[Minor Project] 01: Elements Academy; School Lives of the Periodic Elements

I will be creating a mock pitch for a web series consisting of short 4 minute episodes revolving around the school lives of the periodic elements. The pitch will include a story description outlining the events of one of the episodes, periodic element character models for that episode, and concept art of the characters (including expressions) and their surrounding environment (e.g. the classroom, and/or an exterior shot of the school building). For my major project I hope to take this to the next stage and create a fully-fledged short animation from it.

The target audience will be those aged between 13–16, with the series’ content intended to be both funny and subtly educational, meaning interactions between characters would loosely represent real world interactions between different periodic elements.

Series Name: Elements Academy

Episode 01 – Wat(er)’s Your Problem?

Act I

Location: Science classroom (teacher absent)

The Hydrogen twins (one is hot headed & angry, the other is calm & sleepy) are arguing with Oxygen over who has the most friends. Angry Hydrogen insults Oxygen, calling them a “Plant fart”. Oxygen retaliates by calling the Hydrogen twins “Simple”. Now both angry, the Hydrogen twins childishly fight Oxygen.

Act II

Fed up of the fighting, Iron intervenes by separating them using his strength. Oxygen accidentally hits Iron, chipping their shoulder and causing sparks. At the same moment, the Hydrogen twins manage to bundle Oxygen… Suddenly with a bang, a bright ball of light engulfs the characters.

Act III

The dust settles to reveal Hydrogen and Oxygen have combined to form a female Water character, Water is laying on top of Iron, who has been knocked out by the blast. Water slaps Iron around the face to wake him up. For a brief moment, Water and Iron awkwardly look at each other, until with shock Water notices a weird brown rash spreading across Iron’s face. This moment may be accompanied by an overly dramatic ‘dun dun duuun!’ sound effect. The episode ends with a dramatic zoom into Iron’s eye, reflected in which you can see the horrified face of Water.

The banner & Elements Academy title font used is New Athletic M54 by justme54s on dafont.com, it has been categorised as "free for personal use" by the creator. For the Elements Academy logo this font acts only as a placeholder until a unique logo has been designed.

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{3rd Year} Project Idea: Periodic Elements in their Natural Habitats

Background Information

My Adaptation B project proved to be my most enjoyable project to date, during which I turned three of the periodic elements into characters. This project tapped into many of my creative interests such as Illustrator, 3D modelling and science. The resulting pride has shown me that periodic elements as characters is a concept I want to carry into my third year major -and hopefully in some form, minor- project, here is my main idea...

Basic Premise

An animation showing a limited number of periodic element characters and their properties, in which the characters would be shown interacting with each other in their natural (and un-natural) habitats. May include a wildlife documentary style voiceover if appropriate, perhaps with a David Attenborough-esque feel. For a great example, see here.

Left to Right: Helium, Graphite, Diamond and Hydrogen

Environment Design

The literally universal spread of the periodic elements opens up a lot of possibilities for locations, such as upon the surface of the Moon, or even Mars, and of course, Earth. However any environment(s) would be minimalist in appearance, to fit with the characters themselves. The number of environments will be limited to between one and four, to keep the primary focus firmly on the characters themselves.

Minimalist Influence Map

Target Audience

The target audience will likely be teenagers aged around 16+, however I may raise this to young adults in their 20's depending on how I choose to depict some of the dangers associated with many of the periodic elements e.g. Hydrogen's explosivity, Uranium's radioactivity, or Mercury's toxicity.

Colour Palette

The animation may be of a primarily bright colour palette, however less overtly saturated colours will likely be used as well, such as Crimson. A good reference of the kind of colour palette I might go for is in the periodic characters I have already created.

Colour Influence Map

Software

This would be achieved primarily via a combination of Maya, Illustrator, After Effects and Audition. Illustrator for the thumbnails, concept art and orthographic projections. Maya for character modelling, texturing & animation. After Effects for compositing, minor vfx, and sfx. Audition for sound editing.