My Project Process

Emilie Collings
Oct 18, 2023
18 min read

Updated: Jan 23, 2024

Where my idea started:

The first thing I had to consider was which digital skills I had that I wanted to use, as well as which skills I wanted to improve. I decided I wanted to give animation a try as this is an area I had not explored yet, but that I wanted to continue using my Blender 3D software skills I had gained from last year.

I started with the idea of classic children’s books from the past, because I liked the idea of the nostalgia attached to ‘classic’ books, and then those stories being translated into animations.

I decided I wanted my project to be a short animation of a children's story, within Blender, so I would need to learn basic animation skills within Blender to accomplish this. I also had to weigh up whether to use 3D or 2D for the animation.

Another issue I have been exploring this semester is Artificial Intelligence, and how it might affect the creative people and the creative process in the future. For the story, I decided it would be generated by AI, so that it was quicker for me to create a story, as well as to add in the AI aspect looking towards the future.

I also decided to use AI to create the base of the character designs as well, changing them into forms I like by adding a human edited touch. Through making the character come alive, this showcases the collaboration between human and machine, working together as one in the future.

My initial idea that I discussed with Joe was to use Motion Capture to record the movement on a camera, and import the video into Blender by using Rokoko Studio. Rokoko can be used to upload and translate the video so that it can be imported into blender as a set of movements for characters. However, due to time constraints I changed this to using frame by frame animation in the end.

Julia Donaldson

My first thought when I was thinking about animations was the beloved stories by author Julia Donaldson, that were brought to life. I read the books that the animations are adapted from regularly to my children. I love the way the stories have been adapted as well.

Julia Donaldson's stories are animated by Magic Light Pictures, who are based in London.

These animations and the style were a big inspiration for my project, however I decided I wanted to create a 2D animation, not a 3D animation like the Donaldson animations are. Below are some of the images from her animated stories; Superworm, The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Zog and Stick Man.

So I looked for animations of children's books that were animated in 2D instead of 3D. I came across the classic "the tiger who came to tea", which I remember reading as a child myself and I read the story to my children still now. It was magical the way they adapted the story into animation, and brings up a lot of nostalgia for me and I'm sure a lot of people.

“The tiger who came to tea”

by Judith Kerr

Brand New | The Tiger Who Came To Tea | Christmas Eve at 7.30pm | Based on the book by Judith Kerr (youtube.com )

"The tiger who came to tea” (TTWCTT) is a beloved children’s book written and illustrated by Judith Kerr. The animation adaptation of the book was created by Lupus Films and was aired on Channel 4 in the UK in 2019.

The animation process they would have followed is laid out below:

Pre-production – this stage involves initial planing, scripting, storyboarding, character design, and creating an overall visual style for the animation. Lupus films would have worked on adapting the book into a script suitable for animation, creating storyboards that outline the scene and actions, and designing characters and backgrounds.

Animation production – once the pre-production work is complete and approved, the animation production phase begins. This phase includes creating the animation itself; animators use various techniques, including traditional hand-drawn animation, computer generated imagery (CGI) or a combination of both. It is likely that “TTWCTT” used a combination of traditional 2D animation and CGI to bring the story to life.

Voice Acting – Recording voiceovers for the characters is an integral part of the process. Actors lend their voices to the characters based on the script and the director’s vision.

Editing and Post-Production – After the animation is completed, the footage is edited together, sound effects are added, and the soundtrack, including music and other sound elements are integrated.

Final touches and distribution – Once the editing and post-production work is finished, the final touches are made to ensure everything is polished. The completed animated film is then distributed through various media platforms, for example TV, streaming services (Netflix etc) or Cinemas.

Lupus films is known for its expertise in producing high quality animated content for television, and they likely used a combination of traditional animation methods and digital tools to create the adaptation.

"We're going on a bear hunt"

by Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury

TRAILER: We're Going on a Bear Hunt | Christmas Eve 7.30pm | Channel 4 (youtube.com )

"We're Going on a Bear Hunt" is a beloved children's book written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury.

