Treatment

My animation short will be a clever twist on the solitude we all feel from time to time. The themes are loneliness and love and it fits into the genre “Romantic Comedy”. However it will include elements of wildlife. The target audience for this animation piece is universal, it is suitable for any age but mainly aimed at young adults, this is because the message might be too difficult for the younger generation to understand.

The main inspiration for my animation is the loneliness and isolation I was feeling at the time at university. We all feel it from time to time; especially as students and I really think I can get my feelings across through an aesthetically pleasing, yet humorous film. The intended media for my project is a contrast of 2D and 3D elements. The main body of the animation will be in 3D but when memories or past experiences are shown on screen, they will be in 2D.

Hamish, a middle-aged panda from Kirkham is growing tired of his life. His village used to be a quiet, peaceful settlement, but since they built the railway his peace has been interrupted. Not only that he’s become so lazy he gets bamboo delivered to his door, he’s weight is increasing by the day but his self esteem is decreasing at the same rate. Desperately trying to cheer himself up he adds more homely touches and to make himself feel useful he tries to fix any broken things around. He thinks back to when things were good, when his life was calm and decides to do something about it. He spruces himself up, gets himself a camera and tries to record a rather amusing dating video of himself in the hope he might meet the panda of his dreams.

The animation will have two parts to it, 2D and 3D. The 3D parts will be the main body of the story, so the character, the environment he lives in and any props needed. The 2D will be the memories of how things used to be, anything to do with the past will be in 2D. This is so there is a clear, concise difference between the two. For the 3D I will be using Autodesk Softimage, and for the 2D ToonBoom.

As mentioned earlier, the main influence is my own experience; other influences include the same kind of solitude seen in animals, particularly pandas. Kung fu panda is a big influence as it’s the only 3D animated panda in industry and it would be interesting to see if I can create a unique character. I have always liked the Japanese style of pop art and the emotion filled film ‘Up’.

I will be using clips of 3D pandas/animals already out there to help influence my work, I will need to think about the type of place Hamish will live, exploring his personality and really make him come alive. I will be looking at images from Kirkham to influence the environment design and the railway. As for the character himself, I will practice sketching in a style similar to Preston Blair’s, look at images of live pandas, cartoon pandas, sketch them and come up with a design that suits his personality.

With the 2D and 3D parts being completely separate on screen compositing will not be an issue, however my ability to draw in 2D will increase the time. Creating the model for Hamish and the rig will also be time consuming but will make him easier to animate. It’s important that the audience empathises with him or the story will lose its effect. I need to leave ample time at the end for rendering, the report and extra time for anything to go wrong. My aim is to render the film in HD quality 1280x720 and to keep fairly simple camera movements. I will need to create artificial looking lighting as the majority of the animation will be inside.