First (late) entry!

March 2020

Life Update:

The last month has been an eventful one, the outbreak and spread of Coronavirus has been scary and feels as if it's happened overnight. I have come back to England from Edinburgh to work from home. The Lockdown is stressful but on the plus side it means more time to fully focus on animating for the film! Also having a cat around definitely helps with the creative process.

Work Update:

When I began my MFA, I had some vague idea of the character I wanted to use in the film, but not really a clear idea of his personality or how he would turn out. I had very strong images of him swimming down (diagonally) to a door that was on the seabed, and him carrying shopping, and him walking with pieces of him floating away. Very strong, clear images of him doing these things that I really wanted to include in the film, but that didn't seem to have a place yet. Here are some of those early sketches/paintings:

I was producing a lot of work through September to November, but December was when the pace started to slow. I found it really hard to see where the story would go, because there was just too many options and ideas floating around. It was a bit overwhelming. The Christmas Break was incredibly helpful (and well timed!) and when I came back from that my mental block had gone. Around the end of February, the storyline for this film started to really fall into place (I will write a different post just for the current storyline). It's a weird little film, and I don't even fully understand it but I like it a lot. It focuses a lot on anxiety, which was something I had pictured for him, and how anxiety changes your perception of things. The female character is cool, she had been someone I had doodled for years, so it's nice to give her some limelight. She is the opposite to him, very confident and calm. I've uploaded my animation tests and more images onto my animation website:

https://tiggywheaton.wixsite.com/animation

I was very focused on getting to know him through animation, and I think it really helped. Usually characters come to me pretty much fully formed, but these two I've had to work harder to get to know. It's been a really interesting process so far!