MOON CHILD
MOON CHILD is my Final Major Project created during my final year of my Animation Degree at Ravensbourne. It was show cased as part of the Degree show and was the winning film in the Contribution to Moving Image Award at the Degree Show Awards 2015.
Created by a small team of artists this short mixed media animation tells a story of a girl born in the moon on a journey of discovery, making friends with an unlikely creature and finding her home in the Universe.
Created by a small team of artists this short mixed media animation tells a story of a girl born in the moon on a journey of discovery, making friends with an unlikely creature and finding her home in the Universe.
MOON CHILD from Rebecca Meilak on Vimeo.
Making of MOON CHILD
Early Ink concepts of the two characters: These illustrations where the starting corner stone of the project setting up the key colours and moment in the animation.
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Environment sketches for the design of the world my two character, the girl and the Hippogriff Blu would occupy. Their world is a semi formed cloud world of abstract forms and shapes.
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Blu/Draco Design:
The design process for the creature was an interesting process. The first design of Blu worked well on paper but due to time and technology constraints feathers and wings would mean feather simulations and advanced rigging for the wings. Having identified these problems I went through the process of redesigning the creature to create Draco. I studied weasels, ferrets, cats, lions and Chinese dragons to create a simpler yet engaging character which could work in 3D. I also made reference to How To Train Your Dragon's Toothless to design a face similar to Blu's but with animatable features to give strong character performance. Both character sheets and facial with studies of facial expressions and body poses aided both the rigging and animation process to give striking poses and fluid movement. |
Although the girl was eventually modelled the rig was not functional and couldn't be used for the animation. This meant that the medium for the girl had to be fully 2D but that meant that the girls movement could be more fluid.
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Moon Child: The girl was always designed with a very simple final design in mind. She represents the sprit of youth and I wanted to create a character which was archetypal and could be understood across cultures as well as being animated effectively . From early on in production I knew I wanted the girl to shift form a 2D to a 3D character to show her transformation was something deep as it changes what she is fundamentally made out of.
This meant that here was a lot of designs for the girl, first her 2D version which initially started with very etherial movement inspired by an animation by Ryan Woodward; Thought of You. When it came to the 3D the first designs had long flowing hair and a dress but as with Draco the designs had to be re-tailored for to suite the time that the team had to make the animation. Her 3D design then became something that could all be modelled and rigged within Maya which didn't require any simulations. |
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Storyboards: There was a vast amount of storyboard completed for MOON CHILD as the narrative went throughout many variations exploring different senesces significantly when the two characters would meet and how they would become friends. There where many ways the two would meet, would Draco be threatening? What would bring them together. After many versions of storyboards a final draft was created which formed the back bone of the final animation.
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Animation tests: Throughout the development of the project there was a vast amount of experimentation for the styling for the 2D animation. the girl originally was an etherial character so her animation tests were testing out a more fluid movement. there was also some 2D effects animation of the gold light effect. this also went throughout some animation test to find the right effect which stayed within the overall style of the animation.
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Rigging: To make Draco move I delved into the world of rigging a place I had really ventured and rigging Draco was to be quite a challenge. By using a very simple rig and bone controls for the face I created a rig which would fulfil all my needs as an animator for Draco's performance.
Film Credits:
Director and Animator: Rebecca Meilak Music: Alfred Ealham Sound Design: Drew Simmons Storyboard Artists: Rebecca Meilak, Jen Harter Character Designer: Rebecca Meilak Rigging and Texture Artist: Rebecca Meilak Character Modeler: Nadia Jaramillo-Vizuete Concept Artists: Rebecca Meilak, Sarah Delgado Background Artist: Sarah Delgado Lighting, Rendering, Compositing Artist: Alister Chowdury Fill Artist: Jenny Doherty, Jen Harter, Sarah Delgado, Adam Al-kadhimi Title Sequence Designer: Lorenzo Pavesi |
Texturing: To create the intricate texture for Draco I utilised traditional techniques of water clouds and ink to paint the UVs. by using AOs backed into the UVs I could paint the UVs on watercolour paper accurately to fit the Draco's body, before scanning in them into the computer to be alter and cleaned up digitally .
Using photoshop to add further detail and mud box the clean up the seams I created the very unique organic texture for Draco which made him visually appealing and in harmony with his environment. |
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