AND315 - Charity Video
I decided to create a 2d animation for a company called Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest to help them promote the retirement of laboratory Chimpanzees. They hold a sanctuary that cares for retired chimpanzees and are currently in the process of freeing more chimps.
Contacting my Charity
I immediately knew when beginning this project that I would like to create an animation for Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. I have been in support of their work for 3 years and thought that creating an animation for them would be a good way to help their cause.
I originally wished to create an animation that was more extreme in its message, which would involve chimps suffering, however, I found this to be rather intense and not enjoyable for this project. I then decided to revise this and create something more heartwarming and hopeful.
Thumbnails
Before creating a storyboard, I decided to do some thumbnails to get a feel for the video. As the original video was much darker in theme, the angles and colours were a lot darker for the majority of the animation.
I additionally wanted the art style to be more realistic and disturbing, however, I realised that this would be rather inappropriate in conveying that chimps have very similar emotions to humans.
The colour scheme consists of greys, beige and dramatic lighting to give a sense of unease and as though it was an event that happened in the past as we would firstly be looking at a memory of the chimpanzee. By the end of the video, the sky would be bright and the colours very calm. However, I additionally realised that it may appear that the chimp has died and so I decided to eventually change the lighting to a less pastel and dream like sky.
Project Research
(WARNING: Contains distressing images)
For this project, I knew that I had to look into real examples of the living conditions for chimpanzees inside of these laboratories. Although it contains sensitive material, I did wish to convey a somewhat realistic idea of what chimpanzees have to live in to get the message through to viewers that it needs to change.
I additionally looked into the health of these chimpanzees by watching several documentaries. This allowed me to get a sense of movement for the chimpanzees and to understand their emotional expressions in order to replicate them in the animation.
WEBSITES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExEjXLMd4VA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_CF-SOgkOY
Burrito
(The Chimpanzee)
I decided to base the main chimpanzee in my video from a chimp at the sanctuary: Burrito.
I gathered some images of different facial expressions of this chimp so that I could use his character in the animation. He is very playful and has distinct facial features which I thought would be a great source of inspiration when making an eye catching main character.
In addition to gathering photographs of Burrito, I also gathered some videos that show how he acts within the sanctuary to gain an even better understanding of this chimp.
Video Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFV3s-OK7WQ
Older Ideas
Audio Links:
Background Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/better-days
Bird Sound Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRsCZYZAdc
My original idea was to have the chimpanzee just waing up from being taken to the laboratory. The chimpanzee is very disoriented and begins seeing and hearing other chimps within the sanctuary screaming.
He then sees a scientist approaching him but before the scientist can touch him, he wakes up from this memory and sees that he is safe with his friends inside of the sanctuary.
I did experiment quite a lot with this idea, however, I felt that it was too intense for the Sanctuary and so I decided to change the idea and create a more inspirational advert.
New Storyboard
This storyboard shows the chimpanzee looking out of the window from his cell and imagining himself outside. I did deviate from this storyboard in the final animation by assing a bird and some more text to it. If I could redo this I would add more information from the Chimpanzee Sanctuary NorthWest website.
In addition, I would stick to this storyboard more. I did like the introduction of the bird but I do not believe that this animation was the best it could have been.
Backgrounds
Unused animations
There were some animations that I had planned on using but they never made it into the project. I wanted to make some more wide shots of the chimp so that he wasn't always in a close up shot and if I were to change it in the future I would add some.
I feel that the animation could have been smoother for these to work but I enjoyed these nonetheless.
Final Animations
In the end I decided to create two versions of the animation. I felt that there should be more text throughout the animation instead of leaving it all to the end. I feel that this worked but thought that the other worked but the pacing was too fast without the words inbetween.
I am overall happy with the way that the backgrounds look and the change in atmosphere from when the chimpanzee is inside and outside. The facial expressions work well but need more frames and fluidity between each shot. I additionally would texture the characters if I improve it in the future.
I definitely believe that changing the idea to a more hopeful one rather than the one where the chimpanzees are shown to suffer is better as it will not be as hard for viewers to watch. The friendliness of the advert is present and it is more heartwarming to watch. In addition, my main goal in this animation was to show that chimpanzees can feel emotions in a similar way to humans and I believe that was conveyed in this animation.