Project Proposal

Synopsis
Lorraine is a regular woman who suddenly, inexplicably, has ladybugs fly out of her mouth each time she opens it. How will she adjust to her new life?

Treatment
This project will be animated in 2D in a limited style. I would like to emphasize the cartoonishness of the world by having characters, props, and backgrounds metamorphose rather than move naturalistically.
My design inspirations are Looney Tunes and UPA productions for background and character design. Each character will be a single color, rendered in several shades, and details added with black linework. The backgrounds will not have black linework, but rather details will be drawn in sparse, colorful linework. The backgrounds will each have an analogous color scheme that will highlight the mood of its scene. Additionally, since the ladybugs are a prominent story element, they will be the only red things.
I want this film to have a digital texture reminiscent of MS Paint. I plan to use hard square digital brushes with no pressure-based changes in opacity, thickness, or jitter. My brushstrokes will have no taper, but instead hard-stop. Shading and gradients will be rendered in pointillism, mimicking the spray-paint tool. If there are large areas in the background without details, I will add a light gradient across the area to ensure that my film has no completely flat areas that would make it look unfinished.

Sound Treatment
The story will be narrated as if someone is reading a storybook, meaning there will be one voice actor reading the narration and acting out the dialogue. I’d like there to be jazzy music that reflects the mood of the events onscreen and is on beat with the action. The ladybugs should have their own unique instrument that acts out all their movements onscreen, ideally a funky little piano or some kind of horn instrument. I don’t envision ambient sound for this film, but spot effects will be present, likely not panned.

Visual References
These first 3 images represent the texture I want to achieve with my shading and linework.

I'm using Pussy / Cipka as a video reference for the cartoonish aspect of her characters' movements.

The following images show the analogous color scheme I want to try and the lineart colors. These backgrounds have a bit of complementary color in them too which I don’t want to include. IMPORTANT: I think the ladybugs should be the only red things in my animation. Super important that they stand out!
The final image is an example of how I plan to use shading/gradients in my backgrounds wherever I feel there are areas too large without any detail.