Creative Project proposal

Here is the proposal for my creative media project:

Old idea

This idea has been scrapped, but I was going to make a 2D animation about Ben and his friend going skylander hunting with a twist that involves mixels. I was going to feature these two characters again for this animation.

Synopsis: Ben and his friend decide to go skylander hunting together and a twist happens that involves mixels. I didn’t think about this idea much.

I chose this idea because I enjoy collecting Skylanders, and it has become my life. I’ve collected them since my 9th birthday and it would be weird to not have this theme as part of my final major project. I’ve been a fan of Mixels for a while and I’ve been drawing art in the show’s style recently so it should be in my creative project. Mixels also have a collecting aspect to them, so it goes well together.

The target audience for my animation should be aimed at young children.

I will make this a 2D animation as I’ve been thinking about what I’m good at doing and what I enjoy doing, so a 2D animation is best for me as I’ve made them in the past and I’m good at it. I have everything I need to make this animation at home as I have a PC and the Adobe software package.

How I will benefit from this project is that it will help me learn new skills in making animation, like learning how to use after effects better or learning how to use animate.

How I will schedule making this animation is that I will use a kanban to help me decide when to do things for the animation like finishing backgrounds and making assets.

I think this project idea isn’t good and wouldn’t sell. The animation would’ve been very boring to watch because of the slow pacing throughout the animation, like characters barely moving during dialogue. I might do something else, something a bit more original.

New Idea

I have improved on my idea and came up with a new one. I’m thinking of centralizing this idea around my Mixels OCs and inspired by Skylanders and Sonic Generations. It will be about Shockwing, Freezy, and Sweepuff saving everyone as they have been abducted and turned into small statues. I’m thinking of making this a 2d animation which is a fake trailer.

The world is set within my gaming PC and explores fictional characters alive and living within the circuits of a computer. This inspiration came from the film ‘Tron’, whereby people are sucked into a world within a video game and have to battle for survival.

Synopsis: Mechanoids Clifft and Snailmer are hosting a Welcome party for new member Shockwing and all fellow Mechanoids are invited, but ‘Shockwing’ is late (because he is new he lost his way). So, Sweepuff leaves the party to look for him. He eventually finds him wandering around an old wiring room and tangled circuits. He leads him out and takes him to the party. When they arrive, Freezy rushes up to them. “Something terrible has happened!” He exclaimed. “I had gone outside to fix a loose connection and when I returned, everyone else had vanished!”

When they enter the party room, they find that multiple portals have appeared in all areas (Floor, walls, ceiling). Could this explain the disappearances? Can the trio discover what has happened and find everyone?

Inspirations: I chose this idea because I’ve been a fan of ‘LEGO’ Mixels for a while. I’ve been drawing art in the show’s style recently so I felt it should be part of my creative project. Activision’s Skylanders has been a tremendous influence in my life so far and I thought they should therefore also have some representation in my project.

I also found the video game Sonic Generations a really fun and immersive game. This also supported and inspired my plot idea. I play a lot of games on my PC (It is one of my primary hobbies) so; I thought it would be cool if my OC’s had to enter the many games stored on my PC to overcome the hazards / complete the level or defeat the opponent to rescue their friends.

Why this project: I’ve been a fan of ‘Lego’ Mixels for a long time and I’ve created a bunch of OC’s in this style. I also feel I am quite good at animating in 2D so, I thought it would be fun if I could join both items together and bring my characters to life.

I’ve taught myself how to draw in the mixels art style so, the project plays to my strengths and also creates interest for me as I get to animate my characters and choose what they will have to do. As I already mentioned, I’ve created many characters using the Mixel style, so the core ‘Hero’ characters for my project are already developed.

This will prepare me for the next steps in my career by allowing me to further develop my 2D animation skills, supporting my potential move to further education. I have a big interest in 2D animation, so learning new skills whilst further practising my existing ones by self-learning and lesson development within Confetti will be a great help.

Target Audience: This project will be aimed towards a younger generation, typically 6 to 10 years old, with some jokes aimed at the older end to widen the audience further (In the Style of ‘Toy Story’). This will be aimed towards this demographic. It is important to have a target audience when you want to promote something, for example, my trailer. It is better to focus on a smaller audience that already has an interest in what you are trying to promote. In my case, animation, I will narrow my focus to people that are already interested in animations and gaming. This way my marketing ideas will be more effective and more cost-effective, as you are only marketing to a set number of people. To choose my target audience, I can look at the demographics and psychographics of that group of people and select the ones that I think will want to watch my animation. I can advertise my trailer of the day that I know my audience will already be tuned in and watching TV. This will most probably be before school time and straight after school during the week. I noticed that last year’s McDonald’s advert (Inner child) by Passion Pictures was played in the very early evening to attract the young people who are the biggest target audience for McDonald’s.

The psychographics will be mainly linked to children that have a great imagination and fall into the Explorers category: Open to change, Seek discovery, Energy, individualism, and experience. Values, difference, and adventure. Typically, younger demographic children and students. Demographics and psychographics go hand in hand an example of this would be, demographic, a young male boy, age 10, at school, living in the UK. psychographics enjoys playing video games on his PC & Xbox, watches animations on the TV like The Simpsons, films like Toy story enjoys going to the Cinema, and has a pet dog. I think a child boy or girl that enjoys playing video games would also be interested in my animation as it all takes place on a gaming PC.

Resources: I have everything that I need at home to develop this project, I’ve developed my skills in drawing in the mixels style and I also have the Adobe software at home.

My biggest challenges will be the realistic animation of the characters, so they move smoothly and also building backgrounds that represent the different worlds they will find themselves in. I will require support and advice from my tutors at Confetti to make this project the best it can be.

Schedule: I plan to use the kanban system to support my planning and ensure I do not forget to do anything and ensure all is done in the correct way, such as finishing backgrounds and making assets. I plan to start this activity by starting character animation practice during November but plan to complete it by the end of March 2022. I need to get my proposal finished by the 19th of November, my pitch on the 17th of December, Theory and Research on the 21st of January, Pre-production on the 11th of February, Production on the 1st of April, and everything on the 29th.