P2

A Twisted Tail

A: Treatment

In this short animated sequence, a baby dragon named Pom-Pom (who is too shy to leave their shell), plays with a red ball, tossing it around with their tail, in a room inside a Gothic castle. A sorcerer, Fade, enters the room, sporting a reptilian tail. Pom-Pom is rather startled by this and somehow able to see what is happening despite still being inside the egg. Fade explains to Pom-Pom that he grew a tail after drinking a combination of fermented tea and shape-shifting potion. Exasperated, Pom-Pom groans and states: "Glad I stayed in my shell!"

In terms of voiceover artists, I feel that Cuban-American singer Aurelio Voltaire would be ideal for the voice of Fade; he sounds like a stereotypical cartoon villain (this would only add to the comedy). Pom-Pom, mainly communicating in mews and grunts (save for their only line at the end of the short), could be voiced by anyone, preferably a very young child. If voiced by an adult, their voice would have to be pitch-shifted to make them sound younger.

The overall running time of the animated short is approximately 20 seconds; giving ample time for the viewer to understand what is happening in the scene, well enough to absorb the humour.

The medium of the animation has been updated from the original plan for a 2-D style: it is now a combination of two styles of stop-motion; claymation and paper cut-out animation.

B: Script

C: Storyboard

Note: This storyboard was created before I updated Pom-Pom's character design and consequentially the script as well. I updated the character design to ease the animation process and was able to use this to improve the script.
A number of different sound effects play throughout the short. The sound of footsteps on tiles are present in shots 2 and 3, the thud of the rubber ball hitting the floor is in the background of shot 5 and a triumphant 'ta-da!' sound effect plays in shot 7. The final shot features the sound of a slide whistle.

D: Set Design

Set design/backdrop, the interior of a Gothic castle, created using Adobe Illustrator. As the characters are animated in a different animation technique, this backdrop will be green-screened into the shots and different parts of it will be used to make it look like the characters are talking to one another form different areas of the room.

Below are the separate sub-sets within the main set design, each one used to highlight a key scene in the animation sequence.

The right-hand side of the set design, dedicated to Pom-Pom and highlighting how small they are compared to the rest of their environment.

The left hand side, which is taken up with Fade's character model. Showcases his height in comparison to Pom-Pom and also highlights his sense of importance.

The blackboard is located in the centre of the main backdrop and is intended to display the punchline of the joke about Fade's tail through a comically crude chalk sketch. Although its screen time is limited, it is still crucial to the structure of the animated short.