Author Archives: hanasanimation

Experiment

Posted on by
Reply

Fixing a slight problem with shooting a particular scene – Where i want the crab claw to emerge out of the sand slowly. I have fixed this issue with using a hole in a separate piece of cardboard with a cloth placed on top for the sand to be stable enough and placing a tripod underneath to wound up eventually creating a small sand dune from where the crab can emerge from.

Development

Posted on by
Reply
  • Turtles
    • Baby turtle/ smaller scale turtle
      • Made this for the sole use for those longer and wide shots to really emphasise the how big the beach is in comparison and to show the audience how small the character really is and to gain more sympathy from the audience as they see how tiny and small the character is compared to its obstacles and predators that it already has to face.
      • I made the smaller turtle using needle felt. It is still animatable to work with even though it will be seen from a distance.
    • I had also created an eye library and a mouth library to create the expressions for the turtle.

  • Crab claw

  • Vulture (bird) legs

  • Setting/ landscape
    • Sand
      • I managed to get some kinetic sand – as this is not as fluid and quite stiff therefore holds its place quite well without all the fuss of keeping it all in one place, yet still fluid enough to animate with.
  • Water – ocean
      • For the ocean I had decided against using any liquids, such as gels, as I didn’t want to get the sand wet or to ruin the puppets and to mainly stick with the aesthetics of a fabric based setting and film.
      • I had decided to go with blue pieces of fabric – a light blue cotton fabric underneath with a dark blue mesh material on top, which reflects light off of it – this helps to mimc the way light often reflects of the water in the ocean.
        • For the beach scenes I used a light blue sheet under the mesh material and for the underwater scenes I used a dark blue tie dyed fabric underneath the blue mesh instead.
        • Also for the oil spill I had experimented with using a black bin bag, however opted for a black cloth instead.
  • Greenery/ backdrop
      • Realising I needed a backdrop to show the back of the beach which is usually some greenery/ bushes/ long grass.
      • Painted some long grass on a wide piece of card board.
  • Sky
    • Using a white sheet hung up and taped on the wall and also using different coloured light gels to create a sunset sort of sky and atmosphere – this has also helped to determine the time of day this film occurs during – which is just after or during sunrise, as it will add a very warm and cozy tone to the film.

Animatic 4

Posted on by
Reply
Only up to 1:12 minutes!!!!!

I have decided to extend the “beach scene” as well as shortening the “ocean” scene. This way, there are more natural predators and only one unnatural predator – as this will produce a much bigger impact and gain more empathy from the audience.

Adding the “ghost crab” as the extra predator, and also having the sand move/ slide around which will throw the baby sea turtle of balance and create more of a struggle for them to get to the sea for protection.

Also, i had decided to have the unnatural predator as an oil spill. This relates to current events as there is a stranded Venezuelan vessel in the Caribbean carrying 1.3 billion oil barrels which is tilting and has the potential to cause a catastrophic oil spill and damage a lot of the surrounding wildlife. For the oil spill I will be recoding an ink spill in water and using a projector to display this in my film for the underwater scene.

Updated Storyboard

Posted on by
Reply
  • Longer beach scene
    • More natural predators
    • Makes the impact of the unnatural death even greater
  • Black vulture
  • Ghost crab – Have the crabs emerging from one of the sand dunes – moving it and flipping the baby turtle on to its back
  • Moving sand dunes
  • Oil spill
    • Blackening the light
    • Projecting an ink spill in water
    • Suffocating the sea turtle

Animatic 3

Posted on by
Reply

I have made a few changes to this animatic. I have changed the beginning to be more accurate, as sea turtles eggs are buried in the sand, therefore the baby sea turtle would be climbing out of the sand and not hopping out of an egg. Furthermore, I have added more to the scene where the character has finally been submerged into the “safety” of the sea, and is surrounded by fellow friends and other fish. I have extended this scene to give the audience a sense of happiness and hope for the character before the actual horror begins, and to also give the character some sort of happiness and break. This also puts the audience on a whole emotional roller coaster – where the baby turtle survives the first obstacle, however fails to completely survive the rest.

Animatic 2

Posted on by
Reply

Only a few changes have been made to this one. I have aded some new perspective shots for dramatic effect – close ups to show the scared look and expression on the turtles face, extra wide shots to show the length of the beach and also to show of the set (once its done). I have also added an extra scene between the moment the baby sea turtle enters the ocean and when he begins to notice the unusual objects in the sea aka trash/ plastic etc… This extra scene is to show a the turtle having a bit of happiness as he swims with other fish and enjoys the supposedly “safety” of the sea before the actual horror begins. This also allows the audience to gain hope for the turtles safety and process that it had escaped death from the beach and to give the character a taste o a ice peaceful life before reality sets in.

Workshop 1: Storyworld Exploration

Posted on by
Reply
  • Most dramatic part:
    • When the vulture attacks but the drama stays present throughout
    • The vulture swooping down and then feeling like it safe at last in the sea but then it encounters much worse in the sea
    • Most dramatic part – when the turtle dies/ its sad death
    • When the character thinks that he is safe in the ocean but finds that the horror just begins there
  • Key words:
    • Environment, nature, pollution, surviving, human factor, cycle of life, disrupted by human kind, survival, suffering, destruction, death, sadness, loss, hope, denial, grief
  • Needs and wants:
    • Safety, clean environment, breathing, surviving, security
    • Physiological? – water, survival
    • Survival, food, happiness, life
    • To explore, food, help, a good environment, survival skills, to learn fast about the real world

  • Contrast between scenes – in the beginning its bright, happy, full of life, very cute and adorable, then the turtle gets attacked and it goes a bit dark and tense, but then it manages to go to the water and there everything is colourful, nice, free and then trash starts to appear and the ocean grows dark and BAM dead!
  • Cute wholesome baby turtle, tense-ness with the vulture, we fear for the baby, finally makes it to the sea!! Happiness, aquatic, splish splash, happiness playing with fishy friends, sense of dread when theres even more negative encounters in the sea, curse humans and your pollution, baby turtle ends up struggling to survive, we want it to keep fighting and persevere but sadness at it dying.
  • A feeling of grief and disappointment of humans causing the pollution in oceans and spreading death, braking the natural circle of life and death in nature
  • Turtles feelings: happiness, fear, then overjoy by the view inside the ocean, confusion, panic and finally suffering