P3: Develop concept ideas and sequence for an animation to meet a client brief
Idea development Choose a brief: Brief 4- Tell a story Choose a channel: CBeebies Examples of children's animations:
Very common to have animals as the characters, e.g. Peppa Pig and Timmy Time.
Classic popular children's animations include Fireman Sam and Postman Pat.
Moral- There must be some form of moral dilemma within the animation.
Potential moral dilemmas that are suitable and understandable for the 2-6 age range:
Bullying
Sharing/ Not sharing
Treat others how you wish to be treated
Stealing
Lying
Doing as you are told/ Not doing as you are told.
Making friends
Characters:
Animal characters are very popular and common with the target audience
Authority figure- parent/ teacher
Important that there are also characters the same age as the audience so that it is more relatable for them
Popular animals amongst young children:
Insects e.g. caterpillars, ladybirds, bumble bees - because they are colourful, fun and energetic
Dogs- Because they're playful, a common pet, loyal and recognisable.
Monkey- Because they are cheeky and funny.
Idea 1- Treat others how you wish to be treated Equilibrium- Caterpillar is sitting on his leaf feeling lonely, when his friend bumble bee and ladybird fly past. Disruption- Caterpillar asks his friends to come and play on his leaf because he can't fly, but his friends fly off and leave him out. Recognition- Caterpillar starts to cry and wonders when he'll finally be able to fly. Repair- Caterpillar has been in his cocoon for months, and his friends have realised how much they miss playing with him, so go to wake him up. New equilibrium- Butterfly (Caterpillar), ladybird and bumble bee all fly off to play together. Idea 2- Stealing Equilibrium- A Dog is playing with his ball in the playground and Monkey is swinging on the climbing frame. Disruption- Dog leaves to go and get a drink, his ball is left in the playground and it catches Monkey's eye, he wants to take it. Recognition- Dog comes back with his drink to see that Monkey has taken his ball an is upset. Repair- Monkey sees that he has upset dog so he reluctantly gives it back and apologises New Equilibrium- Dog ends up playing with Monkey and they share the ball. Idea 3- Lying Equilibrium- Teacher is collecting everyones homework, but dog didn't do it Disruption- Dog lies to his teacher and told her Monkey took his homework Recognition- Teacher doesn't believe dog as she saw monkey doing his own homework earlier Repair- Dog feels guilty for lying and ends up telling teacher the truth New Equilibrium- Teacher forgives dog and he apologises to monkey and everyone ends up telling the truth
Final story concept I decided to use idea 1 as my final story concept. Beginning- Caterpillar is lonely and asks his friends to play with him, but they fly away leaving him feeling left out as he cannot fly. Middle- Caterpillar is very sad, and as the days go by he slowly starts to go into his cocoon. Caterpillars friends realise how much they miss paying with him and feel guilty for leaving him out. End- Ladybird and Bumble Bee go to wake Caterpillar up and he emerges as a beautiful butterfly. Ladybird and Bumble Bee apologise for not including him and they all fly off and play together.
Initial script ideas Scene 1 Colin the caterpillar is sitting on his leaf minding his own business but feeling a little bit lonely. Just as he starts to feel down his friends fly by and stop to talk. Colin asks his friends if they would like to go and play on his leaf with him, but they decline as they think it is boring. They fly off leaving Colin feeling very left out and upset. Scene 2 Colin feels very alone and sad as his friends Larry ladybird and Barry Bumble Bee are off having fun without him, and they're excluding him because Colin Caterpillar can't fly. He feels so upset that he starts to go into his cocoon. Scene 3 Barry and Larry start to realise how much they miss playing with Colin and they start to feel very guilty as they know that they wouldn't have liked to be treated like that. They fly over to Colin's leaf to wake him up. Scene 4 Colin emerges from his cocoon as a beautiful butterfly much to everyones surprise. Larry and Barry apologise and they all fly off to play together.
Character concepts I'm planning for my animation to be a 2D animation, but done digitally, therefore i will be drawing each scene by hand using a drawing pad that I will plug into my laptop. Because of the nature of my animation, each character will be hand drawn.
Character Inspiration mood board
Characters
Environment/ Setting inspiration mood board
Running time My running time will be approximately one minute long as it is aimed at young children whom don't have a long attention span. Therefore, as the purpose of my animation is to discuss/ teach moral dilemma it is important it is short, simple, and engaging, so that the children benefit from it substantially. It is also important to keep it short, because as it is a 2D/ hand drawn animation, it will take a long time to produce, therefore the shorter it is, the higher quality I can make it because I have more time to focus on each frame.
