University of Portsmouth - Animation Yr. 3 - Advanced Pre-Production Methods
After deciding not to continue with my initial idea, I ended up being stuck in a long ideation process.
Pitch #2:
After being told that I should play to my strengths and consider what I want to do in the future, I came up with a story about a soldier that suffers from war flashbacks. Considering the gaming aspect, I planned the action to be seen through the soldier's eyes. From the POV of the soldier, the viewer would have seen the horrific image of him waking up from shock, after losing a leg on the battlefield. He is dragged back to safety by a friend and at the most intense part of the story he is being woken up by his daughter, resulting in a happy ending. With only one day to produce it (because I wanted to present it in time for the last pitching session) the concept ended up being flawed and poorly planned.
Storyboard:
Mood board:
Pitch #3:
Synopsis:
-A huge monster comes towards the camera, from the depths of the darkness
-The monster (look at the fiend from Witcher 3 for reference) opens its 3rd eye while coming very close to the camera
-Some other footsteps can be heard coming closer
-Transition from the monster’s eyes to a boy’s face. The boy is waking up from the trance and is turning towards where the footsteps are coming from (all in close up)
-The boy has horns and is sitting on a grave stone. He is being harassed by some smaller ghosts. His appearance is miserable
-An old man is approaching and as he passes by, at a beat of his cane, the ghosts dissolve
-The old man goes away and the kid is intrigued
-The kid starts to sneakily follow the old man through the cemetery, hiding behind gravestones
-The old man is entering a property at the edge of the cemetery
-The kid follows him, and as he enters the front yard, he bumps into the old man, who was waiting for him
-The wise old man is inviting him inside
-As they go in, the old man points towards a mirror
-The old man also has a devil’s tail
-The boy is intrigued
-The house is quirky, but brightly lit and homely
-The old man offers the kid a bed
-Later, that night
-The kid is going to bed, and the Fiend is making its appearance from the cemetery
-The kid is hypnotized and is moving towards the window to let himself be eaten
-The old man sees that from a distance and attacks the fiend to protect the boy
-The fiend attacks the old man, and the old man breaks one of the fiend’s horns
-The injured fiend returns into the darkness
-Time passes
-The kid is saying his goodbyes to his master and going into his own journey
-The old man is left behind
-Time passes
-The kid is coming back, but as a grown up
-He goes to the house, but it is extremely run down
-He sees a new grave stone in front of the house
-He approaches the gravestone, and as he is weeping, the monster is forming right behind him
-The kid gets up and pets the demon (they have become friends over time)
-They leave together as friends
Storyboard:
Because of production considerations and story complexity I had to drop this idea as well. After receiving feedback, I adopted a few limitations. Since I liked to work on the monster for the Wendigo project, I made the decision to make a story about a supernatural creature. I also knew that I will have to reduce the number of characters and come up with a simpler premise.
The trip to Japan inspired me to create another story about a date gone bad that would feature similar landscapes to the ones from around Mt. Takao.
Pitch #4: Catfish
Synopsis:
Guy is waiting in a park
Guy looks at phone
Tinder date says that she’ll be there at 10
Date arrives
Cut to them already kissing
The girl pushes him back and runs away into the forest
The girl takes of her coat and runs away
Guy picks up coat and walks towards her
Girl throws away her jumper
Guy picks up jumper and walks further
Guy keeps walking and picking up more and more stuff
He looks back and sees that he got quite far away from the city
Walks towards the girl and sees a bra on the ground
He is thrilled and picks it up
He walks forward and sees the girl in the light of the moon, in a clearing.
He approaches her with a dumb smile on his face
When he gets close, two bright eyes appear from the forest
He is scared and looks at the girl
The girl is a puppet of the angler fish monster
The guy immediately runs away
The angler fish monster is chasing him through the forest
Just as he’s about to be bitten, he jumps off a ledge and rolls down to safety
He looks up and sees the monster retreating into the forest
He takes a moment to breathe and picks up the phone which landed next to him
Closes the conversation he had and stares at the Tinder app
He takes a while, sees another girl and he swipes right
References:
Pictures from Mt. Takao:
Color reference:
Monster references:
Since the story is about 'catfishing', I wanted to design the monster accordingly. In the end I used different traits from different species of fish (angler fish, cat fish, vampire fish and dragon fish) and lizards.
Concept art:
Fern test:
Since I knew that I will have to model a forest, I started experimenting with Maya and made a simple fern. Since I wanted to have stylized visuals, I hand painted the leaves in Photoshop and added the Toon Shader in Maya.
Storyboard:
Again, after storyboarding I realized that the premise is still too complex and the comedic aspect is not combining well with the horror theme. I thought that by eliminating any of these the story would change too much and not make sense anymore. Instead, I knew that I would have to change the story yet again.
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