Story Revised

So instead of the nutria being adopted by egrets and being the odd one of the bunch, I'm going to remain with a family of a single species and sticking with a family of egrets and there being an odd egret in the family. I want to keep the nutria character in the story because he is a compelling character so, I've decided that the nutria can be the character who entices the young egret to deviate from his family and his fishing lessens in the canal, to join the nutria and the ducks up on the neutral ground, where they fed free bread by humans.
This neutral ground haven of free food, seems to be the easier and better way to go for the egret, so he follows the nutria up to the neutral ground and that is where the egret begins his life-long dependency on human hands.
The egret is obviously out of place among the ducks and the nutrias. He is tall and stands out, for an egret usually doesn't rely off of people, but hunts on its own for food.
Time passes and the egret grows lazy and fat. The ducks and the nutrias return to the canal to live an eat for themselves, but the egret does not, because he doesn't know any other way.
The people are gone, for it is cold, and the egret has no way of getting food.
He goes to the nutria for help, but he cannot help the egret for he eats roots and grass.
So, he goes to his siblings who are now avid fishermen. He sees that they have a surplus of fish and he goes to them hoping they will give him some, but they rebuke him and the egret is left alone to defend for himself.
The egret cannot find any bread or people willing to give him food, for people just drive by in their cars not caring about this egret's well-being.
His last option is to fish for himself in the canal. The egret struggles to catch a fish because he is fat and unskilled. After much failure, the egret finally spears a minnow with his beak, and right in the act of consuming this catch, the egret becomes prey himself as he is swallowed by a gator.

Setting

The story will be set in a canal in the city.

Character Design

Here are some character designs for my final project.




Nutria and Egret



I know, the bird's legs need to be longer...

This Idea I have Brewing

Since my final project is based on Sloth, I look up the fable of The Grasshopper and the Ants. The narrative I am working on strongly follows the morality of that fable.
I want to focus on a nutria and a family of egrets. The egrets are hard working fishermen and the nutria is a lazy scavenger of stale bread thrown to the ducks by humans.
So, that's where I have started and then I moved onto what is going to be happening in this narrative. I asked myself: How will I introduce these characters? How do they become the way they are?
Here is the story that I came up with...
Perhaps the nutria becomes an orphan and a family of egrets adopts him. The mother egret teaches her babies and the nutria to fish in the canal, but the nutria does not pay attention to the fishing lesson because he is more interested in the free food being feed to the ducks up on the neutral ground. So, the nutria never learns to fish and he gets fat and lazy as he feeds off of stale bread. His egret siblings are successful fishermen and have an abundant supply of delicious fish. The nutria sees how the egrets are eating much better than he is and he wants a share of their food. The nutria goes to his siblings for food, but they rebuke him. So, the obese nutria goes into the canal to try to catch fish for himself but he does not know how. As he struggles to catch a fish, the nutria becomes prey himself and is eaten by an alligator.

Of course the story may be modified before my pitch, but this is what I have so far. I'm now also working on character designs, style, color palette, and environments so I can start making assets as soon as possible.
I'm not sure if the nutria getting eaten by the alligator is the best form of death to deliver my message, but starvation seems like it would be hard to strongly portray in animation, while expecting a strong reaction.
I also need to find a way to show a time lapse of the nutria becoming fatter and lazier over time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAd0jOuQg8o

The ending to my piece is obviously not going to be a happy ending as in the Disney short of the Grasshopper and the Ants.

Here are some character sketches.

Effects Experiments/Final Project Ideas

The effects experiments are never ending. I've learned that there is so much layering that can be done with these effects. That's what I kept doing. I will play with some old footage I have with effects then go back to what I've made and then add some more effects right on top. I've been experimenting with key framing these effects and exploring their possibilities. In my experiment with my old stop motion project, I was fascinated by the abstract shapes the effects I used was making.

My first experiment probably consists the most layering and exploring of effects. My process began by going through each effect's options and playing with key frames.

I used footage for most of my experiments because I could benefit from already moving forms and images in the footage.

One of the ideas that I have for my final project relates to the project I did for midterm. I'm staying with my theme of destructive pleasure and now focusing on sloth. That is all I know at this very moment so far. I'm thinking about setting and what kind of characters to use. I'd like to set the story in a nola setting again. I've been thinking about all of the weird creatures and places back home. I'm thinking about nutrias and egrets that spend there days in canals and on the neutral grounds. People feed these animals on the neutral ground all of the time. I can perhaps focus on how these animals become dependent on the stale bread people come to feed them and they become unable to find food for themselves or defend themselves. In, consequence, they can get eaten by an alligator. The story could reflect the story of the grasshopper and the ant. The egret could be a hard worker then the be nutria lazy. For those who don't know, a nutria is practically a beaver with a rat tail and and egret is a white crane like bird. So, that's one idea I have brewing in my mind. I think there is more I can get out of this idea. I don't think the story is deep enough. I have to do a lot of time thinking about it. I honestly get some of my best ideas while taking a shower. I'm gonna have to take that old sketchbook out and jot down some random words and draw random pictures. I'm not worried. I'm always lead to something.

Ideas for Typographic Animation Project

When it comes to text, I have never been very interested in it. Though through years of art school, and through thinking of this project, I'm building an interest.
First, I'm gonna think about words. Concrete words. I am very interested in concrete words and in poetry. As an artist, I am interested in the aesthetics of different fonts.
So, I think I should explore different types of fonts, for there are so many and so little that I know.
I also am interested in New Orleans terms and phrases.
e.g., "Yeah, you rite!", "How's ya mom n'em?", "I'm making groceries."
Hand-written text is also interesting.

An idea I came up with:
What also is interesting is that a letter in itself could be its own character and maybe a whole word could be a family of letters, and maybe a sentence a community, a paragraph, a nation, an essay could be a continent, and a book could be an entire world. A library could be a universe.

Title sequences also have my interest when it comes to text.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/

For font:
http://www.dafont.com/

How can my text be a pattern or a texture?
I need to see these characters of text not only as letters, but as shapes and forms.

I kind of want to stay away from being too literal and relying on words. I want to focus more on texture and form.
Text can be used to create images:
http://www.mediacircus.co.nz/userfiles/image/jamesbrown.jpg
(except for the teeth)
http://cdn.trendhunterstatic.com/phpthumbnails/34351_1_230.jpeg
http://psdtuts.s3.amazonaws.com/275_GraphicDesignWeek/typography/Steven_Paul_Jobs_by_dylanroscover.jpg

Text as texture:
http://www.artext.co.uk/images/amazing%20typography%20ideas.jpg

I start to see shapes and forms with the repetition of a letter in different fonts, styles and sizes and colors!
Thumbnail sketch:

It feels good to be ahead!

Today, I will continue working on my AE project. I have my comps set up and I'm ready to make shit happen. woot! Hopefully I can knock out a lot of work on the project this weekend so that my last week before fall break is a little less stressful and more relaxing and so I can have time to work on homework for other classes. That's the plan and I plan to stick to it!!