P2 Rob The Dog Pitch

P2 How Does Your Product Fit Into Current Trends

A lot of cartoons these day are based around a family or talking animals and usually include lots of strong language. The most popular types of animation these days are 2-D animation with 3-D backgrounds, theres not many animations that stray from 2-D nowadays. The characters also usually use strong language and are based on a group of friends or family, and most of the time have a speaking pet animal. Rob The Dog will be a web series with each episode going for around 10 minutes. Rob The Dog will follow the views of a bad language Dog who bad mouths his owner and his views on Dog life. It will be clay stop motion animation to be different and stand out more from other cartoon show. Rob the Dog being on the internet like Youtube it will allow people to easily accesses and watch it. Putting video on sites like Youtube have become a popular way to distribute content and allows a lot of re-watch-ability, especially if the episodes are short.

P2 Post on Scheduling

P2 Animation Comparison

At South Park Studios It takes them around 6 days to complete a single South Park episode. Matt and Trey start of by doing the script of the episode they then go and record the voices of the episode which they both do a majority of the characters and it takes them around 23 minutes to do a 22 minute script. The script then gets turned into a storyboard, each of them gets given a page of the script to storyboard which they have around an hour to do most over animation studios have a week to storyboard. They then lip sync and animate the show from the storyboard, to animate the show the use a program called Mia which allows them to manipulate and move the characters by layers and it still keeps the paper cut out look from the original Pilot. The pilot took 3 months and 8 people to do it was stop motion animation and the characters where paper cut outs. After they've finished an episode the take a break for about a day and start the process all over again.
Aardman set them selfs a challenge to make the smallest stop motion film using the Nokia N8 attached with a CellScope. They created there own CellScope in the Physics Department at the University of Bristol, so that it could fit the Nokia N8. The Cellscope is a microscope used to photograph and magnify blood cells, it allows them to get really close magnified pictures of Dot. Dot is 9mm tall plastic resin made from a 3D printer. The set for Dot was a meter and a half long with the Nokia N8 above it filming Dot, the set is rigid to a computer that moves it ever so slightly with the camera staying still above it. Because Dot was so small there wasn't away that they could move and adjuster her with out breaking her so there were several versions of Dot in different positions for each time they wanted to move her for the shot, there were also several replacements for each version of Dot incase she broke. Dot also holds the Guinness World Record for the Smallest Stop-motion Animation Character in a film.
Peppa Pig is CelAction 2D animation and it takes around 3 months to make one episode.

Rob The Dog Story and Episode Structure

Story
Rob the Dog will be a clay stop motion animation web series. Each season will have 10 episodes each running for around 10 minutes each episode. Each episode will consist of either Rob annoying and trying to play pranks on his owner Johnny or his friends and or hanging out with his friends while laying on his tree in the back garden.

Episode 1
The first episode will consist of introducing the characters and showing of what type of character Rob is.
Episode 2
The second episode will show of what pranks the guys like to do on Johnny and the neighbourhood. Like replacing all the food in the neighbourhood with dog food.

Episode 3
Rob has to go to the vet for his annual check up, He has to get injected which various vaccines but he manages to stab them in the doctor instead, and escape without getting any vaccines.

Episode 4
Frank tries to cope with his carrot addiction by buying lots of carrots so the gang try to get him to cut down on his addiction and try other foods.

Episode 5
Johnny wants to cut down the tree in the back garden that Rob likes to relax and sleep against. So Rob and his mates try to stop Johnny and the construction men from cutting it down.

Episode 6
A family confuses Rob with there lost dog so the capture him and take him back to theres, but the family is even worse than Johnny is so Frank and Sid try and get Rob back by any means necessary.

P2 Target Audience

The age range for Rob The Dog will be teenagers and young adults and will be aimed more at males than females.

Name: Frank Willis
Age: 16
Average Day: Frank gets up in the morning to get the bus to go to college. When he gets home he watches youtube videos and plays on playstation.
Hobbies and Interests: Video Games, Movies, Art, Cartoons, Family Guy, Aardman
Spending Power: Frank has a deposable income, he works every Saturday
Typical Media Consumption Per Day: Frank is constantly watching Youtube videos and playing on his playstation when he gets home.
Why The Animation Will Appeal To Them: Because animations nowadays use crude and rude humour  and are aimed at teens and I think Rob the Dog will fit in well with these type of cartoons like family guy and south park, also putting it on a website like youtube it is becoming a popular service that distributes content and with it being on the internet it makes it easy for anyone to watch and gives a lot of replay ability.

