evaluation of ident.

When I first decided to work on the brief for “Custard”, the only thing I was certain of was that I wanted to make something bright and annoying. I’m quite good at making annoying things, and getting better at making bright things, so I saw this brief as a chance to develop my skills further, also wanting to get my head around Illustrator a bit more whilst learning Aftereffects as well.

I started off my research with children’s programs that I already knew of (Pocoyo) and had recently come across (YO! Gabba Gabba), looking at the style of animation and the narrative. YO! Gabba Gabba gave me an Idea of what I wanted my sound design to be like, and how to use simple animated elements. Pocoyo just embodied cuteness itself. I also looked at idents for Cbeebies and CBBC, to see how the channels branded themselves and the style of animation that was used, which was pretty much anything goes. I was struggling to come up with ideas at this stage, so looked at other cute things that interested me, like the Kawaii not comics by Meghan Murphy, and the Katamari Damacy game intros.

Katamari Damacy really helped to get my ideas going, the style of animation was quite simple but looked really good, with lots of hyper-rainbows and dancing pandas. My first idea was based on the Cbeebies’ yellow blobs, Katamari’s hyper-rainbows, and YO! Gabba Gabba’s strange costumes. I wanted to have some actors in animal costumes having a tea party in a park, but since I couldn’t afford to rent costumes (at £25 each minimum), and as masks were likely to be more scary than cute, I had to abandon this idea.

I instead decided to look at the programs that were on CBBC on a Sunday morning, hoping to use the characters from the show in my ident. I spent the next couple of weeks recording the shows, going through them and cutting out images to use. This part of the project was the most painful, as children’s TV is incredibly mind numbing, and boring, and nonsensical. I had to watch the Chuckle Brothers!! The pain!

I ended up only using a few of the programs from the Sunday morning line up, to save on time animating and to keep the ident shorter. After I had the images I wanted I storyboarded the new idea which was based on the idea of rainbows flying around and text popping up and characters bouncing around the place.

Animating the idea was a bit daunting as I’ve never used Aftereffects before, and there were lots of elements to work with. But it turned out that it’s not as complicated as everyone makes out and I got my head around it in pretty much a day. If I could make the ident again, I’d like to work on the sound design more, I think what I used works with the images but it would have been nice to make something of my own.

fonts and that

after some deliberation and going through different macs fontbooks and searching around websites i have decided which font to use... (well i decided a while ago but was too busy working to be blogging)



yeah...it's childish without being too kiddy, and i think it suits the animation. i put the white border around it to seperate it from the rainbows as i'm using the same colours in the background and text.







so that's what i've done...

my clicking arm hurts

because i have been animating in a hardcore manner all day.
and i still have three segments of the ident left to do: arthurs bit, the chucklevision bit, and the ending bit. the rest of it needs a bit of tweaking here and there but otherwise it's pretty much how i wanted it.
but sometimes the anchor point disobeyed me.
damn you anchor point, not animating properly.

i'll treat you to some stills:






i'm going to be sick of seeing rainbows after this.
the other bits i'm behind on are the typography and logo, and the sound design, which i have no idea what to do with as it scares me but i'm starting to think j-pop might be the way forward. something fast paced and squeaky.

on the typography bit i've been looking at the katamari logos (nicked the rainbow idea from them, might aswell see what else i can take inspiration from)...
katamari damasheeeeeeeee

^ new shiny logo for new shiny game

^ sans serif-y goodness

^ favourite! i like the use of colours in the logo, which don't get mixed up with those in the background thanks to the clever use of whiteness.

the current cbbc logo uses a similar trick:

the text is surrounded by the channels trademark snotty green colour, to distinguish it from any backgrounds it's placed on.

i want to make a hybrid of the last katamari logo and the cbbc logo, so maybe using different fonts for each letter or drawing it all from scratch.

i also want the name of the program illustrated to pop up in the ident with it's graphics. i think it will be best to use a sans serif font as it's going to be on screen, probably in black to distinguish it from the rainbows. i'm just looking for one that doesn't feel to adult... i've found that making it bold helps a bit...

scanning scares my fish

bless 'im.










