Context
In this section, I will be going more in depth as to the reasons why I want to make my final major project an anime inspired work rather than my usual western cartoon style, but first...
We Interrupt This Program To Bring You Another Project Management Update
So far, I'm on quite a roll when it comes to getting started with this project, as I've managed to both get an idea for what I want my final major project to be, but I've also managed to get that project proposal finished as well. A lot of the reason I was able to even get this part finished relatively quickly is because of the order in which I did things, since I chose to develop my ideas before starting the proposal, I didn't have to worry about trying to condense multiple ideas worth of content into so few words (although even then, the word counts themselves were a little bit bigger than they've ever been before) since I could point to the idea development section as evidence that I had at least considered multiple ideas before jumping into the project proposal.
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Also here's a first when it comes to this particular project management chart, I'm actually using the extra boxes for their intended purpose. The idea here is that when I do find myself something over the course of multiple weeks (and if one of those weeks is shared by a different activity), I can tell myself to finish the first activity by a certain day within the week in the hopes that I can give myself a more solid plan than I've ever had before. (and who knows, I may end up finishing the first activity before that day and move on to the next task)
We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Program
Over the past three years I've had quite a blast because not only did I get to turn the whole thing into an excuse to make cartoons and talk a lot about the media I enjoy while doing it (which is great because I don't think live action film making is really my bag), but I also got to do it in a rather unconventional manner thanks to the existence of a little video game called "Dreams" for the PlayStation 4 finally coming out on Valentines Day of 2020:
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To be honest, I think I'm rather luckily this game even exists in the first place, as without it I would more than likely be in a much worse position than I am now, since at that point I would be stuck in a scenario where live action film making becomes my only option, since I couldn't quite get Captain Cartridge's 2D animation to work out the first time around. (to make a long story short, I got too ambitious and ended up remaking the whole thing in 3D once my first final major project was finished) At first I mostly intended to use it for making backgrounds for 2D animations but when the first lockdown hit and caused the level 2 final major project to be officially cancelled, I ended up using Dreams PS4/5 to circumvent the cancellation entirely. Heck, it even made things a lot easier since my PlayStation is at my house and college had no PlayStations at the time. (they still don't have any PlayStations to this day, but pretty soon it won't matter to me since I'll be long gone by the time that day comes, if it even happens at all)
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Little did I realise that by making that video entirely in Dreams (while doing the editing in Share Factory on my PS4), that it would end up being the start of me using the power of video games to effectively turn Creative Media level 3 (now also merged with the photography course) on its head since traditionally, video games are looked down upon in the education system (although I did end up learning that I wasn't the only one to do it in an educational setting, as someone else animated a fight scene using video games)
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The reason I'm proud of this one is mostly because it's the first time I ever got to make a proper cartoon starring one of my characters and better yet, it was one based on Super Sheep, who himself is my current favourite character I ever made (meaning I could finally take those characters I was always drawing and turn it into an actual cartoon), so of course I'm going to be at least a little bit proud of this one, even if at the time of production, I never really envisioned myself making 3D cartoons. (in fact, the models I made for Super Sheep, Hugo and The Night Pig were actually meant for a Super Sheep game I was working on that never came to be)
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By the time the final major project for 2021 rolled around, I'd already become a bit more well versed in the process of animating with Dreams and even ended up learning a few new tricks for example, I ended up figuring out how to replicate the side mouth that orbits with the camera like in the Sonic The Hedgehog series using Dreams' logic tools:
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so for last year's final major project, I decided to make a black and white cartoon like those made by Walt Disney (the person, not the company) and Max Fleischer back in the 1920s and 1930s. The result came in the form of a cartoon called "The Grand Lamppost Heist":
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The reason I went with a black and white look for this one is because at this point in time, I'd done nothing but full colour cartoons, so I figured that making a black and white cartoon would allow me to not only create a new IP that differed from Super Sheep, Captain Cartridge and all the rest of them, but it would also be much easier for me to make the cartoon stick out from every other thing I've ever made up until that point.
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The reason I'm particularly proud of this one is because I was able to go ahead and harken back to the very roots of modern animation with the aesthetics while also taking advantage of modern technology, referring to the fact I made it in 3D and the cartoon itself has a 16:9 aspect ratio while cartoons of the 20's and 30's were made in traditional 2D and often had a square aspect ration due to the fact they were printed onto physical film (which itself was a rectangular piece of tape which contains square slots to put film frames so that when it would be spun through a projector at great speed, it would give the illusion of movement), to pull it off. This ended up being how Netflix's new Cuphead series handled things, but it was more authentic thanks to being a 2D animated show rather than a 3D short like mine was.
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Of course, both of those took a lot of inspiration from western cartoons such as the Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse, which is a medium I was already relatively well versed in (at least in terms of knowledge) even before attending college, so for my last final major project, I've decided that instead of producing yet another cartoon that takes inspiration from the west, I'm choosing to take a little bit of inspiration from the medium of Anime.
Why Are You Choosing To Make An Anime Inspired Work? Wouldn't It Be Easier To Make Another Western Cartoon?
Well you see, the reason I want to make an anime inspired work this time around instead of another western inspired work is because I want to follow in the footsteps of what I did last year where I create something that is unlike anything I've ever produced up until that point and since I already went back to the roots of animation last time, I figured this time I could delve into the world of anime, which I'm nowhere near as well versed in as I am with western cartoons (I only really watched Sonic X, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh as a child and I only vaguely knew of stuff like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball before doing the specialist study), so it'll be a relatively new frontier for me to jump into for a final major project and it'll be a nice challenge since I've never produced an anime inspired work before, much like how I'd never produced a black and white cartoon before doing The Grand Lamppost Heist.
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On a related note, I also just plain want to do something where the story is more of the focus rather than the comedy (since everything I've ever produced has been primarily a comedy), the story itself will still have comedic moments (since levity is needed even in a serious story) but I don't want the comedic moments to be the main focus this time around because I really want this new IP to stand out from everything else I've ever done and the best way I can think of to do that is to focus more on the storyline than the jokes.
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The last thing I should talk about is actually the main cast I want to use in this story, particularly Super Sheep and Ruff Bup. (the two characters that'll be helping the new Anime character through the development dimension) The reason why I want those two characters in there alongside the new character is because they were both the main character of their respective final major projects (with Super Sheep being from "Super Sheep in Convention F-3" and Ruff Bup Being from "The Grand Lamppost Heist") and since this is the last one I'm doing for college (we'll see what happens in University), I want it to serve as a bit of a celebration for all that I've done at college, hence the rather meta premise of an anime character going through a development dimension with the help of Super Sheep and Ruff Bup. (plus it means I only have to worry about modelling the new anime character, whatever he ends up facing on their trial and the development dimension, since I already have models for both Super Sheep and Ruff Bup)
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Now that I've provided a little bit of context as to why I'll be doing what I'm doing, it's time for me to move on to the research phase, the bulk of which will be taken from my specialist study since I did that in preparation for the final major project. But before I do that, I've actually got some very good news (at least from a personal perspective), remember when I said that if there were no way for me to avoid the weekly progress tracker that I would still do it under protest? Well, I actually asked my tutor about that and he said that I could actually avoid doing the weekly progress tracker if I so wanted due to the existence of my project management table (meaning I don't have to worry about wasting valuable time that could be better spent actually doing the project) Now that that little issue has been taken care of, let's get the research started