Similar to "The Tiger Who Came to Tea," an animated adaptation of "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" was produced as well. The animated version was created as a half-hour television special and aired on Channel 4 in the UK.

We're going on a bear hunt is another children's classic I have read to my children a million times, and was excited to see an animation version of. I really like the 2D style of these animations, with thin black outlines and a watercolour illustrations style like the book has. I plan to try and reproduce this effect in my own story, within Blender Grease pencil.

AI Story & Sketches

I decided to use Chat GPT AI bot to generate some stories. I put in prompts like ‘come up with a children’s story with fairies’ and it wrote the story for me, to give me a starting off point for my animation. With this process there is a loss of control for the human, as the computer can control what it creates, but this link is a metaphor for what life will be like in the future when AI is commonly used.

Below is the AI generated story I have used for my animation (the other stories are farther down this post). I chose this story because I do love woodland children's stories, with animals and the fairies gave it a fantasy element as well. I looked forward to creating fairies within Blender. It was also a very simple story, not too complicated to try and re-create in animation.

PROMPT I used: "write a cute story for children age 3 to 6 years about an enchanted forest with fairies".

The Enchanted Forest and the Tiny Fairies

In a magical land, far away, hidden deep within a lush green forest, there was a place unlike any other. This was the enchanted forest, a realm of wonder, where fairies danced under the shimmering leaves.

The enchanted forest was a place where everything was alive, from the whispering trees to the twinkling fireflies. Every morning, the fairies would wake up, stretch their tiny wings, and get ready for a new adventure.

The fairies, led by their wise and kind leader, Queen Petal, had a special job. They were the protectors of the forest, and they made sure all the animals and plants were happy. Queen Petal, with her sparkling crown of dewdrops, would visit each flower and tree, asking if they needed anything. She listened to their tales and granted their wishes with a touch of her magic wand.

One sunny morning, as queen Petal was tending to a daisy, she heard a soft cry coming from a nearby bush. She fluttered over, and there she found a Lost baby bird with fluffy feathers.

“Queen petal?” chirped the baby bird, “I can’t find my way back to my nest. Can you help me please?”

Queen petal smiled and gently cradled the little bird in her hand. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, she guided the baby bird back to its nest high up in the branches. The grateful mama bird sang a beautiful melody to thank queen petal, who returned to her fairy friends with a heart full of joy.

As the day turned to evening, the fairies gathered to celebrate their adventures and share their stories. They danced under the sparkling fireflies and sang songs that made the whole forest come alive with magic, and together they celebrated with a grand feast of nectar and berries.

And so, in the enchanted forest, the tiny fairies showed that even the smallest acts of kindness and teamwork could make the world a better and more magical place.

The end

Illustration and character style practicing

I wasn't sure what the characters were going to look like yet, so I decided to play around with styles of fairies in Procreate on my iPad.

AI Generated Sketches:

I used AI bot Midjourney and prompts to generate the type of sketches I was looking for; which took a lot of trial and error. I took the generated images and sketched them in Procreate to create a simplified version for my animation characters.

Fairy 1 Original Versions:

Fairy 1 Edited versions:

Fairy 2 Original versions:

Fairy 2 Simplified versions:

However, the AI generation of the characters was not perfect, often they would be generated with defects such as three legs or no mouth; shown below:

Not Chosen Stories from Chat GPT:

Prompt: "write a cute story for children age 3 to 6 years about a unicorn"

Title: "Rainbow the Shy Unicorn"

In a magical meadow, nestled at the edge of an enchanted forest, lived a shy and gentle unicorn named Rainbow. Rainbow was unlike any other unicorn. She had a soft, pastel-colored coat, with a mane and tail that shimmered like a radiant rainbow. Her horn glistened like a precious gem, and her eyes sparkled with the magic of the meadow.

While all the other unicorns in the meadow loved to prance and play, Rainbow preferred to stay in the shadows, watching the world from a distance. She was timid and often felt too nervous to join in the games and laughter of her unicorn friends. Instead, she spent her days exploring the wildflowers and talking to the butterflies.

