McDonnields by Aury Morales-Pacheco (7:10, 2019)

•  After about 3 weeks' time of hard work, schedule of waking up at 4:30 am and sleeping at Midnight,  looking at this animation until I have now memorized every line and movement, I present to you my final product

   McDonnield's

This class taught me so many things, but one thing specifically being the most important of all: for me, ALL goals are realistic, no matter how crazy they sound. Many people, including family and friends, believed I should cut down the project because it was "too much" and "there was no way I could finish". But the simple trick to this semester project is to give your dedication to it for a couple of weeks, and you can finish anything, no matter how big! I'm hoping that the ability to finish animating 5,137 frames in about 3 weeks can help me with working at animation studios in the future! The question is: if I took this class again, would I put myself through the same torture? Yeah, most likely. In the end, it's always worth seeing the final product, and knowing that I created everything from scratch, including the background music, recordings, and drawings, it's all nice to see put together. Many new opportunities have come from this, including having it featured at the Black Box Film Festival 2019, where only 20-25% of submissions were accepted. This summer and in my last three semesters, I plan on creating more animations, short and long, to continue furthering my skills. I would like to thank Dana Corrigan more than anyone else, because without her, I wouldn't be at the skill-level I am at now with animation. For the past year and a half, she has guided me through everything from basic digital media in Spring 2018 to now a final short film in Spring 2019. She has watched me grow as an animator and has guided me every step of the way. I am grateful to have a professor that not only can I call a professor, but a life-long friend and mentor. Thank you for everything. 

- Aury Morales-Pacheco 

                                       

Shot List (134 Shots Total)

Test Animation

Final Animatic

Finalized Character Designs

Beat Boards

Donnie trying to get a job 

Donnie having to deal with mental customers

Donnie facing robber, also point where Donnie quits

Environment Designs

Here are concept designs for my environment:

With the concept of McDonald's as the main setting of my story, here is an actual scene from my animation:
                

Although the design not finalized, I will be implementing the elements of the inside of McDonald's in a detailed, yet still simplified way to keep the animation manageable. More setting pictures come!

Story Board

Beginning to draw this storyboard, here is what I have so far:

Beginning of Character Designs

Here are some character designs created, but many more will be created:

Mood Board for Short Film

  Since my project focuses on a teenage girl suffering with all the chaos of working at McDonald's, this is the mood board put together for this project:

            

Visuals for Animation Project

Here are some visuals I have developed in aid for my project:

                                 
Donnie is a college students who loves to party, doesn't care much about school, has no filter in her mouth when it comes to talking, and doesn't take life seriously when needed. Ultimately, this will lead her to all her troubles in this animation. My design for Donnie is based on this old unfinished artwork:

Now, as for the actual style of the animation itself, I would end up with style of either of the two following drawings:

Pitch Ideas For Short Animation

  Here are some ideas I have been considering for my short film animation:

1. A small video that's a satirical take on what students have to deal with when schools try to implement "healthy" lunches. The main characters would be Micah, Brent, and Peter (OCs from personal project), and the scene in general would actually be a short scene from my personal project.

2. A satirical take on what the strict rules of dress code feel like in High School. A girl and boy are the main characters of the video, who are both attacked by three other teachers who prove how exaggerated dress code at school can seem.

3. A girl is trying to get money from her older brother for concert tickets, but he offers that she either gives him a foot massage for the money or gets a job. As she chooses the job instead, she realizes that getting that money may not be as easy as she thought.

4. A short episode of a show similar to Hell's Kitchen. Only two people stand left for the win, but they are both horribly bad at cooking... who will win?

5. A gameshow where a girl asks two mystery guys (one very attractive, the other rather weird) questions abut how they would treat a woman in a relationship. At the end, she must make a choice about which guy stole her heart.

6. A music video to "Impossible Year". The scenery would take place in a fancy dinner-and-show style restaurant and many characters would be used.

7. A music video to "Roaring 20s". Featured as the main characters would be 24-year-old Donovan and 16-year-old Brent (OCs from personal project), and the video would include many dance movements and have more a feel as if you were watching a song in a Disney Movie.