Research sources list:
No Sources.
Development

I’ve ended up redesigining my character quite a few more times than expected, I think this is because I want to make sure that my protagonist is portrayed as closely to how I envisioned her a possible. I didn’t want to end up animating or creating turn arounds before I felt i was completely happy with the appearance of my character. So having finally come up with a design I feel works to all the specific requirements (such as figuring out how I want her facial expressions to work, body size,overall structure and proportions of the character) I feel I can move onto other areas of my animation production. Co-side my redesigning I began work on my storyboards, I really enjoyed the creative freedom when considering each shot and scene.
Strengths

I have my first storyboard almost complete but I’m already aware that perhaps that the scenes are maybe too complicated for the time that I have, I would love to be able to fully render the entire animation but again this is unrealistic. I think my strengths which I’ve noticed throughout the years is being able to put myself in my characters shoes and create a storyboard with camera angles that work well with the emotion at the time. I’m excited to continue with this project and see what I’m able to come up with and how I will tackle certain animation challenges.
Areas for Development
Areas for development this week is to make sure I complete my storyboards and then relook at them and figure out if they are over complicated or I’m comfortable with the way I’m going about this project. However I will not just leave them how they are I will throughout next week again redevelop my story and see what ideas I come up with that work better.

Narrative theory is fundamental within the story telling world, however you decide to go about developing and telling your story to an audience. I’ve decided to recap on some areas within narrative theory to remind me of components i can use in my own storytelling.
Todorov’s Equilibrium Theory believes that plots follow five key stages,
1. the Equilibrium stage, this gives the audience an idea of how the characters normal days are.
2. the Disruption stage this breaks the equilibrium and usually results in the characters coming to an understanding that something needs to be done about it.
3. Realisation Stage, the characters plan to do something about the disruption, usually putting the characters into a dangerous situation.
4. Restored Order Stage, the characters will attempt to restore the equilibrium
5. Equilibrium is restored.

Propps Fairytale Character Theory,
The Hero, usually the main character, defeat the villain and marry the princess
The Villain and the hero struggle conflict wise between one another
The Dispatcher, sends the hero on their quest
The Helper. Helps the hero on their quest
The Princess, A female character the hero is trying to resque or win over
The Donor, gives the Hero a magical object to help them on their quest.
The False Hero, someone at the beginning of the story which we are lead to believe wants to help the hero but turns out they are against them. ( A traitor)
Strouse’s Theory of Binary Opposition

I’m still experimenting with my character design, I’m yet to have reached a design that I’m fully happy with but I know that if I keep at it I will develop an idea which I feel fits my animation and the visual ideas that I have for it.

Character traits that I’m playing with throughout and that I won’t be changing is the hair. The hair is going to be very much a signature trait for my young heroine. The bun on the one side is a popular hairstyle for young Japanese girls which I’ve discovered through my research and so I felt for her age range especially that this fitted well. Now to consider the environment she’s living in and taking in the fact that she is alone in this world, I wanted one side of the hair to have fallen down. To signify the fact that she is unable to put it back up due to lack of resources (No shops) and no parents/guardians to help her do it (illustrates her age).  But why does she not take both sides down? Because if she was to do that then she is choosing to forget how her life used to be, or perhaps the person that helped her with her hair in the first place. For a childs mind, her hair being up represents some kind of safety, like a warm memory from the past.

Research sources list:
I googled more references in order to create moodboards to help me throughout my iterative design work as well as research into narrative and storytelling via the internet.
Development
This week my character design has started to take a lot more shape and structure, Instead of trying to create a character without much thought, this week I’ve really questioned myself on why her appearance is this way, should it be different due to how she’s living, how do I make her appear young. These are elements that will really work to set the scene and of course display my character in her truest form. Through looking at reference images I’ve been able to start planning my designs around her age and the character design elements needed in order to reflect this age, something that I wasn’t aware I was doing wrong at the beginning. After talking to Jon about the overall message or moral I wanted my animation to convey we realised that it would be around the idea of ‘Balance’, a balance between humanity, nature and technology, which would be clearly communicated through challenges my character will face and the ways she is successful in overcoming them.
Strengths
My strengths this week within this project have been that both my character and story have come along way, to a point now where I can start to storyboard them. My character design is starting to slowly but surely represent the character that I imagined being in my animation, having considered her cultural background, environment and age. My fable idea has been refined where I’m now excited to start creating more designs and play around with compositions and backgrounds as I now know how I can clearly communicate my message.

Areas for Development
I know my aim was to try and have a storyboard done this week, although that has happened I will get this done over the weekend so I can start to consider timings, how long each scene needs to last and how I want the overall animation to look. I will also over the next week get my designs for all my characters finished and hopefully be able to have some rough character sheets finished along with some designs and drafts for the backgrounds. While I’m working and drawing I’m going to listen to music that could potentially feature in my animation and see what works and feels best.