Animated self: idea development

When we are given this brief, I am very excited about making an animation without following a topic or restricted. It is a total open and free subject that I can present myself through my own animation. I started from drawing a mind map and figured out what I want to do and how etc.

I want my animation be personal, telling a story about my life in England and the highlight of this year. Additionally, a rather sensitive topic came up in my mind which is the umbrella revolution that happened in Hong Kong last Christmas. It was a difficult situation for me because I wanted to be in Hong Kong so badly to experience this huge event which was about the thousand citizens protested on highway for more than a month, hoping to gain universal suffrage and democracy. This event raised so many attentions globally and this has triggered a lot of emotional thoughts. I want to combine animation and a story of a character(me) who want to be part of the people in Hong Kong.

Q&A time!

What do you want to animate? 
The highlight of my academic year which is learning a lot of animation skills and the umbrella revolution in Hong Kong

 What do you want to say? Who do you want to speak to? Consideration of context (see above) may inform your decision? 
I want to bring out a message that even you are away of your country, that sense of belonging will bring you back by unity mind. Also I want to show the animation skills I have learnt this year and show to the foreigners, show audience, classmates and parents that I have transformed and progressed into a different person in this year.

Is there a subject tackled earlier in the year that you’d like to return to?
 I like to draw the animation in photoshop, use after effect and turn around which I am so fascinated and has improved so much.

Do you have personal interests that you’d like to make some work about?
I like character design and I want to design a relevant character that can not only bring out the message but catch attentions.

This is the initial sketch of my story. I want the character to be adventurous and brave who is someone I want to become.

A more define storyboard. This storyboard gives me a better view of how I should animate it like different camera angles, poses and lighting. But I was still unsure about some scenes at the end, I hope I can have better ideas during the process.

Deeper thought about the scenes:
I marked down the timing of each scene and what is needed for animating in after effect. Also, thinking of how I should move the camera to create different camera angles etc.