One bright morning, as Rainbow was admiring a particularly beautiful daisy, a tiny ladybug named Lily approached her. "Hello, Rainbow! I've seen you here all by yourself every day. Would you like to be friends?" Lily asked, her red-spotted wings fluttering with excitement.

Rainbow was surprised but felt a warm feeling in her heart. She nodded, and a smile lit up her face. "I'd like that very much, Lily. Thank you for asking."

From that day on, Rainbow and Lily became the best of friends. They explored the meadow together, danced in the gentle breezes, and shared secrets with the whispering trees. Lily helped Rainbow come out of her shell and taught her to enjoy the simple joys of life.

One day, as Rainbow and Lily were playing near a sparkling pond, they heard a soft cry coming from the water. It was a tiny fish who had lost its way and was trapped in a shallow puddle. Rainbow's heart swelled with kindness, and she gently lifted the fish back into the pond, saving its life.

Word of Rainbow's selfless act spread throughout the meadow, and soon, all the other unicorns wanted to be her friend. Rainbow realized that she didn't have to be shy anymore because her gentle nature and kindness had made her a hero in the meadow.

Now, Rainbow was the most popular unicorn in the meadow, but she never forgot her first friend, Lily, who had helped her find her confidence. Rainbow and Lily continued to explore the magical meadow together, spreading love, kindness, and the beauty of friendship wherever they went.

And so, Rainbow the shy unicorn learned that friendship could help her shine as brightly as her magical rainbow mane, and she lived happily ever after in the enchanting meadow, loved by all.

The end.

Prompt: write a cute story for children age 3 to 6 years about an enchanted forest with fairies

Title: "The Enchanted Forest and the Tiny Fairies"

In a magical land far, far away, hidden deep within a lush green forest, there was a place unlike any other. This was the Enchanted Forest, a realm of wonder, where fairies, with wings as delicate as rose petals, danced under the shimmering leaves.

The Enchanted Forest was a place where everything was alive, from the whispering trees to the twinkling fireflies. Every morning, the fairies would wake up, stretch their tiny wings, and get ready for a new adventure.

One sunny morning, as Queen Petal was tending to a daisy, she heard a soft cry coming from a nearby bush. She fluttered over, and there she found a tiny, lost baby bird with fluffy feathers.

"Dear Queen Petal," chirped the baby bird, "I can't find my way back to my nest. Can you help me, please?"

Queen Petal smiled and gently cradled the little bird in her hand. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, she guided the baby bird back to its nest high up in the branches. The grateful mama bird sang a beautiful melody to thank Queen Petal, who returned to her fairy friends with a heart full of joy.

As the day turned to evening, the fairies gathered to celebrate their adventures and share their stories. They danced under the sparkling fireflies and sang songs that made the whole forest come alive with magic. and together they celebrated with a grand feast of nectar and berries.

And so, in the Enchanted Forest, the tiny fairies showed that even the smallest acts of kindness and teamwork could make the world a better and more magical place.

The end.

Prompt: write a cute story for children age 3 to 5 years about an enchanted forest

Title: "Lila's Adventure in the Enchanted Forest"

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there was a magical forest known as the Enchanted Forest. The Enchanted Forest was a place of wonder and mystery, where the trees whispered secrets to the breeze, and the flowers sang songs to the butterflies. It was a place where animals spoke in rhymes, and the stars danced in the daytime sky.

One sunny morning, a little girl named Lila set out on a grand adventure. She wore a bright red hat and carried a basket filled with her favorite cookies. With a skip in her step, she entered the Enchanted Forest.

As Lila ventured deeper into the forest, the trees around her seemed to lean closer, creating a beautiful, dappled canopy of leaves. The birds above sang sweet songs, and the butterflies danced in a rainbow of colors.

Lila soon met a talking squirrel named Squeaky. Squeaky had a fluffy, bushy tail and bright, twinkling eyes. He offered to be Lila's guide through the enchanted woods.

"Welcome to the Enchanted Forest, Lila," said Squeaky. "Here, we have talking animals, magic flowers, and hidden treasures. Would you like to see some of the wonders of our forest?"

