WWF
Research Portfolio 2013
To develop my idea, (which can be found in
the project proposal sheet) and broaden my knowledge about WWF, I thought that
the best place to begin my research would be looking at the WWF website itself
(www.wwf.org.uk) as on here there is a variety of
information about certain species of animal and what people can do to help each
animal.
One way in particular that the WWF can help
fund each of its charities is via the help of the general public. Donations can
be given ranging from £10-£50+, there is then information about what each
donation does to help each cause. Another key element to the website is its
catchy headings, which are both thought provoking and meaningful, one of their
main headings is:
“For
A Future Where People And Nature Thrive”
It is clear to me that in my animation I
really need to think about what message I will be sending out to both receive
the right reaction from audiences and allow the advert to have continuity.
From the adverts that are already used on the
WWF website it seems to me that the audience may get tired of the familiar
advertising structure that is currently used and therefore be unreceptive to
the appeal that is being made by the WWF.
I feel that the adverts are not visually captivating and whilst showing
real-life scenes have an almost tedious structure to them. The ads are quite slow and are usually just footage
of the animals in their natural habitat accompanied by classical/chilled music.
In the current day and age this type of promotion may not appeal to the mass
market, as there may not be the required connection between the viewer and the
advert to facilitate the need to ring or visit the WWF’s web page to make a
donation.
Development
of my initial thoughts
From looking at the website, one animal in
particular that caught my interest was the mountain gorilla. Living in central
Africa this species of ape is currently under major threat of extinction. With
only 880 left in the wild this creature will soon be wiped off the planet earth
all because of inhumane and unnecessary human actions and will become a
creature for us to tell our future generations about rather than something they
can witness for themselves for many, many years to come.
My initial story can be found in the project
proposal sheet, this explains in detail what I wish to include in my animation
as well as a brief story outline.
The first aspect of my animation that I
needed to complete was the creation of the characters that would feature in my short
film. As my main characters are mountain gorillas and a poacher I thought I had
better begin by looking at footage and images of the apes in the wild. I will
also be paying close attention to the environment that the creatures live in so
that I can produce some realistic backgrounds that will captivate the audience.
I will also have a look at some existing
animations that use jungle foliage to get an understanding on what aspects
stand out and what techniques are used to give certain effects.
I will include a list of websites, video, and
image links at the end of this document as well as a variety of thumbnails of
my own photography.
Looking through all of the various images and
relevant sites on the Internet really sparked my creativity and my idea was
slowly becoming clearer in my mind. From the images, I could see that the
colour schemes for my environments would be mostly made up of greens, yellows,
blues and browns, these colours are all very earthy and natural which will
hopefully give my animation the same feel. I will need to pay close attention
to the specific colours when producing my own backgrounds/sets.
Background
Design
To gain a better understanding on how
animators produce quality backgrounds that compliment their characters, I
decided to have a look at some of Disney’s existing backgrounds for such films
as Tarzan and Lilo and Stitch. I found out that their traditional backgrounds
were produced using watercolours to give a washed out natural aesthetic. By
having a softer background the characters were able to stand out a lot easier
due to them being mostly coloured using ink or paint allowing the two different
mediums to work well together and allow the characters to be the main focus
while on screen. Below is an example of a Disney Background from Tarzan.
Swamp/Lake Background from Disney’s Tarzan
Bamboo background with characters in foreground
As you can see from the above images the
effect that the technique has on the overall image gives a really soft natural
aesthetic. Once the characters are placed into the scene the background gives a
real depth to the overall picture and allows the audience to feel submerged in
the fantasy world.
From looking at the characters it has also
been evident that the less colours each character has the more appealing the
character becomes as it prevents the animation from becoming over crowded with
colour and also allows the audience to quickly identify each character’s form.
With Tarzan in the previous image, he is purely made up of 3-4 colours
1.Peach/skin tone, 2.Brown, 3.Blue for eyes and 4.Black for darker areas.
This is a key element that I will have to
consider with my animation, as I want my characters to be seen clearly. It will
be fairly easy for me to accomplish this aim with the mountain gorillas as they
are made up of deep greys, silvers and browns, however I will need to research
more examples to decide how my poacher will look and what colours I should use
to give the desired effect I want.
Another animation that I watched to give me
some inspiration with natural backgrounds and foregrounds was Hayao Miyazaki’s,
Princess Mononoke. This has a very different style to Tarzan and I feel that
the characters are coloured so that they “fit in” with the backgrounds, where
as Disney’s approach is to make the characters stand out as much as possible.
I really like the style of this particular
animation as the whole movie feels natural and the characters seem more
human-like. Below is an image of a forest scene from the Japanese film.
Notice how
the character seems to be more immersed in the environment in which she has
been placed due to similar colour schemes for both background and character.
