Below is a summary of sorts based on the communications and meets me and Benjamin have had over the previous few weeks, as we've had to pass discs and USBs between us till this point as living in the arse end of lincoln, he hasnt had the net :)

Week 4

Having discussed the various ideas we have come up for in terms of style for the piece, we are currently working on creating the animation using real-world characters filmed on green screen, who are then altered in post production, and placed within our CG-world - one which we imagine will be compiled from 2d images within after effects. The style that most vividly represents what we are currently working on is that of the following piece...

Week 3.... AGAIN!

Ben has created a sample “soldier” from scratch in photoshop, with each limb and accesory being a different layer, to allow us to fluidly animate the character throughout scenes, with the emphasis being short snappy movements, such as the gun “locking and loading.”

UPDATE

Having worked with this image in after effects, we feel that the movement would very possibly look flawed and is jerky looking, and as such we’re unsure on how well we could create an engaging war scene using it, so are now looking at other options - potentially maya or preferably 3d studio max, or perhaps green screening the characters and putting the emphasis of our animating on the world in which they are placed.

Week 3

Having considered the ways in which to create this piece, we have considered taking two narratives that link together - the intention is that, as two different animators, our styles may look different and detract from the flow of the piece, and to therefore take advantage of this. One of us would work on the soldiers war, whilst a second character would be introduced, that of a young girl, or sister. She would be playing with her barbie, and as the piece progresses we would see that the Barbie from that side of the story was missing her soldier, who was at war.

An interesting piece Ive seen in terms of potential character development is embedded below. It is only a 7 minute clip from the movie, but you get a feel of both sympathy and also a glimpse of history for both characters.

UPDATE

We have considered this idea and thought of ways to work it, but come to the conclusion that, working as a pair the whole point should be working together to reach a solid final piece. Having two seperate stories could just end up crazy complicated, and look shoddy! As such, we will now be putting emphasis back on the original war, and consider bringing in a “ladytoy!” if we feel it fits once we have a clearer storyboard and script.

Week 2

Our initial concept is to create a “war” or battle piece, with toys originally representing the soldiers. The vague idea is to begin with a young boy playing in a sandpit with his toy soldiers, and then be called by his mother for dinner. As he leaves, the toy warzone is left scattered. At this point the focus turns to the soldiers, and they “pop into life” and begin their battle, untill the boy later returns, symbolizing the way in which war and the subseqeuent loss of lives are taken for granted. As it is only to be a short piece, any form of character development is going to be tricky to squeeze in without feeling forced, but we are looking to find some sort of arc for our main soldiers war, for example with him being portrayed as the lead protaganist before being gunned down just before the transformation back to toy takes place.