AGI Studio 1: Week 11 Related Work

Week 11

Mamoon

1. ’Mamoon’ is an animated short film that tells the story of a mother and her infant child who are forced to leave their home when the shadow is enveloping the world they live in. 

2. The theme of the film is about the love between the mother and the son. To protect her son from the shadow, she brightens herself up as a light source. When her light fades, she is forced to save her son’s life by using a strange red light. Light and shadow are heavily used in this film to represent the sacrifice of a mother to save her child. 

3. This work informs us of the potential of compositing an animated film with live footage, in this case the shots of the projection of an animation. The animation is produced and projected onto a polystyrene film sets before filming. Different materials were tested out before the projection happened as they all have different results based on the reflection and refraction features of the material (e.g. concrete wall, glass, dark surface or white surface etc.). The relationship between light and shadow is explored thoroughly, not only because the film is made of projection shots, but also because the film itself is based on the idea of the shadow engulfing the light and everything within.

Link: https://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/animation/mamoon

The making of Mamoon: https://vimeo.com/289061269

La Luna

1. ‘La Luna’ is a 3D animated short film that tells the story of a boy, Bambino, who works on his family’s traditional work for the very first day.

2. The film is addressing the message of developing your own personalities instead of trying to imitate others. It uses the boy’s action and his prop selection to prove the point. For example, the adjustment in the way the boy wears the cap shows that the boy is developing his own belief and identity. The tool the boy uses to sweep the stars away at the ending also indicate the same thing.

3. This work informs us of the potential of showing character growth by solely using the character’s action. Character movement is explored intensively and applied effectively to differentiate the grandfather, the father, and the boy. For example, the way the father and grandfather wear caps are different, the tools they use to sweep away the stars are different too. They have snippets of animation designed based on their personalities and the boy is trying to copy them. In the end though, the boy has a breakthrough and has his own set of actions. The character animation is what makes this film enjoyable and successful.

Link: https://youtu.be/vbuq7w3ZDUQ