Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
someone asks you why you are using animation to create a fi lm—with the time and expense
involved—there needs to be a good reason. There needs to be something in the design and
the storyline of your piece that
requires
animation.
This could be exaggeration, caricature, or process. Sometimes animation is a better medium
to use because of the content you wish to convey. Using anthropomorphic animals allows
us to look at our human characteristics, our failings and shortcomings that otherwise would
be diffi cult to watch.
You need to consider, from the initial idea, what we are going to see. It is never too soon
to begin to make your piece visual. It is often the visual that sells the idea. Sometimes, a
great idea seems great—until you see the visual. Then it clearly falls fl at.
Don't just write. Draw. We make images.
Rule #8: Create Confl ict
This may seem obvious given our base defi nition of story. But often an initial pitch will
include wonderful characters that are moving through events, but it is all exposition.
There is no confl ict and, consequently, there is no ending because there is nothing to
resolve.
In
Respire,
Mon
Ami
, there is a little boy who is lonely but this confl ict is resolved in the
inciting moment when he fi nds a severed head at the base of the guillotine. From that moment
until the boy believes his friend has “died,” we have nothing but exposition as we build the
relationship between the boy and the head. If the head did not expire, we would never
have a confl ict.
Respire, Mon Ami
by Chris Nab-
holtz, Ringling College of Art and
Design
