Using the basic synopsis idea and the character designs I went to create a simple idea for a 40’s story, baring in mind that it will be for an animatic.
Above is the storyboard I had come up with. Knowing the animatic’s duration will be short I had to create a story which worked well with this, so to play on the base theme of “topsy-turvy” I decided it should be represented with interesting transitions and camera angles as a story with a more in depth idea would be hard to fit into the short timing.
The story board idea for this is: The Cat is trying to find a way to survive in the harsh winter in the ice it sees the perfect chance at an ‘easy’ meal, a small fish trapped underneath the ice, or so it thought.
For how short this will be I wanted to make the viewer feel something after seeing this so I included short scenes for humor such as the cat slipping along the ice or feelings of happiness as the cat and fish gets taken into a warm home. Where it would be difficult to ‘tell’ the viewer what is happening I wanted to play with the visual narration so had the characters be silent with the actions being expected of what they are (a cat pouncing or a fish swimming). Knowing it would be hard to have an ending to a short and simple story be satisfying I decided the ending would work best if it ended with the characters story and not end on a cliff hanger where the viewer guesses what could happen next.
Moving forward I decided to draw the characters to understand them better from different angles:
The Cat features sharp and solid shapes for its silhouette so that the viewer would be able to not only recognize this as a cat but to also recognize this specific design going through the story. For the fish I wanted their shape to be more organic and elegant so their silhouette (whilst it would be inconsistent) the general flowing features of the tail would allow for it to feel alive as it swims along the water. In creating the frames for my animatic I will look back at my previous environmental designs and mood boards so that I can draw out and created the coloured animatic. I will also gather sounds to be used in the animatic so that the atmosphere looks and feels alive to the viewer.