This project is a direct sequel to a short story I had written during grade 12 for Writers' Craft, and a culmination of all the motion graphics skills I had learned over the course of the term.
For this video I decided to try and challenge myself as much as possible. I attempted a new art style that was both inspired by the lineless animation from "Tangled: the Series" and Face and body builds from "Star VS the Forces of Evil" and "Hazbin Hotel", and tried to create characters that would be historically accurate in their clothing/hairstyles. The entire animation had a deadline of a month and a half, and each scene was hand-drawn in Photoshop or Medibang Paint, and put together in post using After Effects and Premiere Pro.
My brother was the one who did the voice acting for the prince in the scene, and although I was unable to use the entire clip in the final, you can listen to more of it below!
Progress Note from October 22, 2020
Initially the most challenging part of this assignment was actually deciding on what to do. I went through several ideas and works, the most prominent being:
⦁ a video that would be an ad for the game concept in my 928 class. This would have been a very stereotypical anime-looking dating sim ad, and then it would glitch to elude that something in the game is not what it would seem. (In direct connection to the loading screen found here)
⦁ A video from the perspective of a cat toy. This one would have been shot in real life, and edited using photoshop, premiere pro, and after effects. My cats have a toy that is a bird that squeaks when moved around, and I thought it might be funny to have a super dramatic thing of them chasing it around. The bird would cry, make angry faces, be in shock, and such. The video would have started with the bird seeing the cats rip apart another toy. This was one of the biggest contenders, and part of the reason why I was studying my cat's so intently and able to do loading. It fell through because I watched "Hazbin Hotel" and "Tangled the animated series" again recently, and wanted to do a more animation-heavy project.
⦁ The last project before the decided on the final. I wasn't feeling well, and as such started thinking of a character (protag) who escaped through video games. The journey was going to follow her as she went through the gray every day, before coming home and going to a video game (again a dating sim - as I really want to make one). This dating sim, however, would have used the character I had created in the meme. She (meme) would have been the character that the Protag liked, and I had plans of using the old TV grain effect to overlay on top of the footage of Meme. I had storyboarded it, and it started with Meme saying something (possibly what she said in the meme assignment???) and then the screen just pausing on her face. The background would be playing cheery game music, and then the filter of the TV screen would slowly come into view and the image would distort and zoom until it fit a tube Tv. Cue shot of bottom half of Protag's face as she cried, then the screen would imitate the TV turning off with the white cross thing in the center. Then Protag the next day woke up to an annoying clock, and her cat acting goofy to get her attention (which was one of my favorite stills). The video would alternate between the clock, the cat, and her alarm, purr and ringing growing louder- until Protag got up and hurled the clock at the wall and scaring the cat out of the door. Then her crying. The project stopped there because I started to hate the Protag and didn't think it was a good headspace to be in.
The biggest problem with all of these is that they just didn't feel right. I settled on the Fairytale because the reason for making the story in the first place was because I wanted to uncensor Disney stories - or at least call out the bullshit that happens in the old princess movies. I remember my biggest inspiration before writing the original chapter was the line "Disney censored these stories, I'm going to fix them" or something like that, said by the main character. I also feel bad, but I don't even remember her name.
I think the other reason why I went with this one is because of the comics I've been reading. They're all anime-styled, usually feature protagonists that have been transported into another world, and take place in medieval fantasy worlds with victorian fashion. That kind of bothered me, so I decided that I'm going to try and find references for more period-appropriate clothes. I also really wanted to have it so the Protag would call out the absurdity of love at first sight and what is considered romantic. for example - You save someone you just met and marry them for their looks? That just won't fly - hence the first scene to be storyboarded and animated. Also, because the Protag is from 2018, and to throw the new world into a loop, the stereotypical villainess is going to be the one the protag ends up falling for. I just think the dynamic would be funny.
Character Concept Art
Antag Final - post historical references
Antag - pre historical references
Prince character Designs
Protag - redesign 2020
Final Story Boards
Story Board Intro
Final Story board 1
Final Story board 2
Confrontation with the "Villianess" Story Board
Deleted Scenes
The initial deleted scenes would have been a prequel animation, explaining the myth of the swan maiden that the prince would confuse the protagonist for.
