I have decided to do my animation project as a stick figure kung fu movie. The movie will have the same spirit as one of the Flash animations from the Xiao Xiao series or Madness Combat series. The fight takes place in a dojo between two ninjas, one in black, and the other in white. The two ninjas bow and proceed to whoop ass. The momentum of the fight shifts back and forth between the two of them, but by the end, the black ninja has gotten the upper hand and defeats the white ninja quite brutally.
I have decided to take a more old school approach and animate the entire movie by hand, much like cell animation. However, instead of doing the drawings on paper and scanning them into a computer, I will be using Adobe Photoshop to compose each individual cell. I will use the same background layer for the dojo, and create a new layer for each frame of the two ninjas. To help with this process, I will be copying the previous fight layer into the next image. Then I can turn down the opacity, so I can draw over it in the original fight layer, before discarding or turning the previous layer’s visibility off. I will also to animate a five second segment of the movie in slow motion, but we will see how that turns out.
I think this animated movie will look cool, but also rather simple, so I have decided to choreograph the fight scene with the accompanying song that I have chosen for the soundtrack. I was lucky enough to find a song with a guitar jam that was almost one minute long on the nose (1:01). I have already edited the song down to the length required for the movie in Garage Band, as well as record the time codes of the major beats in the track. This in turn helped me to work out the pacing and most of the blow by blow of the kung fu fight. Since most of the fight is choreographed to music, I am uncertain if I will include sound effects for the strikes and blocks.
That's the long and short of it, and my fingers remain crossed until April 27th.
STORYBOARDS...
This is the dojo that the ninjas will be fighting in.
The fight begins with the two fighters facing each other, and they bow. Just to clarify, I will refer to them as "Blacky" & "Whitey" for distinction, not because I'm a racist.
Blacky races towards Whitey, who is holding a bad ass, kung fu stance.
Blacky makes the first strike, but Whitey blocks. They throw down, moving screen left, but they are only really weighing each other up.
Whitey jumps and unleashes a series of quick kicks forcing Blacky to block while steadily backing up.
Whitey backs Blacky up against the wall, but he pushes off and the fight proceeds screen right.
Blacky carries the momentum of the fight, occasionally striking Whitey while backing him up. Then Blacky delivers a high kick and misses.
Whitey immediatly connects with a blow to the face, and the fight proceeds screen left.
Whitey now carries the momentum, striking and blocking. Then Whitey delivers a powerful kick to the gut of Blacky, knocking him back, and he hits the wall hard.
Blacky falls to his knees and then his face.
Blacky gets up slowly.
Once on his feet, Blacky proceeds with a quickness, catching Whitey off guard.
Blacky has all the momentum, with most of his strikes making contact, and the fight proceeds stage right.
Whitey manages to block a punch and turns to run, but the wall is behind him.
Whitey flips off the wall and things go slo-mo.
Blacky turns around and drops into a slide.
Things come out of slo-mo just as Whitey is about to land, and Blacky is on his way up...
To deliver an uppercut to Whitey, knocking him out cold!
Whitey rises and falls as Blacky lands into a crouch.
Before Whitey hits the floor, Blacky jumps up an delivers a spin kick to Whitey's melon...
Which flies off and directly into the camera, cracking the lense.
Fade to black... roll credits... the end... send in the clowns... you get the picture.
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE...
This movie should run 1:01 minutes,
So I need to animate 610 frames in 5 weeks.
Therefore, I have to draw 122 frames per week.
I will probably do most of my animation on wednesdays, fridays, saturdays, and sundays, as well as in class on mondays.
Here is the weekly schedule:
3/30 -- 122 frames completed
4/6 -- 244 frames completed
4/13 -- 366 frames completed
4/20 -- 488 frames completed
4/27 -- 610 frames completed with sound,
Exported to tape and posted to blog.
