Add more dynamic camera angles and lengthen the duration for intense scenes, for example, when the turtle gets kicked around, and when the wave crashes onto the turtle.
What skills do you need to improve?
More ‘clean’ and fluid line work to show a more organic character and sense of movement.
What are the most significant things you have learned so far?
If you stare at your small thumb-nail sized panels for hours and hours, you will not be able to visualise the actual composition as a full screen image. Take a break and re-look at your storyboards in full screen, you will have a better judgement on composition
‘A Day Out’ is about a character who comes out of his owner’s sketchbook whenever the owner opens it to draw. The character, intrigued by the real world, spends his time out of the sketchbook admiring all that’s around him.
Music: Chopin Nocturne op. 9 no. 2
As my film is about a sketchbook character, I wanted to keep his drawing style loose, as well as a relatively rough animation style to further separate him from the real world. I decided to have my film in black and white as I wanted to accentuate the sketchbook ‘theme’ of the film.
Towards the end of the film, as the owner closes his sketchbook and leaves, the character from the sketchbook vanishes. His desire, or dream, is to some day be able to explore the real world, without being bounded by the sketchbook.
As I planned my shots according to the music, I had to gauge how long each scene and animation sequence will be.
Music: Chopin Nocturne op. 9 no. 2
MOOD BOARDS/ STYLE GUIDE
Paperman (2012)
Inspiration
Secret (2007)
I was inspired by the 2007 Taiwanese film ‘Secret’. The story revolves around a school girl who travels back and forth between the present and the future by playing on a ‘magical’ piano. She walks around her campus, admiring the future world and intrigued that no one can see her. This was the basis of the inspiration for my film, to have the character who came out of the sketchbook explore the real world, unseen by others.
Also, the film heavily emphasises on music, mainly the piano, which is why I got inspired to use a classical piano piece.
