Dev Blog #1
By Thando Maqetuka
Role: 2D ANIMATION INTERN
Date: Friday. June 20, 2025
Early brainstorming and thoughts on the project:
Starting this new internship has been exciting and I have been eager to learn more about
how the industry works. I have been most eager to get into 2D Animation as I’ve only really
been focused on Character designs and Illustration. I know getting into Animation will be
tough but it’s honestly exciting.
When I heard what the theme of the project was gonna be I wasn’t too surprised to be
honest, it’s something that I’ve thought about on my own to create characters revolving
around masks, that’s why i think it was easier for me to come up with the story idea. What
was surprising was the number of group members. I initially thought there would be much
more of us but there are only two of us but it isn’t a train smash. The work can be done and
we are both working very smoothly with each other.
Early Concepts and Storyboards:
For the past 2 weeks we’ve been developing our story bit by bit, initially starting with different
art styles that we like to have for the animation. My thought process for that was since we’re
only two in the group it’s important to pick a style that we know we can draw over and over,
as well as being able to finish said animation in time for the submission. We ended up going
with a style very similar to adventure time (picture will be below), for me it was perfect as we
can be confident in replicating a similar style to this and production can go smoother.
Shortly we started working on our own characters we would like in the story, this happened
after i pitched the story idea to the my group member to which he was on board with.
Developing the Visuals:
Once we had decided on our style we started developing our characters for the story, for me
this was the most fun of our project as I love creating characters. Upon creating the story I
felt it was easy for me to create the characters as I already had some ideas for how the
characters were going to look like. I specifically had an idea for the main character and hero
of our story. He needed to be young and courageous and I looked to ‘Finn’ from Adventure
Time as inspiration. I even gave him a similar bag back as his, as a homage to one of my
favourite cartoon characters. The other characters honestly followed suit and enhanced the
world.
Software Tools for our Animation :
My go to software for anything regarding the conceptualisation of ideas for either a story,
characters or world is always Photoshop. I use Photoshop for everything but I know it’s not
the best tool for Animation. Clip Studio Paint is a software that I know many use for
animation so I knew we needed to incorporate it into our workflow.
What’s Next?
Well we are mostly finished with our concepts for the story. I believe we can start the
production of our animation in the week coming which is exciting but scary. I’m sure we will
be ready for the challenge ahead.
Final Thoughts:
This project has been within my comfort zone so far, but with the actual production of the
animation coming I must be eager to see how it goes. I love the story idea, the characters
and the music we are making for the story. It’s going to be fun I’m sure.