P2 Budget and Schedule

Animation200501 from Masinator117

Legal and Ethical in Your Animation

P2 Story and Storyboard

Story
Rob the Dog will be a clay stop motion animation web series. Each season will have 10 episodes each running for around 10 minutes each episode. Each episode will consist of either Rob annoying and trying to play pranks on his owner Johnny or his friends and or hanging out with his friends while laying on his tree in the back garden.
Storyboard
The storyboard below is the intro for the show. It starts off showing the backyard then zooms into Robs kennel showing the inside of the kennel and what's in it, the camera then starts too follow Rob as he moves out of his kennel and towards his tree that he likes too relax on. As soon as he rests against the tree the title pops and Rob's head pokes out of the middle of the O.

Below is a storyboard for a little prank/joke in the show with Rob taking a dump to annoy Johnny and not flushing it, the scene also shows that Rob acts like a human.

Representation and Ethics in Animation

Steve Rose believes that Rio 2 is a bit problematic with the casting of the characters. The main characters of Rio are played by white americans even though Anne Hathaway's main character is brazilian and all the other brazilian characters are played by African Americans. Rose also talks about there being a racial hierarchy with white americans at the top then white british other ethnicities below then darkest skins at the bottom. Dr Charles Da Costa talks about PEPs which stands for Problem Contexts, Entertainments Contexts and Performance Contexts, and he talks about how black people are comic relief in films or villains. With characters such as Chris Rocks comical Zebra in Madagascar as well as Jamie Fox and Will.i.am characters in Rio 2. He also talks about how we get these stereotypes because of how quickly animation creators have to make characters and there performances must be made quickly in order for the design processes to commence and advance. In Turbo the human characters are stereotypical Mexicans that run a taco stand and comical relief side-kicks voiced by Samuel L Jackson and Snoop Dogg while the main character Turbo is played by Ryan Reynolds this suggests that social mobility is only available to white characters and its the job of non whites to facilitate it.

P2 Voice Talent

Rob The Dog
Rob is the main character of the show and is quite loud and uses a lot of strong language and likes to play pranks and annoy his owner. The main 3 qualities for Robs voice is loud, loud mouthed and energetic. My dream role for Rob would be Paul Kaye because I think he would be perfect for the voice, he's quite loud and in previous roles he been very offensive and uses a lot of language. Paul Kaye isn't a very well known actor he is most well known for playing Dennis Pennis in the 90's and in 2007 with Mike Strutter and he's been a few episodes of Game of Thrones. Kaye has also done voice work in Mongrels and Chop Socky Chooks.


An alternative for Robs voice would be Adrian Edmondson, I think that he's voice has the similar qualities as Kaye's voice. Especially if he does Vyvyan's voice from the Young Ones,  which uses a lot of language and is quite loud character. He is most know for comedy programs around the 80's and 90's such as The Young Ones, Bottom and The Comic Strip.
My two choosing's aren't as popular or well known as they use to be so I think it would be quite easy to get either of them to get the role.




Johnny
Johnny is Robs owner he is a very laid back guy but is contently annoyed by Rob and his pranks. Johnny's voice is normal nothing too fancy and can be loud, angry and annoyed at points. My first choice for Johnny's voice is Ade Edmondson again, I think he fits the role perfectly he can switch between calm and then angry very quickly, and I think he would be able to do both Rob and Johnny roles perfectly if I wasn't able to get Paul Kaye.

Another actor that I think would be great at playing Johnny is Rik Mayall he has the same voice quality's as Ade Edmomdson, he can be very loud at violent at times and very calm as well. Mayall is most know for The Young Ones, Bottom, Comic Strip and Drop Dead Fred. Rik Mayall is a great back up for the role and he would be also great for other characters in the show.

