Look & Feel Precedent :: Lucy the Daughter of the Devil

Lucy the Daughter of the Devil, a cartoon that aired late nights on the Cartoon Network, was a story that took a satirical approach to religious beliefs of heaven and hell.

Part of what makes this animation fun to watch are the stylized characters that depict our beliefs of God and the devil. The characters that star in this are the devil, DJ Jesus, Lucy-the daughter of the devil, two priests and a nun. The characters are very rounded yet simple. The texturing is extremely simple and has a cell shaded 2D look. I will be using this 2D treatment for my background, not only to add a certain pop-feel (similar to the look an feel of the background of Lucy the Daughter of the Devil) not only to enhance the look of the piece but also to optimize my rendering time because of the use of 2D background. (Using less geometry reduces the time it takes to capture a frame of animation for compositing).

Tigriss :: Story Precedent

Tigriss in one of the secondary characters in Kung Fu Panda. As she is a tiger, I looked at her stylized design to inspire my own characters design. Even though the tiger is a complex animal, Tigriss’s design is simple. The complexity is formed with the texture of her fur.

Story & Character Precedent :: Nettie Tien's Banana King

Banana King is a 3D short created by last year's MFA DT student Nettie Tien. It's targeted towards 13-17 year olds to communicate a conflict between a father and his son Max. Max is a chimp who wants to be a graffitti artist. Every time he starts drawing, his father gets mad at him and makes him stop until he proves him wrong.

This is a big precedent for me as far as characters and story as it is similar to mine in the sense that it is a story about a father and the son where there is conflict about professions. Here again, Max proves himself to his father by bringing more business to the Banana shop. Though many stories have a similar theme, where the main character ends up proving themselves, what makes each story different is in the way the characters deal with their situations and overcome their conflicts in their own unique ways.  

Story & Character Precedent :: Tak & the Power of Juju

Tak was just an average Shaman's assistant from the pumpununu tribe, until one day the strange Juju's give him "the power of the Juju", a power thats usually reserved for 17 year olds. With his newly acquired abilities, Tak can fly to other planets, cast spells, do things that normal teenagers would love to do be able to do in order to make their lives easier. Unfortunately most of the time, it ends up getting Tak and the Juju's in a whole lot of trouble. He tries to do his best to control the powers and eventually comes out on top.javascript:void(0)

Jibolba, the head Shaman of the Pumpunu tribe and Tak's guardian always has a hard time keeping Tak out of trouble. When he learns of Tak's new gift, he tries guiding him but Tak never listens. When Jibolba is not occupied keeping Tak out of trouble he practices his own magical powers.

This is a big story precedent for me because it deals with a boy and his guardian in a magical land who posses magical powers. Similar to my characters they always butt heads but come out successful in the end. This concept of children always wanting to their own thing different from the path their elders/ parents set for them in common in every culture even made up ones which is why it is important for me to incorporate it into my story. The characters are also similar in design in the sense that they have big legs and big hands. What will set my characters apart is that even though they belong to this a magical world, is that they are still battling conflicting ideas of modern day parents and their children-- child wants to do something that parent doesn't want them to do, child proves to parent that he can do it, parent finally accepts.

Kungfu Panda :: Story and Character Precedent

Po, the main character from Kung Fu Panda faced a similar problem with his father who wanted him to be a noodle maker like himself. He ends up proving his father and townspeople wrong and fulfills his dream when he defeats the villain Tai Lung by realizing that his greatest strengths were his weaknesses. He becomes a great king fu warrior by using his love for food to motivate him towards his love for King fu.

Bee Movie :: Character and Story Precedent

Bee Movie also touched upon this issue of career topic initially when Barry a recent graduate decided he wanted to be different and not make honey for the rest of his life. This issue leads him onto his journey of self-discovery from which point on the rest of the story unfolds where he pursues a problem bigger than himself and his hive. He overcomes the problem non-traditionally by seeking the help of a human and ends up saving his hive and honey and also New York from loosing its greenery.

I used Barry as a character precedent because he also deals with this issue of career. In the process he realizes a bigger problem that he tackles in a very non-conventional way.

Funkphonic :: Animation and Format Precedent

This is a thesis project by Rick Tank, an animation student in UK. The set design and character is extremely simplistic but as a concept of combining music and animation it works pretty well. I looked at it because it has similar elements that I will be incorporating in my animation, i.e. working with light and sound to move the story forward. Again, here we see the music moves the story forward. What I really like about this animation that it tells the story well without any dialogue.