CIM City - cartoon development

[sarah]

Find a animator/some way of converting the CIM City script into a movie.

[sarah]

Contact with Peter Lounton (Spring Design Ltd)

From: Peter Lounton Sent: 07 October 2009 13:31 Subject: Making a movie/animation

Hi Sarah,

I thought it might be a good idea to outline the process normally taken in these things, please have a look and let me know if it makes sense. Also there maybe aspects you would like to see done differently? Once we can firm up the process it will make costing very much easier.

Cartoon animation is a mix of illustration, design, storytelling, sounds, interactivity, creativity and timing. When you mix all those ingredients, you create a compelling message for your viewers.

1-The Storyboard We start a new project with a storyboard. A storyboard is a series of illustrated captions based on the scenario, in this case taken from your script, that break your cartoon into sequences. We plot with this storyboard all elements that you've asked us to include in your cartoon while paying attention to the timing. The storyboard is also your brainstorming tool. Once you approve the entire storyboard, we are ready to start the production.

2-Character and Prop Design We work on character, props and background designs just like we do with the storyboard. We create turnarounds of the designs, so your characters and props look the same, whether we look at them from the back view, their left side or even from a bird's eye view.

3-Breakdown and Sound Next is the recording. Assuming there is existing sound, we test the recordings and the music to determine the real length of your project. It's easier to base the timing to dialogues and music, rather than match sounds to an existing animation. It also costs less money to start with sounds because we reduce the amount of trials. This way, your characters will always lip sync correctly.

4-Animation After getting the definitive timing of your project, we animate each sequence. As we already broke your story into sequences during the storyboarding stage, it's also easier for you to approve and ask for adjustments. We create 'pencil' tests, usually on computer, pencil tests are rough animated tests where you can see the movement of your animations.

5-Clean Up and Compositing Once you approved the pencil test, we use the approved images to create the clean version of your animation. Once it is created we integrate them within Adobe Flash, where we will colour them and add special effects and camera movements. Then, we'll match the animation with the sounds that were created earlier. If there are interactions to program, we will add them to the cartoons.

6-Post Production If your project is for the Web, we'll publish a movie of your cartoon from Flash. We'll test it to make sure the file size remains as small as possible. If your project is for television or film, we'll output your animation for an editing program. From there, it can even be formatted for a DVD release. If your project is for a game or another interactive format, we'll publish the sounds and images into sequences, so they can be reassembled in a game authoring environment.

Hope this makes sense...

Kind regards

Peter

[sarah]

Am in contact with the people who did the Digiman cartoon. Am hoping they'll be able to help us with this.

[sarah]

Have got ok to use Digiman people for this. Next step is to write a document detailing what messages etc we want to get across in the cartoon.

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From: Emily Nimmo e.nimmo@… Sent: 15 April 2010 11:19 To: Callaghan, Sarah (STFC,RAL,SSTD) Subject: RE: Re: Fw: RE: Digiman cartoon

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for getting back to me. Don't worry about the delay, we had discussed this starting in June so it's not a problem.

I think the next step would be to come up with a list of your desired outcomes. So things like what are the key messages you want to convey and who do you want your audience to be, what sort of style do you want to take, are you open to suggestions; would you like a team digital preservation animation using the characters and style we have already developed; or would you prefer the gritty graphic novel style your script suggests? Providing an idea or ball park figure at this stage is good as it lets the animation company tailor their suggestions to your purse.

Following this the next stage is usually to have a meeting with the animation company talk all of these issues over and answer any questions they have before they go away and produce a quote, perhaps suggest a scenario, character designs environmental designs.

Following the first meeting which I think it would be good if you could attend, I will then drive the project forward for you requiring minimal time on your part. I'm happy to help you come up with your set of requirements and guide you through the whole process. As I will be working as a consultant on your behalf there will be a small fee for this that we would also need to discuss.

Best

Emily

============================================ Mrs Emily Nimmo HATII Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII), George Service House, 11 University Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QJ, Scotland Tel: +44(0)141 330 3720 Fax: +44(0)141 330 3788 ============================================

[sarah]

Team Digital Preservation and Metafor cartoon now available at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76MCRXK4Itc