Researching Aardman

Aardman was founded in 1972 by Peter Loyd and David Sproxton, they started Aardman because they wanted to create animated films. There first major thing they did was a little 2D animation in 1966 called Aard Man, it was a 2D animation of a idiotic super hero like man falling down a hole, they did this while working with Vision On and the producer loved it and featured it in the Vision On programme. Peter and David made £25 from this but they need a shared bank accountant to put it in and decided to call it Aardman Animations as  a laugh. Around 1975-1976 While still working with Vision On Peter and David started experimenting with 3D clay animation and did a little animation called the Gleebees. It was a little animation about little creators messing peoples desks up, they where relatively the ancestor's to Morph and the little animation was broadcasted on Vision On.

Gleebees

Aardmans first major success was Morph, Morph first appeared in 1977 on Take Hart. The producers of Take Hart wanted something to mess up Tony Harts desk and to act as a foil against him, so they created Morpth they didn't want him to have a armature they wanted him to be simple and easy to move and manipulate so they made him entirely out of clay, they then later on created Morphs relatively twin brother Chaz who was slightly paler. From the sucess of Morph they then went on to make The Amazing Adventures of Morph in 1980 which consisted of 26 episodes going for around 5 minutes each. Around the start of the 80's Peter and David meet a student that would later go on to be a big turning point for Aardman and I would say that he made Aardman for what there know for today and still relatively the backbone of Aardman, this was of-course Nick Park. David and Peter got a phone call from a national film school saying that they've got a young student that's a fan of your work and can you come up and talk to him about animation. The film student was Nick Park who was at the time working on his first Wallace and Gromit adventure A Grand Day Out, when Nick contacted Peter and David  he had only done a bit of A Grand Day Out and the school was helping out a little but it was taking him a long time to do it. Peter and David liked Nicks Work how he was animating the puppets and Nicks style, they asked Nick to help them with some work on morph during the summer which they paid him for to help him with the rest of A Grand Day Out and they helped him with the storyboard.


Creature Comforts - 1989

A Grand Day Out - 1989

The Wrong Trousers - 1993

Around 1985 they helped to make a film called Babylon for Channel 4 it was about a nuclear holacast and had over 50 puppets but they wanted Nick to help, Nick had spent around 5 years at the film school and still had not finished A Grand Day Out so Peter and David did a deal with the film school saying that they would help Nick finish it if they would bring his sets down to Bristol and if Nick helped them to do Babylon. Peter and David had a series of films to do for Channel 4 so they asked Nick if he would help them with the films. Nick was very into animals at this point and Nick came up with the idea of a film called Creature Comforts which was about animals and there opinions but with audio over the top from real peoples opinions. Nick had finished his work on A Grand Day Out and Creature Comforts and they where both nominated for an Oscar in Best Animated Short Film which Creature Comforts Won. Around the 80's Aardman did a lot of advertising work for television they did a few big adverts like Domestos, Lurpax, Chewits and many more. Nick had a sketch book full of ideas for feature films and adventures for Wallace and Gromit, most of the ideas where before Nick had started making A Grand Day Out, Peter and David teamed Nick up with Bob Baker who had written episodes of Dr Who he looked at Nicks Sketch book and he helped Nick establish ideas and the spine for The Wrong Trousers. The Wrong Trousers was Wallace Gromits second adventure about a criminal master mind Penguin renting out a room in Wallace and Gromits house the Penguin plans to steal a diamond from a museum with the help of Wallace and his robotic trousers that where intentionally designed to do things Wallace didn't want him to do and help him around the house, like taking Gromit for walks and painting the celling. The Wrong Trousers came out in 1993 and won a Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The 3rd Wallace and Gromit adventure was A Close Shave, it was about a killer robot dog that went around stealing sheep taking there wool and turning them into dog food. Wallace and Gromit meet a wool shop owner called Wendolene, there is a bit of romance between Wallace and Wendolene. Wendolene has a bad dog called Preston who is actually a robot dog who's the sheep killer and he frames Gromit as the killer dog and goes to jail. Wallace and a group of sheep break Gromit out of jail and they go and take down preston.

