I wanna be a dinosaur

                                                      I wanna be a Dinosaur
I am pleased to announce that i am returning t the directors chair with an animation called “I wanna be ….. A Dinosaur” an animation adapted from a children’s storybooks i have written. It is going to be a 2D animated film about a boy who wants to be a dinosaur.I am very much looking to this and I’m sure you guys will love it.




Story work

Okay so production is going ahead and i have been working on the story i am writing it from the view of what i was like when i was a child but i think it pretty much mirrors what most young boys are like having many different dreams of what they want to be when they grow up. When i was a child i loved dinosaurs and my 6 year old nephew does now aswell as other young family members and I’m sure they have all dreamt they were a a dinosaur.

Aswell as writing the story i have been working on a few concepts for the look of the film.As you can see above i want it to be very simple and like a storybook with bright and attractive colours.

Creating Billy

Its that time of the idea stage when creating the character is at the forefront of my mind and creating the child for this animation is kinda a weird one really because i created a character last year for a unit for london zoo which has really inspired this character.

I was thinking about the conventional boy and coming up with several ideas then i thought its been done so many times it has to be very different.So i started thinking does it have to be a boy can it be a animal of some kind so i drew up a list of possible animals then it hit me the whole thing is about dreams having a nocturnal animal could be a nice touch.

So i drew up some possible nocturnal animals and also filtered through some of my old characters that i have created that have never been used and i came across the hedgehog character design that i had done for a london zoo project last year and this inspired me to create this character above.

He is very round as are most children and always wears his red cap which is a thing i took from myself as when i was young when i went to america my parents bought me a red cap which i put on and would never take it off i liked it that much. He is a very mischievous but very imaginative. i think he fits perfectly for this animation because he appealing to kids and also adults because he is just a funny little character full of personality and imagination and he has that kind of personality as a child that i think everyone can relate to when they were a child and kids just are like him.

TARGET AUDIENCE

My target audience is from the ages of 5 to 9 year old boys i would say but a lot of the humour parents and older viewers will find funny.

I would put it in the same catorgorie as Disney's "Phineas and ferb"

It is clearly aimed at this age range but the humour is sophisticated enough to entertain the older viewer and is one of my favourite cartoons to watch it is a real throw back to the cartoons of yesteryear. This is also from my findings the most popular cartoon for kids to watch at the moment.

the channels who i hope to pitch this idea to is 

I wrote this as the idea as a series and over time i thought i had the possibility to use as a pilot but so it works as a short film on its own to so i re wrote certain things that made it more appealing as a single short film but not so it ruins the pilot i feel as i have don't this very well and it means i can promote it as a short film and increase the chances of it being commissioned.

Change of Design


Through animation tests and writing this story it has come apparent that the idea behind the character billy is great but the design does not quite fit so i have took major points from his personality and re designed him. This is so much simpler for animation and works so much better for the story and the character that it was a great decision on my part to make the effort to it.

The Voiceover and Voice acting

The idea we have is that we will have a young boy the age from between 7-12 to record a voiceover and do a tiny bit of voice acting as well.After exploring the possibilities of how we would go about this we found a casting site called StarNow which people who require actors, extras, voice actors would post an advert and then people would apply and then we audition them. So we went about posting the advert and within the first day we had 4 applicants ranging from the age of 7-13 and from listening to the audio clips on there profiles there some really skilled kids and i think all of them could do a great job we will wait a until 24-25 january then we will choice who we think should come for an audition and then we hopefully should have our character voice.

Progress

We ended up having an impressive total of 10 interested kids for the voice of billy and due to the difficult task to access to the Ravensbourne building for a child let alone 10 auditions i decided to send the first paragraph to them and get them to record their own versions of the paragraph. After having these recordings sent to me i had a listened closely and it was clear to me that one kid "caden" was perfect for the voice of billy because he had an innocent but intelligent voice which you could imagine would be represented by a huge imagination .

