Sound Design Go!

We have a working sound edit completed yesterday to screen our film in class on Saturday. Here's a shot of our film hooked up to surround sound to mix levels the best we can.

Two Final Shots from the film!

Title and composite update

We're on the home stretch and the film in coming together slowly but surely. We have put off our title shot for some time now but finally have a stand in.

Credits Animation

Here is the first animation "test" for the page turn animation we will be using for our credit sequence. It will eventually have the page animated in with book images and title composited in After Effects.

Retro Rocket Ship Take Two

Rocket Ship Fire Test 2 from Halcyon-17 on Vimeo.

We wanted the rocket to have more of a paper puppet sort of feeling and the old flame wasn't quite right. Buying some trick birthday candles and a barbecue lighter, we had some fun compositing a homemade fire effect and shaking the rocket around like a wet noodle.

Character Assets Completed

Symbols that will be used for out cutout animation style were created in Illustrator in the proper perspective of each shot. Below is the sheet that includes all character assets ready for animation.

Text Testing

Here's a rough attempt at making words that solidify into text solidify into uh... dirt? Check it out!
 
Text Experiment v01 from Halcyon-17 on Vimeo.

Props Update

The final prop assets are near completion. Below are the main props in our film. Again exploring a mix of photographic textures mixed with Photoshop painting to build our art style.

 

The ladder at the bottom of the tree. Also holding the first article of clothing lost

 

The exterior of the rocket ship with metal texture

 

With the interior of the rocket ship we played with the concept of it resembling a uterus that would cradle him

Last the image we will use inside of the book he is reading. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

Rocket Test

Here is the result of a quick tutorial given on a possible way we could quickly produce fire using After Effects CC plugins. Later in the week we will be filming a butane torch and a sparkler to explore other methods and looks to the flame.

Composite Test Animation

Shot 5 has been our test dummy for animation and compositing since production has started. Below is the final direction we will be using moving forward for the film. It includes the backgrounds which are painted in Photoshop utilizing real textures from photographs, the animated character in Toon Boom and live action cherry blossoms composited onto the animation footage with post lighting in After Effects.


Our animation style has slowly been moving to a simplified cut out style that has minimal, if any, slow ins and outs between keys. This example straddles the new direction with some motion tweens but maintains the stiff cut out aesthetic to the movements.

Layout

Layout for the beginning of the film.

Animation Update!

It has been a week of testing and experimenting but we have developed a pipeline for the new limited character animation. Attached are the most recent animation tests that include some keys for facial expressions.


The test below strictly focused on shape morphs to tilt the head upwards.

Character Assets

We have officially begun production! Below is the current character asset sheet. We are going through and creating all the symbols from various angles we will need to animate in Toon Boom.

Also a preliminary composite of Shot 3. It is a still test and will soon have the live action flower pedals along some lighting and subtle animation.

The overlay represents some minor notes on how to tweak the layout for final composite.

Raw Footage taken of Petals Falling

Falling Pedals

After the shoot

Today we sequestered ourselves in the green screen room to shoot some practical effects for the falling cherry blossoms. This footage will eventually be composited over the animation.

Discussing how we will shoot the practical effects

Setting up the camera to drop pedals from above

Dropping the pedals at variable densities

Layout for Shot 5

Here is the layout for shot 5. The next step will be to composite this layout with the animation on which we are currently working. Look forward to seeing the finished shot! We are working through the whole pipeline to smooth out the kinks of production. This will allow us to plan our time efficiently for the next couple weeks.

Exploring the Animation Style

Unfortunately we have 5 short weeks to finish this film. Because of this we have started to explore ways to economize the animation. Shot 5 is our test dummy and will be used to find a compromise between the original tradigital style and the new symbol animation direction.

Symbols aligned ready for animation

The character has been broken down into sections to be animated using the drawn keys as reference.

Symbols separated (missing right hand and book)

Rough Animation Tests

We're ramping up for production and to kick it off we started on some animation tests. Some very, very rough, volume morphing, off character sheet animation tests that is. But we are beginning to refine the staging and explore the acting in a few shots. Working first on the longest shot when Goddard reaches the top and at the base when he first looks up to see Mars.

These are two critical shots. One exploring how a 62 year old man might climb a tree; slow and hunched over.
The other focusing more on acting to show the young Goddard's reaction to this beautiful glowing planet that looks to be living in the tree.

Film Title

We spent a short meeting yesterday brainstorming some titles for our film. "Red" has been the working title however there are already several films with the same title, both live action and animated.

Below is the mind map created as we explored titles.

The top names are the following

1899
Elysian

Halcyon-16

Hutchins

First Cut Animatatic

Color Script

Parallel to working on the Animatic to refine the timing of the film, we have been using the storyboard thumbnails to develop our color script.

Initial Storyboard

The initial thumbnail storyboards.
ShortShort_Storyboards_01 -

Prop Designs

Looking at the design of various props throughout the film. We started by exploring the critical props, mainly the rocket ship. Additional props will include things such as his hatchet, his book and the ladder.

An early cockpit design.

Rocket shape exploration.

Character Design

We are still exploring the look of the character in relationship to the environments. The character will be animated 2D digitally using Toon Boom. We are currently leaning towards options without the paper edge.

Exploration of the paper edge around the character animation.

Above is a character line up of Goddard at various ages.

Lastly some thumbnail sketches of 16yr old Goddard's facial expressions.

Environment Development

We have been exploring a variety of color palettes and design directions for the environments. The team is narrowing in on a final direction of the film that includes photo textures and compositing, with watercolor backgrounds, digital painting and digital 2D character animation.

Initial direction. Colors based on colors from a prop concept.

A revised concept adding more colors to the sky. This also explore the ripped paper cutout look for our character.

A newer concept exploring a blue color palette and watercolor textures for the sky. Also another approach to the character animation.

A concept exploring the original styleframe color palette and a fully colored character design. This concept also introduces some flower blossoms scattered on the branches.

Final environment direction includes the texture quality of watercolor.

Story and Art Direction Initial Pitch

Art Direction Concept 1

Sound Design Concept 1

Film Summary

The short begins with a close up of cherry tree branches. Limbs are twisted and contorted to create a complex graphic pattern similar to synapses of the human brain. The camera cranes down through the thicket of dead branches to lush budding flowers, and reveals the title card carved into the tree’s trunk.

The environment is expansive and empty with a single tree in its center, extending above the frame with a short ladder leaned against its trunk. A teenage boy walks towards the tree.

The boy climbs the ladder and slowly ascends the tree. Branches transition from ripe with life to dying as he climbs higher and higher. When he crests the canopy, the boy is looking out into endless space. In the distance the young boy sees a hazy red planet. He reaches towards the planet in awe. Suddenly, the branch he is supporting himself on breaks and he begins to fall back to the ground. He turns slowly while falling and now, with his back towards the ground, is looking back towards the red planet. He is aging as he speaks the line "it has often proved true that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today, and the reality of tomorrow."

The words physically animate from his mouth and decay into black soil that collects on his chest where a seedling begins to sprout. The frame slowly tightens around his face as he calmly closes his eyes. He dies.

A hatch closes, framing his face in a porthole window. The camera trucks out to reveal a rocket ship being propelled into space. The loud rumble of a rocket is increasing and increasing in volume as the reverb layers and builds. Hard cut to black as only the echo of the rocket reverberates into hollow space.

The final frame is an old man sitting on a red planet under a cherry tree reading the book The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells as credits roll to the side of the frame