Behind The Scenes
This page provides some insight into what went into making 'Axolotl's Aren't Real' including all the pre- production, production and post- production work. This page will cover early concepts, frame-by-frame and rigging animation, voice actors, collaboration with other students and worldbuilding.
The idea for the genre and style of this animation was inspired by Andrew Burrells ‘Underdogs’ script. His script was a comedy aimed at children and used anthropomorphised animals as characters.
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It all started with this first draft of the treatment where Arby meets Ric.
The story didn't stop developing there though! During the ideation stage, The idea of the axolotl was introduced. However there wasn't any conspiracy around him at the time. He was just an awkward passenger who couldn't get on the tram.
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These are some ideas for the story and some ideation of what Arby could look like. Created in the first month of pre production.
Once the axolotl conspiracy was created, the story took shape. Then I created...
The first storyboard!
During the creation of the animation, I continued to world build and visualise the world the characters lived in. This was helpful for designing details to keep a level of consistency. This was also a good exercise to prepare for the animation.
The voices for the animation were recorded using the specialist equipment in Media City’s Foley Studio! The actors for Ric and Caren, (Alex Fryer and Anju Somu) were the first to record voices for the animation. Although the actors were easy to work with and patient with the recordings, I was inexperienced in directing them and this was a learning curve for us as a team- especially as this was our first time meeting in person too.
I initially underestimated how daunting it would be for them to stand in another room and act their voice lines so directing them and providing guidance and reassurance was possibly the most important factor in completing the recordings and produced the best acting.
After that it was over to me to start animating!
I wasn't completely satisfied with the look of the animation as a solid line animation so for the animation I used a chisel marker to make less defined lines which I hoped would compliment the plot of the story further into the process by making it look spookier.
That's just a glimpse into what happened behind the scenes of Axolotl's Aren't Real!
