Production Diary

Hannah created a character design of a young Egyptian girl who had the power to manipulate sand
in second year for our Cartoon Animation unit, developing a rough back story for her persona. Both
Laura Ireland and Laura Wade were inspired by the initial idea and that was when we came up with
the idea of turning it into a full length production for our final major project.
Developing the idea over the summer we began gathering inspiration and research into Ancient
Egyptian mythology, particularly into Gods and Goddesses we intended to use for some of our
character designs. This was aided by a trip to Dubai which Laura Wade took over summer where she
gathered reference photography of desert landscapes and camel anatomy similar to those of Egypt.
Week 1
Beginning our initial research, we started watching multiple documentaries on ancient Egyptian
culture and history in order to gain some knowledge and insight into our subject matter. Aiming to
make our Final Major Project as realistic and truthful to life as possible, we began taking influences
from these programmes and began to establish an artistic style which would make our work as
realistic and historically accurate as possible. This artistic style was also influenced by other relent
art pieces and animations with the same subject matter. One example of this was DreamWorks, The
Prince of Egypt which we used to look at existing concept art and making of books for this
production in order to gain some ideas on how to start creating our characters, environment and
overall assets within the pre-production stages.
After completing this research we began constructing some initial designs into the character of
Safiya based off of Hannahs existing concepts, creating quick gesture poses as well as more detailed
sketches in order to gain understanding into her construction.
Next week we plan to continue developing our character designs for Safiya as well as conducting
research into and starting our designs for Bastet (the cat goddess) and sand camel which Safiya will
raise from the ground during a chase sequence.
Laura Ireland Camel concepts
Laura Wade Bastet concepts
Hannah Hills Evans Safiya concepts
Week 2
Continuing development into our character designs for Safiya, it was suggested to us that we
redesign and focus on the construction of her hair. This is as we had created and overly complicated
design with a lot of emphasis on individual curly strands almost like the character of Merida from
Disneys Brave, however we soon discovered that this would be difficult to reproduce accurately
across our hand drawn 2D production. We therefore decided to transform the hair into a solid unit,
treating it as one component rather than focusing on individual strands of hair.
Additionally, we began compiling character designs for both Bastet and our sand camel. As Bastet
has two forms one cat and one human, we created a few variations of her character to explore how

we could transform her between the two while still making it clear to our audience that she was the
same persona. One way in which we did this was through the exploration of colour palettes to
create an association through the use of one distinctive colour and Bastet in both her human and
animal form. This construction was also started for the camel character, a continuous feature
throughout our story and an external representation of Safiyas powers over sand and the length to
which she can manipulate and control it. This proved harder than we initially though as this
character is manifested out of sand. As a result, we began looking into the construction of sand and
how it can be moulded when in the right conditions using sand modelling videos for reference.
Next week we plan to begin creating designs for our backgrounds, particularly focusing on desert
backgrounds and exploring what medium to create them in as well as continuing our designs into
the character of Safiya
Laura Ireland Camel concepts / Safiya concepts / Log line
Laura Wade Bastet concepts / Safiya concepts / Background designs Log line
Hannah Hills Evans Safiya designs / Background designs / Log line
Week 3
Initiating work on background designs we used Laura Wades photography from Dubai for reference
and began exploring with different mediums. Using either chalk and water colour we began to
establish artistic styles and contemplating how detailed or basic we wanted our backgrounds to be.
After a lot of experimentation we eventually decided to choose a more simplistic style of
background in order to keep our character as the main focus within our animation, not wanting
them to be over shadowed by overly detailed backgrounds.
Vincent Woodcock, a professional animator came into the University and gave us some feedback on
our character designs telling us although our designs were good, they were very Disneyesque in style
which meant that our final animation would inevitable be compared. We were informed that
planning on producing an industry standard production such as the ones from Disney, would be
extremely difficult seeing as we are only a team of three, which is no comparison to the hundreds of
professionals that construct these feature length animations. Although we were disheartened by this
information we understood the importance of what Vincent was saying, coming to the realisation
that an audience is much less forgiving when it comes to mistakes in realistic animated works. Seeing
as we want our work to be our own we were not keen on having our final major animation being
compared as a cheap Disney knock off. Therefore, we have decided to explore further with different
and more stylised designs for our characters aiming to simplify them in order to avoid this Disney
comparison and make the work our own.
Next week we plan to take on board what Vincent had told us an experiment ore with our concept
designs of Safiya in order to move her away from her Disneyesque appearance. We also intend to
obtain reference images of sand in order to see how we can construct and mould our camel
character out of this medium.
Laura Ireland Safiya designs

