'Soundbite Animation':

The fourth and final scene from this animation proved even more difficult than the last, but was still enjoyable to make. 

In this scene, 'Older Actor' prepares himself to act out a line, but is interrupted by the 'Younger Actor' who once again spouts a confusing and out-of-context line from his script. 

OA asks for an explanation to this, YA pauses, thinks about it, then realises he has no excuse, much to the anger of OA. After this, the stage curtain will roll down, hiding the two from view. 

(Below) Screenshots from this finished scene. 

'Soundbite Animation':

The third animation was where things started to get more complicated for me, when working with animating the mouth and body movements of these two characters (especially 'Young Actor'). 

In this scene, YA responds to OA's previous nonsensical line-reading with his own (equally-nonsensical) reading. This causes OA to shout, stop mid-sentence, then proclaim it's his own turn (to act 'properly').

A lot more motion was developed during the making of this scene, especially with the lip-syncing, which was taking up a large portion of my time.

(Below) Screenshots from the finished scene. 

'Soundbite Animation':

The second animation that would be made was of the 'Older Actor' (OA) shuffling the papers of his script, the off-screen voice of the director calling for 'Action', OA delivering a cocky line to the 'Younger Actor' (YA), then YA responding just as confidently. 

The OA would then attempt to deliver a line from his script, which would now be out of context, to which the YA would look confused.

I had initially decided that I wouldn't use much lip-sync, rather just a simple open and closed mouthing system for the two characters. However I didn't like the look of it when done, so I went ahead and provided lip-sync for this animation (and also decided that all subsequent animations would follow suit).

(Below) Screenshots of the animation process in ToonBoom

'Soundbite Animation':

I began work on the final animation, separating it out into several different sections to make it easier to work on. These final animations will eventually be cut together seamlessly, so there is a need to be consistent in character design, pen size, etc.

The first animation focuses on the initial walk-on by the 'Older Actor' (OA) character, followed by the 'Younger Actor' (YA) running frantically onto the stage, dropping his script and causing the OA to drop his too. 

(Below) Screenshots from the animation process in ToonBoom.

'Soundbite Animation':

I finished up the keyframe animation, that would be used in the future as a basis for the final project. 
As I worked on this part, the drawings and designs of the characters actually grew in structure, until they became pretty much the final look of the two 'actor' characters. 

(Below) Several screenshots from the finished keyframe animation.

'Soundbite Animation':

I started out creating keyframe animation tests for this project, allowing me (like the previous project) to work out how the characters would move and interact with each other. 

The actual designs of the two characters are not permanent, but the general look of them probably won't change too much, if at all. 

(Below) Screenshots from the ToonBoom workplace used to make my keyframe animations, along with several snapshots from the animations themselves. 

(Above) Workspace screenshots

(Above) Rendered screenshots 

'Soundbite Animation':

The animation would take place solely on a typical performance stage set, with curtains either side and two microphones (with stands) ready and waiting to be used by the actors. Below is the general script/story that would take place at least for part of the animation.

After the voice from off-screen (the director) calls for quiet on set, the ‘Older Actor’ (OA) character would walk calmly and confidently out from the right, followed shortly after by the ‘Younger Actor’ (YA) on the left.

‘YA’ would rush in, stumble almost immediately, dropping his script in the process. 

‘OA’ would watch this happen and drop his own script in surprise, after which they would both collect their papers, shuffling them around in confusion.

They would be given little time to organise, as the off-screen voice would say, “You set? And... Action!”, leading into the bulk of the animation.

(Below) A storyboard test of the script/story detailed above. 

'Soundbite Animation':

This animation is now my primary focus in this term, and the plan is to use several spoken-word audio clips from different films/TV/etc, set to a scene depicting two characters ‘facing off’ against each other in an acting audition onstage.

The characters would both drop the scripts, pick them up, then attempt to read their lines in the now-random order. The dialogue that they will have in-between that and the ending would all consist of quotes taken from films, etc (All of which I will have documented). 

(Below) Various designs for the two characters that will be in this animation. 

'Unfortunate Deaths' Animations:

The 'A is for Aaron, swallowed by darkness' short animation was completed, allowing me to continue working towards my 2nd Project, tentatively titled 'Soundbite Animation'. 

(Below) An embedded video of the final animation created. 

'Unfortunate Deaths' Animations: 

Due to my shifted focus towards my 2nd project and the time constraints; I only really had the chance to focus on one ‘Unfortunate Death’ animation for the final showreel at the end of the term. 

The one animation would be made in a way that it could be seen as a short, standalone snippet of animation, so it wouldn't stick out too sorely. 

I chose the ‘A is for Aaron, swallowed by darkness’, idea as the basis for this chosen animation.

(Below) Screenshots from the animation process in the ToonBoom program. 

'Unfortunate Deaths' Animations:

I finished up the four other keyframe animations, all of which vary in degrees of detail or quality. 

(Below) A video example of one of the keyframe animations, 'A is for Alan, crushed by a bell'. 

(Below) Screenshots from the workspace used to make these keyframe animations.

(Above) 'A is for Alice, who ended up armless'

(Above) 'A is for Aaron, swallowed my darkness'

(Above) 'A is for Anna, who drank too much Absinthe' 

(Above) 'A is for Aiden, whose brain made an absence'

'Unfortunate Deaths' Animations:

Once the story-boarding was completed and the characters/deaths were finalised, I began work on the keyframing animation that would go on to help with the final animations later-on.
These animations are very simplistic and serve as a template to work from, so the main thing that mattered was the posing and how the background might look like.

(Below) Screenshots from two of the keyframe animations created so far, 'A is for Amy, who fell down a well' and 'A is for Alan, crushed by a bell', which were both made using ToonBoom Pro 2 & 3. 

'Unfortunate Deaths' Animations: 

After further brainstorming and discussion with friends and tutors, I eventually decided that I'd create unique situations / characters / deaths for my animations, as opposed to using the pre-existing situations. 
I decided that the animations I'd create would work with names only beginning with the letter 'A' and be rhythmically-paired with each other (1 rhymes with 2, 3 rhymes with 4, etc.). 
In terms of artistic influence, I would say that the work of Patrick McHale (creator of 'Over the Garden Wall') impacted this project's style the greatest. Primarily due to me watching the series recently and enjoying it greatly. 

(Below) Several storyboards created, that show 6 planned characters/deaths for this project.