Please note: every video below is also on Padlet.
Monday (23/02/26):
This lesson we learned about background design and its significance in animation. We were taught colour theory and how different colours shift the atmosphere of the piece, so to be mindful of what colour palette to choose if we wanted our backgrounds coloured (it wasn’t mandatory). The same logic applied to values, and how much contrast we wanted for the piece which would then be translated into colour. Personally, I have always used the greyscale method when making art before colouring it, as I like deciding whether I want to leave it like that or not. I’m not a fan of colouring as it means I have to decide what my colour palette is, and adding other colours to stick to said palette is time-consuming.
The task for today was to use a template given to us and add values to it depending on what we wanted the mood to be. I thought I would enjoy the task, but I spent too much time pondering on which mood to set. By the end, I still hadn’t decided, which is why my outcome is unfinished.
We were told to consider the following aspects for our characters and backgrounds, and decide what our criteria should be when ultimately combining everything together:
| Background | Characters | |
| Canvas size | 1920×1080 | N/A |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 (HD) | N/A |
| Colour palette | Blue, yellow and grey | Tan and brown (depending on dog breed) |
| Texture and grain | Possibly mixed-media, photorealism for the seats? Otherwise no other textures/grains. | Possibly textured brushes? |
| Shape language | N/A | Yappie: sausage-like, small head long body Schnorkle: shaped like an inverted 8, big head small body. |
| Line | Monoline, no line weight | Monoline, no line weight |
| Lighting | Ambient lighting, in line with typical train interiors | Ambient lighting |
Wednesday (25/02/26):
I wasn’t in for this lesson, which was unfortunate as we were learning about X-sheets.
On Thursday, I felt better enough to work on the project, so the first thing I made was a character turnaround sheet for Schnorkle (even though she’s stationary in the animatic).
Initial Schnorkle character turnaround.
Then, I brainstormed background concepts, and created a moodboard based on my ideas. I then digitally drew the interior of a train using a reference photo I took last year for a foundation project (also about trains), and used the blue/yellow/grey colour scheme.
From this, I was able to flesh out the background for the animatic, and cleaned-up + added values to subsequently be presented on Friday.
Animatic second draft. Click the photo above to be redirected to Padlet.
Friday (27/02/26):
On Friday, we had our pre-production review point, in which presented what we currently had to our peers, who then gave extremely helpful feedback that we could then use to improve. The feedback I received was as follows:
- Remove Yappie’s eyebrow crease as she looks villainous and replace them with eyebrows
- Possibly make Schnorkle react when Yappie gets closer (eyes widening? Moving away slightly? Blinking?) — this may retract from Schnorkle’s personality as the comedic part is her being unaffected while everyone else on the train is being disturbed?
- Think about weight distribution: when Yappie sits, have a paw more forward when leaning to cushion her weight, have more squash when she sits back down, etc.
- Possibly make Yappie’s face more heart-shaped? Add indents to her forehead to achieve that.
- Live action background — could use a photo and animate the background by adding lines that move in the windows (depicting the movement of the train).
- More simplistic human characters, but have them match the artstyle of the main characters for consistency.
- Do colour tests: see what works more, whether dog colour palettes would be affected by the overall colour scheme or not.
Afterwards, we learned about how to construct mouth shape sheets, and how to keep our character designs consistent when mapping out each letter/syllable.
During the weekend, I finished my animatic using the feedback I was given.
Final version of the animatic. .
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