before I started  delving in to deep research. This shows a clear lighting contrast to the office setting, showing the real world as a happy time as Jay is playing, in contrast to his crime filled imaginary world. It's also relatable as many children played outside with their toys thrown all over the place in the back garden. 

After research, I found that the blue and white/yellow lighting contrast was a typical trope in crime movies, as well as having a scene with a mysterious figure walking down the corridor. This is the first introduction to the fantasy world and is a clear contrast to the only impression of real life. Having this behind Carlson's large figure will make him seem more intimidating than he really is - as he will block out the light with his big build.

I wanted the office to look very traditional, with a few contrasting colours whilst also keeping to the dark colour palette of a mob boss office. To make this truly feel like a child's dream, I included lots of crime tropes that a child would interoperate in a funny way. 

Tropes:

• Painting: Usually of a dead relative, but this is a painting of Jay's previous teddy bear that was eaten by Whiskers. Has a shrine underneath it.
• Rug: Usually a bear skinned rug but this is a fluffy rug that all children run to in a furniture store. 
• Big red chair: A spinning chair like any child would want (so that Jay can do the slow turning boss reveal)

Tropes:

• Animal head: Usually a bear head but the Three Little Bears wouldn't dare kill one of their own, and so very similar to Despicable Me, the head is a fake unicorn, an animal that Jay knows doesn't exist. The bright colours have a good contrast to the rest of the room to show how out of place the mystical creature is and to highlight it's a dream. 
• The wall of photos, all mob bosses love their family, even if Jay is secretly plotting against his mum to steal the cookies from the kitchen.
• The name tag: Jay doesn't quite understand that the boss claims his desk by putting their names on the table, so Jay put his title on name card. "The BOSS" (This is also the logo which will be written out in the title screen and then shown throughout the animation)

I also put the Leeds Arts logo on the hidden toy car so that it can  reappear in the garden in the grass to create the final logo transition.

The title is actually hand drawn on a piece of paper to show reality vs childhood dreams. This is what I used to create the title animation, recording myself writing it and using the sounds in time with the animation.