This is my animated version of a project I started in the School of Motion course “Illustration for Motion” taught by Sarah Beth Morgan and Anne Saint-Louis.
Within the course, we were imagined to be illustrators in a creative agency. A fictional client handed us a brief and script for an animated advertisement about a magic-themed camp for adults. We had to create style frames for that ad.
After the course, I turned those style frames into this fully animated video.
Design
In the project brief, the camp had a spooky but fun vibe; it was a place where childhood fantasies could come true, as campers could simulate activities like wand construction, dragon riding and potion brewing.
Each student had to storyboard a concept for this camp, then create the style frames that would demonstrate exactly what the final video version should look like. In a professional setting, these style frames would then be passed on to the animation team.
We had the freedom to develop our own story concept from that client brief, and I decided to take it in a fully fantastical direction. Visually, I was inspired by the Ryan Andrews graphic novel This Was Our Pact, and by the picture book The Skull by Jon Klassen. Maybe as a result of the latter, I settled on a chatty skull as the narrator, who would greet the viewer and narrate while the protagonists engaged in the camp’s activities.
The completed project was featured on School of Motion’s student showcase blog.
Story editing
After the course, I decided to bring those style frames to life in their intended form. And since this was now a purely personal project, I allowed myself the freedom to edit the voiceover script, and also to re-order some frames to tell a more coherent story.
Original script from the course:
Welcome, wizards and witches! Every fall, tortured souls like you migrate to Camp Cloakwood. Here you’ll learn: How to teach an old dragon new tricks. Flying broom maintenance. Potion brewing. Wand or staff? Spell book binding. Cooking with serpents and rodents…and much more. So pack your robes, cloaks and pointy hats. And meet us this fall at the Annual Wizards and Witches Mountain Retreat.
Modified script:
Welcome, wizards and witches! Every fall, curious souls like you migrate to Camp Cloakwood. Arrive by broomstick or by dragon. Read ancient spell books. Cook with serpents and rodents. Master potions, and more! So pack your cloaks and pointy hats, and meet us at the Wizards and Witches Mountain Retreat.
One phrase of the original script (“Wand or staff?”) was grammatically problematic. Unlike the other sentences, it didn’t describe an activity that visitors would learn. It might have been a reference to a kind of Harry Potter scene, as in the books the students got to pick their own wand. However, I felt the idea was too complex to convey in the restricted time of the ad. Instead, I combined “Wand or staff?” and “Spell book binding” into one shot where the characters, wielding a wand and a staff, cast a spell. I was looking for a more evocative image than choosing wands or binding books.
Likewise, I combined the phrases “How to teach an old dragon new tricks” and “Flying broom maintenance” into a single image to simplify the storytelling, and changed the script accordingly in my animated version.
Finally, I started all the activities with a verb (Arrive, Read, Cook, Master). This made the script feel more active, and also maintained a parallel grammatical structure.
The modified script is shorter, more active, more grammatically consistent, and simpler to animate.
Animation
After polishing the script, I recorded the scratch voiceover track, then created the animatic to assess timing and flow. With that done, I had the timing references I needed for animation.
A lot of animation was done with the cut-out technique and point animation that’s commonly done with After Effects. Similarly, I imported elements from my original Photoshop illustrations into Moho. However, I then recreated a lot of the characters and props from scratch in Moho so I could use its unique features like line boil and animated textures. I made use of smart bones to do character turns and also to make the limbs join better when moving.
After Effects works well for motion design, but I find Moho is a more intuitive for this kind of animation, and better integrates the drawing and animating phases. It also allowed me to do frame-by-frame animation, which was necessary for many complex elements throughout.
Credits
Art and animation: Me
Script: School of Motion, with revisions by me
Scratch voiceover: Me
Music: “Modern Secrets” by Streambeats / Harris Heller
Sound effects: Adobe Audition Sound Library, GoldWind0401 (Pixabay), freesound_community (Pixabay)