Created by Marcie LaCerte

Updated July 3, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b3O0gOeGfg

Summary

I was asked to animate a three-and-a-half-minute piece for Great Big Story (RIP) about Dani Rabaiotti’s book Does it Fart? The Definitive Guide to Animal Flatulence.

After going over the script with the producer, I worked on a mood board. Then, I quickly sketched out a storyboard, and an editor put together an animatic. Once the sound was locked, I began production.

It took little less than a week to storyboard and two-and-a-half weeks to animate.

I animated in After Effects, illustrated in Procreate, and either photographed or found all other assets in the public domain.

Schedule

Development

Design

Animation

Final pass

Preproduction

Art Direction

The producer was drawn to images of vintage scientific illustrations, and I was inspired by Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python animations, Victorian paper theater, and Sophie Koko Gate’s recent work. We decided on a paper cutout style for a faster turnaround, animating found images and illustrated elements in a limited style.

We also used actual photos of Dani and create a pseudo photo/illustration puppet. This was a quarantine workaround—the interview footage of Dani was not great, but we still wanted to feature her.

I wanted the piece to feel educational yet playful, with an irreverent tone and a warm, vintage, papery feel.

mood board

mood board

Color + Texture

My main objective was to make the animation look like a stop motion paper cut out. So, I used static paper textures parented to flat illustrations and added shading using spray paint brushes.