This article is the continued from series of articles –Story Writing For Animation. You can go through previous articles by clicking here

“ She knew that tomorrow he is going to come for her , finally its her turn , she will get eaten by the Devil Dragon … there’s no way to stop.. she was crying … sometimes tears bring nothing but the tears … it’s her last night in the castle .. after all to save the kingdom she has to die , like her other 6 beautiful sisters..

He is at huge entrance of kingdom … now the wait is over … he is shocked … he sees the knight in front him …. As the knight comes closer … he cant believe his eyes … it’s the 7th princess!!! He laughs (thinking at least … there is MAN in this kingdom, he almost traveled through 100s of kingdoms , but every kingdom sacrificed their prince or princess , all gutless creatures … FINALLY I WILL ABLE TO TASTE THE WARRIORS BLOOD .. and I’m thirsty …)

Princess is looking like a beautiful storm , on white horse … she thrust forward … her horse jumps … jumps higher … princess aim the neck of Dragon …. Blood is coming through neck… he screams … (without even talking a word she clears her intension)

He turns toward her .. she is coming back … but this time dragon .. fires up through his giant mouth …. Aiming the princess .. she jumps from horse … she’s on ground … she picks of sword … dragon is coming towards her …she thrusts forward … making grip even tight .. she throws the sword like a spear aiming the eye of dragon… misses the target… she is weapon less … she is trying to run … dragon is very close to her .. she is going towards the huge entrance … the dragon sets the walls and entrance on fire … now no place to run… he picks up her like a tiny stone … he enters in kingdom… roars setting everything on fire … still no sign of life … finally a small kid comes from nowhere , and throws small stone at dragon .. dragon turns towards the kid … princess trying to escape… kid is gone … no he is isn’t he is trying to pick up the sword … but he cant .. how could he ? dragon picks up the kid in his other hand.. he is about to eat the kid ….”

Hi there , I thought I should start with bang for a topic(as usual ;)) ….

In this series of Story writing ,Up to this article we have finished the conflict stage , my aim with this story is,

  1. whatever we have learned from throughout the series of Story Writing , is not just for 3 hrs film , it can be applied to short like say 6 -7 minutes
  2. I have purposely left the story incomplete , cause we have to still learn the last stage “Resolution”
  3. Look at the first paragraph Its Set-up

Where indirectly I’v introduce so many things , RULES,WORLD,BACKSTORY,SEEDS OF CONFLICT,CHARACTER/s, Exploring the character through SITUATION,MOTIVATION and GOAL

When you look at the second paragraph those things become more clear and clear , even you learn about both characters Dragon and Princess

4. The most important parts ..

1.THE PROGRESSION OF CONFLICT

AND

2.INTENSITY OF CONFLICT

See from third paragraph , there is “Progression of conflict”

Its extremely important Part of story , which decides that the story is Exciting , Boring or Confusing

Just setting the big conflict, does not mean that you’re done with story conflict , you have to consider the two important parts one its “progression of conflict ” and “ intensiy of conflict ”

So here are types for Progression of Conflict

  1. Compound Conflicts

1.1 Domino effect

1.2 Cascade effect#1

  1. Accumulated Conflicts

2.1 Cascade effect#2

2.2 Ripple effect

2.3 Butterfly effect

Don’t get frustrated , only names are slight burdening , but learning it will be fun.

I learned this types from book “Finding And Building Stories- ideas for animated short by Karen Sullivan , Gary Schumer, Kate Alexander”

This is must have book. An incredible for student short films .

Anyway if you cant wait for next article , study that Progression of Conflict from the book ,

But come back, because I’m gonna discuss the OUTCOME OF EACH TYPE OF PROGRESSION which is not in book 😉

And try this assignment

Go through today’s story of Princess and Dragon , and write down all the elements that we have discussed through all previous articles , please do this it will be really helpful for you as You will recognize

  1. how all basic elements of story rendered together ?
  2. how perfect SET-Up is created ?
  3. How conflict is introduce ?
  4. We’ve learned every element with its ultimate OUTCOME , like what is the OUTCOME of SETUP , CONFLICT , How it can be achieved ?

Study the story with this point of view

Thank you so much see you in next the article …

For All Story Writing Animation Lessons click here

4 COMMENTS

    • Thanks Suzie,
      and you are absolutely correct Story is First ,
      sometimes beginners ignore the importance of Story , but its most important thing which affects every decision in overall pipeline ..

      and i’m glad that you are studying story ..
      iv written many articles on story .. they will be definitely helpful for you ..
      if you haven’t you might wanna check the index of topics..

      https://bramhaa.com/animation-storywriting/

      keep animating .. keep growing .. 🙂

    • Hi Sumit ,

      Actually i will need to finish the Conflict first to understand the Resolution ..

      There is a lot stuff to understand in Conflict ..

      I promise that soon i will be definitely explaining the Resolution , before that i have to build the foundation in Conflict ..

      Thanks for reading the articles .. 🙂

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