After the arduous task of signing forms to get "Cayden" into the recording studio i finally did it and we recorded in what was initially a very worrying availability of a 2 hour session due to the studio being booked up. Having said that "Caden" was magnificent and everything went great and we were completed in ann hour and a half which gave me half an hour with my chosen sound guy"Richard Gallagher" for me to choose which recordings of each paragraph i wanted. Overall a very successful day.

Screenplay

Now we have the voiceover i have now started to write the screenplay for this and one thing i think works so much easier and better is having someone else so that ideas can be thrown off each other and their was only one person who was perfect for the job.My good friend "Stuart Purcell" we have similar humour but varied and good understanding of film which causes us to have different perspectives and angles. We met up and just nailed a lot of it down some good ideas flying around some lines of the voiceover had 3 or 4 great ideas but we got ruthless and thought about what we thought the audience of 7-12 year old would relate more to.

The Story I wanna be a Dinosaur is a short film about a 7 year old Hedgehog Called Billy. Billy is an imaginative hedgehog with dreams as long as his spikes. In this short film Billy dreams of being a dinosaur just like his favourite toy. He gives us a glimpse of a world where he as a Dinosaur encounters many things happening along the way.A wonderous adventure into billy's dreams is full of fun,exitement and plenty of laughs. :)

StoryBoarding
I have been storyboarding for the last few days and think i am at a point where the flow and pacing is right. the aim is to get the storyboard and animatic as close as the final film to cut out any wasted animation as i am working on my own i am on a tight schedule so need to do everything right.

Concept

Contract for the Film

We were asked to do a contract for our films as a form as an agreement to complete work you individually should be completing for the group. As i am effectively working alone when it comes to the animation department this contract is a serious binding contract.

Following on from the contract i have scheduled a plan for me to juggle the two projects i shall be working on

This makes my life so much easier i just like knowing what i need to do helps me get on with the business.

Starting animation

Shot1

Shot01 requires billy to exhale in frustration at the rain outside and he is stuck inside

This is shot 01 from the animatic 

And this is is a reference video of myself for the animation

and this is the animation for this shot

i am happy with this animation its not the best i will ever be able to do but i feel perfect animation will not fit the style of this film and the time i have considering the whole of the animation is done by myself i have to make smart decisions as a director rather than a full blown character animator.

Shot 2

This shot is a follow on from the previous but billy jumping down from the window he is watching the rain.

Shot 02 is a weird one because billy is in the window and then he gets down from the window first i starting animating to the window but found it difficult to get it right as the body did not move naturally. so i have animated the whole body to help me.

Shot3

Shot 03 requires to animate billy's hand drawing 

i think this shot has been animated well and im sure when colour is added its gonna look so much better.

Shot4

Shot04 is billy lifting up from drawing on paper.

Shot05

This shot is billy starting to think of an idea.

Poster

This is the first poster of the film 

i am really proud of this poster is just captures the feel of the animation and the story

Shot 06

This shot is an over the shoulder shot with billy holding his dinosaur

Shot 07 

Shot07 is a shot of billy pushing his dinosaur towards the camera 

Ok so now i have posters done its to the website so i opened up wix and came to the assumption that wix is great but every website will be the same if i don,t start from scratch so thats what i did using wix.com editor i created background in photoshop and imported them into wix and used each element and layered them up so it had the feel of my film.

And a desktop wallpaper for download on website.

this is the background based upon the posters of course having a consistent theme is always a good thing.

This is the background

i took a example of how the new pixar film brave website has been done its very simple 

the website opens up with a trailer for the film and gives a chance for visitors to like the film on face book.

this is my version complete with this promo of myself introducing the film to the world.

and this is it on my site.

As you can see there is an opportunity for the viewer to like on Facebook and this is my Facebook page they can like.

