Introduction
This page will be the lead up to my planning; how I came up with my final animation sequence idea and the overall vibe I would like the animation to have. This is basically the planning for my planning work. A lot of mood boards and other rough sketches and images will be recorded here to show my thought process. And I will attempt to explain what is happening and why I want it to happen.
Planning TIMETABLE
I created an additional timetable for my planning work, just to give myself a much more detailed guide when it came to my planning work. Creating this timetable helped me be more punctual with some of the deadlines I gave myself; making me more conscious of time and being organised. However, I do feel like I was being too ambitious with a lot of the deadlines seeing as I went past to date I wanted to finish all of my planning by. Next time I won't be so hard on myself for when I get work done, and I'll be more logical when it comes to the amount of work actually needed done.
Contents
Brainstorming
Old Brainstorm:
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Three girls where they each specialise in one of the three of the sports listed to the left
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Create really cool designs and styles for each to get others interested; appealing and eye catching
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Show them being cool at their designated sport
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At the end they come together like a cool group in support of female athletes
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If I chose Tokyo, I can use anime inspiration for my designs
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Include the minority of females
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With the right support and knowledge girls in sports can be pushed to bigger heights - symbolism of puberty being a barrier for a young girl. Gets support from female athlete role models, coaches and family. Gets over barrier.
Here is one of the first ideas I had brainstormed. At first I wanted to do a 10 second animation with a lot of action. It would be based on these 3 extremely athletic girls who would pose as role models for young girls aspiring to be athletes. The three sports they were going to show off in was Swimming, Weight lifting and Tennis. The idea was that they were going to be figure heads; super cool characters young girls would look up to and be inspired by.
However I felt that this idea wasn't so compelling. It doesn't have any strong meaning or message behind it. It also didn't require a lot of interesting research, other than me needing references of the sports in action for animating. I quickly scrapped this flat idea and took a different route with the brief; looking into why girls were dropping out of sports and what should be done to stop the decreasing numbers of women in sports.
Here are the new sets of brainstorms I made after properly researching women in sports, and picking my final topic of focus:
Animation Idea 1:
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Girl runs up to a massive wall blocking her path
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She punches and kicks the wall as hard as she can but it won’t budge.
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When she hits the wall it affects her in a bad way - she gets bigger, she gets hit back (cramps) - basically her inner thoughts come to fruition.
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Then, some motivational people/athletes in her life come forward and help her up the wall
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She jumps over - Motivational message ends the ad.
Animation Idea 2:
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Girl prepares to lift weight - spotlight is on her
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She’s struggling on her own, and people in the audience are coughing/whispering condescendingly. (maybe the weight will get heavier?)
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She starts to give up when her friends and family in the audience step in and with their support.
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Her coach also helps her out
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She lifts weight - transition to all her support lifting weight with her or on top of the weight.
Rough
Sketches
After brainstorming 2 animation ideas, I then decided to sketch them out to better demonstrate the visual ideas I had:
IDEA 1
This animation would start of with a young girl running happily, only to find an enormous wall blocking her path. The wall will symbolise how different barriers can stop girls from continuing sporty activities. In this case, I was thinking of colouring the wall red, to further covey how periods can be a big reason why girls stop being active.
The girl realises she can't walk around the wall or jump over it, looking at how tall it is. So she attempts force.
I want my character to look frustrated in her actions, to amplify how tiring it is to deal with such barriers alone in real life.
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As the character attempts to break down the wall, I wanted each action to somehow retaliate back at her. In the sketch to the far left the girl she punches the wall, however as she punches her body shape changes in a way that isn't pleasing to her. This is to symbolise the body image issues girls go through during in puberty. Through my research I found out that this was another reason as to why girls gave up sports. The wall attacks the girl back in a different way, but still manages to be damaging.
After a while, through her frustration, she stops fighting and gives up a little. This can be seen in my second drawing on the right. The girl leans next to the wall in defeat...
