The Making of 'The CandyMan Interrogation'

David Fish and Maik Pham Quang commenced production on The CandyMan Interrogation a mere 7 weeks ago, here is everything that went into creating it.

Please note: When reaching the bottom of the page, remember to click 'older posts' as there is more pages of work, Thankyou

Research: Source Material

When coming up with our idea of a police interrogation, we needed some source materials from both Film and Animation to help us develop our story further. We discovered that the police interview was a very prolific section of film, and has found its way into some of the biggest movies, and games, of all time. Seeing as we was using the 'bad cop' routine, here are a few of the ones we found most relevant to our story.

This is an interrogation scene from the hit Playstation 3 title 'Heavy Rain'. We found this spot on with what we wanted to do. The cop in the video, loses his temper and hits out at the suspect. This sort of behaviour is exactly reminiscent of what we wanted to achieve, and being an animated scene added to its appeal even more.

This scene from the box office smash 'The Dark Knight' is another we thought which showed exactly the type of character we was trying to portray. A very expressive, slightly aggressive, type character was specifically the type of characteristics we were trying to convey with our characters.

Research: LipSync

With neither of us doing much lip syncing before this project, research was key. We gathered as much examples, and materials as possible in our quest to get our lipsync spot on. The Internet proved a great source of information, with people providing their previous attempts at a lip sync which proved invaluable with making sure we either followed in their footsteps, or didn't make the same mistakes as them.

Here are just a few source images we used.

Research: Facial Expressions

Researching facial expressions was very important to us. When animating a lip sync, without good facial expressions, the character can seem lifeless and unappealing towards the audience. We used the internet, and an amazing book by Preston Blair called 'Cartoon Animation'. This book proved priceless with its wealth of information from the professionals.

Pre Production: Sketches

After researching facial expressions, we decided to sketch out what Moom's face will be doing most during our production. We needed to see how his face would contort when surprised, angry, sad and excited just to name a few.

Another thing that would be key to producing really good animation, is strong key poses. We sketched out a few poses showing Moom in different situations, moving, slouched, showing different characteristics would eventually make it easier for when we come to block out our animation using a key pose animatic.

Pre Production: Character Synopsis

When coming up with the whole idea and story, we needed to give each of the characters their own personality. We wanted the cop to be playing the whole, cliche bad cop routine, and the suspect the typical nervous, anxious character set.

The Cop, a bit of a hot head, jumps to conclusions all the time. He's recently divorced, and just missed out on the promotion at work. A chip on his shoulder, good luck to anyone who crosses him on a bad day.

Moom, a nervous character. Being a slightly dopey yet lovable character but always seems to find himself in the wrong situation. Uses humour to hide his insecurities. Lives alone, one day seizes the opportunity to steal candy from a baby, soon enough he becomes obsessed with the thrill.

Pre Production: Script/Screenplay

When writing our script, we wanted to take a serious situation, like a police interview, but add a bit of humour to whole thing. Firstly we came up with the script, and then adapted the screenplay around that. We used certain language in the dialogue to help get the story across, and to also help the audience associate with the characters.

For example, the Cop, being a slightly hot headed character, used somewhat colourful language, whereas the suspect, a very nervous and anxious character used words associated with being scared and feeling slightly out of place.

Please click on each image for a zoomed in view