Clearly identified target audience and target audience moodboard
Because of the specific brief I chose, my target audience would be children aged between 0-6 year olds and both male and female. I think my animation would appeal to my target audience, firstly because I'm planning it to be very brightly coloured as this is stereotypically pleasing and engaging to children of this age. I've also tailored it to this age group by having insects as the characters. I had noticed that this was a common theme in children books and television, and therefore knew it would be recognisable for them. It may also appeal to the children's parents because their children would be leaning something of significance from the animation, so as well as entertaining their children, it is does also contain a moral dilemma and it teaches children how they should always make their peers feel included and that excluding/ leaving children out because they are different is wrong. I'm hoping that the way I present the characters will be pleasing also, as they will be based on children around the same age as the target audience. The reason for this is simply that it'll make it more relatable for them.
P4: Create a pre-production plan for the animation
Production Schedule Because of the nature of the production, I don't see it necessary to produce a production schedule. Instead here is a list of resources I will use:
Macbook Pro
Program 'Animation Desk'
USB digital drawing tablet with pen.
Detailed final character and environment drawings
This is the final drawing of my main character, Colin. It has a very hand drawn feel to it because I think this is fun for young children, and adds certain characteristics that a computer generated image may not. He is very bright colours and has a very happy smiley face. Bright colours are really engaging, particularly for my target audience. And because it is a light hearted children's show, I think it is important that the character is happy and jolly by nature- and so this is the reason for his happy appearance. Because of the simplicity of this character, I am hoping it will make him easier to animate and move, particularly as he doesn't have legs, he just sort of wiggles.
Here is a picture of other finished elements of my animation e.g. the leaves, plants, and other characters.
Animation tests
Storyboard sequence
Consider
This is a GANTT chart that I have made to aid the production process of my animation. This is a relevant and useful document because it helps me see what I have and haven't done, and will keep me on track to complete the animation on time. It is a great way of breaking down the process.
M2: Complete a SWOT analysis for the intended animation for the client.
Strengths
One of the main strengths of my animation is that my main character Colin, is very likeable and recognisable for children. He is a simple, fun, and colourful character that faces the same issues and experiences the same emotions as the children watching so he is also very relatable for them. Because of this, he is a perfect candidate for future promotional content for Cbeebies.
The narrative of my animation is very well tailored to the target audience because it tackles issues that the children themselves will face, and will help them understand not only what to do in those situations, but how to cope with the emotions that come from them. The first episode for example shows a disagreement in a group of friends from both sides of the story which is quite unique.
The show has so much potential to produce further episodes featuring multiple moral dilemmas, because doesn't follow a specific theme so it can pretty much be taken anywhere.
My animation conforms to the BBC's ethos 'To inform, educate, and entertain'. This is a strength because it will appeal to Cbeebies even more, knowing that it really respects the values of the company as a whole.
'Colin and Friends' holds a lot of the generic conventions of a children's animation, for example everything is very brightly coloured in order to engage the target audience automatically without them even knowing. It is also very suitable for the client in the way it conforms to the convention of children's animations, as the client has asked for the main character to be visually pleasing, which Colin is.
My animation fulfils its purpose, not only is it fun and entertaining, it also educates the target audience on a moral dilemma.
Weaknesses
Compared to other competing animations, i am aware that my audio is not up to scratch as I was unable to record it with professional equipment. The sound is still clear and of a decent quality, it could just be better.
I found my lack of experience creating animations to be quite limiting, and although I tried my best, my animation isn't quite as professional as I would have liked it to be in terms of the technical side of it.
Because I have chosen to do a hand drawn 2D animation, I'm fearful that there may not be as much attention to detail as I would like as it is very fiddly and time consuming.
Opportunities
There is a certain potential to widen the target audience for 'Colin and Friends', if there was a sequel, other issues could be discussed that are more suited to slightly older children or even episodes that help parents with their children.
'Colin and Friends' could potentially produce online revenue if the characters are used for future promotional opportunities for CBeebies, an example being ads on YouTube etc.
As I touched on before, there is definitely the opportunity for more episodes of 'Colin and Friends' because it is such a flexible dynamic, the show can be used to discuss pretty much anything for young children to be educated on.
Threats
A major threat for 'Colin and Friends' would be other competitors. Children's television is big business and there will always be another creator that has better ideas, equipment, and financial resources. And this could be a potential threat to my production.