DNA of a Story

The last project we did in the course was called “DNA of a Story”. This is a process in which you write down certain names, nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. You do as many as you want, but for this project, we did 21. You then connect lines from one to the other, randomly or on propose. While you connect the words to each other (like DNA), you start coming up with your story, by using the words.

Mine came out as:

“Once upon a time there was an adorable monster named Moe. Who desired a kiss from a hairy, angry chinchilla named Stevi. Stevi commanded that Moe learn to play the ukulele from the thick alien, Charlie, in order to win a kiss. Stevi said that ‘It’s always best at night to play music!’ The lyric sheet is disclosed in a grotesque part of the forest. If Moe was being honest with himself, he would tell Stevi that he was afraid of the cold air that nips at your toes with frostbite. Moe and Charlie searched everywhere, while they found the sheet hidden in the garbage can. Moe traveled back to Stevi, and was so excited to get his first kiss. Stevi was laying down on her thin bed when Moe entered. He sat down and played the most romantic song Stevi ever heard. ‘Stars guide your way home,’ Moe sang ending the song. Moe apologized for being gone long but was interrupted by Stevi kissing him. THE END!”

After coming up with a story using all the various elements from that DNA. We had to come up with a storyboard for the complete story using exactly nine scenes.

Once the storyboards were complete, we got to choose any of the programs we learned about, to animate the story.

I loved using the iPad Pro, Animation Desk and Adobe After Effects, so those were the programs I used along with Adobe Illustrator.

The first thing I did was draw the animation on Animation Desk,

I then upload the animation to Adobe After Effects and worked on it there. I added music and sound effects,

While working in After Effects my professor discussed drawing items in Adobe Illustrator to give the animation a little more life,