Animatic

Here's the animated storyboard, or animatic.
A lot of the shots got messed up while rendering them in After Effects, making certain parts waaaaay too light. It's a little distracting, but I made the animatic for the purpose of seeing how the timing and general movements look. And I'm pleased.

You might recall that the original story has one more scene, where the sun and the moon talked about what to do. I removed this scene.
That's because sometimes you have to let go of things. Whenever you make something, it's good to pause occasionally and ask yourself the question "Why am I doing this?", and think about it. Does what you do help your work? Does it add something? Or should you cut it?
And sometimes you realize that adding that space monkey or electric cat just doesn't fit your grim and realistic setting, and you take them out no matter how much you love the idea of having one of those. And your work will be better for it.
This is called 'killing your darlings', and at some point every artist will have to*.

So let's look at the scene, and see what it does:

- it introduces a new character, the sun. And,

- shows the relation between it and the moon.

- it has two people talking.

What would this scene require?
- One or two new backgrounds, and

- a new character (and the accompanying research and design).

Why keep it?
- It adds a little to the story, and

- allows me to show off some more of my animation.

Why not keep it?

- requires a reasonable amount of time for research, design, drawing and animating. I have only a very limited amount of time for the whole animation.

- if cut, the character of the moon will have to offer the alternative to the snake, and eventually make the choice of sacrificing herself, without first consulting with another character. I think this adds to her character's strength.

- The characters talking is a break in the story, as two of the characters are only talking, and the other two waiting for them to finish talking before they can continue. I think breaks can be great for a story, but this is a very short animation, and I think I can keep the pacing up without remotely wearing out the viewer.

So there are my thoughts. I hope to have shown you how I approach a story, and my view on editing.
And because you read through this, I would like to present you with the remaining drawings, in the colors they were meant to have:

*I want to add that I don't like the wording of 'killing your darlings'. I have sketchbooks in which I keep all ideas I cut. This way they can live on, maybe grow stronger. And whenever I need an idea, I will have a sketchbook full of ideas to choose from. It also means I have no way of running out of inspiration, for I have sketchbooks full of things I'd love to make.