Here are the turn arounds for my character that I have changed to be completely black with the white detailing which will be the final design of the work man for my animation.

I wanted to change my character to look more similar to the silhouette in the men at work sign, I decided this after some advice again form my tutors suggesting that the work man character still didn't fit in so that it looks like it changes from the silhouette. I didn't wan my character to loose his cartoony look to much so i changed it in two different ways to keep his characteristics and to also make him more similar to the silhouette.
I changed the shadings in the bottom image darker but I think that when I done this it takes away from the details to much. So then I decided to do him completely black and change all his details to white so they would stand out more, which is shown in the top image, I like this idea and I also like the style of him more as he will now look more like the silhouette, keep his cartoony look and also stand out more on the background.

These are my first set of finished storyboards which I done based on my original idea and my original background. The idea has changed slightly from these storyboards but if you look through them it will give you a rough idea of how the plot for my animation will go. If you click on any image in my blog the full size will come up so you can see the images more clearly.

In the design I kept the colour of the foreground building and the style but instead of just having a block colour like the previous design and adding effects such as bevel and emboss I decided to paint it instead to give it more of a flat look and more cartoony, just how I like it, and add shading by painting it not using effects.
I also decided to work the rest of the background around this building keeping the style and used the tutors advice using unrealistic colours for things; such as the footpath been a lime colour and the streets been green and the lamppost been red, but although they are unlikely colours I believe they work very well together and makes the design look far better, far brighter and far more appealing. I also like the way in which I done the sky which was bulding up different shades of purples and blues on top of each other in layers.

I decided to change the background as it looked to closed in and not enough to look at, I also decide that it needed to be a bit more brighter. I have kept elements from the original design in which I liked such as the building in the foreground and the idea of the lamppost. I also had some advice from my tutors not to depend on real life colours in cartoons as it is good to exaggerate colours and is not necessary to have them look realistic.

These are the line drawings I have doen for my final background design and decided to definitely use this as I really like it and prefer it far more to the previous one I made, I also drew one with the work area on it to get an idea how they both will look like together. I added more buildings in the background instead of having it closed in to just two buildings on one street and also so the design could have a sky and a view as such to look at further than just the building in the foreground.

The other reason I done this was so I could change my animation slightly, I have decided to start it off with some people walking by and cars driving in the background instead of having just sound effects and not actually seeing it, once the rain starts they then all disappear inside out of the wet. Due to this I liked the idea of having a more busier background and been more open and town like.

Finished image of my background and with the work area I designed added to it.

This is the design I have made for the men at work sign and done it in three different stages to give an idea of how it will look. The first showing the sign with the character in it, the second with his eyes open and the third without the silhouette. In the third sign i decided that when the silhouette comes out I wanted it to be left with an indent of where he should be, so I made it to look like this so the audience relates to the silhouette coming from inside the sign.

I have taken the rough drawing and design I done of the work area as I really liked this, brought it into photoshop redrew it and coloured it. I aimed to make it so it would suite well with my background, I think that it does and works very well together and keeps the cartoony style which I like.

Here is the background I have designed and coloured for my animation, I have used the rough drawing shown in the previous post as a bases to eventually design the background above, I used the same building style as in the line drawing and the idea of a lamppost and drain on the floor. The only thing that has been changed slightly is the extra building which is only partly shown and the alley with a gate in between the buildings.
I like the idea of the colours been very cartoony and bright as i think this appeals to people more than it looking dull and using dull colours, I also prefer to work in this style.

I done this rough drawing of the work area on a street and liked the idea of it and the design so I have decided to use this image as a bases on what I want the background and the work area to eventually look like.

These are the turnarounds I have designed for my work man character, I done the line drawing first then brought it into Photoshop and drew over it and colored it with black and white shading.

Originally I wanted my design of the work man to change from the silhouette into a coloured character, but after some advice from my tutors and thinking about the style myself I decided that the character would fit more into my animation as a black and white character.

I decided this as the silhouette on the men at work sign is black and if he was to change into a coloured character then they would not really correspond together as one, so due to this it was a better idea to have the character as a black and white design so that the audience relates more to the character been the silhouette but coming to life magically as a work man.

Here I have brought my line drawing into Photoshop and coloured it in black and white, then I have made the character from scratch as a final design in black and white shading, also done in Photoshop.

For my final year of my animation degree I decided to choose to make a short film in 2D, I will be using Photoshop and Aftereffects to creat my animation. I decided to do to it in 2D as I prefer it to working in 3D on Maya, I also like cut out and a child like style, and work towards my animations been fun and appealing. I came up with three or four different ideas for this project and finally decided on the following one,

This short film is going to be based on a men at work sign, the idea came from driving to university and been stuck in road works while it was raining and noticed that the silhouette on the men at work sign looked like he was holding an umbrella, I thought it would make a good animation to have the silhouette come out of the sign, come to life and do a little dance in the rain.

So my animation is going to be of a small work area on a street with a men at work sign. It starts to rain and the silhouette in the sign comes to life, he checks for any people or cars etc been around and when the coast is clear he comes out of the sign. When he lands on the floor he changes into the character I have designed of a work man and does a dance in the rain and swirls around a lamppost. After this he hears people approaching and magically goes back into the sign. I will have the singing in the rain sound track for my music and add some sound effects such as rain and people walking and general town noises.

The image to the right is the line drawing I have designed of what my work man will look like after the silhouette magically changes into him.