Illusionist's toolkit projects

I have started to work on a few projects this week. It is exciting to have several projects on which to work. That way I can go from one to the other as soon as I run out of ideas. 

1.Thinking outside the box 

In this exercise we have to draw a storyboard of a match trying to get inside a match box. The emphasis is on dynamic performance and the match should not be anthropomorphic. I have been juggling with ideas about why the match is outside of the box, why it wants to get back and why it can't but I haven't had any good ones yet. So far I have done a bit of character design in which I played around with the different states of the matchbox and what I could do with flames and smoke.

I am considering doing this in 3D because I quite enjoy doing squash and stretch in 3D and I think it might be a good way to make myself use Maya. However this one is a team exercise and our teams will be announced next week (if I remember correctly) which means all of this will probably change a lot.  

2. Swing

For this exercise I have to animate a memory of my childhood involving a swing. Obviously this is a classic exercise in animating a pendulum but I really like the idea of exploring childhood memories. I already have a specific tire-swing in mind. The many playgrounds I went to as a kid might end up getting jumbled together in my head so I don't have an exact location in mind, however I know it will take place in autumn since that is my favourite time of the year back home. My home town is beautiful in the fall and dead multicoloured leaves and chestnuts feel like a big part of my childhood there. 

I would love to do this in stop motion. I think it just has the kind of charm that fits the idea of childhood memories perfectly. 

3. Hook, line and sinker

This exercise is based on the Disney half filled sack of flour exercise. In this case, the sack has to interact with a hook and a sinker. They can be separate characters or just props but the main character is the sack of flour and the narrative has to be based on the idea of "being fooled" (hence the title). I am not sure what method of animation I want to use for this one yet, although I am leaning towards 2D. So far I have only played around with the sack-character, I still need to work on the other elements.