In December 1997 Aardman announced that Dreamworks would be helping them make there first feature length film called Chicken Run. In 1999 Aardman and Dreamworks made a deal to make an additional 4 films being made in the next 12 years, the deal however was canceled on the 30th January 2007. Dreamworks and Aardman only made 3 films together Chicken Run, Flushed Away and Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Were Rabbit. Chicken Run was Aardmans first feature film and it was quite a big steep up from the 30 minute shorts that they've done before so they had a lot more people working on it compared to Wallace and Gromit, they had over 180 people working on it and finished a minute of film each week. They started production in 1995 and it was released on 23rd of June 2000. It wasn't successful awards wise as Aardmans previous works but it gave them a big advantage and experience for feature films. Dreamworks and Aardmans second feature film brought Wallace and Gromit to the big screen in Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Were Rabbit. Aardman had to step up quite a bit from previous Wallace and Gromit adventures considering they only consisted of 1 or 2 speaking roles there had to be a lot more speaking roles and characters to fit the length of a feature film. Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Were Rabbit was released 14th October 2005 it won Aardman another Oscar and Bafta. Dreamworks and Aardmans last film together was Flushed Away and was Aardmans first computer animated film but still had Aardmans Plasticine style that they were so well known for and it was released on the 1st of December 2006. On 10th October 2005 a fire hit a storage facility where Aardman stored props, models and scenery from past films the fire destroyed all of it going back over 30 years of work and awards. In 2007 Aardman signed a 3 year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to create and distribute films , they renewed the deal in 2010. In 2008 Aardman released a new Wallace and Gromit short film called A Matter of Loaf and Deaf, it is relatively a murder mystery mock about bakers getting killed. Aardmans first film with Sony was a modern


day Christmas film called Arthur Christmas, it was a 3-D Computer Animated by looking at the style of it doesnt look like an Aardman film, when I went to see it I didn't realize it was Aardman until there name popped up, but it defiantly fits Aardmans comedy style of light jokes and jokes that adults will get in all its a great family and Aardman movie. The next film Aardman and Sony did went back to Aardmans routes of stop motion animation, the film was called The Pirates!In an Adventure with Scientists! the film was based on the book of the same title by Gideon Defoe. It came out on 28th March 2012 and was Aardmans first Clay Animation film since 2005 and was Aardmans first film to be shown in 3-D. It wasn't as successful as previous Aardman films but it did manage to double its budget in the box office it was also nominated for many awards but didnt win any. Aardman have been going for over 40 years and have experience in computer and stop motion films and have dappled in music videos and have done a lot of adverts and I hope they carry on making films for years to come.


P2 Final Design and Character Profile

Walk Cycle

 What I Did:
We imported the from the internet into after effects. After this we selected every individual layer of the legs and arms and moved the anchor point of them to the top so it would look more natural when moving them. We then moved the arms individually all the timeline making one arm going in one direction and the opposite arm go in the opposite direction, I then did the exact same with the legs.
Then I used the puppet pin tool and put one where his knee should be and elbow should be. I did this to make it look more fluent while he was walking but it wasn't very effective. I then added a picture of a road behind the bear to kind of make it look like that he's walking along a road. In all it looks alright but it looks like the bears got a bit of a limp while he's walking.

P2 Design and Target Audience

P2 Doodle Sheet

P2 Regulatory Bodies - BBFC

BBFC stands for British Board of Film Classification when it was established in 1912 it was originally know as British Board of Film Censors, They are not funded by the government they are independently funded by the work the do to classify movies. BBFC are responsible for rating movies and video games, they classify the films and vido games by what content is in them they narrow it down to who is and or not suitable to watch or play the film or game. Above is the way the age ratings for the film or game and why the BBFC give them that rating. Looking at the BBFC's ratings for films its very easy to see and understand quickly why a certain film would get a certain rating, but i would say that the PG and 12A ratings are very similar because both of them if you are under the age of around 10 you need an adult to accompany you and if so its the adults decision to see if the film is suitable for you or not, and usually the big difference between a PG and 12A is if there is blood or violence and i don't think theres many parents that would take there 6 year old to a film with a few bits of blood and violence.
The BBFC gave Coraline a PG rating because of the creepiness of the style like Nightmare Before Christmas and I would say it defiantly has a Tim Burton style about it and with more research this is because the director Henry Selick has worked on Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach and both of them mixed together defiantly make Coraline. The tad bit of bad language and a slight bit of nudity but the rating was finalized by the bits of horror and jump scary scenes that are suitable for an over 8.

Animation Process Flowchart