But suddenly, someone appears in front of her. A female athlete role model that she looks up to comes to help her, as well as her coach and other supportive family members and friends. I haven't completely thought of what female athlete to use or what the seen would look like (explaining the lack of this scene being drawn out) but the idea is there.
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They come together and help the young girl get up the wall in a creative way. One of the ideas I had was them all climbing on each other shoulders to form a sort of ladder. This would signify how the right support will help you over come barriers that you couldn't face alone. Having a coach or following a role model who knows the correct way in training a girl in sports while combatting puberty and periods is another thing I want amplified.
In the end the girl jumps over the wall. I would like there to be a final message on the screen. Something along the lines of "The write teachings and support will keep her moving!" A quote/point like will reinforce the animation as a whole, keeping the message of what they just saw fresh in the viewers mind.
IDEA 2
In my second idea I thought about focusing on a specific sport, whereas in the first idea it related to girls in any sport. Here the main character is a female weightlifter. She’s about to lift her weight at a competition but suddenly nerves overcome her. She looks in front of her to see a huge crowd of unnamed shadowed faces staring back at her silence.
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This makes her worried as she goes ahead and attempts to lift the barbell but finds that it’s so heavy, she can’t get it off the ground. The area around her becomes skewed and warped as the girl continues to struggle neither lifting the weight. This can be symbolism for how periods can affect concentration in female athletes as they can have side effects such as cramps, headaches and fatigue. Bringing these sort of issues to light is important in making girls who want a career in sports feel heard and can relate to that feeling of disconcetration.
In a state of almost giving up, the girl heard a yell for audience. She looks up to find one of the silhouetted heads from the audience cleared; a friend of hers is cheering her on. Then more people start to become visible; They turn out to be her friends and family, and they all start to cheer on for the girl weight lifting. This is to show the impact of proper care and support from family and friends, and how it means so much more to a person than some may think. Another reason why young girls are dropping out of sports was because their friends weren’t participating with them or they felt like they didn’t belong in sports. This idea is dangerous in any activity, whether it be the music industry, art industry or sports industry, thinking you shouldn’t take part in something you enjoy because you don’t “belong” or because your friends aren’t taking part as well. Honestly just getting that needed support can be enough to motivate young girls in whatever they want to do, which is why I want to promote it in my animation.
At the end she gets a boost of confidence and picks up the weight with ease; lifting it with one hand in a dramatically animated way. Here I had 2 ideas of incorporating the family and friends in the final scene of my animation: having them all lift the weight together in a sign of support, or having everyone sitting on the weight that the main character is lifting in order to put more emphasis on the strength she has.
Conclusion
After careful consideration of both my ideas; thinking of which I would rather have animated and which has more of an impact, I decided to go with animation idea 1. This idea had the most thought behind it and alot more cinematic possibilities. I also really like the symbolic ideas I had stored for that animation, and the different ways I can draw and animate them, such as the wall attacking the girl back when she punches it. I did like idea 2 and thought of including a sport such as weightlifting, but I felt like it wasn’t as developed or meaningful as idea 1 as a whole. Idea 2 had it’s main message of having supportful family and friends around to help elevate a young girls determination in sports, however idea 1 really focused on barriers and how those barriers affect progress and resolve in sports. It also went into how puberty is a main barrier for girls, whereas idea 2 didn’t have that as its main focus. In conclusion, Seeing as my research has been about puberty/periods and how it affects sports, and seeing how idea 1 best reflects my research, I have decided to choose idea 1 for my final animation idea.
MOODBOARD
To catch the overall vibe of my animation, i’ve compiled a moodboard of images and gifs. This will help me put together the final style idea of my animation and will help me going forward into my planning.
Haikyuu, created by Haruichi Furudate
Sailor Moon, created by Naoko Takeuchi
Boku No Hero Academia, created by Kohei Horikoshi
Super Smash Bros Ultimate, created by Masahiro Sakurai and Hideki Sakamoto
Animation is a very difficult medium. Trying the get smooth, energetic animation is a huge part of that struggle. So I have opted for a more rough edges animation style. When a character is doing a major action I would like to apply the sort of technique anime like Haikyuu and My Hero Academia does.
