Storyboard

I wanted to make my animation interesting and intriguing so when i began creating the storyboard i knew it had to be different and imaginative. I wanted the character to be as scary as is written in the poem, i thought the best way to do this was to have the animation set in the imagination of the narrator who truly believes he looks as scary as he describes. When planning out the storyboard I tried to imagine how the child would act, and how he'd like to be perceived by those around him so i decided to have him walking to the party but experiencing the life of his vampire ego as he goes, as he thinks himself as scary i added shots of him jumping out at the camera and terrifying objects around him such as the cat and the pumpkins. I also wanted it to stick to the poems narration so when it mentions how the character "cut off his bangs" i have a closer shot to his face and hair and when he says "man i look cool" i wanted him to smile at the camera.

I then updated the storyboard so that everyone knew how to shade it and what the new angles and shots were.

Layouts

When we were put into groups we all picked different parts of the storyboard we wanted to draw layouts for, we all developed these layouts and kept posting them onto our group page so that i could see if we needed to change anything. I wanted the features to be very Gothic and dark, I first drew a basic line drawing of my layouts which I then shaded in monochrome tone, i used a certain style of brush to create a more textured look.

I made sure i had the perspective correct which i then began to add more detail on to the houses themselves.

I could then add tone and the extra details such as the tree and the hills in the background with the over exaggerated moon behind. I had to have the layout in this shape so that when it came to putting it in after effects i could use the pan to follow my character a he moves.

I then created a colour scheme that i could use for my shots. Its made up of mostly blue, green and purple shades.

When creating my houses I wanted them to have character and a broken down feel to them so i researched and made a simple mood board of what I wanted. 

This is another layout i had to do using the same brush and tones to create a similar effect.

These are the final versions of my layouts, i kept the bold lines as i thought they added to the mood of the animation, i also coloured one of the shaded layouts in as well to see how it would look as a final piece but decided i didn't like it as much as the monochrome versions.

Geography

I  needed to make sure that the continuity was right in my animatic so I made geography of every scene.

When I was designing different angles for my storyboard I made a rough layout for one of them so it could be used as a reference when drawing the final layouts.

Character design

In the poem the way that the boy describes the way he looks is a very stereotypical vampire character, so i wanted to portray this in my animation. I also wanted the animation to be very atmospheric so I tried to interpret a Tim Burton's style as well.

I began by trying to find the shape and facial features by drawing thumbnails.

This was the shape i liked the most so i tried to add more detail to it.

I then cleaned it up and made a turnaround of the character.

I also wanted to make an expression reference for when animating.

Moodboards

When we were first given the poem i began creating mood boards, i wanted it to be dark and sinister with lots of mood lighting, and a variety of shots and angles. I also knew that i was going to have two different types of character in my animation, an evil looking character very similar to Tim Burton and late Gothic film characters and then to contrast a simple colourful one.

I liked the use of simple shapes so i tried to use this when designing my two characters.

When i began looking at layouts, angles and colour themes  for my animation i made another mood board. Similarly to the characters i wanted there to be two different layouts, one mostly coloured in cold tones with exaggerated props and features to create an eerie and unsettling atmosphere and then one with warm colours and basic surroundings to create a sense of normality.