Character Animation with Voiceover
Animation, Illustration
I was approached by the theatrical production company Fosithoi, a Cyprus-based organisation, to create a short animated video that would be used in their new stage production. This was an especially exciting opportunity, as the play is based on the book The Teacher and the Seagull (Η Δασκάλα και ο Γλάρος), which I illustrated several years ago.
The deadline for this project was very tight, as the voiceover had been delayed. The entire video revolves around a dialogue between three pigeons, so the animation focused heavily on character acting and reactions to the spoken lines. Fortunately, I was already deeply familiar with the scene and themes of the story, which allowed me to dive into the work well prepared. While waiting for the voiceover, I created all the visual elements in vector format using Adobe Illustrator and prepared the files for animation.
This is the page spread from the book on which the scene is based (text omitted). Under the guidance of the book’s author, the playwright expanded the story by adding rich dialogue that enhanced and deepened the narrative.
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Each element of the background was created on a separate layer to allow for individual animation and movement, enhancing the overall sense of depth.
It was decided that the set design would feature more green tones than the original source material, and this needed to be reflected in the video. The animation was intended to play in the background, blending partially with the physical set, while the main character—the seagull, portrayed by a live actor—would stand in the foreground and react to the pigeons' conversation.
These are the three pigeon characters, who serve as the main antagonists of the story. On the left, you can see a breakdown of the various layers used to enable movement during the animation of the scene. The director’s vision was for the pigeons to remain mostly still, delivering their lines through voiceover. Due to the design of the pigeons’ beaks, there was limited opportunity for expressive mouth animation. As a result, I relied on larger, exaggerated body movements to convey the emotion and tone of the dialogue.
In the end, I created two videos: the main one, which included the voiceover and the majority of the animation, and a simpler looping video showing the pigeons pecking at the grass. The purpose of the second video was to play in the background while the scene on stage progressed, leading up to the point where the pigeons’ dialogue would begin. Above is the main video, featuring the voiceover and animated performance. At the start of this video, you can see the transition that was designed to move seamlessly from the looping video into the dialogue sequence.