Lila nodded with excitement, and together they set off on their adventure. They visited the Flower Fairies who painted rainbows on petals, played hide-and-seek with the invisible Bunny Binks, and even had tea with the wise Old Oak Tree, who told stories about the stars.

As the sun began to set, Lila and Squeaky sat down on a soft bed of moss near a crystal-clear pond. They shared Lila's cookies and watched the fireflies twinkle in the evening light.

"It's time for you to go home, Lila," Squeaky said, with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

Lila felt a pang of sadness too. "But I don't want to leave this magical place, Squeaky."

Squeaky smiled and pointed to the sky, where the stars were starting to shine. "Don't worry, Lila. You'll always carry a piece of the Enchanted Forest in your heart. Whenever you look at the stars or hear the wind rustling through the trees, you'll remember the magic you found here."

With a hug and a promise to return, Lila left the Enchanted Forest, her heart brimming with the enchanting memories of her adventure.

From that day on, Lila often looked at the stars and listened to the wind, remembering the magical friends and the enchanting adventures she had in the Enchanted Forest. And she knew that she could return to the magical place in her heart anytime she wished.

The end.

Prompt: write a cute story for children age 3 to 6 years about a monster

Monster Story

Once upon a time in a colorful, magical forest, there lived a cute and cuddly monster named Munchie. Munchie was not like the scary monsters in stories; he was a friendly, fuzzy, and loveable monster who loved to make friends.

Munchie had bright, sparkly green fur and big, round, googly eyes that made everyone giggle. He had short, stubby arms and legs that he wiggled with excitement whenever he was happy, which was almost all the time.

One sunny morning, Munchie decided to go on an adventure. He put on his favorite polka-dotted bowtie and set off into the forest. Along the way, he met a chatty squirrel named Sammy. Sammy had a big, bushy tail and was gathering acorns for the winter.

"Hello, Mr. Squirrel! I'm Munchie, the friendliest monster in the forest. Would you like to be my friend?" Munchie asked with a big, toothy grin.

Sammy was a little surprised at first, but when he saw Munchie's friendly face, he couldn't help but smile. "Of course, Munchie! Friends are always welcome in the forest. Let's go on an acorn adventure together!"

Munchie and Sammy spent the day collecting acorns, playing games, and laughing. They even shared a delicious picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that Munchie had packed. Munchie's heart was as big as his fuzzy belly, and he was overjoyed to have made a new friend.

As the sun began to set, Munchie and Sammy returned to their homes, their hearts filled with happiness. Munchie realized that making friends wasn't as scary as he once thought, and he couldn't wait for more adventures in the colorful, magical forest with his new friends.

And so, Munchie the friendly monster continued to explore the forest, spreading laughter and friendship wherever he went. He learned that being kind and welcoming was the best way to make friends, no matter how fuzzy, furry, or different they might be. Munchie's forest was a happier, friendlier place thanks to his warm heart and googly eyes, and he was the happiest monster in the whole wide world.

The end.

Storyboard & Script

This is my process of breaking the story down into bite size chunks, I separated the story into scenes, and decided what happened in each scene.

Scene 1

Forest of pine trees, sunny and bright sky.

Fairies dance and fly under the shimmering leaves.

(Fairies dancing, flying, leaves shaking slightly and the sun throbbing)

Scene 2

Treehouse inside the tree trunk.

Fairies are waking from their beds, stretching and yawning.

(A fairy sitting up, stretching, yawning and standing)

Scene 3

Queen petal (crown of dew drops) talking to a tree.

Scene 4

Queen petal attending to a daisy, watering her. A soft cry comes from behind a bush. ‘Help me’.

Scene 5

Queen petal stood by a daisy. A baby bird (tony) is hiding behind the bush. He hops out to queen petal, ‘I’m lost, I can’t get back to my nest’.

Scene 6

Tree with a nest on a branch. Two babies in the nest and a mama bird on the branch looking worried.