Laura Wade Safiya designs / Bastet designs

Hannah Hills Evans Safiya designs

Week 4
This week we dedicated our time to looking at sand and the way it moves, in order to gain some
understanding into this substance and how we plan to recreate it within a 2D environment. We
therefore took a trip to the volleyball courts to obtain reference footage of what sand would look
like in different situations. Examples of these included throwing motions of sand, how it falls in
windy conditions and how it reacts when impacting on another surface. Additionally, we videoed
ourselves running and walking through the sand in order to understand how this material effects a
walk cycle and movement of the body.
Having compiled these sand tests, we started looking into the process of how we intended to create
one particularly ambitious shot within our animation where our protagonist while running forms a
running camel from the sand around her before mounting it in order to make her escaped during a
chase sequence. Despite having our reference footage, we were still unsure as how to morph the
material of sand within a 2D environment as we have never addressed 2DFX within our past
productions and aim for this piece to be of a high industry standard. Therefore, we asked our
advanced 2D lecturer for advice on how we could go about doing this. She suggested we created
some animation tests to see how we want the sand to move along with a camel test run, working
backwards rather than forwards to form its body from the sand. As a result, we looked to
Muybridges camel run and other similar references in order to further study a camels movement.
Run cycles were subsequently created with one focusing on skeletal movement and the second on
joint and muscle movement in order to understand how to construct this within our final piece.
Next Week we have booked a day trip to London, to visit the British Museum and collect reference
photography and sketches from their Ancient Egyptian exhibitions.
Laura Ireland Safiya concepts / Sand reference
Laura Wade Bastet concepts / Safiya concepts
Hannah Hills-Evans Gods and Goddesses timeline / Sand reference
Week 5
All three of us went to the British Museum in London in order to look at the Egyptian exhibitions and
gain further knowledge into the culture and styles of the time. Here we took lots of photos and
sketched first hand reference images from artefacts and historic architecture that particularly
interested us and we felt would be relevant to our project. This visit proves helpful as we gained a
visual insight into the culture of the Egyptian time period and took styles from the exhibits which we
could then manipulate and translate in our animation. The architecture, fashion and sculptures have
given us an idea of what sort of art style and colour palettes we want to have within our film.
This week we have reconsidered and developed our initial storyline as it is very complex and we feel
like it will be difficult to translate all the information we want to within 5 minutes of animation.

Therefore we have condensed our story, opting to have a prologue in the style of an Egyptian wall
which will explain the basis of our story before moving into quick trailer shots enabling us to include
chase sequences and really experiment with our characters.
Next week we plan to continue our character designs of Safiya and develop her clothing further,
taking inspiration from our British museum reference.
Laura Ireland - British museum photography / British museum reference sketches
Laura Wade - British museum photography / British museum reference sketches
Hannah Hills-Evans - British museum photography / British museum reference sketches / Story
synopsis

Week 6
Having been experimenting with more extreme and less Disneyesque styles, we have taken on the
professional advice of Vincent Woodcock and have developed some ideas that we like. Having said
this, we seem to be naturally falling back into a more realistic style of animation as this has been the
only interpretation that really fits with the artistic design of our final major project. Creating a more
childlike and chubby designed protagonist has not worked for our piece, despite the advice given to
us to do so, as Safiya seems to innocent to be engaging in combat with our antagonist in this form.
As we were struggling we too adopt these new styles we once again sought advice from our
advanced 2D lecturer. Encouraging us to revert back to our original Disneyesque designs she
prompted us to reach these high standards, believing we could achieve them as a team. As a result
of this advice we have come to the compromise of taking elements from our original designs and
combing them with elements from our more experimental designs in order to create our own
individual piece with influences from other art from which we are passionate about.
Next week we plan to continue development into these new character designs of Safiya, looking into
the works of Glean Keane and Jordan Buckner for inspiration as suggested by our lecturer. We also
plan to begin explore music options for our animation as well as creating some new colour palettes
for the character of Safiya.
Laura Ireland Safiya pose sheets / Ring prop designs / Script
Laura Wade - Safiya digital painting/ Bastet digital painting
Hannah Hills-Evans Pintrest inspiration boards
Week 7
Having reached the mid way point in our production schedule we have begun work on our
storyboard. We started by revising the 180 rule in order to make sure that each shot we planned to
create made sense and would translate correctly to an audience before beginning to sketch them
out.

