Final Animation:

Uploaded at:

https://vimeo.com/114253376

Logos for Title Screen Scene:

For a logo, I created a simply-animated, two-frame ‘Love Your Heart’ logo, for the campaign.

The official British Heart Foundation logo was also used at the end of the animation, to signify the link between the campaign, and the organisation.

(Above) The two frames of the animated 'Love Your Heart' logo.

(Below) The official British Heart Foundation logo.

4th Scene:

Both the development of the third scene of the animation (the heartbeat, leading into the zoom out to the person) are detailed in this post. The heartbeat animation links into this scene slightly.

(Above) Screenshot of the Photoshop development process.

(Below) Video file of the finished animated section.

3rd Scene:

Both the development of the third scene of the animation (the heartbeat) are detailed in this post. The heartbeat was based around the animation created previously.

(Above) Screenshot of the Photoshop development process.

(Below) Video file of the finished animated section.

2nd Scene: 

Both the development of the second scene of the animation (the travel up the artery) are detailed in this post.

(Above) Screenshot of the Photoshop development process.

(Below) Video file of the finished animated section.

1st Scene:

I tested using the wireframe for my character, realising I would now have to lengthen his legs, as opposed to the stylised shorter ones.

This actually proved helpful, as it was difficult to picture and to draw the character with short legs pushing through the (sometimes deep) muddy fat.

(Above) A short clip, using the key frames from the wireframe animation.

(Below) Both a screenshot of the development process, once the final design and idea was in motion, for the 1st scene and also of the animated scene itself.

As I was having a large amount of issues with the walk cycle, specifically the way the character would move through the ‘muddy’ fat, I turned to other animations in order to get a good understanding of it. A scene featuring the character Yzma, from the movie ‘The Emperor's New Groove’ was used as a basis for my walk cycle.

As she struggles to walk through the muddy floor, I drew from each of her frames (from a clipped video) to work out a basic armature and wireframe. Understanding where the head, arms, and legs would move to, I went about utilising this further.

(Above) The frame-by-frame draw-overs, using a wireframe model.

(Below) Video evidence of the resulting wireframe.

                                                   

Before attempting the final animated sequences for the project, I tested out a heartbeat that would be looped in the respective section.

Also included, are background layers that would move with the Busiman character as he walked through the first tunnel.

(Above) The looped heartbeat animation.

(Below) The background image files created.

The final storyboards were created, to help demonstrate both to myself and others, how the animation would play out. 

The scene would move from the first tunnel, towards the beating heart, then outwards, showing the figure of the person with a heart problem. Text would then fade into view, afterwards.

Several further test animations were created, with some practicing the effects that would be used in the final animation, and some that featured a proto-Busiman character within them.

I moved away from the dark tunnel and torch, into a lighter tunnel idea.

The design for the character (Labelled as 'Busiman' from now on) was mostly finalised, settling on a certain look. The process of working him into animated sections would now commence. 

(Above) Final designs for the character.

(Below) Idea for the character moving through the sludge/fat.

I produced sample, incredibly basic animations representing the first scene from the piece. A stock, blank figure was used before a final character was chosen.

The idea was, that the character would move through the fatty artery tunnel with a torch, lighting his way through the darkness slowly.

(Above) Two separate examples of basic, test animations.

While the details regarding the storyboarding took place, I began to sketch design ideas for the character of the piece. I went through several different design choices, along with different drawing styles, in order to achieve a broad and varied final decision.

(Above) Varied character designs, most of them not used, but some favoured and expanded on.

The idea that I decided I wanted to use for the animation was a internal, tongue-in cheek look inside the body of a person with a heart condition, or particularly unhealthy heart. The narrative would be something along the lines of; the insides of the arteries would be shown, clogged and fatty, leading to show a heart struggling to beat, with a zoom out of a troubled-looking sufferer of this heart condition.
The idea of a small representative character of the heart conditioned person was added alongside what was already thought about. The character would trudge through the fat of the artery and demonstrate the strain associated with heart conditions.

(Above) The 1st attempt at a storyboarded idea, for the animation and narrative.

The pictures to the right are taken from the 'Love Your Heart' eYeka competition page. I used their guidelines and notes to help me decide on what I wanted to produce.

Though the competition was interesting and the prize money incredibly tempting, my main focus was on completing the animation for use in a sketchbook/portfolio/show-reel.

For the first term of the 3rd (and final) year of the 'Illustration with Animation' course, I was tasked with producing my own animation, based around researched artists, businesses or competitions. After searching around the internet for various places, I came across 'eYeka', an varied competition website. https://en.eyeka.com/

Focusing on one of these competitions in particular, the 'Love Your Heart' campaign, I began developmental work for it. https://en.eyeka.com/contests/8251-love-your-heart