Campaign
Childhood Obesity
I’m going to quote a friend of mine on the subject here, as I feel he has expressed a view that I to share in a much more eloquent way than I can.
“ I believe that obesity has wrongfully been made into a taboo subject because it is linked to the notion of psychical imperfection from a beauty or cosmetic standpoint so it's sensitive and understandably so ... I think having more realistic and general standards of beauty aimed around promoting health in general would be beneficial and conjunctive with a positive atmosphere to tackle the issue.
I believe that a possibly purposeful lack of early education and a lack of control on the development of the capitalist food and drink industry model was our first greatest problem.
Biologically speaking the human brain has neural-receptors that respond to food and taste particularly those that come from carbohydrates like sugar and fats like saturated ... And we have at least two distinctive and effective neuro-receptors related to thirst ... From an evolutionary standpoint it makes sense to eat high calorie fat and sugary food.
But the markets and industries have made it so widely available and matched with the advent of technology that has largely reduced mobility it's no surprise children are hooked on bad addictive foods we are innately programmed to respond to then lack the capacity to change or alter their behaviour for environmental and cognitive reasons.
I think childhood obesity is rightfully sensitive but is a crisis that needs to be tackled not only on an individual level but by government and cooperation level.” - Elliott Page
Following the TV show named “You are what you eat” the term became a relative one in Britain around 2004-2007, with Gillian McKeith hosting and going through Brits cupboards to try and bring around a health awareness. Now over 10 years later whilst no longer entirely relevant to younger audiences, the term is still an easily recognized one, especially with middle aged humans who may have heard of the show if not watched it. The immediate target audience for my original idea of the campaign were young children, sat and watching TV. By broadcasting 5 different 20second adverts, each with there own cute character that eats so much it ultimately comes to an untimely end, off screen, on children's tv. The characters were meant to embody certain job stereotypes so that their accessories could make them easily relatable for a small child to understand. With bright colours and for the characters to be designed in a very “cute” (Large eyes and forehead, small hands and chubby body) stop motion style. Though through the children my primary audience for the message were the adults that may be watching with their child. As they are the ones who could actually make a change. As such I wanted to make sure to include things in the animation that they could hopefully enjoy, such as the darker undertones and also the stop motion style that ideally would be reminiscent of Aardman.
The idea of the campaign is raise awareness about the food you are putting into your body, it’s not a new idea to most people so these short videos are more about and obesity has been becoming a larger problem world wide. I want to promote the idea that it is something that can be dealt with on an individual level, by partially stepping away from the capitalist food model and also keep track of what you eat.
To have the darker undertones I tried to take inspiration from horror movies, with the flashing black lights and the beginning the mouse being there and then he’s gone. The knife glinting as the mouse is taken away at the end, and then a sudden scream off camera as the person finds out they have a mouse on the cheese board.
I also wanted to use plasticine as my main medium as then the model could literally become what it ate as it was molded into it’s body.I also wanted to try stop motion before leaving university, to have a basic knowledge of how it works.
As the project developed many of my original ideas didn’t work and so the overall theme changed more towards an old style public health announcement. The plasticine didn’t easily combine with the foods, for example the grapes when inside would just leak and then the juices stopped the plasticine from sticking. The jump scare idea didn’t work as an opening it just made it look silly. Removing the green screen from the mouse also removed sections from the darker areas on the mouse, which could be fixed with masking but also led to transparency issues.
So after swapping to the public health announcement my target audience also changed to young adults online and more of a stand alone series of animations opposed to advertisements. Making everything black and white, with a “damaged” effect to the shots and also a classic british accent and musical sound effects to really push that old fashioned style. Designed with a satirical voice over commenting on how the mouse has been trained to look for the tastiest meal.
This style makes the stop motion work a lot better with the background and overall has a more complete feel to it now that it has a more distinctive style. I took large reference from the Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L videos that detail how to survive in the waste land in the public service announcement style.
I also decided to give the mouse a slight black out line and have a higher contrast when he was more mouse like and then as he “became cheese” I removed the black out line and the contrast faded so he became more like a background object.
Companies
I do not know what company I would like to work for. I do not know what area of animation I want to go into. My current skills are with in Flash and Premiere/After effects, however I work a lot in these programs and wanted to try something new whilst I still have the freedom to do so. So I chose stop motion, with some small flash animations, and also working with the a green screen in AE. I also wanted to improve my fundamental drawing skills as this is a transferable skill which will be useful for many things in the future.
I would ideally like to work at a games company, preferably one dealing with VR as this is what I am very excited about, and all of the new ways to tell stories in it. Or a special effects company, as everything I’ve seen is also really exciting.Though I’ve pretty much been on the wrong course if I want to get into that after using university. Both of these require a higher level of knowledge with packages that I can’t currently use proficiently. So, I am working on them in my free time. Focussing on making my Flash, AE skills and fundamental drawing skills better so that Realistically at my current skill level I won’t be getting a job at any large animation houses, and it is unlikely that I would be getting one at a smaller independent studio.