In the youtube video called “Animators React to Bad & Great ANIME” by Corridor Crew, 2021 they talk about the use of action lines, and how it's a popular technique in Japanese animation studios. In the video they say, “It gives energy to a shot.. Animators do this to replicates motion”. Even if a character is standing still or performing the slightest bit of movement, these action lines add a certain impact to the scene that can’t help but make you feel excited.
Although my skills aren’t completely at this level, I would like to attempt this technique in my own animation. This would definitely keep the viewers attention and create a little excitement as they watch the short animation.
For my art style inspiration, I have decided to look at the designs of Sailor Moon. This old anime is about a group of girls called the Sailor Scouts, who fight for justice. I think drawing inspiration from this show in particular is very appropriate; seeing as the shows protagonists are confident and powerful women, having it as a backing for the design choices in my animation amplifies the message behind it.
The style of Sailor Moon is also quite popular amongst teenage girls; its 90s aesthetic has become quite popular recently; the pastel clothing and backgrounds, with a little grunge effect is a popular aesthetic to find on sites like Pinterest. The big round anime eyes and long majestic legs is another trope that is admired from this anime. Something like this would definitely catch the attention of young girls.
Target
Audience
Age: 12 - 17
The targeted age is quite young, however the reason for
Gender: Female (obviously…. jk)
Looking at the brief I chose for this topic, my targeted gender has to be females, definitely.
Ethnicity: All
This topic is directed at all ethnicities because no matter what country a girl may be from, all young girls go through puberty and share similar experiences.
Nationality: British/English
As i’ve chosen London as my Adidas key city, all my statistics and research have been directed towards girls in England. England is also were I live and so that allows me to get access to feedback from the targeted demographic.
Secondary Nationality: Anywhere in Europe (my research has been mainly UK based, however the statistics may not differ that much).
Here is another reminder of my targeted audience, but in more detail with explanations:
Demographic
Psychographic
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This ad won’t necessarily apply to girls who do feel confident in their bodies when playing sports. Puberty effects all girls in different ways, after all.
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This ad is targeted at those who aren’t confident and feel like the best thing for them to do is quit sports.
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another group of people this ad will be targeted at are young girls who don’t know how to handle their periods and playing sports, or training, at the same time.
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And girls struggling with finding supportive people to turn to or look up to. This ad should encourage them to talk to family, friends, PE teachers in their school, or find a female athlete to look up to.
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Personality and preference are also factors when it comes to watching something that you like. I want my ad to have quite a bit of action and dramatic scenes, sort of replicating the same energy some anime have. So my ad will most likely attract and young, sporty, female audience that also like anime or just action in general.
characters
As well as having my main character who is supposed to represent young girls going through different struggles in sports due to puberty, I need to have motivational/supporting characters for the main to look up to; characters that show up and help her overcome her barriers. Referring back to the explanation of my first animation Idea, I had said I wanted to use real life female athletes as models for my “motivational” characters. This would not only help give more exposure to female athletes, but also give real life role models for young girls to look up to, which wouldn’t happen if I made up these characters from my imagination.
Because I don’t have much knowledge on the names of women in sports I made a quick search to find some inspirational female athletes names, and went further to do some research on the ones I felt were a good choice to represent in my advert.
From my google search:
Debbie Jevans
Serena Williams
Billie Jean King
Florence Griffith Joyner
Simone Biles
Allyson Felix
Denise Lewis
Jessica Ennis-Hill
Paula Dunn
Stacy T Sims
From this list I went on to choose which athletes would best fit my animation. I recorded the research I did on them and gave an explanation as to why I wanted to use them in my animation.
