Manchester Animation Festival Research: Song of the Sea - Character Sheets and Mood Boards

One thing I haven't been utilizing in my developmental process of animation prior to this course are mood boards. Mood boards are assemblages of images which portray a certain style of approach for a future animation, and I had NEVER even heard of them before. Luckily, Manchester Animation Festival provided panels which shed light on this part of the developmental process, particularly with Tom Moore and the making of "Song of the Sea". The backgrounds used for this feature-length animation amazed me with their style, as they were accurately compatible with the mood board which was presented. Furthermore, the backgrounds retained their "organic" essence of pure watercolor (hence they were drawn traditionally), as they were edited afterwards digitally.

I was intricately interested in the character sheets of the main character Ben, for there were many of them on display. Every single necessary key-frame of character position, perspective, and emotion was drawn, accurately providing the studio animators (and us) with a concise overview of how the character is to be animated. Honestly, I was interested in the character sheets because I still haven't reached that point where this skill is properly honed, as I am still practicing on perspective drawing (not realistic, of course, cartoon wise!). The lines are simple, yet elaborate, and I am astonished at how simply the character is designed, but with the soul and feel of a real person, a real boy.