Studio 2 Folio 1 Week 5

By Chow Vian Wing Yan

Attached is a PDF for folio 1

ANIMATIC LINK

https://youtu.be/9jIhp32Gmhw

Rationale:

Project Inquiry:

How to convey death in surreal animation and characters

I am interested in the presentation of death in surreal animation and characters. In the week 2 Pitch, I have come up with different short stories which derive from different death cultures and surreal artworks. I was curious about making clips of animation that metaphor death in different cultures and symbols.

After consultation and research, the reaction of people facing death attracts me more. It would be more convincing and interesting to develop a story that is presenting the journey of endless death. As there are many elements to be included, it would be better to do an animation of a story instead of vignettes.

I combine some symbolic signatures in the different death cultures. To explore the concept, I would try to use a retro style which acts as a point of difference in my project. The way I am trying to convey death in my animation is mainly through metaphor and visual impact. The whole experience of death is hoping to trigger different interpretations of death from the audience after watching the animation. It is believed that people's own experience on the death issue could be relatable as it is unavoidable in the real life.

Characters in the story are based on Greek's belief in Gods. They are representing different Gods and Goodness in death and underworld - Thanatos, Hecate and Charon.

The concept behind is a term called Thanatology which stated two concepts about death: denial and "partial death". People will embrace and interpret real death when they have closely exposed to death through friends or even themselves. Before that, people denial about getting close to death which is also related to religions somehow. I started to wonder what their interpretation of death is when different backgrounds of people. This is also a question to discover throughout the project when people are giving feedback to me.

Context

Salvador Dali had been well-known in his achievement in Surrealism. His surrealistic work has inspired me in the concept building and design of the project. Especially his painting's The Elephant (1948) which inspires me the most in designing the character, Thanatos. His work also introduces a sense of endlessness in space through set design. This is a crucial element in the afterlife world settings which usually be used in most movies or animations when talking about heaven and hell. His say about surrealism is himself also helped me develop the presentation of death not limited to the character's actions. Death can be the character itself through metaphor as a visual representation.

Below are two inspiring films in the industry that are more relatable references for the project.

A classic French animated surreal film," The King and the Bird"(1980) is directed by Paul Grimault. It uses a lot of elements to engage with unconsciousness through a story. Lots of films or artwork later have elaborated those elements. It introduces nonsense through art shifting and empty spaces.

"Destino"(2003) which is released by The Walt Disney Company has been a great animation in promoting surrealism in the field. It is a collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali which present the surreal world of Dali lively. It is inspired that the animation breaks the time and place boundaries with the different transitions. Throughout the research process, I would like to emphasise on the transportation of the human's soul to different levels in the afterlife world. Experimentally I have used the eye as a metaphor for the soul in the story. It is more symbolic to present the journey of a soul through the morphing of the eye in different ways.

Method:

I have planned a schedule for a 12-week- project in Toggl Plan.

Planning

Week 1 - Week 5: Research and Story Design

Week 6 - Week 8: Draw Outline for Animatic, Sample Audio

Week 9 - Week 11: Colour for Animatic, Add Audio

Week 12 : Final Check and Review

WIP PDF

Statements of Intensions

Included in Studio 2 Pitch and Pre-Production (Week 2) | Master Of Animation, Games & Interactivity (magistudio.net)

Week 3 Pre-Production
Week 4-5 Pre-production

Included in Studio 2 Animatics ( wk 3- wk 5 ) | Master Of Animation, Games & Interactivity (magistudio.net)

Pre-production:

- Thumbnails

After shifting the animatic context, I developed a story of a dead person's actions and feeling in his afterlife. In week 2 and 3, I have designed the thumbnails for the story for around 1.5 minutes. The Story is about a dead girl who does not accept the truth of her death. She wakes up in an afterlife world and meets three death gods.

Hecate: as guidance welcoming her from the real world ( Hug her )

Thanatos: punishing her for not accepting her death ( Eat her )

Charon: bringing her to the Final Judgment ( Carry her across the river )

They are trying to help her embracing death but she is trying to escape from hell. She keeps on looping and travelling in different places and levels of the afterlife world. Eventually, she is exhausted and finally accepts her death and walks towards her Final Judgment.

In weeks 3 - 5, I made animatics and drafts for character design for the project.

- Animatic

During the process of making animatic, I have developed different approaches in conveying the death concept. In the beginning, the approach of including different cultural believes has failed without a solid storyline in the animation. The animatic was confused before adding rigged sort of patterns. As the story is about the character suffering cycles of death afterlife, symbols representing different stages of death are designed through colours, objects and transformation.

To present the topic with a stronger approach, I have been trying to strengthen the tensions between the characters:

The girl is running away from the death gods vs the death gods are catching the girl

Tools that I use for animatic is Toon Boom Harmony. I use Krita and Procreate for character and scene design.

Next Step:

The process of animatic production is longer than expected as the tension has been so weak in the animatics. Therefore I have to follow Plan B according to my schedule.

I will keep update the sound designer and collaborate on the sound sample.

I will finalise the character designs before week 6. Then will work on the final animatic production.

Animatic Production:

The timeline in the animatic will be locked by week 7 such that the sound designer can work on the soundtrack. Meanwhile, I will work on the outline of the animatic. Starting from week 9, I will work on the colour of characters, transformation scene and settings accordingly.

Impact:

It is expected to produce a 2D animation that has a strong visual impact on the audience. The visual transformation and atmosphere is hoped to explore and bring different interpretations and reactions to death from the audience. Death

Studio 2 Folio 1 Week 5

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