I am drawn
to this style and feel that this may be a great approach for my own short film
as I feel that it enhances the natural elements of animation. As I have trained
for most of my school life in fine art I feel that I will be able to put my
skills to positive use when producing my own backgrounds and I would personally
use several painting techniques to get my desired effect such as watercolour
and sponge painting. Using these forms of paining technique I would have similar
backgrounds to the four images above.
Character Design
When
designing my characters I need to ensure that they have a likeability factor or
a certain presence that will allow them to have a connection with the viewing
audience. I had a look at some techniques that enable an animator to create a
successful character using the Animator’s Survival Kit written by Richard
Williams. There was one section in particular that I found very interesting
which indicated that a key to designing a successful character is to ensure
that its negative space still enables the viewer to easily recognise it. Below
is an example of a character’s negative space:
This image
is clearly a silhouette of the Simpson family, as the characters are so iconic it
allows you as a viewer to clearly and quickly identify who the subjects are.
This is an excellent example of how successful characters can be recognised in
their most basic of forms.
When
producing my initial designs I need to ensure that my characters are easily
recognisable and I will complete a variety of these silhouettes to experiment
with my ideas.
I also found
a website that went into some further details about character design and the
first major topic that comes up is, the construction and functionality of a
character.
It states
that having a design that is made up of an easily understandable form will mean
that the final character may be more successful than an oddly proportioned
character. This is why the Simpsons, Mickey Mouse etc. are so successful as
their forms are made of very few circles and lines. As well as these features
there are a variety of other elements suggested on the website which should all
be taken into consideration, but one in particular, personality, I believe will
be essential for the characters in my animation as I want them to have individual
personalities that allows the viewer to have an emotional reaction to the
overall animation. Various other topics can be seen on the website linked
above.
Research Of Mountain Gorillas and Environments In The Congo
As the
Internet has such a vast array of images at our disposal I thought that I would
have a look at some unedited images of the Congo Rainforest. The reason I
looked at some unedited images was to see the real colours of the jungle. To
get my drawn/painted backgrounds to look as realistic as possible I had to get
the senses of the forest in my images, from the images these where the words
that I felt best described what I was looking at. (Below are some images as well
as the emotions, scents etc. that I got from looking at the images).
This image
from National Geographic’s photography competition caught my eye as it makes me
feel a variety of things, one in particular is the eeriness of the figures
seeming lifeless but protective of the forest, accompanied by the deep green of
the leaves the people stand out and can clearly be seen but their clothing
seems to work in harmony with their surroundings. This colour scheme could be
taken into consideration with the human characters in my animation.
Scents and feelings of this image:
Lush, Dense,
Green, Enclosed, Mysterious, Wild, Dangerous, Unforgiving, Damp, Ancient, Humid,
Warm, Abundant, Crisp, Unexplored, Secretive.
With theses
words in mind I need to ensure that I can produce a background image that
enables the audience to experience the same feelings from my animation.
Facts about
mountain gorillas and why they are becoming extinct:
Humans kill
mountain gorillas for their fur and body parts. Their fur is used to make
handbags; coats etc. and their limbs are chopped off so they can be used for
trophies and Chinese medicine. As well as poaching the main cause for the
reduction in gorilla numbers is the devastating effects of deforestation, this
is probably the most damaging cause of animal extinction because not only do
the primates loose their habitats, all other creatures in the area do as well.
In my
animation I could include a few animals that live in the same habitat as the
gorillas to bring more life to the short film as well as raising some more
awareness for the smaller creatures in life.
The key
feature about these gorillas is that they share 98% of human genetics, which
makes this animal one of the closest descendants of humans; they are also the
largest of all primate species and share the same love and affection for their
young as humans do. As previously mentioned, I want to get the emotion of the
creatures across to the audience and by portraying love and affection, I feel
would allow they viewer to be emotionally affected by the animation.
Whilst
looking at the WWF webpage I came cross a section about plant life in the
Congo, and discovered that this rainforest has the highest amount of plant
species per square meter than anywhere else in the world. Below is a list of
plants that I will use in my backgrounds to ensure that I produce real to life sets
for my characters to be placed in.
Flowers and
Foliage of the Congo rainforest:
Albizia Lianas Lobelia Nauclea
Epiphytes
One website I researched has a large variety
of citrus plants and their corresponding names, to enable people to identify
them. I will use a variety of plant species from this site in my own animation.
All of these
images have been sourced using Google
The image
that stood out the most to me and I had an immediate reaction to, was a
photograph of Buttress Roots.
From these images I gained a new
understanding about the foliage of the forest and I need to ensure I apply this
into my own work.
From the
research I have completed in this document I feel that I have a greater
understanding and knowledge surrounding the topic I will be working on and how
I can produce my final animation. I want it to stand out amongst other similar
short films whilst having an impact on the viewers’ memory so that my work will
be remembered and in doing so, I hope that in some small way I can make a
lasting impact on the way people think and view the natural world and how by
being proactive and donating to a worthy cause that change can be made.
Jamie
Nathaniel Price
University of Portsmouth BA HONS Animation
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