Lil' Red by Cale Atkinson

Lil' Red from cale atkinson on Vimeo.

Cale Atkinson creates his work through the use of digital media, in my opinion I would guess that Atkinson uses both pose to pose animation and flash/other digital animating aid, e.g Adobe Premiere. 

In this short, I can instantly tell that the animation is digitally produced through the use of rough and variation of line matched with the bright and colourful scenery of the video.

The music matches well with the animation through the use of the xylophone and the upbeat melody of the song. It seems to help portray the distance that the girl has travelled and the speed of the wolf.

The plot of the video runs with an edited and interpreted version of the Brothers Grimm, Little Red Riding Hood, which can be seen through the use of the wolf and girl wearing a red hood. 

Target audience would be acceptable for a young audience from age 10 but not suitable for any younger audiences through the lack of understanding with the plot and the imagery of the wolf.
The wolf is portrayed in a rough sketchy line quality with red backgrounds and speed lines, which adds to the dark atmosphere of the villain in the animation.
When watching the video, you automatically think that the wolf will catch up with Lil' Red and 'gobble' her up, however she beats him up instead and makes the wolf her 'slave', giving a happy ending to the story.

Take a look at his website and twitter....

Cale Atkinson - Twitter 

Photoshop coloured Storyboard - animation edit

During the process of creating my storyboard, I considered the angles, direction and action with in the frame which would lead and flow into the next panel. I found this hard to keep different in the sense of the motion of each panel, I didnt want the panels to appear the same in both angle and zooming in sequence. As my storyboard considers the key points of the animation with in 12 panels, I had to imagine what action and movements would be inbetween the panel and lead nicely to the next. I did find this difficult to imagine with in the first storyboard but having the panels coloured actually helped me to visualise the sequence of movement between the characters better.

storyboard 1 - Introduction of characters and objective

storyboard 2 - Action

storyboard 3 - Jills end

Storytelling - Nursery rhymes

 After choosing a nursery rhyme to base my storyboards on, I began to sketch rough finelined post-it note drawings as a guideline for the final storyboard. I based my storyboard on the rhyme of Jack and Jill, in which I thought I would be able to fit the key action points, within 12 panels.

1-6

I began the image sequence, with an extreme long shot as to show the audience the surroundings before going into a long shot, revealing the main characters of the plot. Panel 3 shows the characters walking up the hill before the introduction of the snake, which Jack steps on and is attacked by the snake, making him fall down. Jack lets go of the bucket before he falls down, leaving the bucket to hit Jill in the face and come tumbling after Jack.

7-12

In the more edited version of the storyboard, I need to add more detailed angles and shots to make the animation more interesting, remembering to keep the rule of thirds in mind.


Before I started adding more detail to the storyboard, I created character design sheets for Jack and Jill, as to have a reference throughout the process. 

Character Design: Jack

I thought about designing Jack in an aged style, making the chin more formed with more detail to shading and hair, however I felt that this did not work well due to the nursery rhyme originally being aimed at a young audience. Using a more simplistic and child like design to Jack worked well with the storyline however the storyline itself would be aimed at an older audience due to the slight violence of the plot; Jill getting knocked out via bucket. Keeping a simplistic style in mind, I alternated between two illustrative designs. One being simple with the facial features and not adding a nose to make the drawing seem younger and cuter, the other being more detailed but with a rounded face and characteristics to the facial features which seemed to outshine the previous style, especially when I added colour to the lineart with letraset Pro Marker pens.

Character Design: Jill

I then began to design Jill, similar to the character designs of Jack. After drawing out the illustrations, I felt that the last design had a young audience appeal and gained more characteristics than the less detailed sketches with lack of facial features. Not only did the addition of colour help to make this decision but the last design linked well with the Jack character design, and could be seen as twins/siblings.

Storytelling - Nursery Rhymes

For the Storytelling study task, I had to choose a nursery rhyme in which I would recreate into my own version, formatted into a storyboard.

I immediately reminded of the Brothers Grimm Fairy tales in which, have influenced stories and rhymes for generations, with the cruel twist at the end of the fable and always leaving the reader with a moral. For example in the story, Little Red Riding Hood, it is interpreted to leave the audience with the moral of "don't stop to talk to strangers" or even "never wonder from the path", and some interpretations believe that the Grimm's story of Red Riding Hood is feminist through how the beauty of Red is emphasised and needs to be rescued from the beasts belly.

I then looked into popular nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty, Hey Diddle Diddle, and Jack and Jill.  The rhyme was simple through the structure of the verse and the illustrations were drawn to suit a young audience through the use of colour, matched with less detailed lineart.
I felt that the best nursery rhyme was Jack and Jill through how I could visualise the journey to fetch the water from the well, in which I would be able to easily add my own twist to it.

Humpty Dumpty

Hey Diddle Diddle

Jack and Jill

I started to sketch early ideas of what Jack and Jill could look like with in the storyboards. I wanted to create Jack and Jill with similar facial traits as to make them siblings. I wanted Jack and Jill to be portrayed as siblings as I felt that it would be more connected to the nursery rhyme, matched with a child appearance to link with the young audience that the rhyme is aimed at.

Initial design of Jack

Inital design of Jill