BICKERING BURGLARS CARTOON ANIMATION

2D Animation

Project Information

Art Style

Animation Process

Film Screening

Editing

Rather than a focus in realism, modern day animations have turned back to the more abstract and stylized art that is characteristic of old, 2D animations. This often involves the implementation of playful, exaggerated effects, the use of patterns and textures, and the simplification of elements.

Bickering Burglars is my thesis film for the Animation program at SF State that I developed over the course of one semester. My goal with this project was to create something that would entertain all age groups, kids and adults. Ultimately, I aimed for my final animation to have a nostalgic feel, an interesting story, and playful animated art to tie everything together.

The minimum length requirement for this animated short film was three minutes. That might not seem like a lot, but animation is laborious. That, on top of my other responsibilities, meant that I would need to be highly organized and manage my time as effectively as possible. So, I created a schedule with various checkpoints to keep myself on track.

View Bickering Burglars below!

Two burglars rob a house and squabble about their thieving strategies as they attempt to escape. Cops arrive, and a wild car chase ensues.

Project Information

Animation Process

Editing

Film Screening

Art Style

Art Style

I have a love for the art style that was popular in the 40s and 50s. Specifically, I’m drawn to the UPA style, a mid-century modern feel using abstract coloring, angular and bold linework, and simply-shaped elements. This was the style I wanted to animate in, so I looked for references and inspiration images that included motifs and elements related to my story.

I began with sketching characters, beginning with concepts and moving to turnarounds when I had the core look decided.

I moved on to creating backgrounds. Scroll through a few below!

Some of these backgrounds were more complex. I needed a few that could be repositioned through keyframes. The two backgrounds were used in scenes that required pan-outs as well as rotation.

Finally, I created a title and end screen!

Project Information

Animation Process

Editing

Film Screening

Art Style

Animation Process

Beginning the process with storyboards is instrumental to any storytelling project to layout key touch points and details to a plot. I turned these storyboards into an animatic and added my very own narration of the script. Of course, it wasn’t the best voice acting, but it was sufficient for the draft process.

After all this prep work, I was able to actually start animating! My process was to animate scene by scene, and keep each scene as separate exports. This process would help streamline the workload and make editing simpler.

Project Information

Editing

Animation Process

Film Screening

Art Style

Editing

For voice acting, I sourced a talented individual from Fiverr. I did debate asking friends, but I thought that a professional would really pull everything together. Plus, I was planning on submitting my animation to film festivals, so spending some money to create the best product possible was worth it.

I hired one voice actor to voice the two characters in my story. I drafted a brief for him, making sure I included key elements to each character to help guide his interpretation.

I used Pixabay to source sound effects and background music. It’s a great site with not only sound but also visual resources. Everything is free with no attribution required as well!

As a final touch, I applied an animated texture on top of the art to mimic the low resolution of TV screens during this time period.

Project Information

Animation Process

Editing

Film Screening

Art Style

Film Screening

I submitted Bickering Burglars to a few local film festivals, and it got accepted to five! One was an on campus festival dedicated to environmental films, “A Screening with Meaning”. It also got accepted to two other festivals hosted by college campuses: Diablo Valley College’s Aspiring Minds Film Festival, and Chabot College’s “Chabot College Student Film and Animation Festival”. The last two were community screenings: “Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema”, and “Palm Springs Animation Festival”! I was able to attend a few and it was a magical experience.

A Screening with Meaning