Srishti Collective 2013

The Communicating Biodiversity Project was exhibited at the Srishti Collective 2013, from the 12th to 15th of December 2013, at Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology.

The ant animation, the first of the series "Stories of the Big City Park" was screened and the documentation of the project was shared with the public allowing pre-school children, school and college students, artists, designers and a varied audience from around the country to get acquainted with the project.

Their feedback and questions were noted and addressed, opening the outreach of the audience and the subject of backyard biodiversity.

Final Outcome Screenshots

Production Process

Development of Visuals

 As the project progressed, the narrative and the role

of various characters in the story also increased.

Therefore there was a need for further development

of other characters.

Story Development and Final Scripts

At this point, it was necessary to take a few steps

back and try to look at what the narrative lacked.

Although the project is about communicating biodiversity,

the narrative only addresses ants. Therefore,

it was essential to look at the bigger picture of communicating

biodiversity and involve other life forms.

All the research done about other creatures was

revisited and an interesting connection between

ants, bees and earthworms was found. Each of these

creatures play a very important role in the ecosystem.

Therefore, weaving a story that had these three

creatures as the main characters makes an interesting

story.

After doing some more research on each of these

species, a connection was finally seen between the

three and the growth & reproduction of plants. This

is what the stories eventually convey.

Outcome - The Stories of the Big City Park is a set

of three animations about the significance of small

creatures such as ants, bees and earthworms that

can easily be observed in an urban environment

such as a garden or a community park.

It has a rhyming narrative, to allow easy recall for

young viewers and focuses on the idea of small

presence yet great significance.

Animatic With Voice-Over

Change In Narrative

The narrative I was working with till now was fine in terms of content. But in terms of story-telling, it completely lacked richness. It was a narration of plain facts. In order to make my voiceover sound as interesting as the visuals, I had to work of the narrative and make it quirkier than before.

I started thinking about various approaches I could use to tell a story. Something that would possible give the person speaking some character. I initially came up with two ways of doing this..

1. The Curious Kid
   The whole narrative is based on the voice-over being curious. He doesn't really know much about ants and keeps on asking himself questions. But he slowly discovers new things about ants as he keeps on observing them. By the end of it (the animation), he becomes so fascinated by ants that he wants to know about more creatures like ants, that exist around him.
2. The Know All
   This kid already know things about ants. He just happens to see a few ants in his backyard and begins observing them, and while doing so, he keeps on talking about what they are doing.

Of the two, the first one seemed much more interesting, since it would establish a connection between the curious kid, and the kid watching the animation, where both of them don't know much about ants. 

But the problem with this idea was that there a few things that you can't learn just by looking at ants and what they are doing. You need to have some kind of prior knowledge to understand what is happening.

This is when I remembered something that was discussed in one of the previous seminars. It was about how kids tend to have a role model, somebody they always look up to at a young age. And most times, this person is just a few years older than them. This is when I thought that I could blend both the ideas of - the curious kid, and the one who already knows things about ants to effectively create a narrative that takes you through the animation.

Here is the narrative, where the curious kid is the one asking most of the questions and the older kid, who has some knowledge about ants, is the one with the answers..

• “Oops!” (Drops an eaten apple to the ground)
• “Hey, don’t pick it up.”
• “But I haven’t finished eating it.”
• “That’s okay, we can go get another one.”
• “Oh, okay.. Hey look, ants! I think they are trying to eat the apple. But do ants even eat apples?”
• “Yeah, of course. Ants eat just about anything. It’s safe to say that most of them have a sweet-tooth. They love eating anything that’s sweet and sugary, just like this juicy apple.”
• “Hey, look at that one. Is it carrying an apple seed? Do they eat seeds too?”
• “Well, most ants don’t eat the whole seed. They eat the seat-coat and other nutritious food attached to it. But I wonder what happens to the rest of the seed. Hmm. Anyway, seems like the ants are heading towards their anthill. Let’s have a look at what’s going on in there. There it is, the ant colony. Home of the ants.”
• “Woah, look at that all those ants! They’re all so busy doing.. doing things?!?! What are they doing in there?”
• “Well, most times, the ants spend their time collecting food, storing it here in the anthill. They also take care of the ant eggs laid by the queen. There she is. Her majesty, the queen ant. Mother of all ants of the colony”
• “Queen ant? But if she’s the queen, why doesn’t she have a crown?”
• “She doesn’t have a crown because she doesn’t need one. She’s got wings!”
• “Hey, look! There’s the apple seed from before.”
• “Yeah, and the ant seems to be carrying it out of the anthill. Better keep an eye on that seed!”
• “What does the ant do with the seed? It looks so much heavier than the ant itself”
• “Yes it is but ants can effortlessly carry more than 20 times their own weight. As for the seeds ants eat whatever they can, and move the rest of them outside the anthill. And those seeds later grow into new plants.”
• “These tiny little ants do all of that? That’s amazing! Are there any other creatures that are as incredible as ants?”
• “Yeah, of course. There are so many, like bees, butterflies, dragonflies, earthworms and even spiders.”
• “But where do I find them?”
• “That’s simple. They’re everywhere. You can find them this park, in your backyard, your balcony and even around your neighborhood garden. All you need to do is take a closer look.”

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.

Character Design - Digital