Queen petal sprinkles fairy dust to lift him back up to the tree branch nest, floating.

Scene 7

Mama bird sings gratefully from her nest to queen petal.

Scene 8

Firepit circle with stones around the bottom.

Trees, berries and potion bottles with nectar.

Night sky and stars

Scene 9

Fairy friends dancing and singing by the fire under the moon and stars.

Music playing

Shadowed out trees

Sound to go with scenes?

Voice or bubble captions?

Annotated?

Music?

After looking at these scenes I narrowed down my choices to the following four scenes:

Scene 1 – lush green forest, hole in a tree where fairies are waking from their beds and stretch their wings and yawn.

Scene 2 – Sunny morning. Queen petal checking on a daisy, hears a cry from a baby bird in a bush. Shot of bird with fluffy feathers

“Queen Petal? I can’t find my way back to my nest, can you help me please?”

Scene 3 - Queen petal gently cradles the little bird in her hand. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, she guides the baby bird back to its nest high up in the branches.

The grateful mama bird sang a beautiful melody to thank queen petal.

Scene 4 - Gathering of fairies celebrating, dancing and singing with berries dotted around.

Sketches for Scenes

These are sketches that I used to base the scenes off of by adding them as a reference image in Blender, and drawing the animation over the top.

Scene 1:

Scene 2:

Scene 3:

Bird characters:

Scene 4

Blender Skills

I already had the basic skills of how 3D software Blender worked from year one of my course. However, I had not attempted any animation previously, so I needed to learn the basics of animation, frame by frame as well as how to do it in Blender.

I also chose to use the 2D side of Blender called Grease Pencil, so I had to learn from scratch how it worked, because it has a whole different way of working to the 3D side.

I started out by watching some beginner animation videos for Blender, in the 3D side as I didn’t know how to do 2D yet. I tried out animating a cube bouncing and rotating. I learnt how keyframes work, and how to create a simple animation using move, rotate and scale.

Video of cube animation

Below are the tutorials I followed to create this animation:

Screenshots of creating the cube bounce in the timeline:

I also brushed up and improved on some of my modelling skills in 3D whilst I was deciding what my project was going to be:

Box modelling a Human Body:

Tutorial: Blender MODELLING For Absolute Beginners - Simple Human (youtube.com )

3D Squirrel and the photo I was using for reference:

Monster eye:

Below are some of the videos I watched to understand how grease pencil works, and start to practice using it:

Ball bounce:

My Stick person animation screenshot, and the image I was basing the movement on:

I watched some more advanced videos on YouTube once I was understanding a bit more:

The videos below explained the process of grease pencil best to me, I followed them in my own style. They are by Tiptut:

I used my AI generated story as scene, and split the backgrounds up into different layer, the trees, the floor, the bushes, the sky and sun are all on different layers, and then the characters are placed in front of them in the 3D space. But when viewed from the front it looks like a flat scene.

The first scene I created was a practice and very basic, but I did it again and my skills improved. First Scene - Side view:

Front view:

Animation:

Scene screenshots of how I split them up:

Colour Palette I used:

Improved 2nd Scene:

Below is the colour palettes I used for my final animations:

STEP BY STEP - Creating the animations:

The steps I followed to start creating my scenes were:

Opening blender and choose create a new 2D animation – this starts up with one grease pencil object and a camera already in the scene.

In the first two scenes I created I did the whole thing in one file, the final render I chose to create each part in a separate file and combine them together at the end and tweak it.

For my practice scenes, I added each reference image as separate layers (x7). Each of my reference layers are PNG files with transparent backgrounds, which I created in procreate as a guide of where I wanted things to go.

I Moved the images around in y axis with grab, so that they are in the correct order, foreground and background. Each layer had a folder with a new grease pencil object and its reference layer.

Each grease pencil object contains layers, which you can see in the properties tab. I created a layer for each section of that grease pencil object, for example the trees had a trunk layer and a leaves layer in the same object.

Each grease pencil object needs a new set of materials, which I rename so I can see which colours are for which layers. In the materials tab; each layer needs a material for each colour, so brown for the trunk and green shades for the leaves.

