Story Setup
You will be placed with a partner in your class and your group will be assigned one of the character traits above that the elementary students learn. Your group will then come up with a story centered on one of the elementary school's values that they teach the children and create an animation 3-4 minutes in AI and AE that will be shown in chapel.
CHARACTER
Your characters are a huge part of your story that allows the reader a medium to relate to the story. Sketching your character ideas on paper allows your mind to freely draw. It does not matter if you are not good at drawing, just make sure they look unique and have personality.
Here are early sketches of some of the most famous cartoon characters, which were drawn in the 1920s. Notice the simple shapes and differing personalities/expressions.
To help you brainstorm, draw at least three different character ideas for your story in your CA ideas book for about ten minutes in pencil, marker, or pen (you do not need to color them now). Keep in mind that the audience is elementary students and the color scheme that you will want your story and characters to follow. Be sure to go back and add physical characteristic details and personality to your characters. Notice how much character the three animals below have:
Each group member will sketch three characters of their own in their CA book. Later when you create your characters in AI, you may not use the actual files you made for the Illustrator tutorials (e.g. Panda) or ones you made in the past.Take a picture of your sketch and attach it to an email to WordPress. Later in another class you will discuss your character ideas and choose the main and supporting characters. Mr. Heil may help decide based on the quality and creativity of the characters.
Choose one of your characters that you sketched and copy the info below and past into the email and replace the information for your character.
Character
Name: Apple Jack
Type of character: Frog
Age: 8
Gender: Male (in your story, at least one character has to be a male and one has to be a female)
Physical Description: Light green body with a red stripe, small body but big feet, likes to wear a red baseball hat
Personality Type: Very quiet, likes to party alone, does not have many friends
About: Lives with his brother, his best friend is a worm, he eats pizza for breakfast
Role: Protagonist (main character, the "good guy"), antagonist (the person or thing that goes against the protagonist, the "bad guy"), supportive character, leading character
SETTING
Copy and paste the following into the same email and answer each for your story idea. You can either write your group's agreed upon story idea or choose your own idea and share next class and decide with your partner which story to choose:
Story Setting Information
Audience
Who is your main target audience? (e.g. elementary students at YISS)
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ESLRs
Which YISS ESLR were you assigned that you will show in the story? Write it out.
Theme
What moral does your story teach in the end that is combined with your ESLRs (e.g. friendship, sharing, family, good habits, never lie, listen to your parents, eat your vegetables)
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Geography
City and country location (e.g. Seoul, Paris, Russia)
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Setting
The place in the area (e.g. on a farm, in the city, on a boat in the ocean, in outer space, at a basketball game)
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Characters
Name of the Protagonist and general description:
Name of the Antagonist and general description:
NARRATIVE ARC
Full Size
Copy the following and write your own idea or group's idea for your narrative arc story. Make sure you explain where and how you will use the YISS Guardian in your story (e.g. rescue the protagonist). Your story also must have a twist but it can be anywhere in the story.
Include the Narrative Arc in your post for your story's character (example):
Each group member should the email their own post to WordPress and the link to the spreadsheet.
do not do:
Overview
It is very important that you read and understand how to make creative characters. If you do not understand this concept, it could hurt your final story and grade.
Download the Illustrator template and delete the story text & title and write your own in it (thank senior David Lee for making it and saving you time from making it). If your twist is in a different location, delete that line and redraw that line with the twist where you want it.
When you are finished with your graph, upload a screenshot or JPG (make sure that it is large enough and can read the text) and also the original file. Follow the example to create your graph. Then copy the seven headings below and fill out the content in the same posterous article.
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Do not do:
start with a
https://sites.google.com/site/mouseflip/ca/projects/4-story/storylineplot/story-ideas
When you are finished, place three stars next to your best characters that have the most potential and briefly color them (good example). Keep in mind a color scheme that you will want your story and characters to follow. Be sure to go back and add physical characteristic details and personality to your top three characters.
When you feel you know which character you will use as the top main character, draw him or her again on a separate page.
You will be the fourth character in your story using the green screen effect to insert yourself into the story. When you create your character, try to give him or her a somewhat significant role (does not have to be the main character). The more involved and interactive he or she is with the story and characters, the better (good example). Your character should be a unique character (do not be your normal personality or voice and dress up in a creative way).
Create character profiles for each of your four top characters (three plus you as a character) by copying the bold title's below and pasting it into a new email to your Posterous and write in the content for each (not in bold). For the character you will be, make sure to describe how you will dress up in the description; this is important.
Examples:
Four Main Characters
Character #1
Name: Apple Jack
Type of character: Frog
Age: 8
Gender: Male (in your story, at least one character has to be a male and one has to be a female)
Physical Description: Light green body with a red stripe, small body but big feet, likes to wear a red baseball hat
Personality Type: Very quiet, likes to party alone, does not have many friends
About: Lives with his brother, his best friend is a worm, he eats pizza for breakfast
Role: Protagonist (main character, the "good guy"), antagonist (the person or thing that goes against the protagonist, the "bad guy"), supportive character, leading character
Character #2
Name:
Type:
Age:
Description:
Personality:
About:
Role:
In addition to the character profiles in your post, take photos of your three chosen character drawings in your CA book and insert your YT link to include in your post to Posterous.
you will video record yourself drawing a
Use a tripod, stack o
Start out by drawing various character ideas; remember to be creative and each should look unique and have a personality.
After drawing at least ten various characters, each on a separate sheet or side of the paper.
When you are finished filming, speed up your video so it looks like you are drawing fast. Don't make it too fast that we cannot see your drawing process and make sure your camera angle and distance is appropriate.
Upload the video to YT and paste the link to posterous and post the top three character drawings that you may use (take photos of them) as attachments in the same email.
f books, etc to fix the camera in a well lit room or outside. Use loose white (no lines) or light colored paper with markers that write text cleanly and draw well. View the video below for a good example of how to set it up and the writing tools to use.