Burt continued

I worked on further developing Burt into a more stylised and like able character. I must admit on developing him further and looking back at the old Burt he is rather sinister looking. The newer Burt is comprised of the same features however i played around with adding extra parts to him, such as the glasses and moustache and altering his hairstyle, until i came to the newer style. Another thing that i did do was shrink him down slightly. I made his legs shorter and enlarged his head ever so slightly, which i feel gave him an overall better 'elderly' appearance. I haven't finished developing him yet as i want to push this stylised characteristic much further until i am at a stage where i can ensure his environment and entire surroundings all correspond.

After developing his appearance i also started to develop the story line. Initially i had intended to incorporate a military style part of him into the story, but after a chat with Phil it made so much more sense for him to be an RAF veteran. This then enables me to tell a slightly different story about Burt. I did want there to be small clues about him in his room, but choosing this more focused past it has opened up more doors to his character. For instance if he was a veteran there are certain parts of his character that will never change, for instance the possibility that he still wears his old uniform, or that he is still very tidy and neat, and also there may be old memorabilia in and around his room. I have always considered the story to involve him as an old man alone, but with no real main focus onto his wife. A re-think of the story means that his past will become a little more in the foreground then it was before, making my animation an animation about Burt and not just and old man and a fly. Phil suggested comparisons to the fly buzzing sound and the sound of an old fighter plane engine holding some sort of significance in Burt's mind, and so i am going to begin some basic stick man storyboards of possibilities for each scene.

Below are the progressions in my sketches of the new Burt so far, i will post continued imagery as it is created.

New Vs old proportions

With and without tash...
Newest sketch of Burt, with smaller legs
A test using some colour...

I would like to also post an animation that Phil showed me, that is incredibly stylised to the point that at times all you see is the characters and a very basic background. These are all things I'm thinking about at the moment to do with my story - what is it exactly that i need to tell this story of mine?