okay, these would have been up ages ago only the pc back in derby was taken away by a man for being crap and the scanner there doesn't like my G3. and then i forgot to.

basically, i'm going to have rainbows swooshing everywhere and hypnotizing the little kiddies into watching the show.
even though this storyboard is four and a half pages long, the actual sequence itself wont be that long as each bit only lasts a few seconds.

pretty colours O_O

pretty.

since i've had to abandon the bunny costumes and pantomime cows, i've decided to go something a bit more katamari-ish, and have a trippy rainbow sequence with some of the characters from the shows on CBBC on sunday morning. i've finished cutting out most of the characters i'm going to use (need to see if my mac has recorded anything else useful when i get back to it). now i'm starting to create the other elements (PRETTY RAINBOWS!) i'm going to be using. i'm creating them in illustrator, and i'm planning to make the move around and get bigger etc. in after affects.

here's one of my first attempts (keep in mind i barely use illustrator so need to get used to it again!)

i've taken the colour scheme from the cover of my notebook for now, may change it a bit.

on the sound design side of things... which is really making me worry abit and making my head hurt... rahrahrharhahrahaahh... i've been thinking making something along the lines of this... or this.... or this. only not as good as i'm not that talented.

oh someone please kill me

childrens tv is incrediably mind numbing.

oh it's painful.

i'm slowly going through the shows i recorded during the day looking for stills i could possibly use in my ident. yesterday it was chucklevision and arthur (i don't mind him, he's cool). today it's best of friends, the cramp twins and krypto the superdog.

so far today i'm half way through best of friends and i want to start banging my head against the table. it's actually quite hard to find a clip or still that could be used, i wanted to use the presenters but may end up using the characters from the intro instead. the show itself is quite strange, one group of children are pelting a middle aged man with sponges and the other group is being tested on it's cake icing abilities.

i'm supposed to be able to export the clips from my tv card program thing as ipod movies, so i hoped i could use some footage and sound from what i've recorded but for some reason that option has decided to grey itself out.

on the side of things going well, the best of friends intro is pretty similar to my idea. there's rainbows. and pretty colours. and random characters that don't appear in the show.

so... yeah...

pretty still from a pretty film by shynola about a pretty leaf. i really like the style in this image, and would like to do something similar, but with more bright colours.... and rainbows.... yeah.

plan b

since i can't afford to use costumes to create my own magical wonder happy land, i have instead decided to look at what is actually on CBBC on a sunday morning...

the line up on sunday morning (7am - 12:00pm) looks like this:

The Batman
Krypto the Superdog
Cramp Twins
Arthur
ChuckleVision
Hider in the House
Young Dracula
Basil Brush
The Crust
Best of Friends

i'm thinking of using characters from these shows in the intro. hopefully looking at the design of these characters will help with coming up with other elements.

i need to get me some yellow modeling clay.

as much as i would love...

to have some volunteers in one of these...

or maybe one of these...

or one of these...

having a little tea party in hyde park, at £20 - £35 to hire a costume i'm not going to be able to afford it.
and masks just might end up looking scary.

i may just have to animate everything.

dammit.

(photos taken from fantasy world.)

storyboards

first one:

(the one that should have been up here last week but i was vomiting violently)

the ident starts with a yellow blob jumping on screen (which is plain white), morphing and suddenly obtaining some eyes. he then blinks a couple of times, and yells CUSTARD!! the background suddenly bursts into colour, and the camera then zooms into his mouth.

when then find ourselves in a "magical happy joy land" akin to YO! gabba gabba. there are strange men in costumes jumping around and acting crazy in an innocent childish manner. the footage of them frolicking is then imposed onto a moving rainbow background. then the end screen appears, which features real footage of pink custard being dropped into yellow custard, with the program information on top.

this idea developed a bit more:

(oooh colour)

yellow blobby thing plops onto screen, starts stretching himself into different shapes.

a set of eyes pop into existence, he blinks at us a couple of times, in a daze maybe.

he finds his voice and screams CUSTARD!! the bright rainbow background starts spinning around him. the camera then zooms into his mouth mid-scream.