Games companies in the UK
Hello games - No mans sky ( A sci fi exploration game that is randomly generated as you explore) http://www.hellogames.org/
- They are a small company so only want to hire the best people
- If you can do lots of different things then they will see it as an asset
- They want to see all of the best creative pieces and you don’t necessarily have to have worked in games before
Supermassive Games - Until dawn ( A horror game where choices have a butterfly like effect on the rest of the story) http://www.supermassivegames.com/
- There aren’t any job roles open at the moment that I would be interested in but from what I can see they always look for someone with at least 5 years industry experience in the given area
- In depth knowledge of PC and Console pipelines
- Likes working in a team
- Experience working on high end PC/PS4/Xbobx1
- Determined/Creative/Innovative
- Most of their job opportunities are posted on Linkedin not the website
Games companies around the world.
AreaNet - GW2 (An online MMORPG that has a core game that is now free to play, but with expansions that are paid for) https://www.arena.net/
- 3+ years in games industry
- Eligible to work in the US
- Team work/self motivated/passionate
- Human and creature anatomy
- High working knowledge of Photoshop, Maya/Max, Zbrush
- Strong concept of the AreaNet visual style
- No directly relevant openings but from there website I gather they are looking for people with a different mind set towards games, aiming to create artistic environments and experiences.
- As a side note they are also near Naught dog and Riot games, two other well known games companies.
Bioware - BG2 (An old RPG) ((They have also made mass effect and dragon age but unfortunately I’ve not had a chance to play these)) http://www.bioware.com/en/games/
- 5+ Years experience
- Worked on a shipped video game
- Strong 2D illustrative and 3D visualization skills
- To work to different styles
- Strong fundamentals: Line, shadow, colour
Defiant Development - hand of fate (Random cards are placed on the table and without knowing what is under them you get to choose your path, creating different encounters and stories as you travel through the game) http://defiantdev.com/
- 2+ years experience
- Console experience
- Team player/ Strong communication skills
- Encourage females and minorities to apply for jobs when they have them
I’ve also looked at companies such as Double negative, Framestore, Disney and many other games companies that I follow on socail media. They key things that appear in almost all of them are:
- 3+ years in industry
- Motivated/ Team player/ Innovative/ Strong communication/ Organized
- Good fundamentals (Principles of animation, colour,line, lighting)
- Working knowledge of Maya/Max, Mudbox and Photoshop.
- Human/Animal anatomy knowledge
SO! Job wise I will be looking for either graduate positions or freelance at least until I have the experience needed to apply to a company.
I am generally motivated by new and exciting ways to tell a story, money is also a motivator for me and creating works that will create interesting experiences for the user to change their mind set on the world.
I like working in a team, when everyone does the work, though I don’t think I’m good at dealing with when people fail my expectations, - as I can be a bit of a perfectionist so it’s something to work on.
I like working in a team, when everyone does the work, though I don’t think I’m good at dealing with when people fail my expectations, - as I can be a bit of a perfectionist so it’s something to work on.
I think I am constantly thinking of new ideas and perspectives and making connections and jotting everything down so innovative wise, yes I am a creative thinker though sometimes on a project it can take me a while before I come up with a concrete plan or way to make the ideas actually work.
Communication is something I need to work, I’ve spent a lot of time online and this has dulled my interpersonal skills.
Through my time at university so far I have found organisation and project management are strengths of mine but of course I haven’t experienced these in a professional environment as to how transferable these are shall be seen at a later date.
To work on:
- Working knowledge of Maya, Mudbox and Photoshop.
- Human/Animal anatomy knowledge
- Good fundamentals (Principles of animation, colour,line, lighting)
Campaign Portfolio
Other obesity campaigns
Starts with a fat man about to go into surgery, the video rewinds through his life until it comes to the very start when he was a baby.
“Your child's future doesn’t have to end like this, There's still time to reverse the unhealthy habits we take into adulthood we’ll show you how”
“Your child's future doesn’t have to end like this, There's still time to reverse the unhealthy habits we take into adulthood we’ll show you how”
- Very direct and strong message
- Clever reiteration, having him say things and then his mother say them
- At the end with just the sound of the heart monitor and only words on screen really pushes and makes for a powerful image
- Telling a story of his life and making him seem like a nice guy, with relatable goals of the average human “Graduate, have kids, listen to music” etc.
- Distorted first person view, colours more vivid when food is on screen, also pushing relatability, and immersion.
- Emphasised breathing and eating noises.
'Break the Habit' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82kYQ7j7X2s
Mother sitting next to her son whilst he draws, she is preparing drugs, she ties of his upper arm, reaches back to get the needle, the camera cuts and she is putting a napkin on him, he is then eating a burger.