Continuing work into our character designs we created some colour palettes to match those of
ancient Egypt and then applied them to our character of Safiya. We also looked into some and
clothing and hair variations in order to both match the fashion of the time and explore which styles
would work best within our animation.
We also began looking into the audio aspect of our production and the sound effects we would need
for our final animation. Unable to find a fitting soundtrack we came to the conclusion that our
production will need an original score in order to emphasis the visual elements of our work and
enhance the emotional subject matters within it. Therefore, we emailed the Universitys head of
sound department to forward on a message to any sound students who would be interested in
creating a credited score for our project. After receiving 20 applications we plan to create a
presentation in order to pitch our project to them including concept art, a story synopsis, log line
and further information on what we would require from them. Additionally, we agreed that it was
very important to have a professional sounding actress to play our character of Bastet as we needed
a narration for the beginning of our animation to explain the plot and set the atmosphere for our
story. As a result we decided to be ambitious in our contacting of professional agencies in order to
obtain the voice of an industry standard female voice actress. We were quickly meet with polite
declines due to the fact that we could not provide financially for the work only offering crediting and
showreel use of the project in the future. However, one agency responded offering to help and we
therefore sent a second email with a copy of our finalised script and are currently awaiting a
response.
Next week we are hoping to create our storyboard and finalise our new character designs for Safiya
based on the guidance of both Vincent and out lecturers.
Laura Ireland Safiya concept / Bastet concept / Colour palettes / Safiya clothe designs
Laura Wade Safiya concept / Safiya expression sheets /Safiya digital designs / Bastet concept
Hannah Safiya concept / Safiya facial designs / Environment designs
Week 8
This week we returned our focus to the continual development of Safiya. We revaluated our existing
character concepts in order to finalise her design, settling on a style with Disneyesques eyes
however blocking out the pupils to resemble those of an animal crossing character. Endowed with
large ethnic eyebrows, big ears, goofy teeth and a simple nose we decided to make her body
rounded and more circular using reference from a Chibi style of art in order to make her appear
childlike. We also finalised the colour palette for her clothing choosing the teal, white and gold
design as we felt this was most appropriate and accurate to the time period and her position within
Egyptian society. In addition, we finalised the hair styles we wanted her to have choosing between
both a flowing down hairstyle and a tied up bunches look. We decided her tied up bunches will be
the most prominent hairstyle with the untied flowing hair used within action sequences and when
our protagonist is in distress.
We completed our storyboard for our animation, taking into consideration our previous research
into the 180 degree rule in order to convey a clear and understandable story for our audience.
Focusing on certain shots and how we wanted our story to play out visually on screen our storyboard
has really aided us in lending some idea as to how the final piece will look.

