Litter,

it’s Killer!
Creative Process Journal

by Nicholas Chai
Design in Society
2021
Motion Graphics
Contents

Return
Pg 4 - Brief
5

Case S
Pg 8 - tudies
13

Develo
Pg 16 pmen
- 23 t

P-Boa
Pg 26 rd
- 27
 Return Brief
As my previous project covered the subject of Hidden Dangers, Archetype Subject
I would like to expand on that with one of the more common
The Jester Archetype best suits this The subject of the animation
Hidden Dangers in our community, Killer Litter.
project as it allows me to get cheeky will feature the concept of Killer
with expressions, animations, and Litter, as well as many common
push my animation in a direction and sometimes uncommon items
which humors the audience. which have fallen from HDB
balconies in the past, which will
paint an overall picture of how
Purpose Mentor dangerous Killer Litter is.
I intend to create a short video animation My chosen mentor is Chuck Jones, the
which shows the karma of haphazardly creator of the RoadRunner series. What
placing items at balconies, which may fall initially drawn me to his animations is the
on people as Killer Litter. The animation frequent use of sidescrolling shots where
intends to be of slapstick genre, weaving chase scenes often occur, as well as strong
some antics into the overarcing story in use of slapstick for comedic effect. Though
Emotion Audience
order to create an easily digestible story my animation does not intend to have The viewer should experience My primary audience
with abit of a moral at the end. exaggerated physical injury, I intend to Amusement, Thrill and Shock. will be people living in
use sidescolling shots as well as some of HDB environments or
the slapstick humor to a small extent. Apartments with exposed
balconies, as these are
the prime places where
Killer Litter occurs.

6 7
CAS
E st
ud
ies
 Killer LittER? Not Little at all! The case in this picture is less
severe than the previous, and
I begin my journey on this project by firstly reading any it features several brooms and
articles or finding news reports on killer litter occurances in palletes scattered all over the
Singapore. I consider anything happening within the past 5 HDB block. Perhaps I could
years as pretty recent and here are some of my findings. feature on or two of these
articles in my Motion Graphic.

This image above was from a news report as

recent as 2019. The context here is that it’s a Ooo a potted plant, how classic!
50 inch TV being hurled out the window of a
Condominium unit 10 stories high. I’m not sure
if I should be amused or appaled that we are
still dealing with cases like these.
Actually amazing how the potted
plants somehow made it behind the
grills installed at the window.

10 11
 Studying existing works:

Roadrunner
When I think slapstick, I
immediately think of Looney
Tunes. The iconic characters of
that partircular cartoon series
have always been known for their
over the top antics and suffering
physical injury yet walking it off a
few seconds later.

However, the one segment of the cartoon

that stands out to me the most is
Roadrunner, specifically Wile ‘E’ Coyote’s
never-ending quest to catch and eat the
Roadrunner. The Roadrunner show is the
one segment of the cartoon that features
long chase scenes and slapstick along a
2D plane, which was what popped up in my
mind when I first thought of the project.

12 13
 Motion Graphic Style
I got an idea, I got a style I want to emulate, but I
want an animation style which is both managable for
my skillset as well as simple yet professional looking.
After crawling around Youtube for awhile looking at
tutorials and watching many different animations, I
found this Youtuber : SonduckFilm

Ontop of my Production lecturer’s teachings, I

watched some of his tutorials and fell in love
with his simple artstyle because it gave his
videos a professional and sleek kind of look
which I felt fitted my needs, thus I decided to
adapt his artstyle for my Motion Graphic.

14 15
dev
elo
pm
ent
 I love comics! Don’t storyboards look like comics?

Storyboard
AWRIGHT Storyboard time! I have done some
animation in the past, so I do have some experience
drawing storyboards. I’ve got my setting, I’ve got
my story which I ran by my lecturers so all that’s left
is to draft it and see how it works!

18 19
 character design
I decided to end up with a
stereotypical “uncle” look
which you will see in a
Now my next step is to create a recognizable character. I Singaporean HDB setting.
browsed the internet as well as looked around in HDB blocks I’ve also decided not to make
to see what sort of attire a male would be wearing. There is him an aging old man since my
no intention to stereotype against smokers, but some of the character is going to run alot,
images I found so happen to feature smokers, as well along so I made him a middle age
with the fact my main character is a smoker. man with a pompodur instead!

Mr Uncle also has 14

different movable parts!

Uncle! What you doing!? :O

20 21
 Making the backgrounds
Production Journey and finally making them
work is such a satisfying
Aftereffects is an amazing tool. My entire feeling. In order for my
Motion Graphics was done in Aftereffects objects to “fall” off the
and I made use of all my knowledge in order balcony and drop down
to produce this animation. next to the Uncle, I had
to employ some Layer
trickery by seperating
the sky from the
background itself!

Time constrains are really a pain.

As much as I would have loved to
explore Duik, instead I have to
achieve what I wanted using really
rudimentary rigging methods and
rotating every limb myself.

22 23
 I’M NOT PART OF YOUR SYSTEM!
aka. sneaky features
Colour Scheme

I don’t have legs lol

#75202a #909ea5 #172425 #d9c484 #db6f49

By having my character bobbing to simulate

running, I don’t actually have to animate any
legs, therefore, no legs! Using clever cutting of
the scene, I managed to show the man running
just by having his body move along the Y axis.
I selected my colour scheme by
taking the main colours out of a
classic HDB shot. The oranges and
beiges really bring out the same
sort of feeling as the desert in
Roadrunner, that’s why I ran with it.

24 25
P-B
oa
rd
 Production Board
For my production board, I would like to
capture the playfulness of the Jester as
well as contextualize the Motion Graphic.

Here are some preliminary drafts for my

Pboard.

28 29
30
Nicholas Chai
F20DM0044
2021