Unit 33 assignment 2: Stop motion creation guidance

Instructions for your animation idea

It could be 

        a narrative piece

an advert

an ident

Each person in the group needs to animate  30seconds of the animation on their own (they must move the figure and use the software) 

Assign people to beginning middle and end, or do a 30 second ‘episode’ each

If models are being created, each person must create their own

Set design and props need to be divided up and assigned to specific people

Each person in the group needs to come up with their own soundtrack to edit into their version of the finished stop motion

You should be photographer whilst you do your animation by the other people in the group to evidence that this is the bit you are responsible for and these pictures should go on your blog.

Guidance for Assignment 2

1. TREATMENT

You will write the start of the treatment together,

 research the target audience using think box profiles, existing stop motions and other audience research

explain what structure, style and genre your animation is, then explain what will happen in your 30seconds

EXAMPLE TREATMENT

Plot:
Our stop motion is going to be based inside a house with the main object being a soap. The soap will be new that wants to explore something other than the bathroom where it lives. It will be set in 3 rooms which will be the bathroom, the landing and the kitchen.
First half-
The first half will consist of the soap being used by a human character and it will be revealed to be a claymation when put down on the sink. The actor will be shown leaving the house so it leaves a opportunity for the object to explore. The soap will move about falling over to reflect it has never moved from its positions before. Its first challenge will be to escape from the sink to the bathroom floor and then will be faced with the stairs. We will use the effect of the soap being slippy and falling into the sink where it will slide up and onto some towels on the floor. It will then make its way onto the stairs where it will have to slide down the banister to the bottom of the stairs where it will then proceed onto the kitchen.
Second half-
The soap then enters the kitchen where other objects are introduced such as the ‘downstairs soap’ who later fall in love. The soap has to try and make its way up to the other soap on the sink. It uses the kitchen sweeping brush that is lent on the cupboards to slide up to get to the kitchen soap. When it gets there they fall in love but during his journey it has gradually got dirty so when the human character comes home the soap is then thrown in the bin and the kitchen soap is seen crying.
Target audience and Genre:
Our target audience is aimed at children and teens due to the innocence and comedic edge of our characters. The ages will range from 4-15 years of age because no dialogue is used in this stop motion so they will be able to connect with the characters more. Also teens will enjoy this because of the comedy aspect. From think-box we can tell that children will connect with our stop motion through the thought of this soap coming alive will be engaging for them to watch. It appeals to both genders because the soaps will be a boy and then a girl which doesn’t focus on one gender. The soaps will be male and female and as the target audience is kids and young teens this means we have to show this by using colours. Therefore we will be making one soap pink and one soap blue as they are the stereotypical colours for male and female. The audio that will be the dialogue will just be gibberish so that younger children can understand the narrative without the soaps using actual dialogue and also so it creates a comedic affect for the older audience. From my research I have found out that cartoons still rank highly with boys under the age of 12, whereas it says girls favour children’s channels and cartoons until the age of 9 so maybe our stop motion will attract more male viewers in the teen category. The camera will be static and also at one point following the soap around so this will make the children feel more involved in the show because it feels like they are exploring the house with the soap too.
Design: 
The colours we use will be lighter colours which will engage the audience and to split the soaps gender by having one pink then one blue which makes it clear to the audience. The sounds will link to there feelings and how they move so not to complicate it with talking. It will include short music parts which will link with whats happening for example when they meet there will be romantic music. The actions to make it seem realistic are to have the soap sliding about so it moves like it would naturally. Most of the principles of animation will apply for example gravity will be applied etc.
Similar products 
The OOglies is a simular stop motion to what we will be creating. We will be using the same idea of being in a house focusing on certain objects and the genre is also comedic. There will be two bars of soap (one pink, the other one blue) the colours are shown to highlight there genre and they will start from the bathroom and skid around, just like scenes off the Ooglies where objects do different things, it will be very light hearted because it is mostly aimed at children and young adults.


 2. Draw your  set design ideas and props 

3. STORYBOARD

create an annotated storyboard of your own  30seconds, (you can work together when selecting the found images or drawing it, but the writing underneath each section should be done by the person making that section)Your storyboard  must show the audio cues (when music fades in and out) and must explain the setting and the actions that happen in each scene
Your storyboard can be drawn if you are a good drawer, or you can use found images. The annotation underneath the storyboard must show the music cues, the principles of animation that are in use and a brief scene description of the action. The actual image on the storyboard should have arrows on it to indicate which direction the figure is moving in, or if limbs are moving, and in what direction

4. Link to audio on your blog, selecting your own audio effects and sound track beds for your 30seconds

Soundtrack pro effects: wind/bugle/chattering crowd
Audio Recording: Voiceover
Soundtrack Bed

Peer analysis of treatment

You need to answer each of these questions about their treatment in a post on their blog.

1. Can you understand the plot?

Have they explained what the characters are doing in enough detail so you can visualise the animation in your mind?
Do you think the target audience for the stop motion is right?
Can you clearly see what genre the stop motion is?
Have they examined other products?
Do you think the products they have picked to analyse are suitable? (can you suggest any others?
Have they explained what principles, colours, sound or actions they are going to use to target the audience?