AX3001: Creating a Style

In the making of my film 'Gopher Golf', I've always imagined the film would be shot in stop-motion animation - even though this would mean time management would be much stricter, if the film is to be completed for its deadline in May. This is because each element and effect seen in the film would require a different approach. These would all have to be worked out accordingly before they are filmed.

Effects required for the film include:
*Water = blue tissue paper and cling film (previously used in my earlier film 'Catch of the Day': https://vimeo.com/66972956)
*Rocks = pebbles/slate collected from Wales
*Grass = rolls of Hornby grass/turf grass
*Garden Gnome = photos / miniatures.
*Walls of house exterior/interior = drawn or constructed from wood
*Background crowd shots = animated in 2D in Flash.
*Backgrounds = drawn or animated in 2D in Flash.

The film's main character, the Golfer, is a puppet which is being constructed especially for the film. However, the construction of the puppet has proven more complex and is taking much longer than first expected - which, initially, created huge problems by delaying work on the film's sets. To conquer this problem, I have now decided, under the advice of my tutors, to revamp the style of the film in a mix of 3D stop-motion and 2D Flash animation.

I've always intended for the Golfer's performance in the film to be the focus of the animation, so I could improve my abilities in character animation especially. This has been key to the development of the film's style, since the main character has more focus than most background elements - such as the spectators at the golfing competition, who are only seen in shadows. This means they can be animated in 2D whilst the Golfer, the film's main focus, will remain animated in stop-motion as intended.

I was encouraged by my tutors to develop my drawing style before creating backgrounds and background props in the film. Particularly my style of line drawings has received comparisons to artists such as French painter and sculptor Jean DuBuffet, whose work I was encouraged to look at for research.

I have also looked at previous combinations of multiple art forms in animation. Before directing his own feature films, Terry Gilliam was well known for producing cutout animations for 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' (1969) and the feature films 'Holy Grail', 'Life of Brian' and 'The Meaning of Life'. These combined Gilliam's own drawings with photographs to create a bizarre, surrealist style which matched the Python's bizarre, surrealist comedy.

The popular 1965 TV series, 'The Magic Roundabout', uses 2D trees and backgrounds, with the characters and all other props being animated in stop-motion.

Another famous use of this technique came ten years later, in the TV adaptation of 'Paddington Bear' from 1975. Most famously, Paddington Bear himself is a stop-motion character, whilst all human characters, including the Brown family, are cutouts. The sets are also paper cutouts, although the sets and characters are distinguished through the use of colours - the human characters are in full colour, whereas the sets are only partially coloured or completely white.

Whenever a character interacts with a prop, the prop is also in colour most of the time and crafted as either a 3D model or a 2D cutout, depending on which character is using the prop. In one scene from an earlier episode, Paddington hands a 3D object to Mr Brown which turns 2D when he receives it. Below is another example where Paddington is stuck in strings of 3D film rolls, in front of a 2D background.

The only time all the sets are in colour is in the 1986 TV special, 'Paddington's Birthday Bonanza'. This is also the only time the mouths move on the human characters.

This is very similar to how I can imagine 'Gopher Golf' looking, once all the techniques as listed earlier are applied. By adapting a blend of visual styles, my aim is to still produce excellent quality in my animation in the very limited space of time that I have.

The backgrounds in my film will take inspiration from these styles, using hand-drawn images which will later be coloured in digitally in Photoshop.

This is the art style I adapted for my first designs of the Golfer himself back in September - although the initial drawings were very rough. The final backgrounds in the film will look more refined with darker lines easing the process of colouring in digitally.