TheArtofTheMouseandtheMage

The Art of

The Art of
1

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................4
The Beginning of The Mouse and the Mage .......................8
Character Designs ..............................................................12
The Story ........................................................................... 15
Storyboard ..........................................................................16
Character Size Sheet .........................................................25
Backgrounds .......................................................................26
Work Schedule ....................................................................28
Compositing ........................................................................29
Final Thoughts ....................................................................30
2

(Poster for my final year film)
3

Introduction
(Concept art for the first idea for my film: Lost in Lowes)
When I first started the year I had the idea to create a film based on an interview
after being inspired by a video on YouTube with a similar theme.
I interviewed some of my friends from over-seas in hopes to get some insightful
conversations going. I decided to settle on a story that my friend told during our
interview about how he got lost in a garden shop called Lowes in the U.S. I
thought it would be a good idea to exaggerate the story by having the shop turn
into a jungle. I started doing some concept art and made a start on the film by
drawing some backgrounds.
Unfortunately as time passed I completely began to loose motivation to carry on
with the project and more or less hit a metaphorical wall on the project. At this
point I thought the best course of action was brainstorm a new idea to use for my
film. Eventually I came up with an idea that I felt much more passionate about.
4

(Rough turnaround sheet for the main character of my original film idea)
(Rough turnaround sheet for the main character's mum from my original film idea)
5

6
(background for the first idea of my film)

(Concept art for the first idea for my film)
7

The Beginning of The Mouse
and the Mage
Whilst brainstorming ideas for a new idea. I thought back on a short animation I did in my
second year. It was about a cat with magical powers who uses said powers to give life to a
broom. The broom then spirals out of control taking the cat with him. I was very fond of the
aesthetically pleasing design of the cat and loved how expressive he could be due to the
simplistic style (see top and bottom left on next page). I looked back at some of the concept
art I did for this project and was very keen on creating a film related to the universe set
around my second year film. It was from there that I designed the main characters for my
final year film which was inspired by the early concept art below.
(Storyboard from last year detailing a cat casting magic on a broom)
8

(Expressions sheet of one of the characters)
(Action poses of one of the characters)
9

With my new idea in mind I went to do some rough sketches of some magical cats! I really
like how one of my early concept art showed the main character with a large wizard hat. I
thought this would look very cute on a young trainee wizard-cat. I also knew I wanted my
main character to maintain a similar personality to the one in the previous year's project.
Quite goofy and very jittery to signify that this character is an amateur wizard with a lot to
learn.
It was from there that I came up with the main character for my film. I small and very
eccentric young ginger cat named Sage who is training to become a wizard. Whilst doing
quick doodles of this character, I started drawing him with a mouse and decided the mouse
should be the driving point of the story. Though I knew this was a very simple idea, I thought
this could be executed well due to having a fantasy twist that audiences may be intrigued by.
10
(Very early concept art of magic cats)

(Rough concept art of the characters in my film)
11

12
Character Designs

13

14

The Story
The story takes place in a fantasy world where a young and spritely cat named
Sage is on a quest to create a concoction that will promote him to being a fully
fledged mage. His final task is to find a small animal to add to his cauldron but
little does he know that the mouse he stumbles upon for his last ingredient
would cause more trouble than its worth. Sage must pursue this crafty mouse
through rough terrain and into a large ominous castle where his strict yet fair
tutor resides with his ghastly experiments.
How will Sage succeed in this trailblazing task?
15

16
Storyboard

17

18

19

20

21

22

The storyboard and animatic went through quite a few changes throughout the time
I was working on it. There are some shot shown in this storyboard that didn't make
it into the final cut of the film as the original running time for the first draft of the
animatic was 6 minutes long. This meant removing some shots and shortening the
time in which certain shots play out. Thankfully this shortened the film down to 3
minutes without having to remove important scenes.
23

Here are some shots that weren't included in the storyboard but are shown in the final cut of the
film in order for certain sequences to flow better. This included a wide establishing shot of the
dungeon and a shot of Sage running through Mawgrim's corridor.
24

25

(Character Size sheet)
26

27

Backgrounds
28
(Establishing shot during the beginning of the film)

(The door to Sage's house seen after he captures the mouse)
(Sage's house. wanted add lots of props to add to his personality)
29

Work Schedule
The first schedule I made during the first week. A rough idea of how long I should spend on
each assignment.
An updated schedule started on the 4th week of the semester. A more detailed approach on
what I will be doing each day.
The final updated schedule I made near the end of the semester. Mostly focusing on finishing
animation and backgrounds.
30

Compositing
Some of my compositing was done
either on Harmony or After effects.
Either was quite similar in that the
backgrounds I drew would be imported
into one of these software to be
transformed to create a more dynamic
camera movement. Here is an example
of what I achieved. I drew two bushes
on a separate layer and exported them
separately as well. Then imported them
into harmony or After Effects and
moved them using the transform tool.
31

Final Thoughts
I thought it was quite ironic that my graduation film ended up being a film about graduating.
Even though I started this film quite late into the semester I am quite happy with the outcome
of it and have enjoyed working on this a lot more than my previous idea as the characters in
this film have very much grown on me during the production. I would love to be able to
develop these characters and the world they live in more at some point in the future.
The actual process of creating the final cut of this film has been very difficult however as most
of it was created during the start of the COVID-19 breakout. Not only did this mean I was no
longer in a working environment but I only had limited software I could use hence the jumps
between compositing in Harmony and After Effects. Though I think I have done well despite
not being in an atmosphere where it was hard to concentrate.
Despite the ups and downs I think I have done the best that I could with this project and it has
proven to myself that I can capable of working to the best of my ability before a tight deadline.
32

33

Special Thanks to
...
Mario kkounnous
Pete Bishop
My classmates
And all my family and friends
34

35

36