THE KITTYPILLAR & THE FAIRY
© ABBIESTABBY 2014
I have been very fortunate during this project, with regards to having ready audience participants for ‘The Kittypillar’. My target audience,as previously mentioned in earlier posts, are children ranging from the age of 2 / 3 years to around the age of about 7 years. I have several friends and family members with children of that age range, who have happily agreed to watch through the animations and look at any artwork that I have done towards it. One friend in particular, has a 3 year old daughter who has actively used ‘Kittypillar’ in conversation! I may do a ‘How to Draw’ Kittypillar themed animation too, especially for the children whose parents are my friends, as a fun side project.
As for a particular gender, I think that this concept is over all a subjective one. I am not particularly making it to adhere to the interests or conventional ideas of what a little girl or little boy would want to watch – Kittypillars are for everyone! Sure, there will be certain aspects and themes which may indeed appeal to one gender as opposed to the other, but as I’ve said, all in all, Kittypillar is meant for every child to enjoy, not just little girls or just little boys.
As stated above, I will have the opportunity throughout the creation process of this animation to get feedback from the target audience and their parents. Aspects such as what they like / don’t like / would like to see will be taken into consideration during each session. I am also thinking about generating a few colouring book-type pages that will be given to these children. With these, I will be able to gauge what each child’s favorite colours are, and may even consider using them as design reference for Kittypillars within the film itself. An option was also discussed with one of the parents, with this idea in mind, to feature some of these colouring in pages at the end to show how each design was chosen. One friend who is also on this course is in talks with his mother, who works with young children, to see if she will help me along with this colouring-in exercise.
After a conversation with Gareth (http://apopheniainc.wordpress.com/) about the subject matter and connotations of this character / concept, I have decided to try and go for a more learning-based approach with the animation (instead of or as well as my current route). This decision also comes after a week of observing and making notes on the current schedule of children’s television programmes available on the CBEEBIES channel (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/). All of the short features on this channel portray a message of either moralistic integrity or educational material, which is essential for raising a child.
Programmes across a range of other pre-school-specific channels also cater to the learning needs and requirements of parents. Whilst some are in a simple live-action format, and some are simplistic animation, others can be a mixture of the two, often using simplistic rotoscope techniques. The simplistic formats of the most successful children’s programming available endear the children to the action and characters, the almost minimalist looking character designs in some way replicating the doodles of a young child. Of course, the pleasant messages and narratives in these shows also contribute to their popularity with both parents and toddlers. A 2013 poll was commissioned by www.HushHush.com in which 1,318 parents were asked what their child’s favorite television programme was. The results were as follows:
1. Peppa Pig
2. Charlie and Lola
3. Humf
4. Spongebob Squarepants
5. Something Special
6. Little Einsteins
7. Waybuloo
8. In the Night Garden
9. Dora the Explorer
10. Lazy Town
PEPPA PIG
With Kittypillar, and the Final Major Project animation which I am currently producing, I have decided (after conversations with my tutor) to go for an abecedary theme. By this, I mean that an alphabet-themed sequence will be produced. This is a sure-fire way to get content produced quickly and efficiently before the deadline, pre-End of Year Show. I will be using a handful of reoccurring characters in the animation (different types of kittypillar with different personalities) and will be writing up a designated alphabet for in the coming week. This kittypillar-themed alphabet should prove to be both comedic and endearing to children and adults. I will be coming up with content-appropriate fonts too, for each letter, depending on the individual subjects.
Narration will have to be another thing that I consider for this development for the concept. Having already recorded narration for the main sequences, I always have those to work with and experiment with. For this alphabet-themed version of the ‘Kittypillar’ cartoon, I am going to record some alphabet narration for the sequence once I have come up with a list of themes and letters. I may enlist the help of my in-house narrator used for the main animation, or I may enlist the help of several others, integrating both male and female voices for children to speak and learn along with. I will be looking (or rather listening) to examples of narration in children’s programming to get a sense of what tones and accents I should try to work with.
With a lot of children nowadays, it seems that more and more are being introduced to learning materials, videos, pictures and more through the medium of the internet. With contemporary parents / parenting and the technology and resources available, this is pretty much a given. Many websites cater to young audiences, having an easy and accessible child-friendly layout. There seems to be a re-occurring watch and read along aspect to several in-site features as well, which is fantastic for parent / child bonding. Dedicated pages on YouTube for children’s classics such as Sesame Street have capitalised on the integration of young children and age-appropriate internet culture, as seen on their channel here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoookXUzPciGrEZEXmh4Jjg
There has been an abundance in the past two or three years of animation with an over all children’s-theme, but have displayed a more morbid narrative. A train safety campaign published by Metro Trains – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (http://www.metrotrains.com.au/) – aimed at both children and a more adolescent audience went viral last year. “Dumb Ways to Die” combines the use of a safety message, a catchy tune, and colourful, child-friendly, simplistic character design to make young people aware of safety hazards when using trains. Soon parodied across the internet, the animation created by the advertising company McCann Melbourne (http://mccann.com/) received a great amount of both negative and positive comments from viewers and indsutry professionals.
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Each generation of children’s TV programming has had their noticeable tastes and themes. For instance I thoroughly remember the programming available during my childhood in the 1990’s being predominantly live action with costumed characters and puppets. Shows such as Teletubbies, Barney the Dinosaur, Sesame Street, as well as Thomas the Tank Engine and Art Attack, were the staples of my upbringing. Earlier generations than that, such as those of my parents are quite filled with a mixture of puppetry, stop-motion and less-so, animation. Clangers, Bagpuss, The Magic Roundabout, Danger Mouse and Roobarb and Custard are examples of some firm favorites with older people, raised in the 1970’s.
I am particularly inspired by older programmes such as Roobarb and Custard for this project, as that hand-drawn, scribbly, and somewhat amateur effect of the show has a very nice ‘approachable’ aesthetic. It looks like something that a child would colour in, and that sense of similarity with children is really what I am aiming for. I am considering either marker pen or colour pencil for this project, or I may even in the end, opt for culminating both to create an interesting aesthetic style. I will be conducting a session soon with several children of target-audience age and ask them which type of colouring in they prefer. All evidence will be evidenced on this site, of course.
Having been introduced back into contemporary children’s programming alongside the likes of Bagpuss, Roobarb and Custard is finding new fame with this generation of young children. The home-made effect of the cartoon has found favor with so many children. The way the show looks like it has been coloured in with felt-tip pens is also a particular aspect of the show that children enjoy. An essential part of every child’s life is felt tip pens, haha. Also, after some asking around of both older generations and newer, it encourages children to draw and colour in, which is something that I can totally get behind.
ROOBARB AND CUSTARD
In all, I will be making more observations to aid this project, and get it up to the standard that I would ideally like to have. All that has been mentioned in this article will act as reference points for me to observe and take note from during the production of this alphabet-themed variant of the Kittypillar cartoons. Having such a vast back-catalogue visual references to inspire me for this animation will definitely make this project something else entirely and I will try t honour what I have learned from each example in the production of this concept.
I will be getting into contact with the local primary schools where I live in order to try and organize a day in which I can come in and get some feedback from the children. It’ll be a treat for them, and would be a massive help to me in this project! With the idea mentioned earlier in the article, regarding getting children to colour in Kittypillars and say what they like / don’t like about them, I may even stretch to doing some form of a thankyou gift for them for helping me with this project. It may spiral into a very interesting side-project for when I am finished with the animation itself. Only time will tell now!
AbbieSTABBY 