Main character: salesman

Back Story: He is a brilliant man about 20 years old. He knows exactly how to arouse customers' attention within the shortest time. Also, he is a versatile man. He would like to show off his little tricks when he persuades someone to buy his products.

Main character: Mr. X

Mr. X, the man is persuaded to buy the guitar.

Back Story: He is about 35 years old. He is single living in a small but neat house. Also, he is kinda little childish. He would like to try every fresh new thing. But he lacks patience. His enthusiasm won't last for a long time. He enjoys the moment when people keep eyes on him, admire him. But he has never really wanted to be a big star. He is so afraid to endure the heavy pressure.

Video 3000

http://video3000.de/
Check it out
A very cool short film is created by 5 German students. It is the Best short film at Webcuts 2006, Berlin's internet film festival. This short film combines stop motion and 3D computer graphics.

Rough Storyboard

Here is my quick and rough storyboard

1. I try to draw this storyboard as quick as possible without any interrupt to capture the initial idea in my mind.

2. This story happens on an early morning which is about a salesman trying to persuade Mr. X to buy his guitar.

3. There will be two main characters in this short film. In this storyboard, they are simple with no elaborate facial expression, gesture...

Rough Storyboard - Upload a Document to Scribd

Comic Trip

Special thanks to Alec providing me this terrific example -- the French animation that mixes 3D with cartoon/comics style.

The Big Snit

Negotiated project

Aim: 

I am thinking of doing a short animation to explore the humour through the character's facial expression, gesture, costume... What I want to do is try to make people laugh, and then be able to reach down into the depths of their spirit.

So far, I am idea of mixing 2D elements with stop motion.

The Big Snit directed by Richard Condie influences me so much. It's crazy, weird, hilarious and eventually touching. Also, I quite like Aardman Studio's clay animation. Some of their animations at first seems just like a simple exercise in cartoon slapstick humour, but it is far more than that.

Hopefully, I would create a typical, colorful, pretty comedy with the sense of satire and irony.

Learning outcome:

1. To experiment the traditional skills creating animations as well as computer skills.

2. To research nature movements making the animation more believable.

3. Also, I need to explore the exaggerated facial expression, gesture... to understand the comedy better.

4. To improve the using of film language and cinematograph understanding.

5. To test different material for stop motion.