Final Story Details

Now with the changes to my story complete, I feel it appeals to the target demographic more. Children would enjoy the cartoon style and bright colours and instead of being a bit mischievous using bait to get the hat, he is now much more up front and obvious about his villainy by being more physical.

As for the story, it will hopefully go like this:
(All mouth shapes are referred to in the way I found in my research which I have posted earlier on this blog)

• Screen fades in as Crabs is in the centre of the screen. He has a shell on his back and is squeezing out of it. His mouth is clenched and eyes shut tight, showing effort. The shell pops off and his eyes open slightly and mouth relaxes, showing relief. Crabs scuttles to the right as the screen cross fades to the next screen.
• The bird is on the right side of the screen, twitching and squawking.
• Crabs scuttles on from the left with a neutral expression.
• Crabs' eyes lock on to the hat. It is his object of desire, so his eyes widen and pupils dilate. His mouth morphs to the 'OOO' position and he raises his claws to his mouth.
• As the thought of taking the hat crosses his mind, his eyes narrow and has a wide, toothy grin. His eyes will shift quickly side to side in a mischievous way.
• Crabs steps closer to the bird, and his eyes focus on the Seagull's eyes intently. Still narrow eyed, his mouth changes to the 'angry' position and he clicks his raised claws in a form of taunt.
• Crabs mouth changes to the frown position, eyes staying narrow as he quickly scuttles forward and nips at the bird's legs.
• The bird hops off screen in pain and the hat topples from it's head.
• As soon as the bird begins to leave shot, Crab's attention is straight back to the hat. His eyes will follow the hat through the air and to the ground. His mouth will change back to 'OOO' and his eyes widen again.
• Crab's face turns to joy as he finds the hat in his possession. His mouth changes to 'big smile' and his eyes return to neutral.
• He picks up the hat and throws it onto his back. His face changes to a smug expression. Eyes closed and a big closed smile. He scuttles off and the screen fades to black.
• The screen fades back in and crabs has a neutral expression.
• Some bacon on a line come into shot and Crab's expression changes back to 'OOO' with wide eyes and dilated pupils. Crabs LOVES bacon. He raises his claws and clicks them in excitement.
• Eyes slightly widened and mouth changes to a wide toothy grin.
• He grabs the bacon and pulls it towards him.
• The string goes tight as the bacon is a lure from children going crabbing. Crab's eyes go very wide and pupils contract. His mouth changes to 'big frown'.
• His mouth then morphs to anger as his eyes narrow.
• His eyes look the line up and down and head reaches forward and snips it.
• His face changes to a wide, toothy smile while his eyes remain narrow, giving him a menacing look.
• Crabs looks up and rears onto his back legs. He raises his claws in the air and waves them, along with the bacon in a taunt.
• Crabs looks at his bacon with glee. His bottom eyelids will be raised and he will have a smile.
• Finally, he scuttles off screen and fade out.

I intend to make use of various camera angles, particularly close ups to convey the facial animation clearly. However, I will not use extreme close ups as my earlier research made some points as to why that type of shot does not translate well to this style of animation.

All of the models are finished, and the rigging and morphers are nearly there so I think I am on track.