I wanted to actually put some work into this project; instead of using popular names I had already known like Serena Williams, I went further and searched for athletes that I liked and thought made sense for them to be placed in my ad. Although Serena Williams is a very influential and powerful athlete, and I may still use her as a role model in my ad, I think doing additional research on female athletes would benefit me much more and improve my knowledge on the sports industry.
Florence Griffith Joyner
To carry out my research on the athlete, I found a very informative biography by the (Biography.com Editors, 2014). According to the article, Florence Griffith Joyner was an American track and field runner who still holds world records in the 1988 Olympic 100 and 200 meter event, and has been ‘inducted into the Track and Field Hall of Fame’. This is naming only a few of her feats as an athlete, as she has also been called the “World's Fastest Woman” by many people and magazine titles. This is to put into perspective how influential Flo Jo was at the time (Flo Jo being the nickname people began to call her).
After finding out about Flo Jo, I fell in love with the way she carried herself in Track and Field competitions. She was known to show up to competitions in colourful acrylic nails and her signature 1 legged bodysuit look, as the article says, “Florence Joyner brought style to track and field with form-fitting bodysuits, six-inch fingernails and amazing speed”. Not only did she plan such stylish wears for these competitions, but she came to win and looked gorgeous doing so.
With such success also came skepticism of her talent. According to the article, people had accused her of using performance-enhancing drugs to gain such improvement in speed; they would compare her past speed record with her world record of “10.49 seconds” in 100 meters and “21.34 seconds” in 200 meters. She was also had a very muscular physique and so rumours spread of her using drugs to enhance her muscles as well. However, in every drug test she took she never failed. Not once.
I think using Flo Jo as a female athlete role model would make a lot of sense for my ad. Florence was such an influential athlete in the past; showing up to competitions and setting world records in stylish bodysuits, make up all done and rocking 6 inch acrylic nails. This is such a statement for women’s beauty while being an athlete, especially since being sporty and muscular is usually seen as a masculine thing. Showing young girls someone like Florence Joyner would definitely show them they can keep their femininity/being themself while also being sporty.
Jessica Ennis
To research Jessica Ennis I found a biography article on her written by Lindstrom, 2021. I definitely wanted to include a British athlete in my animation, with it being targeted at young girls in the UK. Jessica Ennis is an English track and field athlete who, according to the article, won a gold medal in the heptathlon event in the 2012 London Olympics. Jessica had taken part in plenty of competitions for track and field and heptathlon from 1996 and up. Around the year 2008, she had fractured her right foot, which kept her from participating in the Beijing Olympics. However Jessica quickly sprung back from the industry; taking part in the 2009 high and long jump world championships, and winning gold. This is the kind of strong role model I want to use in my animation, that would inspire young girls in the UK.
In 2012 Jessica took part in the London Olympic Games representing London. Not only did she set a world heptathlon record in the 100 metre hurdles (the record being 12.54 seconds), “with her height of 5 feet 4 ½ inches, Ennis became the shortest woman to win a gold medal in the seven-event competition”, as said by the article. This display of strength from a woman is very impressive and I’m sure she has been a role model for many aspiring female athletes in England. Using someone like Jessica Ennis in my ad would be great for showing girls no matter what your height is or what your body type is like, you can make it if you put in the effort. Jessica suffered an injury earlier in her career but didn’t let it stop her from success. This is also a great message for young girls, especially those who feel vulnerable/emotional due to puberty, and feel like quitting at the slightest inconvenience.
Dr. Stacy T Sims
While I was looking for a real influential person I could use as a coach figure for my main character, I remembered my research on Stacy Sims and her Ted Talk. “Stacy T. Sims, Ph.D., is an applied researcher, innovator, and entrepreneur in human performance, specifically sex differences in training, nutrition, and environmental conditions,” as said on her website (About Dr Stacy Sims, 2021). Because Stacy actively teaches women to work with their physiology, not against it, this makes her the perfect person to use in my animation; Her job is pretty much what my animation is based on.
