(Link to the full brief)
For 4D, we will be making ten GIFs (of varying frame specifications) that are each based on frequent film tropes.
These were the GIFs I made in the first session, before being briefed. It was a quick play-around, so I animated whatever came to mind.
Potential Trope Ideas
Pardon the paper at the bottom, it covers a note for a different module.
Plans for Frames
Trope: Cutting a Wire to Diffuse a Bomb
Trope: Walking Away From An Explosion
I decided to try out the concept first and played around with an evil character as a starting point.
When I tested out this concept, I noticed the character appeared more like a furious person than an evil arsonist. To amend this, I changed the timing and added some onomatopoeia to amp up the villainy factor.
The close-up frame was added because I wanted to go back to the initial idea I drew frame plans for. As walking away from an explosion is a suave move, I added sunglasses to the character since it felt appropriate to the narrative.
After both tutor and peer feedback, I developed the GIF by: delaying the explosion by changing the size of it; making the slinky walk longer so the transition was clearer and giving the ending more pizzazz with an extra sparkle. The visual impact has definitely improved and the explosion has more of a WOW factor.
Since the explosion showed a gradual change, it made sense to give the walk the same treatment. I actually really like how animating the smirk turned out as well since it ends the GIF with a small flourish.
Trope: Character Suddenly Gets Hit by Something
Following my initial sketches, I roughed this out:
This was inspired by a tutor suggesting we could include typography. As I was wondering what to choose to hit the character with, the word 'CRASH' popped into my head and it felt like a genius idea. After all, the most impactful part of the narrative is when the character is hit, not what the character is hit by.
Trope: Hero thinks they're safe (but villain returns)
I feel like I communicated the narrative as clearly as possible here. The variations lie within the 3rd frame, when the hero suddenly feels a presence behind them, but it's too late with their guard already down. I do like that the version on the right can be interpreted as the hero is frozen from fear, or the villain has turned the hero to stone, spelling certain doom. This critical moment could be more intense.
I'm very pleased with this version, however, I decided to adjust the amount of confetti in the 3rd frame. The left has no confetti and the right has a small amount. Personally, I prefer the version with a bit of confetti because it has higher comedic value, as if the confetti also couldn't escape in time.