Development

I was planning on having a live dancer to draw from but due to COVID-19 i will be drawing from from ballet videos off the internet for references for my tests. i don't know yet whether i will have access to a dancer as reference for my actual film but we shall see.

TEST 1

Keyframing a ballet move:

For my first test i found a clip of ballet and paused on the key moments to establish the dancer's movements. I would then test out how well that movement worked in a moving image.

Final GIF:

It seems to work quite smoothly and that's only with keyframes. I do feel that the landing of the dancer in this movement wasn't quite finished or as realistic as I want it to be, so I will attempt to improve on that.

TEST 2

Creating a 45 second dance animation:

In my second test i wanted to challenge myself and make sure i could create a smooth animation of ballet dancing before i began my actual animation. I have uploaded it to YouTube, my Facebook page and my Instagram to receive any feedback i could, as i was unable to receive feedback from my peers in person. I planed on first drawing a skeleton first, like my first test, and then draw my character on top. I wanted to make it almost like 2D motion capture, using clips and mashing them together instead of using real dancers (due to COVID-19) and drawing skeletons on top.

Final thoughts:

I was very happy with my final result. The feedback i received was all positive, with most people commenting on how smooth the animation was. I particularly was happy with the movement, it looked realistic and interesting for people to watch. The only improvement someone mentioned i could make is the motion blur that i had drawn by hand instead of using an effect. They had said that it was a bit much and looked out of place, and i agreed. So in my final animation i decided not to include any motion blur.

Concept Art

Drawing up my world and vision of Paris, i want very distinct colours. At day time i wanted light yellows an pinks, and the night time scenery to be a deep blue with purples and pinks. A clear contrast between night and day using bright colours is what i want in my film to give it a distinct style, and i had a lot of fun playing with those colours.

Colour Script

This layout makes it easy to see where the happier scenes are compared to the more depressing or heartfelt scenes. The shades and saturation on colours is very important in my film because there is no dialogue, the colour palette, character's facial expressions and especially music will communicate the story and what the characters are feeling rather than words.