In late February, we were given a briefing over the new main project we’d be focusing on until the end of the year: a 1-to-2 minute animation, to be made individually, on a subject that speaks to us. The vastness of the prompt scared me at first: a lack of limits over what to discuss sounded open enough to confuse me, and have me struggle with what to base it on. Thanks to an exercise presentation we made, I examined my favorite pieces of media and noticed the recurring aspects of emotionally honest storytelling, and the genre of sci-fi, with aliens and advanced technology being a favorite of mine since childhood. The vastness of space allows for a wide range of unique stories, which is really exciting to me.
I also considered examining the topic of what makes humans what we are, and decided that to be making stories, as it’s an action unique to us on Earth.
I started sketching out some basic ideas, including an alien and a robot talking on a grassy hill, and an alien professor teaching a class. In general, I wanted to explore the idea of humanity through the eyes of a non-human, and having them see us as a species worth loving and noticing: I’m often tired of stories where aliens see humans as lowly and inferior to them, so I wanted to make a story that showed us in a better light.
Having discussed my ideas with the tutors, I decided to move forward with the alien classroom concept: I wanted to have the professor talk about human storytelling to his class, as an introduction to his course, and explaining how it was what connected us as people, what made us who we are. I’ve always loved writing and telling stories, so this topic was very personal to me, and I wanted to get it right.
I made some brainstorming moodboards of various methods of storytelling that have been used over human history, along with some alien designs from media I’ve enjoyed over the years, to get an idea of what to talk about and how to style the video.
I figured out a way to structure the animation: short scenes showing humans through time, connecting through stories, while the professor narrates over them (with the scenes connecting thematically to his words), eventually revealing his appearance and class at the very end of the video. Keeping the alien aspect ambiguous until the ending seemed like a fun idea to experiment with, so I went ahead with it.
With the rough idea in mind, I began writing a script for the story. I wanted the animation to be driven by the narration more than the images, so getting that part done first was essential. I first wrote a bullet point list over what I wanted to talk about, and then expanded each of them into full sentences, to then connect them to one another into a coherent flow. This really helped me write, as I often think of too many ideas at once, and have a hard time putting it all down to text right away: separating the writing process into small steps made it easier for my brain to remain focused.
I recorded myself narrating this (as I planned to voice-act as the professor), and went well over 2 minutes: a clear sign I had to trim it down significantly. It was a tough process, as I enjoyed most of what I wrote, but I was eventually able to nearly halve the script from its original length, which was good enough.
With the plot done, I started designing the alien professor, as he seemed to be the most important character in the story (as the narrator). I tried a few different shapes and sizes, experimenting with typical alien design tropes (strange eyes, antennae, unusual hair etc.), until I reached a design I was happy with: still humanoid in shape, but with enough differences to clearly be an alien.
After a few colour tests, I found a colour scheme I was happy with: blue skin seemed like the best choice, as it’s distinctly nonhuman enough to make it immediately obvious.
I then made some very rough thumbnails on paper, to lay out the visuals that would play out along with the narration. Many of the ideas made here would be scrapped for the first animatic, as it would’ve been just too much in too little time.
Before doing the animatic, I worked on the proof of concept, as it seemed like a bigger task I wanted to get done with. I decided to focus on the reveal of the professor, towards the end of the animation, as it seemed important to properly visualize. I wanted it to transition from a shot of Earth in space, to a snowglobe with a replica of Earth inside it, and having the professor hold it in its hand and bring it up to his face.
I roughed out the movement needed for that to happen, including a camera move that was hard to pull off, but looked pretty cool in the end. Essentially, keeping the Earth in the middle of the frame, and having everything else move in and out of frame.
After the roughs came the clean-up and coloring, which is always a bit tedious in Harmony. I recorded myself saying a snippet of a line from the story, and lip-synced the professor saying it, which was a fun exercise. In the end, I’m very happy with how the proof of concept came out.
Finally came the animatic. Admittedly, leaving it last might not have been a great idea, as I had to rush a bit to get it all done in time. Troubles with Storyboard Pro (and my own misunderstandings) led to some frames looking rather messy, as the background and characters weren’t properly separated.
Once the images were done, I recorded myself voicing the whole script (in a rough performance that I’ll be sure to practice before the final animation), and attached it to the animatic. Timing everything out gave me some troubles, as Storyboard Pro was giving different times between the in-app video and the exported one, but I finally got something that was good enough. In the end, it clocked in at just over a minute, which was the recommended time for the project, so I was satisfied.
I presented this all to the class and tutors, fairly confident in my work. I received a lot of feedback: they liked the ending, and were generally happy with the direction I was going. There was a good amount of feedback: they advised to narrow the subject matter, as they believed storytelling to be too broad a topic. The flow of the narration could also be improved, as the beginning felt a bit clunky, and they seemed to prefer the previous design ideas for my professor than the final one, which was surprising to me.
They gave some ideas, such as upping the unfamiliarity with human customs, and possibly making the humans ambiguous until the ending, much like the aliens. I was a bit sad over the feedback on narrowing the subject matter, as writing something on storytelling was something I was very excited to do, but it all sounded like good advice I could implement.
I first tackled the professor’s design, as it seemed like an important thing to solve. Since they liked my second concept design for the professor, where I drew him as a large squid-like alien, I tried merging that with the aspects of my design that I liked the most. I’m still working on it, but I think I’m striking a balance that will be appreciated.
As for the plot, I decided to shift the focus from storytelling to the methods with which humans create art. It’s still a fairly broad subject, but it allows for a more “tactile” topic to talk about, as well as things that aliens could note as odd (“painting is using crushed rocks mixed with liquids on slices of plantlife”, etc.).
I wrote a new script, following the process I used for my original plan: it’s almost completely new, save for the ending, which I managed to save from the original script. I’ve gotten to something I’m happy with: I hope it will be appreciated by everyone else as well.
I’m still developing a look and thumbnails for the animation, but I’m thinking of making each scene have a very distinct limited colour scheme, to separate them clearly and give them all a unique feeling. Making the humans ambiguous will be hard, but I’m trying to frame shots in a way that we never see a human’s face, making it “secret” in a very obvious way.
As for helping people in their animations, I’ll be voice acting in some people’s videos as characters, and I’ve offered help in character designing to whoever wishes help in that. Some classmates have offered to help me design aliens for the classroom scene, and I’ve accepted, so that will be made easier.
I’ve been kept very busy by the clean-up work I’m doing for a RCA student as part of our other project, but I’ll still try and get something concrete done in time for the next presentation. Overall, I’m still happy with what I’m making, and I hope I can create something I can be proud of.