Tentacle Tunes
The Brief
Come up with an original story featuring at least 4 characters, including a protagonist and a villain. Flesh out the characters through character sheets of expressions and poses. Put them into fitting environments. Make some sort of cover or poster to promote the narrative.
My Interpretation
I chose to create a children's story about a group of middle schoolers who come across a baby octopus one day. They save her from death and raise her, then they all start a band where Octavia the octopus plays the drums. They become wildly successful because of her, but they know eventually they will have to bring her back to the ocean.
Characters
Octavia is an octopus who lives in a giant fish bowl during the day, and is in a famous band at night. She loves playing the drums with her friends. I chose to make her pink because this is for children, and I thought it would be more recognizable as an octopus.
This is an example of an expression page for each of my characters. This is the one for Oliver; he is happy, angry, sad, surprised, and shocked. I chose to stay with a really simple color palette and rendering style because there were many children's shows that had this style.
This is an example of a sheet of poses that I also created for each of my characters. This one is for Oliver, he's playing the guitar, showing off their custom leather jackets, and playing soccer. The one playing the guitar was really tricky to get the hands in the right place.
Environment
This environment is a snapshot from one of their concerts; their band is called The Blokes because they are from London, England. I had a really fun time with this environment because of the colors in the back, and I found the poses really fun to do.
Tentacle Tunes Title
This is the title I made for the show that I was picturing my characters in. The show tentacle tunes follow my characters and their antics. I wanted the letters to look like tentacles, and I used the colors of Octavia, and it's in a fish bowl, just like she is most of the time.
This is the book cover that I made. In the book, the group is forced to send Octavia back to the ocean because she's outgrown her bowl, and she needs to find her family.
Animation
This animation was really tough because almost the whole thing was rotoscoped. At the same time, it was a really fun challenge because I usually am not much of an illustrator, so it forced me out of my comfort zone. I also made the background music myself in GarageBand, which was actually really fun for me.