Tsimp's Blog: Adventures of Worm - Childrens Storybook

I thought it would be fun to create a children's story book that would combine cartoon characters in a real life environment. Kinda like a live action/animation hybrid but in a book form.

Happy Tree Friends

I was inspired by the characters of the cartoon happy tree friends. HTF is a is a cartoon series that can be viewed on the internet. It was created by Mondo mini shows, and developed by Aubrey Ankrum.

I wanted to try to re-create some of the characters using different material to see which technique I would use in my book.

I used coloured pencils to create this drawing

I used paint to create this image

The best technique was using computer software to edit an outline I drew on paper.

Characters

I started to create my own characters a cat, dog, mouse, bird and worm:

Worm

Perry the parrot

Marcus the mouse

Buster the dog

Holly the cat

These are the characters I have decided to use in my story. I now have to create the environment for my story so I am going to take pictures on a camera:

For my first scene I am going to simulate Worm in his home. To re-create a worm in it's natural environment I dug a hole in my back garden, I then took a picture of the hole. The picture I took has roots growing in the top left hand corner which looks as if there is a plant growing above it, which re-enforces the effect that Worm is underground.

A small mound of soil simulates Worm burrowing to the surface to meet Holly.

They will walk down this road.

They come across Marcus who has his tail caught in a mousetrap.

Worm will free Marcus and they head off to the beach together.

They arrive at the beach and start playing with a ball.

Still playing...

Ball goes in the water.

Worm swims out to retrieve but gets captured by Perry.

Perry flies off with Worm.

Marcus and Holly follow Perry back down the path.

They find Perry's nest.

Buster comes out of his house.

Holly and Marcus get rid of Buster.

They rescue Worm from the nest.

Now I have taken the pictures for the background I am going to add in the cartoon characters. To make them more realistic to the environment I am going to create shadows and reflections to give the characters a sense of depth in their environment and to make it look as if they are actually in the scene. I mounted them onto a background and wrote a rhyming storyline to accompany it.