Stacy Sims specialises in women’s health and performance, in fact in her Ted Talk she talks about how women young or old come to her looking for help in getting active while on menopause, or training in sports like swimming while on their period. Her contributions to the sports nutrition industry has actually created a new niche in sports nutrition, internationally. She is now seen as an expert in sex differences in training, and according to the website she has been named “One of the top 50 visionaries of the running industry (2015) by DMSE Sports, and one of the top 40 women changing the paradigm of her field (2017) by Outside Magazine.”
I feel like promoting Stacy Sims would definitely benefit young girls; introducing a sports nutritionist like her will get girls thinking about their health and sports performance, and would also encourage them to do some research to help themselves. Stacy's vision is “a world of healthy women who understand their bodies”. I personally admire her mission and her values and think she’s a good choice for my animation.
Ethical Issues
After I had the idea to use real life athletes in my project, I almost completely missed the legal issues that doing this could cause, had this been an actual professional ad for Adidas. So I did a little research on the ethical issues behind using a popular athlete in a brands campaign.
According to an article I found about Sports Law and the rights of publicity for athletes by Lee Stapleton and McMurphy, 1999, every human being has the right to control commercial use of her/her identity. So this means its illegal to use the identity of a real person to attract attention to an advertisement/product. Using real life athletes, especially well known athletes, would get my ad into a lot of legal trouble if it were real. The article also states that, "The right of publicity protects athletes' marketable identities from commercial misappropriation by recognizing their right to control and profit from the use of their names and nicknames, likenesses, portraits, performances, biographical facts, symbolic representations, or anything else that evokes this marketable identity." The point of my ad isn’t to sell a product or increase sales for Adidas but to encourage all young girls, so you could argue that this doesn’t apply to my animation. However, the fact still remains that using an athletes identity in my ad isn’t ethical would cause a lot of trouble.
Because of said legal issues that can come from unauthorized use of an athlete in a campaign, I decided that I will change up the characters a bit. I’ll Make them inspired by the athlete but not a direct replica; however they should be recognisable enough to where you can guess which character was inspired by which real athlete. Luckily this isn’t a real ad for Adidas, but recognising the legal mistakes from my idea is good for next time.
Tutorials
With some of the software's and animation techniques I plan on using, I haven't really got a clue on how to use so I looked up some tutorials that would be the most helpful in getting me used to animation production and using software such as Adobe After Effects and Opentoonz:
This video by the YouTube channel Ben Marriott really helped me gather a basic understanding of the features Adobe After Effects had. I have never used After Effects before, so watching this video really helped me understand what some of the basic features did and how I can use them. For example, the video taught me how to create a new composition to create an animation or edit a video clip on. It also taught me about creating keyframes and how to make a simple animation by setting keyframes and moving the image to where you want the program to animate it to.
This is another After Effects tutorial that was made for beginners by the channel Olufemii. Unlike the other video, which was just a 10 minute briefing on the basic features, this video is an 1 hour long and intricately explains each feature on After Effects. This video is also more advanced as it goes into the more complicated features in AE. Such as the 3D camera tools and how to manoeuvre the different camera views.
To be able to actually create a pleasing short animation, I need to know the principles that make up animation. Luckily for me I had the ultimate book for animation: The Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams. This book is filled with knowledge from the old masters of animation; those who worked on the classic 2D disney movies.
From this book I have grasped a better understanding of animation and how to create believable, moving characters. One of the things I’ve learnt was about timing: how to properly position your frames on a timeline, making the movement smooth and humanlike.
This video by the YouTube channel Noblefugal Studio is one of the first videos I watched to get me used to the Opentoonz Software. It shows you the basic features of the software, such as creating frames, using the onion skin and setting up the interface to work for animation specifically. This youtuber has a lot more tutorials on Opentoonz which seems to get into more of the features on the software. From this video I have gotten used to the way Opentoonz runs and I’ve played around with the brushes, layers, and the animation timeline.
