Animation Reference - Pencil Scratching

Hey guys, I found this video on YouTube, thought it would be helpful to know what a pencil scratching noise sounds like! Has a big variety of sounds so we could use it in the scene when the Scarecrows in the barn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zGKdg9qIJM

Scarecrow Run/hand glider Reference

Hey guys, was thinking of toy story and found this! It's a scene where woody is running, thought it would be great to use! Also towards the end of the scene, Woody uses a hand glider so we could have a look at how this is done too! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op-KK2go6c4

Character Stucture Reference

Don't want to take credit for this reference sheet as Alex found it earlier today to help out with the drawings so thanks Alex for finding these images! Just a sheet full of character dimensions, structure building and how to keep the proportions the same when spinning the character. Proved to be very useful! :)

Reference - Doll In Music Box Movements

Here is a clip from chitty chitty bang bang where the doll moves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AnkLKjVXXk

Nightmare Before Christmas Reference

Hey guys! I was thinking about what we said about Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas and this is one of the best scenes which shows Jack's movements. Thought this could be useful to take into account for the character designing :)

Animation reference - "Scarecrow"

As promised, here's one of the videos that I thought might be quite nice as reference. Take a good look at the backgrounds - visually stunning and the lineless style contrasts really nicely with the main characters. Perhaps we could look at creating something similar (but slightly more simplified)?

The fact that the story's about a scarecrow is an added bonus. :P

Remember — we'd like to see you all blogging away into the sunset!

Alex

Alex's scarecrow designs

Again, I started just by looking very generally at some scarecrows. I really liked the one in the lower right corner; a great example of a simple but pretty refreshing take on the conventional scarecrow!

I toyed with the idea that maybe the scarecrow could look as if he was trying to be scary, perhaps by giving him long, thin and pointed fingers — perhaps they could even be made out of sticks?

Jazzy specified that the scarecrow should be tall and very thin to emphasize his clumsy nature — maybe we could give him big hands and feet to further suggest this? 

I was looking at some other tall, spindly characters as a point of reference —Jack Skellington in particular, as though he's a little different to what we're going for in terms of design his exaggeratedly thin limbs and a rather large, circular head are quite nice features for a scarecrow. I really liked how the eyes and mouth looked on Jack so I tried to incorporate something similar into some of the sketches.

I was mostly just experimenting with body language and more head designs here; I wondered how a naive and slightly nervous character might hold himself, I thought perhaps with his feet turned inwards, but he just ended up looking really timid and anxious. 

A stocky design for the crow might work quite nicely with a scrawny scarecrow — the combination of tall/thin and short/stocky characters is quite prevalent in a lot of children's animation. Many notable cartoon duos have massively contrasting body structures:

Radically different body structures in visual media where two or more main characters dominate the screen helps to create visual distinction and interest — strong silhouettes so that the characters remain recognisable in any given situation (at a distance, in the shadows, even in different costumes)

I thought this might be a nice idea to play around with and so experimented a little more with the idea of a short, fat crow:

I started trying to think more about character interaction at this stage — how the scarecrow might physically respond to the crow whenever it comes near him. Should it be outright terror, or is it more subtle? Is he merely uncomfortable around crows, or physically repulsed?

Was thinking about what sort of clothes he might wear and was slightly amused with the thought that, being a scarecrow, he just wore whatever leftover tat the owners had lying around — an outsized sweater, a lonely oven glove?

I'm going to focus more on actual scenarios and character interaction now, to try and really get to grips with the relationship and personalities of the two characters. Hopefully this will help me bring out more character in these drawings!

Character references - Scarecrow

Just some little images to help inspire you! There's a disappointing lack of decent images on Google - they're mostly all scary, evil-looking things which isn't quite what we're going for, eh?!

This one's really interesting. I know it's not really what we're going for, a bit too short and stocky, but it's a good example of ideal design! Very simple but interesting and recognisable. Brilliant eyebrows as well!

I thought this one was quite interesting - how about using straw for fingers?

(Sorry, this one just made me laugh!)

Hope that's helpful - see you all tomorrow!

;]