Seminar 5 - Feedback

Feedback received from 5th seminar..

On The Animation Visuals

• The animation backgrounds, elements, characters and transitions between the scenes seem to work in general. 

• Be careful about being realistic in terms of the visuals that have been illustrated. For example, the part where the anthill is growing next to the pavement on the road is unrealistic.

On The Narrative & Voiceover Of The Animation

• The current narrative works for and creating the visual part of the animation. But when it comes to telling a story, it is bland.

• Need to add drama and a lot more flavor to the tone and the narrative itself. The quality of the narrative must be brought up to the level of the visuals. Think of creative ways to tell a story that has richness in it and is quirky.

On The Animation As A Whole

• Simultaneously work with visuals as well as sound to get your timing right.

• As of now, the visuals and voiceover are not in sync. Start working with audio and video together and not treat them as separate elements of the animation film.

Ant Farm

Came across this interesting video of a queen ant building her colony.

Work In Progress

Working with background scenes and characters on After Effects.

Extraordinary Ants - Storyboard

Adding Texture and Detail

The illustrations I was working with were very minimal and flat in terms of form and color. This was giving the animation a bland feel. The plain and minimal backgrounds seemed to lack depth and detail. Therefore I began adding more elements to the scenes and adding texture and detail to it.

Ant Fact!

Came across this meme quite recently. I found it quite funny since ants are capable of lifting up to 50 times their own weight.

Seminar 4 - Feedback

Feedback received from 4th seminar..

• Must show more iterations and process of final selected work (type, illustrations, sound)
• Make the character and the environment dynamic.
• The animation does not look Indian. Try to incorporating an Indian in terms of visuals.
• Complete the script and entire storyboard.
• Increase work speed.

Awesome Ants - Clip 1

Backgrounds & Environments

Soon after I finalized the characters, I began designing the background scenes or the animation. I started by not adding to many elements or too much detail as I only wanted to get an idea of the composition and movement of the main characters and elements in the animation.

Ant and Other Characters

The above ant is the one that was selected as the character to be used in the animation. This particular one was selected since it resembles an actual ant. The other two were more like the stereotypical cartoon character. Since the animation is going to be an educational one, the latter would have not been appropriate as it would not correctly demonstrate actions and movements of the ant compared to the first one.

After finalizing the final character for the ant, the other characters in the animation were illustrated using the same visual language.

Foliage Iterations

Awesome Ants - Storyboard 2

After getting feedback on the first version of my Awesome Ants storyboard, I reworked on it and made a few changes in the visual approach towards the animation by adding and removing a few things.


















A new element I intend to use throughout my animation is - a magnifying glass. My first storyboard also had one, but only at the end. In this version, I will introduce the magnifying glass in the beginning of the animation itself, which will work as a tool that zooms in to the activities of the ants.

Basically, I wish to use the magnifying glass as a tool for observing things or "looking closely" which is a part of the call to action in the animation.

This is not the whole storyboard. I plan to start making the background visuals and a few clips of the animation to get an idea of what it would actually look like. Once I'm done with that, i'll move forward by finishing the remaining storyboard.