Of Mice and Men (animation)

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Of Mice and Men

This is #4 in my new Adjacent Greats series where I imagine a scene that happens stage left of the existing book jacket.

Cover art by The Heads of State

Animation - Tom LaBaff

I discovered this classic tale back in English Lit 101. Did a report on it where I talked about all the metaphors of death that riddled this story.

My 4 step process:

1- Beat sheet

2- Animatic

3- Character design

4- Music and editing

Beat Sheet & Animatic

The beats for this were firmly in my head so I went straight into the animatic.

This is playing slowly here and without the camera move so I could keep an eye on the composition. The real timing of this is on 'ones' which is as fast as you can record for frame by frame animation. This is also silent because I knew I'd find the score for this later.

animatic - no sound

Character design

I wanted to match The Heads of State transparent and minimalist style. I wasn't sure how it'd look when characters are engaging on screen but it came out kinda cool.

Reference

I found this superb reference online from Turbarywoods.co.uk.

Music and editing

Music is the final step. I found 3 slightly different dramatic options on Storyblocks. Here's one of those versions but I like the one I went with (at the top).

Next case study is a surprise.