CSE 456 - Story for Digital Animation

Assignment #4: Story Development and Previsualization

All deadlines:

• Part A: July 11th at 10:30 AM
• Part B: July 16th at 10:30 AM
• Part C: July 18th at 10:30 AM
• Part D: July 26th at 2 PM (Final Project)

Part A - DUE: July 11th at 10:30 AM

You can choose to continue working on the story you pitch on July 9th for your final story or you can try to pitch the staff an alternate story. In either case, You must use one of the armatures below.

1. We are all more alike than we are different.
2. The fear of death follows from the fear of life.
3. Character is defined by how you treat those who can do nothing for you.
4. The best liars often get caught in their own lies.
5. We learn from the misfortunes of others.
6. Trouble comes from the direction we least expect it.
7. There is always someone worse off than you.

Additionally, here are your limitations when developing your story:

1. No more than two characters
   
2. Use a simple, inside set
   
3. Story needs to be told in less than 3 minutes
   
4. Story needs to be designed to be best experienced as an animated short film. 
   
5. You will need to select Audio for the final animatic so please keep this in mind now. 
   
6. You will also have the option to add foley if you choose to.

Once you’ve decided which of your stories you will be developing, address feedback you were provided in class on July 9th. This feedback can be used to improve your new story or the story you already pitched depending on what story you decide to pursue.

In class on July 11th, you will be pitching a story once again. This time you will pitch with two additional items: one beatsheet and one sheet of thumbnails. Details are below:

1. Use your revised Seven Steps and first version of your Beatsheet to create a single sheet of Thumbnail Drawings. If you are starting on a new story, bring your new Seven Steps, Armature Statement, Beatsheet and one sheet of Thumbnails. If you are working on a story you’ve already developed, bring in the revised versions of all of these items based on the feedback you’ve received.
   
   
2. Pitch the revised story using the Thumbnail Sheet as a way to bring the audience into the visual aspect of the story you’ve created.
   
   
3. Bring 3 copies of the revised Title, Armature and Seven Steps. Bring your Beatsheet for us to review.
   
   
4. State your Title, Armature, and then tell your story in two minutes. You may bring in visual props and act out the beats of the story if you wish.

Note: Use the thumbnail examples you are given as a guide and create one sheet of thumbnail drawings and bring it to class on July 11th for review. Please make 3 printed copies for us to review. Just do something. For the thumbnail drawings, design from left to right and top to bottom, number each frame, and place only what’s essential for the audience to see. Use the rule of thirds, and try to create non-static compositions. Be sure to visually distinguish between your characters so we know which character we need to focus on at any given time.

Part B - DUE: July 16th at 10:30 AM

You will be asked to create a more extensive story world that will include: Title, Seven Steps, Armature Statement, a Beat Sheet, a Sequence and Shot list, Revised Thumbnail sheet, and first version of an Animatic created using the Cinematic Sandbox, for us to review. Note that your first pass on the animatic will be a shot by shot recreation of your thumbnails.

You will be bringing these to class on Tuesday July 16th.  Please bring 3 printed copies of the material with you to class.

Turn-in instructions: Rather than e-mailing materials you will now be using the class dropbox to turn in your story materials - all of you should be registered via your UWNetID. If you find this isn't the case let the staff know asap. You will be uploading a document/file for each of the following:

1. Title, seven steps, and armature statement
2. Beat sheet
3. Sequence and shot list
4. Revised thumbails
5. First iteration of your animatic

Remember to pay particular attention to the Personal Hell exercise. You'll need that to help you develop the arc of the main character in your story. If you have problems in any of the areas of your visual story development, the best thing to do is do something/anything -- fill in what you can so that your audience has more to respond to. Also, if possible, try to build on some personal experience you've had in order to make your story both more universal and more personal. Also, remember that practice is critical to getting better at visual storytelling. Just try out many options before selecting the one that seems to capture your mind and heart and convey your ideas.

You can find an example beatsheet here. There are also more examples of beatsheets in addition to sequence & shot lists here.

Part C - DUE: July 18th at 10:30 AM

Please bring the revised versions of all of the items requested for Part B on July 18th.

You will be pitching your newly revised story once more with voiceover on your revised animatic and will have descriptive adjectives for each of your two characters and reference for us to review.

Turn-in instructions: As with 4b, turn your materials into the class dropbox. Here's a checklist:

1. A document with the following:
   • Title, seven steps, and armature statement
   • Beat sheet
   • Sequence and shot list
2. Thumbails (Just a copy of the ones you turned into 4b)
3. Second iteration of your animatic

Additionally, here is the the supplemental Picture Perfect packet from class. (A UWNetID login is required.)

Part D - DUE: July 26th at 2 PM (Final Project)

Updated turn-in instructions (re-organized version of the previous list). Not only will you be turning in the final version of your story, but you will be turning in some materials from your previous assignments.

Below is a check list for what you should be turning in. Be sure to clearly label your files, prepending the file names as specified:

1. (Name the file "critique_[lastname]_[firstname].doc") Individual critique analysis feedback form.  Note that this is only for Assignment 4. You received this via e-mail, but here is a copy.
   
   
2. (Prepend each file with "final_") Assignment 4d final story materials.
   
   1. Title, seven steps, and armature statement
   2. Beat sheet
   3. Sequence and shot list
   4. Visual reference
   5. Character (adjective) descriptions
   6. Names of characters and description of their back story
   7. Date/time and place and final site plan
   8. Final Thumbnails
   9. Animatic: Final version with voiceover
   10. Animatic: Final version with music and foley
       
       
3. All work from assignments 1-4a:
   1. (Prepend each file with "a1_") Assignment 1
      
      • First two original stories
   2. (Prepend each file with "a2_") Assignment 2
      
      • Analysis of at least two shorts
      • Second two original stories
   3. (Prepend each file with "a3_") Assignment 3
      
      • Revised story from Assignment 2
   4. (Prepend each file with "a4a_") Assignment 4a
      
      • First version of your assignment4 story (title, 7 steps, armature, beatsheet)
      • First version of thumbnails
        
        
4. (Prepend each file with "extra_") Any extra stories you would like to submit to us for possible production next year that you want us to review and to provide feedback. (optional)

*DVDs and USB drives no longer the required method of turn-in. Please submit to the class dropbox. And remember to test ALL of your files before submitting them.