Aristotle: Idea to Execution

I have been looking for a job for the summer but I had no luck so far. Instead of stressing I have decided to get started on a personal project I wanted to do over easter. Its is animated poetry. The poem is called Aristotle it is by the American Poet Billy Collins and is one of my favorite poems. What I liked about it most was the imagery it created in my head I felt the need to show people and bring it to life.

Idea for title style to go with illustrative style of animation.

I was going to use the voice over of the actual writer reading the poem but its ironic that his voice did not have the feeling I thought it needed to elevate the animation. I found someone else to do the voiceover by chance. Her names is Kallie Merkle she is a writer from Canada. I first heard her voice in a video called 'Growing is Forver' by Jesse Rosten for which she wrote the words and narrated for. As soon a I herd it I knew her voice was perfect for this piece so I got in touch with her over twitter. I asked if she would be interested and she said yes.

Quick sketches after listening/ reading to the poem.

When it comes to the voiceover and narration I am confident that she can deliver the goods. So I am prepared to rework the lengths or approach to some animation if I feel. As it stands it will involve a lt of quick cuts and seemingly unrelated shots. One way I have though to tying it together is through song choice, voiceover, clever scene transitions, limited colour palette and the use of overlaid organic textures. I will not use all of them but some as they can serve as a nice visual hook to keep everything together.  But I will post more about this another time.

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Screen shot of storyboard templete in photoshop. A digital storyboarding process will help me with the animatic.

I will upload the full story boards and script later this week after I have sent it to Kallie. Then I can get started on the approach I am going to take to visual style such as backgrounds, character design, shot style etc. I am looking toward to this but a part of me is slightly nervous it will not come out as good as I am imagining it. Wish me luck.

My (Rough) Process:
Script
Mood Board > Colour Palette / Visual Style
Story Board
Voiceover/ Narration/ Animatic
Background Design
Character Design
Flash Animation/ After Effects Animation
Opening/ Closing title design
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