Short animation projects are ambitious and time-consuming, but with a good plan and toolset, they can be hugely rewarding. Blender expert Roland Hess will get you up to speed on animated short fundamentals, including writing, storyboarding, blocking, and character creation. This follow-up of Blender Foundations will introduce the more advanced functionalities of Blender, such as the Library and Linking system, physics simulators, the integrated compositor, and the Sequence Editor. If that wasn’t enough, this tutorial-based book will also have you create a short animation from scratch, making you a master of the Blender toolkit in no time. * Learn how to fully manage your art assets using the Library and Linking system *Gain practical advice on story construction tailored specifically for short animations
[...]... the story as your Deity of Choice would see it From the entire time span of that objective storyline, a single incident was chosen to demonstrate the theme That story as presented in the animation is called the subjective storyline 16 Chapter 2: Story Story Story Your story is most likely a subjective story Think for a moment about what the objective story is How does the story you are trying to tell... • • U nderstanding storyboarding basics I dentifying the suggested tools C reating the storyboards T elling the story R ecording a temporary sound track for timing A ssembling a story reel in Blender s Sequence Editor INBOX Coming into this chapter, you need the following: finished story • A Storyboarding Basics Before you take your story into 3D, you need to visualize it in a less... your story before it gets out of control It is equally important to realize that removing unnecessary elements can significantly reduce the amount of work you will have to do 20 Chapter 2: Story Story Story How Long Is My Story? It’s easy to count characters, sets, and effects ahead of time, but it can be harder to guess the actual length of the final animation The simplest way to do this is to act... 14 Chapter 2: Story Story Story At this point, you have to let your creative instincts wander a bit Talk the story through with some friends Listen to them when they say, “Wouldn’t it be a blast if…” or “Wouldn’t it be awful if…” and let their ideas point you in new directions Not every direction is equally valuable, though What you are trying to do is to find a storyline that will help to develop a... which adds depth to actions and details The story must also be within your capabilities to translate into the short animation format Overly ambitious stories with many characters, sets, and effects can easily overwhelm a lone or small group of animators Keeping a handle on the length and scope of the story and whether or not it is producible is just as important as having an engaging story to begin with... leave much room for traditional story development Time is extremely limited and, as we will see later in the chapter, costly Therefore, the story must do its job quickly and without extraneous elements.You will, essentially, be creating a visual short story The late author Roger Zelazny, a prolific writer of short stories, once said that his short stories were born either from a plot, a character, or an... Usually done as line illustrations, they help to organize your thoughts on how the written story will translate onto the screen.You don’t have to be the world’s greatest sketch artist to pull off an effective storyboard for your short nimation, a but the more time you spend on it, the less effort will be wasted later when it’s time to actually animate With your storyboards in hand (or on a USB stick),... the script in a text editor window 18 Chapter 2: Story Story Story Story Scope, Your Resources, and Reality You’ve really sweated over your story so that it works in all the ways we discussed in the previous section There is another pitfall, though, that could send you back to square one: producibility Whether or not you can turn that story into a finished animation will be a competition between the... story Be careful, too, with a “plot-first” story that there will, in fact, be a character who can fit the role If your plot requires a character to react with extreme anger in several situations, then to be instantly happy and instantly sad, you may have a problem There are not many believable characters who would act that way (although a few spring to mind), making it tough to create an engaging story... falling into the dark humor category, as opposed to simply being dark and horrible Note Don’t be afraid to change your story to make it better Your characters, your plot points, your images—show them no mercy Sometimes a story will evolve while you refine it to the point where it resembles almost nothing from the original idea That is okay, as long as the whole thing still lights enough fire in you to pursue . three stages: preproduction, production, and postproduction. Mysteriously and oddly named, to be sure, but there they are. Preproduction Preproduction encompasses. changing the preproduction steps. And really, if you’ve done the preproduction properly, you’re not going to skip any of the normal production or postproduction