The Red Balloon Treatment

Week 2 Class

In todays class we were really made to think about plot, characters, setting etc. By using the example of the story: "The Red Balloon" We had to really break the story down and look at all the different elements in our groups. By doing so, it will no dout help us when we have to produce our own ideas. In our groups, we also had to look at the story and provide our own ideas for the plot. By contributing our different ideas, our group came up with several alernative endings which could have been used. The first idea was a lot happier compared to the much darker second idea.

• Alternate Ending 1: We hear what is to believed to be the burst of the balloon from the perspective of the boy in the bakery. However upon leaving the bakery, he finds the bullies lying in the alleyway next to the bakery dazed and confused and the balloon (still in one piece) hovering above implying it had outsmarted the bullies. The boy and the the balloon then continue walking on down the road towards home.

• Alternate Ending 2: Devastated by the loss of his balloon, the boy lays down next to the burst balloon weeping and begins to smother himself in the remains of the burst balloon as the screen fades to black.

Lab Work

Todays Lab allowed us the opportunity to try and grasp the new ToonBoom Version 4. Using the Tutorial Workbooks to complete the Old Man Running Cycle, it allowed us to get used to the new ToonBoom layout which proves a lot easier than the previous edition once you get used to it. All the tools and tabs are displayed very clearly and should help when it comes to creating future animations on the software. Most of the tools are the same as the previous edition but helped to remind us about certain things such as the "Onion Skin" tool which proves extremely helpful for inbetweening keyframes as required in the running man cycle.

Having used ToonBoom quite frequently in the past, I felt I could demonstrate just some short animations which I've already created in the past which demonstrate a lot of the tools which can be used within the programme. The first two were for previous projects in other classes while the others were just created in my own time.