My Three Initial Ideas My brief was to create a short animation to

put on display in The Queen’s House in Greenwich, giving tourists information

about the place, and using visual elements to appeal to a range of age groups that might

be visiting. I researched Queen Mary II, and Queen

Anne of Denmark who were both residents of the house, and came up with three

animation ideas.

Initial Idea 1: Animated Cartoon

My first response to the brief is to create an animation using a cartoon style approach. The prototype I created is based around Mary II who owned the house in the late 1600s. It shows how, before it was built, she requested that Greenwich Hospital was split into two so that she would still have a view to the River Thames from her house. I used a fine liner and a variety of artist markers, and was inspired by traditional cartoonists such as Matt Groening.

Initial Idea 2: Stop-Motion Animation

This is a screenshot from an animated, stop-motion film made by the Quay Brothers, who’s work inspired me for this idea. They use model making to create dark and sinister films.

My second idea is using stop-motion animation which entails making small models and photographing them over and over again, moving them each time to create frames of a sequence. To test the idea, I made a small clay model which I could potentially use for a stop-motion film. The model is Queen Anne of Denmark who first commissioned the Queen’s House in Greenwich. I also painted a small section to see what it could look like in colour.

Initial Idea 3: Animating my Illustrations

My third idea was to draw and paint backgrounds, and the character of Queen Anne of Denmark. I can then use Photoshop to edit them and Adobe After Effects to make certain features move.

On the right is an example of a painting that I did that could be used as a location and a painting of the Queen. I would then go on to create side and back views of her, and use storyboards to plan out the sequence.