Below is the link to the initial draft for my beat boards.
Final Beat Boards
Story beats for Project 3 – Part 2
Assignment 02 – Movie Campaign For A Film Production
For this assignment, we were tasked to create an original movie campaign for a brand new film.
Yunaku – ゆなく
(Drama/ Fantasy)
Koyo is a nine-year-old girl who lives with her parents in a small village in the Arctic. During a fishing trip with her father, a devastating avalanche causes them to be separated. Koyo stumbles across a lost polar bear cub who has also been separated from its family due to the disaster. With only each other to rely on, the two venture across the Arctic to get back home.
IDEATION
I wanted the illustration to give a small hint about the plot of the movie. Below are some aspects of the film’s plot I have included in the final design:
- The characters floating on a piece of ice in the middle of the ocean suggests it had broken off from the mainland, likely due to ice melting/ a disaster, and that they are lost at sea.
- The cub howling and the girl patting it tells the viewer she is comforting it.
- The ray of light shining onto the characters gives a sense of hope to whatever plight they are currently in.
- The shooting star symbolises hope and good luck.
Process
References/ Inspiration
Mood boards
As my movie is about a girl and a cub trying to find their way home after a devastating disaster, I wanted to evoke a sense of hope in my poster design. I explored a few colour schemes which pertained to this emotion, mostly analogous colours of blues to pinks.
I originally wanted the story to be about destruction, such as a huge fire in the arctic melting the ice, and therefore looked up some purple-red colours that represent fire in a cool-dark environment.
Designs and colour explorations
There are two colour schemes which I wanted to explore in the following few designs, the third colour scheme of red and purple was for a fire-destruction theme which was scrapped and hence did not appear in the final design’s colour exploration.
Text variation
For both the Japanese and English versions, I wanted the text to be simple and handwritten to match the essence of hand-drawn animation, as opposed to the ‘rigidness’ of typed texts.
For the Japanese version, I eventually went for the vertical placement of the text, much like how Asian scriptures are written. The vertical placement of the text also leads down towards the characters.
For the English version, I added a paw print inside the letter ‘a’. One consideration was to allow viewers who don’t understand Japanese and what the title means to hopefully link the paw print and the word ‘Yunaku’ together, which is the name of the cub.
poster compositing
Misc.
During Studio Ghibli’s 25th anniversary concert, the orchestra played the music of various Studio Ghibli films while the different scenes of that soundtrack was being screened. Hence, this.
Story beats for Project 3 – Part 1
Story Beats for Project 3
A new-born turtle with an abnormally large shell has to leave the nest and enter the water as soon as possible before it’s too late.
Story outline
- A turtle born with a large shell struggles to leave its nest to the water.
- Turtle struggles across the sand as the sun gets hotter.
- Turtle spots two children running towards it and hides.
- Turtle is almost to the water.
- A giant wave smashes onto the turtle.
- Turtle is washed back ashore back to its nest, something huge approaches it.
- Turtle is spotted by the two children from before.
- The children helps the turtle back into the water.
Assignment 01: Human Emotions with Digital Images
For this assignment, we were tasked to create a series of images that would evoke or express various emotions.
Final Images
I have created a series of four images which depicts the emotions of happiness, surprise, sadness, and fear. The series revolves around a bear and his interaction with different environments, each evoking a different emotion to the viewer based on colours and lighting.
For Happiness, I picked a sunset, autumn-like colour scheme of warm orange. I wanted to evoke a sense of tranquility along with happiness; the bear jumping into a calm lake in a seemingly peaceful forest.
For Surprise, I wanted to express this emotion by introducing specks of light in a dark environment. A field of fireflies in the dark creates a sense of wonder and mesmerisation.
For Sadness, two things came to mind, dull muted colours and rain. Rim light was included to add some brightness to the otherwise dull image and to separate the various elements from the background. Rain was added to give the illustration a more gloomy feel.
For Fear, I initially pictured the bear alone in a dark forest, but I thought that if there was another bear which had been shot dead in the scene, it would evoke a stronger sense of fear for the bear. Rim light was very important to distinguish the characters and trees as I wanted minimal light in this scene to evoke this emotion. A dutch tilt was also incorporated to create a sense of uneasiness in the scene.
Thumbnails & Colour tests
I started by sketching out thumbnails of different compositions for the various emotions. I then blocked out the values in grayscale. After which, I experimented with a few colour schemes and selected the one that best portrayed the particular emotion.
Final edits
The final step was to add a subtle filter of light to enhance the image, creating the glow from the light sources.
Research and references
For my research, I looked at the concept art of various animation films, as well as a book called The Colour of Pixar, which contains scenes from various Pixar movies catalogued by colour. I also referenced Pascal Campion’s style of illustrating, his use of colours and the way he uses lighting to enhance his illustrations.
Assignment 1 – Fear
For this assignment, we were tasked to tell a story with a single image that explores fear (phobia).
Final Images
Assignment 1A
Instead of having the postman running away, I made him fall on the ground, desperately struggling to back away from the dog, which exaggerates the sense of fear in him he has. The clinic door is also open to show more clearly he had just exited from the clinic.
Assignment 1B
Research and Ideation
- Fear v.s Phobia
Fear – A normal response to genuine danger.
Phobia – A persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable (Expressed by a large man afraid of a small puppy).
- Juxtoposition (Contrasting elements)
Large man afraid of a small puppy.
- Cultural references
In western culture, it is a common cliché for dogs to bark, chase or attack postmen.
Cynophobia – The fear of dogs
To me, I see fear as a portrayal of dull colours, which makes a scene gloomy, lifeless, and a sense of darkness surrounding the individual. This can be accompanied by a strong source of light which can be cast on the character to show his expression of fear during a close-up or just the character in general in the huge space of darkness.
A big-sized postman exits the clinic, after being treated for a dog bite during his shift earlier in the day. He sees a small puppy and falls to the ground as he frantically tries to back away.
I changed the lighting of the b&w image for the coloured version as it didn’t work well with the emotion I wanted to portray. I restricted myself to the use of two colours as I wanted the scene to be less ‘distracting’ and direct the viewer to the main focus of the scene. Dark blue is used to portray a gloomy effect and a complimentary orange is used for the light source.
The postman heads home, his pet dog is excited that he is finally home after being leashed at the porch all day. He stops at the gate.