Within each material you can choose to have lines only or a fill in the middle. You can choose to have black edges but colour in the middle if you want. I used hex codes to get the colours I wanted from a colour palette. You can change the colour of the material in the panel, and it will apply the new colour to all the objects that have that material assigned to it.

I tried out different methods of drawing onto the screen in Blender grease pencil. I have a touchscreen laptop and a HP pen that is for drawing on the screen. I also tried out a Wacom tablet at college, which I quickly got the hang of and used for some of the scenes. I also simply used my mouse for some of the objects as I have quite steady mouse control already.

I set up my ink pen in the draw mode, and set the settings to smooth - 2, iterations 3, subdivision steps 3:

I began to draw each grease pencil object, over the top of the refence sketch, splitting the object up into sections within its layers panel. For example, if I wanted the birds’ arms to move, I would put it on a layer separate to the body, so that the arm can move without the body moving.

I would draw the main colour first, for example the body, and then use different colours and a line pen to draw details on top like the face.

Drawing in the hair on the hair layer:

Below is the fairy and the layers are bottom left by the timeline:

Bird separated into moving and non moving parts in the layers:

As usual in Blender, you can scale, move and rotate these objects to perfect them in object mode, and select points to grab and move around in edit mode as well. I also used the sculpt mode quite a lot to ‘push’ the lines to line up where I want them, after I had drawn them.

Flower colour fills in the drop down layer for drawing:

Drawing the forest scene before importing the other objects:

Below is setting up the scene, copying each object into the one file and scaling and moving them to where I want them:

Adding the reference animation guide:

Animating the flower - frame by frame:

Starting on 1 in the timeline i drew the leaves in position 1,theni moved the timeline to number 5, and drew the next position i want the leaves to move to. I select the keyframe from number 1 and go Shift D to duplicate that frame position and move it to frame 10. this makes it change position and then go back to the original position. Then I set the time loop so the movement would repeat over and over for the length of the animation.

The time loop is a time offset modifier, and was very useful. You tick the custom range and put in the end time frame, to choose which part of the grease pencil layer that will loop infinitely. The scale is to set it to go faster or slower. Off set option can be applied to a second object in the layer, but will be slightly off time with the first object moving so they are not identical.

For the simple flower this amount of frames was enough, but if you have a more complex movement you can add in frames in between by drawing the frame again but at the point they would be on the way to the next position, as many times as you need to. This is where onion skins are useful; blender creates a lower opacity and different colour object on the screen, to show where the previous position was and the next one is, making it easier to draw an in between frame in the correct position.

Baby Bird animating - moving object:

I drew a very basic sketch of the route of movement for the baby bird hopping, to show where I wanted the bird to move as a guide, and added it as a reference image behind the bird.

For the baby bird I used a different animating technique, and just used the move handle to change the position of the bird, rather than redrawing it. So, using the guide, the bird started at the bush, and hopped to the first position on the timeline, moving each bit along the time line until it was at the final position and timeframe. In this method, you can also scale an object, or rotate it at the same time as moving it.

You can use tween tool to create in between frames, or you can using the graph editor to ease the animation and make it smoother.

Interpolation is where clicking the space in between two-time frames and choosing interpolation from the object mode grease pencil menu. This will add frames into every time frame to gradually blend the position from point A to point B.

I animated the fairies by making the wings move, and the arms change position. The fire animation was created in sculpt mode, where I 'pushed' each section slightly off the original point to create a fire effect, and then they go back to the original position with a time loop added.

Creating scene 2:

Below is setting the reference image to start creating the forest night scene:

Drawing the trees, layering two colours, and front and back:

Continuing to set up the scene:

Rendering the animation:

I had to go into the properties and check I was on EEVEE rendering. Then check where the file was being saved to, the frame rate and resolution and chose high quality.

Exporting:

I chose the FFmpeg video output format, and I went down to encoding tab and chose MPEG4 (DIVX). Once satisfied I went to Render - render animation.

FDA YR2

My Project Process

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