Here is a brief insight into the thinking and creative process of, "Norman is Lost" we needed Norman to be original, and also have recognisable appeal we quickly learn't that there is no perfect formula to do this, it actually took a much more abstract process.
These are some of the initial sketches that were crucial for making, "Norman is Lost." To design characters I initially used watercolour and splashed blobs of paint across my sketchbook pages, creating random chance was key and also having the vision to pick a successful design. I did this by drawing over these random blobs to get the finalised characters.
These are some of the initial sketches that were crucial for making, "Norman is Lost." To design characters I initially used watercolour and splashed blobs of paint across my sketchbook pages, creating random chance was key and also having the vision to pick a successful design. I did this by drawing over these random blobs to get the finalised characters.
A turnaround of Norman was really helpful when initially animating him, as the row cycle was at first a challenge we also recorded live footage of me impersonating Norman.
Action and Analysis greatly help when first learning how to make a row cycle. We then also used this for some of Norman's more difficult scenes such as the whale and the match strike.
With primary research in mind we utilised Bristol's Aquarium for a closer look at some of the creatures in the film such as the octopus, puffer fish and, shark. This trip was extremely helpful to us as we figured how we could animate them just by observing how the creatures behaved.
With primary research in mind we utilised Bristol's Aquarium for a closer look at some of the creatures in the film such as the octopus, puffer fish and, shark. This trip was extremely helpful to us as we figured how we could animate them just by observing how the creatures behaved.
The storyboard was created digitally on Photoshop. We spent a long time making this as close to the final film as possible, as we knew it would work also as an animatic which made it worth the extra time spent. We could easily visualise the film as we were making it, we based the storyboard on picture books, this led to us designing both a film and the bones of a picture book, it gave us a new direction and aim to make a picture book.
Here is the animatic we created out of the storyboard panels, we knew instantly that it was successful as we immediately knew how Norman would behave the timing and also the feel of the film, the colours etc. We then pitched it to musicians as we felt music would enhance the film.
Tom did text for us, he contacted us after he saw the animatic on Facebook. He kept that hand drawn feel of the text, it's appealing and suits our aim of making a picture book, he also animated the text subtly so it's not either dead or distracting.
Stills of the film show how the mood changes throughout Normans journey. How he gets less and less hopeful as the day progresses and then suddenly light at the end of the long journey.
The script that we presented to Arril, we gave him plenty of leeway for his own interpretations of the characters.
DVD Cover
i made a wooden laser cut of Norman in a workshop using cad / cam techniques