“You wouldn’t inject your children with junk. So why are you feeding it to them? Childhood obesity, break the habbit”
“You wouldn’t inject your children with junk. So why are you feeding it to them? Childhood obesity, break the habbit”
- Shock tactics - Shares well online using the anger
- Cute child and attractive female makes the shock more so
- Sitting at the table, in a “Safe environment”
- Getting the kid to draw and really show his innocence
Action has an anti obesity campaign for children in the uk, they are currently researching what it is that children are eating.
Promoting education, research and awareness.
Provides answers for many common problems such as the cost of healthy eating and looking after both you and your childs health.
Artists
“Nature noms”
Basic textured background, enough floor space to place the creature, massive eyes, everything is super happy.
Kurby video game
Animate character on a lower framerate, move camera on higher frame rate
Creature comforts
Blinking style, background characters, 25-30 sec shots, “set in real world” filming,
Rollin’ Wild
Interesting dynamics, and character movement, 25-30 sec shots, music intro each time,
PESfilm
Clever play on words, constant changes, unexpectedness
Using Rollin wild, and Kurby as key parts of inspiration I created a character concept for the mouse. Turning her into a “hipster” mouse and humanising her for small children to identify to.
Early design sketch, mouse acting as cheese, bird doing the worm, and a ginger rabbit with carrots for ears.
The mouses main story was
Mouse - Kitchen work surface panning shot,you hear a falling sound, and you see a tub of mustard that has been opened and fallen over spilling out onto the counter, followed by some footprints, leading to a mouse on a cheese tray, someone's hand comes in and takes it along with the cheese knife (Party is happening in the background) [Then slogan plays] and you later hear a woman scream and plate smash.
I then planned all of the assets that I wanted to include:
Sink
Fruit bowl
Sugar + tea + bread bin
Some empty glasses
Empty wine bottle
Salt and pepper
Plates with crumbs on
Bread boards
Toaster
Jam jars with flour and random stuff on
Knife block
Jar of kitchen utensils
Cheese board
And started making them after making a very rough sketch up of how the kitchen would be laid out. Adding a higher blue/purple colour scheme so that the yellow mouse would stand out more.
To make them I would take photos/use free to use stock images, then do a block out of the general shape tracing over the top so the proportions were correct, move the image to the side, do the shadows, then the highlights then blur and add the details on another layer. With the kitchen layer I have also included the wood,tile and work surface textures in an overlay as I felt these needed to look the most realistic because it would be on the screen all the time. In hindsight the scroll is pretty slow and the rest of the assets are also on screen for a long time so I should have taken more time on them as well. 
As I changed the style to the service announcement I felt I also needed to include a more defined title card instead of just text. Using Adventure time's title cards, Fallout 4’s Special title card and an old Mickey mouse cartoon image for inspiration.
Videos descriptions
[Storyboard 1: Storyboard for mouse you are what you eat]
Mouse knocks over mustard, is coloured yellow, eats the cheese, person doesn't notice and eats him.
Notes:
Still designing the kitchen so have left most of the background out.
Longer pause after happy mouse, make him slink down into cheese shape.
Scale appropriately.Too long at the start? Take time from there and add it to the mouse.
Knife already on the board, Lavender/ purple to pop yellows
Mustard contrived. maybe change to cheese sauce/remove/ red wine?
Eats grapes, crackers , cheese, his stomach deforming and growing around the food that has been eaten slow squealing noise like a ballooning opening, red bulges.
[Stop motion mouse test]
Notes:
Just going for it animation, will be using the flash frames for the actual thing. Finding the green screen not as good as I'd hoped, will probably roto around it in flash (Used premiere's ultra key and black and white in the final thing) and then use that for the final thing.
Think the general reflection looks okay but will need to work it a bit more for the final thing, this is just a basic flip for the idea.
Will also need to break up the Photoshop bg layers more to fit everything I think.
[Storyboard 03 you are what you eat]
Notes:
Frame layout roto of a mouse, so I know what to animate in stop motion, both movement and timing wise.
Frame layout roto of a mouse, so I know what to animate in stop motion, both movement and timing wise.
[Mouse frames 1]
All of the stop motion mouse frames on there own, with the basic timing and green screening applied.
[Cheese 001]
Adding the mouse in with the vector images I did in Flash, to then use against the painted image of the cheese and make it disappear
[You are what you eat 004]
Adding an old style damage to the screen using AAVFX’s template and setting it to overlay. https://www.youtube.com/user/dvdangor2011
Using 1920’s royalty free music - Found and warped by Isaac Page
Created a title card
Rotoscoped video of me taking the cheese board.
[Final: You are what you eat]
Final product with the voice over by Isaac page, and sound effects added by me, I tried to keep most of them musical to be in keeping with the style as these appeared a lot in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L videos from fallout 4.
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