Focus Week
The first presentation I saw was by illustrator Kenneth Botsford. He created a bran of his own called Squishy Ambitions. He created a thread of characters that work as his mascots, much like hello kitty. The main character is named Squishy, a cheerful skeleton whose goal is to bring happiness into the world. Next to Squishy is his zombie cat sidekick, Cupcake. Together they help fight off evil caused by richard, an all seeing corporate eye. Overall Ken’s brand is pretty solid. The characters are cute and easily marketed. There are some holes in his story line that need to be patched up though.
The second presentation I attended was by Kami Atwood. She created a stop motion animation that tells a story between a father deer and a daughter deer. They are sitting in the woods while the father deer reads the paper. The daughter is desperate for the fathers attention so while the father sets the paper down when he hears a noise she chews holes in the paper that the father later can see through peering at his daughter. There was also an underling story line about creaking house that caught the deers attention. Overall the story line was weak. The set and the puppets were beautifully crafted but unfortunately the animation was sub par at best.
Maddie's Digital Tools 