Unit 4
At the beginning of the unit, each member of our team wrote a logline. I created a story about an apple and a banana.
My creative concept was to develop a simple yet engaging narrative. I intentionally chose an apple and a banana as the main characters because, considering our beginner-level skills, these characters would be relatively easier to model and animate. This approach allowed us to better focus on successfully completing our project.
However, I was fully aware that the obvious weakness of my logline was its oversimplification. Consequently, it wasn’t selected during our voting process. Nevertheless, I became genuinely intrigued by the winning concept – “The Foreign Spy” created by Aki.
This comedic spy story follows an agent who, upon realizing his cover is blown, flees desperately, only to discover – just when he thinks he’s escaped – that his enemies have already tracked him down.
After thorough discussions, we decided to adopt a distinctive black-and-white visual style for this 3D animation. I also proposed incorporating symbolic ravens at both the beginning and end of the story to create narrative bookends, a suggestion aimed at enhancing the plot’s depth and enriching its finer details.
These are the references image I found from Pinterest:
I also did a character design for the main character (the spy) in Photoshop:
I was truly fond of this highly creative and challenging script. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, insufficient production staff, and excessive technical difficulties, we ultimately had to abandon this project. Instead, we opted for a more feasible alternative – Zack’s script “High Five”, which another team member had proposed.
This equally engaging story revolves around a little boy attempting to high-five strangers. With its single park setting and other simplified production requirements, “High Five” presented significantly fewer technical challenges, making it the ideal choice for our team’s capabilities at the time.
In this new project, I was responsible for multiple key production roles: creating the main character’s design, producing the second half’s storyboard (27 panels) and corresponding animatic, as well as completing 3 layout shots and 2 animation shots. Additionally, I coordinated with teammates to reserve our school’s sound studio, where I recorded voice acting for the female protagonist – including cheerful walking sounds, startled reactions, and sad vocal expressions.
Although regrettably the project remained unfinished (rendering these recordings unused), I’m proud of the substantial work and effort I contributed. Reflecting on this experience, were I to undertake a similar project again, I would:
1) Take on more production responsibilities
2) Better organize team collaboration through mutual support
3) Implement structured task allocation
4) Establish realistic timelines
to ensure successful project completion.
Leave a Reply