Progression of Sports Breakfast

This is the 30 second sequence I wanted to begin work on. I want here to show the development of my idea and how the contact with the client shaped the various changes. To begin with I felt that I had miss-represented my ideas somewhat with the examples that I sent to Jay (my contact) in the original email so I set about drawing a character and animating him as quickly as possible so that I had something to show him that would more accurately explain my idea and give him a clearer picture of what to expect. This is what I created:

There were two versions. This one is the annotated version as I felt the first (though giving a more accurately timed and flowing representation of the piece) didn't quite get my point fully across. This is the relevant email chain that ensued:

As you can see firstly he reassured me that the style and animation was all good and what he was looking for. This allowed me to go ahead with designing quicker and getting everything structured together now I knew I was heading in the right direction. Also at the end he says that he would like to arrange a meeting:

We arranged a meeting for the following Thursday which gave me a deadline to create a decent amount of work for which was good. So with that deadline in mind I created this to show them at the meeting:

This was a still largely unfinished but solidly structured version of the ident. I had some more of the characters in the scene and had added some more fine details and finesse to the overall look of the piece. They were all very impressed with it and very supportive and excited. This was great as it reassured me my work was what they were looking for. I was able to fully explain in person where I would be heading in a lot greater detail and we were also able to shape the rest of the ident together which was good. They also had a few pointers and changes to make to what was already there. 

The first was to turn the first footballer into a girl. The original footage that I rotoscoped was of a girl doing a free kick so that made it fairly simple as I just had to add in her pony tail. Also they felt it wasn't too clear that the ball was coming out of the stadium on the second shot, wide of the stadium and channel name.

They were the only real pointers they gave me though other than that I was free to carry on creating!

After the meeting I was inspired to make the changes we discussed and add more detail and characters to the ident (although I still didn't have a clip of a basketball player or tennis player I was happy with) so that I could then focus on tightening it up and getting it looking food rather than worrying about the structure. So after a bit more time and tweaking I had created this:

As you can see I added a ponytail. And changed the stadium section to a sign post. I wanted to get feedback on these changes whilst I was animating a tennis player and using the footage of a basketball player Jay sent me (which was ideal for where I needed to use it by the way). This is what he said about it:

This is at the end of a string of emails so is a little out of context but he was happy with ponytail however, they thought that the original idea with the stadium worked better. I think that it does as well as with the idea of a basketball player shooting the ball into the stadium at the end it kind of bookends the piece and creates a sense of resolution and closure.

So. With this all done I was finally at the point to create a final sequence with everything in place and all timed nicely:

This is the final ident in terms of structure and timing. It is still unfinished as there is no sound and some fine details and polish is missing however, this is the last thing I needed feedback for. He was impressed with the final design however, the only comment was the obvious lack of music and sound effects. Something I would postpone fixing for a little while as I needed to create the other sequences.