The Characters

Elly the Elephant

This character is based on the character from Pocoyo. It has quite a cocky character and is very athletic. I am unsure about what colour Elly will be. But I think either pink or blue with a blue or green backpack on his back. Elly will have expression in her face from her eyes and body structure. When Elly walks a trumpet noise will be heard to show she is heavy. Always up for a challenge, this elephant is unstoppable.... or is she?






















Mizo the Mouse

Mizo the mouse is a dozy character who goes with the flow. Mizo walks along feet first with a pudgy belly and no expression. A tilt of the head is the most movement this mouse makes. I have not decided on the colour this mouse will be but I like either yellow or orange with a red shirt. Mizo walks with his feet first and a tingling ringing sound can be heard when he does. This curious mouse is a lovable and cute character and by far my favourite.

















Dito the Duck

This duck is quackers! He only has a small part in the animation but is just as dopey as Mizo. His expression never changes as he oblivious to the world and his surroundings. During the animation he walks in and is focused on for a while to show he is slow in the head. He then gets a flag out from no where and drops it down by his side to start the race. He will probably be yellow as ducks are normally yellow. His beak will be slightly darker yellow or orange.














Flag.... the Flag

This is the flag that Dito will wave at the beginning of the race.

My Storyboard

This is my storyboard that I created for the animation of The Hare and The Tortoise. I made the hare an elephant and the tortoise a mouse to make the story seem slightly different. The story starts with the mouse finding a 'start' line and being confused about it. The elephant walks in and gets an idea about how to use the start line. They both line up ready for a race and a duck walks in with a flag to start the race. The elephant speeds ahead leaving the mouse to slowly make his way to the finish line. The elephant, realising he is very far ahead, decides to have a rest and eventually falls asleep. The mouse subtly overtakes him and wins the race. Unaware that the mouse has completed the race, the elephant carries on to the end of the race and looks happy with his achievement. He then realises that the mouse has won and is then not as proud of himself.
























































The scenery will be very basic and have a plain white background with very few trees and plants to show perspective.

The sounds will be from the characters movement and I don't think I would like music in it at this point. At a later time I may feel differently about this.

Initial Ideas for the Animation

I want to portray the story a slightly different way to how it is told in books. I also want to modernise the story by maybe making it slightly quirky. The characters should be cute and slightly dopey while also portraying a noticeable innocence in their looks and personality.




















I got most of my inspirations from the Japanesse children's programme 'Pocoyo'. I love the characters and the cartoon quirkiness. I also love that each episode is has a plain white background and basic props such as trees and plants etc which means that a lot of the scenery is left to the imagination. The characters are very lovable and would be very easy to animate. I think that all the characters need to be based around the shapes and characteristics of the characters in pocoyo.

My Chosen Story

I have chosen to do the story 'The Hare and the Tortoise' because I think it would be really interesting to animate. I could experiment with different characters and different ways of portraying the story.

Tutorial - Week 2

During the tutorial I learnt how to do a basic animation. This helped me to learn how to animate an object in 3Ds Max which I didn't previously know how to do. After learning this I would like to explore how to animate objects in more detail. I still have a lot to learn and I am looking forward to finding out what else I can do with this program.

The basic animation I learnt was moving a ball across a plane using different frames. I also made the ball look like it is spinning on its axis which was quite difficult to do. Another skill I learnt was how to make a ball look like it is slowly increasing in size. Another technique I used to make this animation was lighting. I used a spotlight to make the animation more effective and enabled shadows.

This is the video of my animation after I rendered it in 3Ds Max.



This is an image showing the ball and plane that I created.



















This shows the creation of the ball on the plane in 3Ds Max.

My Three Chosen Aesop's Fable Stories

For this assignment I had to look at many different Aesop's Fable stories before I could recognise some familiar stories. I have been asked to choose three of my favourite stories which I believe i would be able to create a good animation sequence about. The three stories that I have chosen are shown below along with the reasons why I have chosen them.


The Vain Jackdaw

"Jupiter determined, it is said, to create a sovereign over the birds, and made proclamation that on a certain day they should all present themselves before him, when he would himself choose the most beautiful among them to be king. The Jackdaw, knowing his own ugliness, searched through the woods and fields, and collected the feathers which had fallen from the wings of his companions, and stuck them in all parts of his body, hoping thereby to make himself the most beautiful of all. When the appointed day arrived, and the birds had assembled before Jupiter, the Jackdaw also made his appearance in his many feathered finery. But when Jupiter proposed to make him king because of the beauty of his plumage, the birds indignantly protested, and each plucked from him his own feathers, leaving the Jackdaw nothing but a Jackdaw."

I have chosen this story because the moral of the story is 'Don't try to be someone that you are not.' I like this moral it portrays the people of this world today because it also tell me that people should be able to accept others for what and who they are without making someone feel like they are not good enough.

I think that I would have fun creating this story into an animation because I would be able to show details in the jackdaw's feathers to create the image of a beautiful bird. This would be difficult to do but I would concentrate mainly on this to make the animation look detailed.


The Lion, The Fox and the Beasts

"The Lion once gave out that he was sick unto death and summoned the animals to come and hear his last Will and Testament. So the Goat came to the Lion's cave, and stopped there listening for a long time. Then a Sheep went in, and before she came out a Calf came up to receive the last wishes of the Lord of the Beasts. But soon the Lion seemed to recover, and came to the mouth of his cave, and saw the Fox, who had been waiting outside for some time. "Why do you not come to pay your respects to me?" said the Lion to the Fox. "I beg your Majesty's pardon," said the Fox, "but I noticed the track of the animals that have already come to you; and while I see many hoof-marks going in, I see none coming out. Till the animals that have entered your cave come out again I prefer to remain in the open air." "

I like this story because it has a strong moral, 'Its easier to get into the enemy's toils than out again.' It also tells me that you can benefit from other's misfortunes if you pay attention to other people's mistakes.

I think I will be able to animate this really well because it the lion and the fox could have a lot of detail or I could simply make them look more like a cartoon. There are so many options with this story. I could even make the characters other animals and give it a hint of humour by maybe making the lion a whiny animal in which all the other animals could listen to it's complaints and come out the entrance a little crazy from listening all day.


The Hare and the Tortoise

"The Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed. I challenge any one here to race with me." The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge."
"That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you all the way."
"Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the Tortoise. "Shall we race?"
So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap. The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race. Then said the Tortoise, "Slowly does it every time." "

I like this story because it has a good moral, 'Slow and steady wins the race.' It also has the moral, "It’s better to work slow and steady than to have great talents and waste them'

I think that I could make this story into a very good animation because I would be able to experiment with different type of animals and look into different backgrounds I could use. I also have to option of adding speech if necessary to make the animation more interesting. I could also make the start sound a gun sound and maybe use visualisations such as wind and explosions to make it effective.