B.A Animation - Thesis Topic

Thesis Topic

Narrative Style in Animation; Looking at The Hero's Journey

What I wish to research;

1. The Hero's Journey is a narrative pattern that appears in many forms of entertainment media; games, film, animation, etc. It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as the Hero, an individual who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of themselves, or someone else.

2. Stages of Character Development; the Hero's Journey;

• Living fully in Identity
• Glimpsing, Longing or Destiny
• Moving towards Essence without leaving Identity
• Fully committed to Essence, but Growing Fear
• Living One's Truth, with everything to Lose.
• The journey is complete, destiny achieved

3. Character Arcs; The transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of the story, starting as one sort of character and gradually transforms into another in response to change or a key moment in the narrative,

4. Developing a character's story by creating a three-dimensional character

• A well-rounded character
• Three dimensions; Physical, Sociological and Psychological 

5. Character Archetypes in displayed in the Hero's Journey narrative, how these characteristics could be applied to my own characters and what problems come with it?

6. Comparing an example from modern animation with my own character from the animation short.

How this is related to my B.A Major Film;

My own animation short is one where I want to focus on character design and character animation. In creating characters, I find the process of developing intriguing characters an entertaining procedure, solving the problems that may arise during the process and the reward of a physically appealing character at the end is worth it. However, wanted to look at the narrative side of creating a character and from it, a story. The aspect of the narrative pattern of The Hero's Journey, is the path the character takes from his beginnings, going through trails and dangers at the centre of the story and reaching the end, where they gain and the glories or destiny they wanted from the start.  My own character, the zombie known as Creak, only has a minute and a half to get through his story, but I find that I can apply many of the stages of a Hero's Journey to his character arc, from his sudden impromptu desire to not want to die for real and the need to keep the child out of danger for his own safety.
 
Reference Material;

'Character Development and Storytelling for Games' by Lee Sheldon
'The Writer's Journey' by Christopher Vogler
'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' by Joseph Campbell
'A Practical Guide to The Hero with Thousand Faces' by Christopher Volger

Visual Reference Material;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZQUebMSEg Pixar in a Box; Character Development 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvGcG4m9tgY Screenwriting; The Six Stages of Character Development - IFH Film School - The Hero's Journey

Wreak-It Ralph Produced by Walt Disney Animation Studio, directed by Rich Moore