The Little Mermaid is a Fantastic Example of Classic Animation

Storyboard:

Story:

The video opens on an exterior shot of closed doors (1). It is raining heavily and the sky is gray. The door opens and shows the main character wearing tennis shoes, jeans and a hooded sweatshirt (2). He sees the rain, frowns and sighs deeply. He zips up his sweatshirt and puts the hood of his sweatshirt over his head (3). He starts to walk down the sidewalk in the ran (4). Suddenly the rain stops and the clouds disappear and the sun comes out (5). The main character smiles and takes the hood off of his head (6). He struts down the side walk still smiling (7). Then he steps in a huge puddle (8). He falls into the puddle (9). He struggles to swim out of the puddle (10) and he sinks (11). Air bubbles pop up and then the puddle is still (12).

Treatment:

I figured that I would take some still images of a friend of mine doing various things that the main character does (putting the hood up and down, walking form both sides and the front, sighing, waving his arms, smiling, frowning, screaming). Then I will take those images into Photoshop and draw over them. After I draw the whole body, I'll separate the limbs into their own layer. To animate them, I'll take the layers into After Effects and parent them back on the body and create a walking motion that way.

For some of the motions, like raising and lowering the hood, it might be easier to rotoscope.

For the background, I'll hand draw various images that one might pass by while walking down the sidewalk (buildings, trees, maybe a few people running in the rain). I'll put those images in After Effects and move them past the character as he walks down the sidewalk. Foe the rainy sky, I'll create a large image of gray clouds in Photoshop and move it around in Photoshop to make it look like the rain clouds are moving fast.

I'm thinking that for the animation of the character falling into the puddle it would be easier to rotoscope until he is all the way in the water. But when the character is splashing and screaming in the water, it would be easier to use After Effects. I guess I'll get to find out what techniques are easier.

There won't be took much dialogue; Just a sigh or two, some mumbling and some screaming for the drowning scene. Maybe I'll have him whistle when the sun comes out. I'll add some sound effects like rain falling, splashing water, gurgling water, door opening, and a zipper for the sweatshirt.