Next week we plan to finalise the artistic style we want to achieve in our environments and
background designs as well as composing a PowerPoint presentation for the music student who are
interested in creating a score for our animation.
Laura Ireland Safiya turn around / Safiya designs
Laura Wade Storyboard/ Bastet turn around / Bastet facial expressions
Hannah Safiya hair designs / Safiya expression sheets / Safiya turn around/ Digital environment
concept
Week 9
This week we created and dispatched a PowerPoint presentation for the music students in order to
see who was still interested in our project. This also allowed us to see who was dedicated and would
complete the project without dropping out later on due to other commitments. We quickly received
5 responses and planned to set up interviews in the coming week in order to explain further our
work, the length of the score we would need and also requiring them to bring along any music
examples that would support their application.
We also succeeded in finalising our background designs and the artistic style we wanted to achieve
within them. Settling on a watercolour style we came to the conclusion that this was not only the
mot aesthetically pleasing design but also the easiest in burring dessert colours together and fading
them into the background in order to not overshadow our main characters in the foreground.
Matching the clouds, rocks and environmental components with the style of Safiyas curly hair only
aided in the background designs making her persona seem truly at home in this desert environment.
Next week we plan to begin the creation of our first animatic based off of our storyboard and finalise
our character designs for both Bastet and the sand camel.
Laura Ireland Test animation of sand / Animatic shots / Sand sketches / Environment concept
Laura Wade Animatic Shots
Hannah Sand eagle concept / Animatic shots / Safiya coloured digital painting concept
Week 10
Throughout this week we have been trying to finalise other character designs particularly for the
sand camel and Bastet in both her cat and human form. Finalising our designs for Bastet in her
human form we have settled on a costume that similar to that of Safiya however more slick and
slender in order to represent her feline qualities. We also chose colours for her that would translate
between both her forms making it very clear to our audience that she was the same character.
Similarly, our sand camel was finalised and we came up with the idea to translate our turquoise blue
colour associated with the power of the Gods into the eyes of the camel. This was in an attempt to
convey Safiyas growing abilities over the manipulation of sand and the fact the camel is a magical
creation and external manifestation of these powers.

We have also split up our storyboard into three sections in order to begin creating eth shots for our
animatic and equally dividing the work between us. We plan to shade these shots in a greyscale in
order to convey light sources and create a sense of depth within our animatic in order to visually
convey how we want our scenes to play out on screen.
Next week we plan to meet up with our chosen music students in order to interview them about the
creation of the music score for our animation. We also plan to finalise our designs for the characters
of Set, Isis and Hasani as well as continuing with the creation of our shots for our animatic.
Laura Ireland Animatic shots / Set staff concept / Desert digital concepts
Laura Wade Animatic shots / Safiya turnaround / Bastet finalised designs
Hannah Animatic shots / Hasani design
Week 11
Firstly this week, we created our initial animatic using shots from our storyboard as reference. By
shading and expressing a light source within these shots our animatic not only looked more
professional but proved useful in gauging where these light sources would originate from but how
they would move across the desert landscapes.
Having narrowed down 20 potential music students we planned to interview 5 who seemed
particularly keen and expressed a genuine interest in our project. After conducting these interviews
across Thursday and Friday we final chose one student named Gorge Lee whose music style and
Egyptian samples fitted the vision we have for this animation perfectly.
We have also finalised our concept designs for our secondary characters of Set, Isis and Hasani.
Having created expression and pose sheets we looked into colour schemes and clothing designs for
each of them. It was at this stage that we decided to settle on a turquoise colour for the godly
characters of our animation in order to clearly convey their use of power and position of deity to the
audience.
Next week we plan to create a final animatic with full audio, showing improvement in certain shots
and upload all our work to our blogs including our production diary.
Laura Ireland Environment concepts / Set concepts / Animatic shots / Interviewed music students
Laura Wade Bastet pose sheets / Bastet concepts / Environment concepts / Room interior
concepts / Animatic shots / Interviewed music students
Hannah Hasani concepts / Animatic shots / Interviewed music students
Week 12
In our final week of pre-production we have completed a second edit of our animatic, including full
audio, narration and sound effects. Working to clean up previous shots and add in further ones, we
have made this second edit clearer and more flowing compared to our previous one.

We have also constructed a production schedule for next term using Microsoft Excel. Listing each
week, we have assigned tasks to one another within our group based on each others strengths and
weakness to make our final production the best it can be. Setting ourselves realistic and achievable
time limits within which to complete our animation we have broken our weeks down between rough
animation, clean up, colouring and finally editing and rendering.
Lastly, we inserted all our images into separate word document to show the development of our
character designs and concept art. We then proceeded to upload them to Scribd so that they could
be easily embedded and viewed on our blogs.
Laura Ireland Production diary / Next terms production Schedule / Pages to upload to blogs /
Individual written group evaluation
Laura Wade Editing Final Animatic / Individual written group evaluation
Hannah Hills-Evans Pages to upload to blogs / Individual written group evaluation