here we find ourselves in a strange world populated by bunny men, (video of some volunteers in front a green screen or more likely just pratting around in hyde park.) jumping around and generally having fun in an innocent child like manner.

a rainbow then descends over the scene, and there is still shots of the bunny men on top of the rainbow. (lots of fast editing to keep it interesting)

the background then flashes different colours, with the bunny men strutting their stuff on top. the background then changes to a circular rainbow design.

the bunny men disappear and the camera zooms into the yellow circle at the centre of the rainbow. the final shot of pink custard being dropped into yellow custard is then shown, with the program information on top.

the reason i decided to go with video footage of the bunny men instead of illustrated world and characters is that it will make making the ident simpler and take less time. it's much easier to film volunteers messing around in costume rather then animating several characters and designing them. i would have liked to design the costumes but i don't have the time or the resources to.

the yellow blob will most likely be stop motion. since it's more textured and stop motion is sometimes used in childrens programs.

i love katamari

here we see the king of all cosmos and his family with their little animal friends, running rampant around the world spreading stars, clovers and mushrooms where ever they go. i love the brightness and randomness of the katamari game intro animations, the previously relatively dull world transformed by the arrival of the family, now complete with rainbows, giant flowers and dancing pandas.



the part i really love of this animation is the spinning circles and the kaleidoscope effect at the start, which is quite hypnotizing. I also like the inclusion of everyday events, such as doing the washing and chasing after their son. although the animation itself is relatively simple, the inclusion of so many elements makes it look extremely complex.



this is my personal favourite, i love this version of the soundtrack. i love the hearts created by different objects at the start. i think the use of still images in the intros is done really well, although the images are mostly static the editing makes the intro fast paced, and the inclusion of some animated elements on top of the static image creates a nice effect.

instant cuteness =

use pastels and add faces to inaminate objects. with rosy cheeks.
kawaii not by meghan murphy.

the research continueth...

CBBC idents....








These idents are aimed at older children, and there's a mix of 2d and 3d animation aswell as live action. The mix of animation and live action seems to represent the childs view of the world, with cartoon characters running riot around streets and causing destruction. Drifferent typography is used in each section of the idents, spelling out CBBC, but not too much type is included as children may not be able to read at the speed of the ident, and keeping the focus on the characters included, some of which are from shows on the channel.

cbeebies ident...


The ident for cbeebies, aimed at younger children is far more simpler. instead of too much flashy animation and typography, it uses limited but bright colours and yellow blobby characters playing with each other and forming different shapes. On both of the channels idents the final screen only includes the name of the channel and the bbc logo, keeping the information included to a minimum.

research beggineth

i've chosen to do custard for my credit sequence, as i appear to be quiet adept at making cute yet incredibly annoying things. i'm hoping to expand on all of that, and hopefully improve my illustrator skills in the process (if it decides to work at college this year).

i came across this on weebls stuff, but i'm knicking it because it's brilliant. YO! gabba gabba is probably one of the more insane kids show's i've come across. There's nice fluffy characters that jump around the screen, and colours that hurt your eyes a little bit. there's a mix of live action and animated elements, probably orginally made in illustrator. this is the opening title sequence.

The costumes aren't that great, movement seems quite minimal for the poor people stuck inside, but the characters are interesting to look at, mostly because they're brightly coloured. The editing is nice and flashy to keep the viewers attention, and maybe cause an epileptic sezuire.

this song has been stuck in my head all day...

the sound design is brilliant, and incedibly annoying.

one of my personal favourites is pocoyo. i am going to name my first born child pocoyo. and it will have to be as cute as the original pocoyo.

the animation is very well done, and the main difference to YO! gabba gabba apart from being completely computer generated is the lack of a background. the viewers attention is then completely on the characters and the events that are happening, instead of a bright distracting background. Pocoyo's world is still very colourful, and the animation of the characters is more than enough to keep the viewers attention, especially the animation of a new character called octopus, who's face changes every few seconds.

the kind of animation style i might go for might be something along the lines of dogshitterwants, whilst i don't think it's directly aimed at children, the colours, editing and plot remind me of a childrens program.