Having a Blast

Having a Blast

Having a Blast is a short, short story idea that I came up with and animated for a 2nd year, self-assigned uni project. The second I found the seagull rig (which is credited at the end of the film), I was inspired to get ludicrous with it and have some toony fun.

Story Ideas

I had a few concepts for the piece - while seagulls are definitely the meanest, they're not the brightest - meaning lots of opportunities for humorous storytelling.

Having settled on the explosion - inspired by the classic Mission Impossible dialogue  'This tape will self destruct' - I made an animatic, to help plan out the timing of the CG animation. Its thumbnails are below.

In preparation for animating, I also did some thumbnail movement studies to understand the basic movement, enabling me to then go crazy with exaggeration.

I focused on movement I knew would be necessary to the piece. Walking, the dragging of the tape, and throwing the head back to eat. The study of motion and extensive storyboard acted as the foundation of the film.

The Tape

I modelled a cassette inspired tape recorder to that it was instantly evocative to the audience, while the seagull remains blissfully unaware of what he is eating.

Watch Me!