Shot by Shot

 Here have taken some screen captures of the animation. I just wanted to make a quick overview about what I was trying to achieve when it came to 'Production Design'.

One of the things that really stand out in these screen captures are the posters of cars around the walls of the room. As well as this it is worth pointing out the use of the colour red in conjunction with the posters. An important aspect of the production design of this animation was to emphasise the fact that the person who lives in this room is quite clearly very fond of cars, hence why his keychain is a mini Formula 1 car.

When looking at cars it is fair to say that Ferraris are generally associated with the colour red. In the screen shot on the right we see a poster of a Ferrari Enzo whilst also taking not of the red carpet and the red chair. As with the view of Monte Carlo outside the windows of the rooms, the red serves as a pointer, telling the story aesthetically and linking the images together.

Lastly, although this one is not quite so apparent, the texture I used for the walls of the room was actually a photo of clouds (combined with a different bump). The reason for the choice of texture is to emphasise the fact that the car keychain is a 'dreamer'. All the posters and other influence from around the room have mad him want to be a real Formula 1 car.

All of this is seen more coherent in the animation with the sound effects but that was the general idea of the textures and use of colour in the room explained.

Building in 3D

When designing each aspect of the animation I had to always bear in mind how much each object resembles real life and how it would sit in relation to the other objects in the animation within a 3D space. For example in the animatic the car weaves around the legs of an office chair. While designing it I had to make sure that the chair was in proportion, that it resembled its real-life counterpart, and that it was not too big or too small, allowing space for the car to 'interact' with it.

When designing some of the other objects in the room I was more interested in their aesthetic relevance. For example the headrest of the bed is rather unrealistic. However the entire point of the bed is the "Cars 2" bed sheet.

An important fact to consider would be that some parts of the room are only in the animation for a few seconds so by adding the bed sheet that I did onto the bed would completely take the viewer's attention away from the design of the bed itself as the actual bed is only seen for a couple of seconds.

The screen shot on the right shows a particularly empty space in the corner of the room. As this part of the room is only shown for a few seconds it does not require any extra objects to be placed there. In fact the shot in which the corner is shown there is a lot of other more important data for the viewer to take in such as the view outside the windows or the cupboard full of items on top.

This brings me to my next point. I mentioned this earlier when talking about the aesthetic relevance of objects within the animation. The view outside the windows is that of Monte Carlo in Monaco, which is one of the Formula 1 race tracks. In terms of design it is literally just a plane with an image mapped on top, however it is an integral part of the animation as it not only establishes where this is taking place, but it also adds more to this whole notion of 'The Race'. Of course it might not be obvious to all that the view is of Monte Carlo but if I were to use a photo such as the one below then this would most certainly reshape the way in which viewer sees the animation.

Research

Although the animation is based on a key ring, it is after all, a formula one car so I have looked into formula one footage and taken note of all the common camera angles used to document the races. Here is a Link to just one example. Hopefully by imitating some of the camera angles used in actual formula one races I will be able to give the animation a more personal feel as well as make the action more believable as well as more interesting.

One camera angle I am particularly fond of is the one where the camera is placed behind the driver's head. I have placed a similar camera in my animation. Here is an example of how it looks like in real life and how I have designed it in my animation:

Animated Storyboard

Instead of posting photos of the storyboard I thought I would animate it. It is very rough but its purpose was just to go through the motion of the story.

Animated Storyboard

Animatic (No Sound)

Here is a link to the animatic I made for my animation.

Animatic