Process & Production - The Four Elements

I've decided to take a massive U-turn on my project and go with my idea for the water element.
I've done this as I'd lost enthusiasm with my fire idea - I thought it was too cheesy (not in a good way) and predictable. Whenever I was working on it I kept thinking I wish I'd have gone with the seagull and fish love story. Therefore, over Xmas I began working on my second attempt. 
I started by drafting some initial character design. I played with the idea of having the characters in a realistic style but again, I wanted to have my animation cartoony with a lack of any major detail. Not because I'm lazy or anything! I just like really linear, crisp styles of animation. 
I sketched a couple more styles of fish and seagull before I decided on a final outcome.

Here is the final design for the main characters of my animation. I've decided to name them Horatio (Seagull) and Martell (Fish) just so it's easier when it comes to storyboarding and understanding who's who.
Horatio's facial expressions are heavily influenced by Mordecai from Regular Show. At the beginning of the story, he always seems to look moody with a lack of enthusiasm. His character softens when he meets Martell. 

I can't really think of where I got the idea for Martell's design. I knew I wanted her to have a soft facial features with glowing cheeks but as for her face itself, I guess I just thought of it whilst sketching. Her movement in the animation is inspired by the Pokemon 'Goldeen'. Its seen in the game and the anime as quite a pretty fish that gracefully floats in the water. I want to achieve this kind of effect when animating the meeting scene. I justified scrapping my last idea by saying it was 'too cheesy and not in a good way' yet I want an instrumental of Chris De Burgh's 'Lady in Red' to play when their eyes meet. I guess I'm just drawn to cheesiness - this time it's definitely in a good way... hopefully.

Quick storyboard

 

I've also been having a look at how seagulls fly to get a realistic effect for when I'm animating Horatio. On this, they seem to be gliding more than flying and thinking about it, I've only ever really seen them glide. I'll probably making the first scene in my animation windy so that my seagull can glide.