BBC Coronavirus Poem
This animation was completed in 5 weeks by Falmouth university students, with our aim to get it released before lockdown was easing mid June of 2020. Our team of 20 second and third year animation students worked extremely hard online and long distance all over Falmouth and even Europe. This film was broadcast on TV on the 12th June for a special premiere on BBC Spotlight South West, along with Matt Harvey who created the beautiful poem. We hope that this animation has provided a memory of the lockdown experience, and reminds everyone what we have achieved and how we can continue to support each-other.
Character Design
When designing the characters, I was looking at bold characters with lots of shape. We avoided harsh shapes so I loved the idea of with chunky limps and bouncy contours. I directed the style to me team and we got involved in several character design workshops and activities to nail the design of the characters. Here are some of my early designs of the characters, I was inspired by bold illustrators, and geometric characters.
Directing Breakdowns
My role on the project was directing which was a lot of fun as I was overseeing all aspects of the project and I made sure my teams creative inputs were being directed along the same path so that the film would have a consistant of style and mood. My job was giving feedback regularly and being sure I was available for animators and artists to ask me for feedback and help. By overseeing the animation and artwork it made sure that the film was sticking to our colour palettes and our style. Aiesha Penwarden was assistant director and they were absolutely outstanding, and we worked so well as a team.
Compositing breakdowns
As well as director I composited and edited the whole film. This was a fun challenge as I had to make sure that all 34 shots seemed like it was one continuous transition, so that it flowed fluently. When I composited the shots, I also was doing the lighting of the scene and added any VFX to bring the scene to life.