The YouTuber has actually just made an updated tutorial on Opentoonz 1.5. This new video is structured the same way but includes any new additions to the software. I admire this channel because he puts an effort to update the viewers on the changes in the software. He has a bunch of other tutorials that focus on other complicated features on Opentoonz that I will also refer to when skill building and during production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI62rHNtg2w&list=PLpHIZvZWjXkYVSGRWW5MSj6iaHR_fUpIO&index=49&t=340s
Professional Character designers may use the technique of creating silhouettes of their characters first, to focus on the overall shape rather than the small details. The truth of the matter is, the details should be an afterthought and a good character design should have a clear silhouette, especially when in action. This video I found by the YouTube channel Marco Bucci talks in depth about the process of character design. While working on brief given to him he explains the process he usually takes when designing a character. This videos teaches you about getting the gesture of a person down first. When gesture drawing you shouldn’t worry about that details and muscles you’re missing, and instead should be worrying about getting the flow of the action down first. Then he moves onto silhouette building and you should avoid making the same shapes twice.
https://youtu.be/xpDQ5q7-S8M and https://youtu.be/4JY_Sr7u33k
To get me into planning and storyboarding my animation, as well as creating an animatic to help speed up the process of making the final animation, I searched around youtube and found the video series “How I Made This / Animation” by the youtuber, kdsketch. In two of the videos from this series, the youtuber goes through her own preferred process of storyboarding and creating animatics, as well as naming software she uses. These videos really helped me figure out how I could start planning my animation, visually.
The video on storyboarding was especially helpful. It gave useful pointers like keeping simple shapes when it came to storyboarding characters and locations, as it helps cut back on time. The youtuber also gives an array of interesting camera shots and camera moves, and what emotion they can portray. For example she explains how using an up shots can make a character seem “powerful, heroic, or dangerous.” and how an extreme close up is “good for showing detail and can intensify emotion”.
These tips and well made explanations for storyboarding will definitely come in use when starting my planning.
Bibliography
Barber, B., 2018. Anatomy For Artists: A complete guide to drawing the human body. London: Arcturus, pp.6-303.
Bucci, M., 2019. Character Design Mini-Series Pt. 1 - Gesture, Silhouette, Form. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI62rHNtg2w&list=PLpHIZvZWjXkYVSGRWW5MSj6iaHR_fUpIO&index=49&t=340s> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Drstacysims.com. 2021. About Dr Stacy Sims. [online] Available at: <https://www.drstacysims.com/about-stacy> [Accessed 19 May 2021].
Editors, B., 2014. Florence Joyner Biography. [online] The Biography.com website. Available at: <https://www.biography.com/athlete/florence-joyner> [Accessed 16 May 2021].
kdsketch, 2021. MAKING AN ANIMATIC / 2D Storytime Animation / HOW I MADE THIS. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/4JY_Sr7u33k> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
kdsketch, 2021. STORYBOARDING A 2D ANIMATION / Favourite Shot Types, Camera Moves and Tips / HOW I MADE THIS. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/xpDQ5q7-S8M> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Lee Stapleton, L. and McMurphy, M., 1999. The Professional Athlete's Right of Publicity. 1st ed. [ebook] Marquette Law Scholarly Commons, pp.24-25. Available at: <https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/148695357.pdf> [Accessed 19 May 2021].
Lindstrom, S., 2021. Jessica Ennis-Hill. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jessica-Ennis-Hill> [Accessed 19 May 2021].
Marriott, B., 2020. Learn After Effects in 10 Minutes! Beginner Tutorial. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/hb2bbfiNBXA> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
NobleFrugal Studio, 2020. Opentoonz 1.3 - 2020 COMPLETE BEGINNER'S Tutorial. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/vZBUda62gno> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
NobleFrugal Studio, 2021. Opentoonz Beginner Tutorial 2021 - Make 2D Animations For FREE!. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/em2118K_XBc> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Olufemii, 2020. Learn After Effects 2020: FOR BEGINNERS. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/B7452a8ybiM> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Williams, R., 2009. The Animator's Survival Kit. London: Faber and Faber, pp.1-339.