Animation Treatment

 

Working Title – Erased

Genre – Animation

Duration – 30 seconds maximum

Target Audience – Age 15+, both male and female young adults tend to own basic stationery such as pencils and an eraser and so it will be relevant to them as they are likely to own the main character featured.

Outline – The animation follows a pencil eraser exploring the desk of a young adult. It ends up making a mess and tries to hide the evidence of its mischief.

Character Breakdown – The eraser is a mischievous and hyperactive character and is too curious for its own good. Whilst it is not purposefully trying to cause trouble, it always ends up messing something up due to its clumsiness.

Visual Elements / Mise en Scene- The animation is set in the bedroom of a teenager or young adult. In the scene, there is a bed and desk with a chair where the animation will take place. Situated on the desk are a laptop, lamp, picture frame and pencil pot with the eraser inside.

Audio – There will be spot effects as diegetic sound of the eraser bouncing around and the various things that may fall down or be dropped due to the mess that the eraser makes throughout the animation.

Rationale – I chose the idea of an eraser as it is a simple shape but the bouncy nature of the material would be interesting to complement the hyperactive nature of the rubber. Whilst erasers are used to correct mistakes, in my animation, it will only be making mistakes.

Primary and Secondary Research – I have primary research on how a rubber might bounce on a desk surface to give me an idea of how it would go about moving from one point to another.

Requirements and resources – I will need:

  • Compatible desktop/pc
  • Maya 3D modelling software
  • Video editing software (Adobe Premiere)
  • 3D assets for my animation
  • Video reference for eraser movement

Constraints and Contingency – The Maya software is difficult to navigate and things can go wrong very easily. I will need to set out a to-do list of processes that I need to complete for my animation to be successful. For instance, creating the scene, modelling assets, rigging etc. Where I am unsure of how to complete certain tasks, I will use tutorials from the Autodesk website and YouTube.

Legal and ethical considerations – I have ensured that any assets I have downloaded are royalty-free.

Budget – Were this project for paying client, I might need to think about how I’m accessing the necessary equipment – whether I need to hire a workspace or purchase the software.

Schedule – My animation could potentially take 1 week to complete. If I were to be running low on time to animate or learn how to achieve certain aspects of my animation, I could simplify my idea so that there is less to do but it is still of good quality.