Character Design
Story of a Hand Drawn animation
Project Proposal
Our project is about documenting the process of designing two characters and creating a short 510 second animation. We are filming and following the “life” of a brand new character until it’s
fully developed project at the end.
The approach of this documentary is participatory where the group interacts and talks about what
they are working on. The overall feel and look is humorous with a behind the scenes organic and
natural look. We are using different hand held and industry standard cameras to achieve this style
of film.
The animation is a 5-10seconds in length created by Chloe Costa and Wen Zheng. It is a piece
about two characters that each Chloe and Wen will design. This includes character sheets and
video or audio recordings about the inspiration behind each character and what each artist was
thinking. There are shots of each artist working and collaborating as a team to coordinate and
stage the interaction between the two designed characters.
The audio and music is managed and composed by Brendan Edmonds. He makes sure the audio
recordings are level and the music matches the overall direction of the documentary and short
animation. His responsibility is to make these two different elements coordinate well.
Collaborators
Chloe Costa
Wen Zang
Brendan Edmonds
Overview
The documentary is about following two animators creating a short animations.
Intended Audience
Anyone who likes hand drawn animated films.
Object of the film
What we want the audience to take away from the film is that animating is a difficult and
complex process but can be fun and rewarding.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack will be light and match the mood of the documentary.
Treatment
The documentary will start with an introduction to animated films. More specifically of hand
drawn feature films. It then transitions to what Wen and Chloe are trying to do for their project.
They are documenting the whole animation process of a 5-10 second hand drawn animation.
Viewers get a glimpse of how Wen and Chloe work with natural commentary from both artists as
they work towards the finished animation. The work space and the characters of the film are
introduced next. This will include the inspiration behind both characters that Chloe and Wen
have designed for the animation.
The early and middle section of the documentary is Chloe and Wen working on the animation.
The footage of the two working is paired with interviews from Chloe and Wen along with
professionals who are and were in the field of animation, Arne Wong and Thierry Didonna. The
purpose of these interviews is to create a clearer explanation of what Chloe and Wen while
incorporating visual diversity within the footage so it’s more interesting for the viewer.
Viewers get to see all aspects of the animating process. This would include seeing the voice of a
character being recorded. They don’t just hear the sound but they also get to see the person while
the voice is being recorded. The viewer gets to experience what we are doing first hand.
The end will be reflection interviews from Chloe and Wen. It will be what their option was on
the whole process. It would be what they thought was successful or fun while talking about what
went wrong and was frustrating. Then the full animation will be shown.