OUAN406: A Tale in The Sting: Informing Style (Discovery)

OUAN406: Informing Style:

In terms of style for the Discovery channel's Ident, I decided on a fairly realistic style for the animal I would choose to run across the screen. Discovery, although have an eye for humorous yet informative entertainment, have a range of fairly serious programmes, therefore I felt a realistic style would be appropriate. If I used heavily cartoon-styled animals and scenery, I feel it would not cater to the target audience as much as although children/teens do watch this channel, it is not primarily teens as the target audience and although this could be argued against as my E4 ident is extremely cartoony, they're entirely comedy based whereas Discovery is not.

If it is possible, I feel that rotoscoping some parts such as the animal sprinting through the air would benefit me as not only would I learn how they behave and learn about secondary animation, arcs, and timing, I feel that it would save a little bit of time as I do have two other idents to accomplish. If I can get away with drawing from reference alone without rotoscoping then I would prefer this method.

My ideas on animals ranged from a rhinoceros plodding across the screen, a lion fleeting whilst its mane will have a beautiful follow-through animation, a bird fluttering in the grass, to a leopard or a cheetah sprinting. Eventually, after weighing up the pros and cons of each animal, I decided on a cheetah as not only are they graceful when they run, they are fast (a frolicking cheetah would be fun to watch) and suit the terrain (grassy savanna) well. I had to be fairly accurate with the setting and the animal. I did want to use green grass, but the savanna is very hot and therefore there would be very little green grass as we know it in the UK. Yellow, dry and "rustly" grass will be used as this is more accurate.

Cheetahs have fairly short fur in comparison to most big cats. Of course, in a hot climate short hair keeps them cool through the day and warm on the colder evenings. It would be easier to animate compared to a lion's flowing mane or a bird's fluttering individual feathers. I don't want to give myself a huge task. If I could focus my attention on just one ident, I would consider other animals. Cheetahs are quite slender though, so the texture of the fur won't need to be too complex.

Above, a photograph from National Geographic showing a cheetah in mid-leap. Notice the short tufts of fur on the under belly with short fur elsewhere. The tail is thick and sleek. I may add rougher, hairier textured brush strokes around the belly.