After presenting our idea to the Horniman museum clients, we received some helpful praise and criticism. To put it simply;

What they enjoyed

1. it’s a creative idea, and digestible for children
2. it’s educational and our message is a clear one, we’re teaching kids about why we call dogs man’s best friends

What could be improved

1. timings are a bit awkward- the amount of dogs may have to be cut
2. there isn’t any form of a conflict- adding one would give the characters more of a reason for acting in the ways they do, and it would reach a more satisfying conclusion

We also learned that we needed some finished and polished designs, as we’d have to present our work to the clients again in a couple weeks, so that they could see the improved idea. My group also had a tutorial with Jane, our creative writing teacher, where we could receive further feedback on our loglines and overall narratives. All in all we needed an updated storyline, some character designs and some refinement for time.

After some quick discussion, our group decided to change the character of the little boy a bit; instead of being a dog lover, he was going to be someone struggling to adapt to life with his new, hyperactive pet dog. The animation would start with the dog chewing on one of the boy’s toys, which angers him and causes him to run to his room. His grandma, hoping to ease tension, reads him the dogs with jobs book, which makes him like the dog by the end of the animation, allowing it to sleep next to him on his bed.

After our discussion with Jane, we again changed the narrative a bit; She felt that this storyline antagonised the dog a bit, and suggested making the relationship between the boy and the dog one where neither is right or wrong, they’re just not understanding each other. We then changed the idea a little, having the boy be afraid of the dog instead of hating it, and removing the scene where the dog breaks the boy’s toy. Now, the story was about a boy overcoming his fear of the new family pet after his grandmother reads him a story showing him why we should love dogs, and that they’re here to help us. I feel that this narrative is stronger as it gives the grandma more of an incentive to read the book to the boy, and it adds another message to the story overall; it teaches kids that dogs are not animals that should be feared, a lesson which can be applied to other animals and fears that children have. To make some time for the middle scene, we cut the Dalmatian fire dog; we chose to axe this dog as we were a bit unclear on what Dalmatians actually did at fire departments, and a Dalmatian would be hard to animate because of it’s spots.

With a reprised story, We needed some polished art and visuals for the animation. We’d have to present again in a couple of weeks, and for this presentation we needed character designs, an animatic with sound and a ‘proof of concept’, or a short animation to give a quick visual sample of what the animation would look like. Me and my group started off by calling each other and creating some rough art;

We tried combining our art styles a bit so that all of us could draw the characters with ease, and we came up with a rough storyboard to get a rough idea on some of the angles and shots we would include in the animation. With these rough designs done, we were ready to come up with some more polished character designs;

I was in charge of designing the humans and the pet dog, as the Dalmatian had now been cut and I only had one actual book scene to complete. We already had a rough idea for each character, so I was kind of just polishing the designs and making them fit for animation. We chose to make the pet dog, Nutmeg, a Pomeranian, as they’re small and hyperactive dogs which fits our narrative well. We’re aiming for a cozy, homely look for the animation, so we’ll mainly be using yellows, oranges and other warm tones.

Due to numerous technical difficulties, I offered to make the proof of concept myself although we had initially planned to split the work, while Calix worked on our presentation and Leonardo worked on the animatic.

After presenting all of this to the clients, we received more feedback on how to improve;

1. They felt the middle scene that Jane suggested is unneeded and interrupts the flow of the animation based on the animatic
2. They think more time should be used on the opening and ending scenes, as the interaction between the humans is important and should be focused on
3. They feel we may need to cut another dog to allow more time
4. The shots in the beginning (namely shot 3) could be more dynamic and exaggerated, as well as lasting longer, to really cement the boy’s fear and feelings about the dog.

With this new feedback, we’ll work to improve our idea once more so that it’s fit for the clients. I look forward to updating when my team have worked around our issues.