Have not updated in a while so thought id put on my gold, which i am still tweaking for the final exhibition. Another part of the projects for the film are vanity stills of the film at a higher resolution so i have also uploaded some that are already complete and ready for the hand in.

Pretty Gougla Final Animation GOLD from Sonia Ioannou on Vimeo.

Ive just quickly uploaded some character sheets and designs i did for my pre production portfolio! helps to give an idea of what the final characters will look like!

The pre vis above includes my new lovely soundtrack by chris whom is doing my music for me! and doing a really nice job of it! The timings are out because ive been editing shots! :( so this upload is more for chris to see the changes that need to be done!! :D!

Above I have included my Pre vis for my film! Currently I plan to work on finalising all the backgrounds ready for the animation.

Suggestions for storybord

Just to give a small update after my presentation, all seemed to have gone well with any questions being answered in the storyboards. Questions included information being stated by the narrator so i just had to clarify what the narrator would be saying to fill in the gaps! the weakness in the story which i had already known was an issue and for this reason left it to see what the panel could suggest. This was that some tutors wanted to see the witch doing spells and each time getting prettier. Some thought it was better off without and the decision in the end was mine. Since this would not make the story much longer i decided that after the storyboards go to outside with the the zaps through the window of the witch casting spells, i would shoot back into the castle showing the witch getting prettier! this will happen 3 times and at this stage my film will change from day to night.

This means that my story will follow the traditional layout with

1) a set up
2) 3 things that go wrong
3) a solution or a resolution!

With this i feel that my story now has a more richer middle! and thus showing the viewers also where the spells have been going wrong!

I have also begun investigating any scenes that i think will give me problems, and will need researching and development. The first ones i have begun thinking and researching are the pixie dust scenes, with the help of people that know fusion and particles, also the glow coming from the big book of spells. The day going to night.

These are my main focus. I will also begin looking at my assets for the film in regards to colour and design which will be over half way by the time i have to present my ideas again to the panel on the 11th of November!

Current Storyboards and Magical Element

My tutor suggested that because the film has a magical element i could attempt to simplify the production stage by having the broom glide and to get rid of the arms and legs, so that he has to use magic to summon books etc. And to also have sparkles and magical pixie dust where magic is taking place!


This is my current storyboard, I am meeting with tutors on tuesday for a small presentation and from there, there may be some changes! which i will also post up!

Gougla Storyboard, Advice, Models, Names, Narration update

Since the last time that i left my launch blog i have been working on various different ideas for my film. I have created 3 models using super sculpey each with variantion that i was thinking about for my character which i will post once i have taken pictures. However, since i have designed my final character and will be modelling her in the next week i hope. I have also been creating some flash tests for my showreel using my character and this gave me a rough idea as to if i could animate her or not. The piece went well, and its allowed me to see where i may have difficulties. The main changes made have been to my storyboard. My last film's storyboard changed all the way through production last year and earlier this year, which gave me problems when timing my animation. Therefore, this year i planned to get an almost perfect airtight storyboard, with if anything some minor changes for the better in regards to camera angles.


My story for my film is about a witch that gets a flier for an annual ulgy competition called 'Warts 'N' All', but the terms and conditions state that you need to have a certain amount of ugly features to attend. But my witch is pretty, and cannot enter. She gets quite upset and runs to the living room, where the broom (skooba) is floating around. He sees this and summons the letter. He realises what is wrong and heads over to the bookshelf to pick up the 'encyclopeida' version of the yearly winners guide. He calls it over to Gougla (my witch) and they have a look through it. They finally find the previous 2008 winner and look over to the book of spells with a glint of mischief in their eyes. They go over and have a look through the book and find a spell called ' appearance disorientatous'. We then are shown the outside view of the castle where you can see some wand actions with bright lights through one of the windows. As day turns to night, we are back in the castle where the wand is thrown across the room and a tired Gougla is crying! In anger she picks up Skooba and flies around the castle. In the meantime her anger is bringing in dark clouds and anger thunderstorms and she is struck by one of them. She wakes up and is helped up by a pair of floating hands. She looks around scared and there is a flash. Gougla and Skooba have fallen into the competition and have won because they look a wreck from the thunderstorm hitting them. It then shows them in the new book crowned as the winners.

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The story line had been the same but there was many suggestions such as to have the castle as the competition location and that she was already there but her spell was wearing off.

Another suggestion was that we see her performing the spells.

Also there was meant to be pictures (moving images) of previous winners in her household and how she clearly is the odd one out.
Nevertheless, once i started plotting out the actual storyboard the one i went with seemed to be a story that flowed much better from one scene to another. My tutor advised us to use angles, arcs and curves rather than straight lines and keep objects in the foreground such as trees so that they acted as the frame, giving the illusion that the frame merely obstructed the objects around it. I came home and changed my Storyboards where necessary getting rid of straight lines and putting things on thirds. And this really improved the visuals for my shots. I asked my boyfriend to tell me which was better without telling him what i had done and each time he selected the new one without knowing why. When i told him what i had done i also asked what it was about those particular stills and he replied by saying they were visually more interesting. This simple piece of advice has improved my Storyboard by far.

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As i said in my launch the name Gougla stands for 'Dolly' or 'doll' in greek which is used for loved ones or small children its a cute nickname. Skooba is the greek word for Broom. Its quite cheesey but the names are catchy and it just gives my plot some irony.

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The name for my film had many options from Pretty Ugly, Pretty Ugly Gougla, Gougla and Skooba, The adventure of Gougla the witch and many more. I did a vote within the house and some friends and it was decided to keep it simple with Pretty Gougla.

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Another major change that i had never thought of before having it suggested to me was that i should have it narrated by a voice actor.

I thought this over and looked at my storyboards to see what i could do with a narrator. And it worked very well. There was bits in the story such as the terms and conditions section where i had to show why she was getting angry and this aleviated some minor holes in the plot. I have since had a look at some demos online by profressional voice actors, and am still debating if i should have a male or female. I imagined the male with a deep film advert type voice or the a young female which could act as Gougla's thoughts. At the moment i have found many males that i think would work well with my short animation but once I show my storyboard in the presentation i plan to write a loose script and see the scriptor to see what can be done to improve it. As this also needs to be perfect or it could ruin the mood of the film.

Its a lot to take in but a lot has happened and i have not been able to post. I will post up my models that i have currently made along with my storyboards in my next blog!

Pretty Gougla Blog Launch

hello!!!!

My name is Sonia Ioannou and I am currently in my last year studying 2D Digital Animation at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

The purpose and idea behind this blog is to keep an updated record of my development towards the making of my new animation, with the final goal being my final degree film, 'Pretty Gougla', which is scheduled for completion towards the end of May 2009.

My second year film can be seen seen by clicking this link.

The name of my character is the Greek word for 'doll', which plays a crucial element in the film and which will be explained in my next blog along with my initial ideas and current changes made to the present storyboard and how the story will be told via poetic narration.