Then we have a page where the viewer can get to know Billy by giving them a brief description

Also you may notice there is 2 option for social networking twitter and Facebook i feel twitter is an easy and effective way of promoting and communicating so i have set up a twitter account just for the film where people will have updates and progress of the film.

the next page is about which gives a brief description of what the film is about 

Then there is a gallery full of images of concept work and images from final shots.

then a videos page

i will be uploading trailer viral videos like my promo and a making of documentary near completion of the film.

then finally i feel a great way to advertise is posters wallpapers getting people to put your image on there screens because they like someone else sees it and it spreads. so the final page is a downloads page where people can download posters and wallpapers for use on iphone, ipad and laptops.

I feel the website works great and looks great and most of all is advertises the film well but with the character of the film.

Invites for degree show

this is one of my favourite shots and is a start of a 3 shot montage it has billy roaring like a dinosaur into a mirror also to be animated is the reflection which i animated to add more charm.

Shot09

Shot09 is billy walking like a dinosaur across the screen and back a difficult one to give a character like this a dinosaur walk.

Shot010

This shot consists of billy having taped on a dinosaur tail him wagging and dancing with it

Shot011

This shot is billy thinking but is also one of the few lyp sync shots with billy saying " i wanna be"

Shot 012

shot 012 is billy saying "dinosaurrrrr!!" and roaring torwards camera and transferring into a dinosaur in another world

Shot 013

Shot 013 is a billy as a dinosaur picking a house  up 

Shot014

This shot consists of the house he picked up in the previous shot and using them as blocks and as he swivels to pick another house to stack on top he knocks them down with his long tail.

shot15

This is a very simple shot to animate it follows his tail up a tree which i only require  a single image for the tail then billy then apears to realise he is the tallest in the world

Shot16

shot16 is billys tail putting a cat down on floor which had previously been up the tree

Shot17

shot17 is of the cat being hunted down by some hungry stupid dinosaurs and the cat notices a ball of wool and gets it and the stupid dinosaurs go banging into each other. a difficult task to animate a cat but if i get it right it will be great

Shot18 is in response to the line "but i dont want a brain the size of a pea" and is billy as a smart dino scientist doing equations on board.

Its been a while but i can now say that i have completed all animation for the film now i need to colour it all.

Colouring continues on and on despite contracting RSI(repetitive strain injury) this has lead me to having to colour for 1 hour at a time due to the swelling of my hand and the pain. I was tld to stop for a couple of weeks but as that was not an option i have had to work as best around it as possible.

COLOURING FINISHED!!!

Colouring is all completed after all the pain and worries that it may not get finished its completed and now i can rest my hand a little with only composting to take care of.All the colouring looks good and i have achieved the look i was going for and i am really happy with that as a director who had a vision.

Compositing 

just compositing shot 02 i really wanted to use colour and as this scene is rainy i wanted to take colour out as much as possible with losing appeal of the shot. these are just some of the shot i have been compositing.

All compositing done

Now to editing and due to the fact i have been adding shots as i have finished compositing them this will not take long at all.

Sound and music 

As we enter the last few days till hand in the film has been finished and now i am working with sound and music to get it finished in time. The sound is nearly finished whereas the music could be delayed due to the fact that the guy doing the music for the animation is also completing music for my fellow animators so he is juggling both projects but he always does an amazing job so i dont want it rushed so that it is not great.

conclusion 

When i started this projects in late january early febuary it was due to be alot shorter and as time as gone by we have written some great stuff it has become longer more work for me but i have enjoyed every moment of this project because i think this idea and this story is great and hopefully will be followed on in the future by a series.

To have completed this animation just under 2 minutes in this short space of time is a amazing effort from myself especially as i have juggled other projects on the side of this. I love directing projects and feel i do really well organising a project and finding ways to complete projects on time and making it look great still.

I came up with a style using tv paint and hand drawn paper animation and i feel from the start i have not  moved from this style and i have achieved what i set out to achieve.Also things like compositing that i have done very little of before composting all the shots in this film has been a real learning experience and has been really enjoyable so during this project so many skills have been added to my career.

Although i have not directed a team of animators or compositors the way i have managed sound, music and my co screenplay writer i feel has been great and i learned more abut myself this project which leads me to believe i can be a success in the industry.

overall it has been a great project and i feel it has turned out amazing.