Team Rocket: "Solitude" Blog

 

Solitude

This Blog talks about the team project we had done in Team Rocket in both its pre-production and animation.

The project we're doing is called "Solitude" which was originally named "Lustreless", but seeing how the title "Lustreless" didn't represent the themes we were going for in the story, we've changed it.

 Solitude is a short film based on alien creatures from another planet, where it has our main character named Clara, who's sadness and loneliness manifests into a leaking trail of greyness which kills the surrounding  plants. Villagers within her village disdain her because of this, since they bring color to these plants which gives them life. After being Isolated Clara meets Mushoku and they become friends, allowing each other to gain beautiful colors and take away the greyness from the village. 

 The short film encompasses themes like loneliness and friendship and narrates their relevance and significance to a being.

The Final Animation Edit

Pre-Production

Producer

Our producer for this project was Charlotte Ann Gimbird, she moderates the group, making sure everything stays organised. She arranges meetings within the group for discussions about the project as well as moderate them, she also gives us schedules to ensure we finish our work in due date. 

(Schedule By Charlotte Ann Gimbird)

(Overview by Charlotte Ann Gimbird)

Director

Molly McCabe is the director of the project, with "Solitude" originally being her idea. Thereby making her the director, as she's the only one who knows the best way to capture what she envisioned in her idea. So important decisions like camera angles, character movement and story plot points are made by her or suggested by the group are for her to finalise.     

Script

Molly McCabe and Ella Grunberger both worked on the scripts for the story. Molly and Ella made the script as a sort of preview to show how the film may turn out.

 The script describes the camera shots and behaviour of the characters in the short film, which gives better direction for the group on how the story should be executed during pre-production and animation. 

The group also takes part in editing the script during group discussions, but its up to Molly to finalise our ideas and decisions.

The final script has been edited and improved, shown just below the image of the scripts draft.

Script Draft 1

In the first script, it had longer unnecessary scenes. Therefore the setting was changed in the final script, where the main character already lives in the village and stays in the village through out the story. 

We also cut out some shots with the villagers getting angry or mocking the main character Clara, they weren't necessary either. Instead we made two new characters (the parent and child) to not only display their color abilities but to also show how displeased they are with the main character.

 Our other main change in the final script, was the concept of coloring rocks or crystals. They were replaced with plants and the natural environment because it lets viewers understand the gravity of the situation easier when Clara kills those plants. 

The ending was also changed, with having Clara  meeting with Mushoku. Clara, finally meeting a friend shows her true colors, she gives life to plants around her and she'll never be lonely again.

(Script By Molly McCabe and Ella Grunberger)

Final Script

(Script By Molly McCabe and Ella Grunberger)

Color Script and Mood Boarding

Ella Grunberger worked on the color script using the storyboards. It has the color combinations to describe the emotions that we wanted our animation to display. 

We wanted to emote sadness in the animation, hence why the earlier parts of the color script is a more greyish color. The ending  is supposed to feel warm and happy, that's why it gives off more bright colors.  

Character Mood Board Draft 

In the first character mood board, we initially planned to use a different more monstrous model. However after a team discussion, we decided that the monster model was too risky as we had to make a rig from scratch with not much time left. 

(Color Script By Ella Grunberger)

Photobash Draft 

This was a Photobash made from the first script. We decided to make up the village with a lot more plant life, so it would be easier to relate the world to our own.   

(Photobash By Ella Grunberger)

Environmental Mood Board Draft 

This draft of the mood board was also scrapped because the dry dessert like setting didn't match the storyline that uses plants. In the new mood board, we now plan to make a more grassy and plant based environment.  

(Color Script By Ella Grunberger)

 Character Line Up Draft 

Here's the first character line up, it must be noted that we changed all their horns later in the final layout, all the characters now have bull horns. The design choice was made to help viewers understand that they're from the same species.

(Character Line Up By Charlotte Ann Gimbird)

Final Character Line Up

(Character Line Up By Charlotte Ann Gimbird)

Final Environment Mood Board

(Color Script By Ella Grunberger)

Final Color Script 

(Color Script By Ella Grunberger)

Sound Design

Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman and Liam Mann both worked on sound design. Together they managed to find appropriate sounds and music for the animatic on the internet, ranging from sounds of footsteps to voice clips.    

The sources of these sounds are listed below:

- The footsteps came from this page on Fesliyan Studios:

 (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-sound-effects-download/footsteps-on-grass-284).

 - The plants growing sound effects also came from this website (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-sound-effects-download/foliage-270).

- The royalty free music was sourced from YouTube and is "Forever" by Whitesand. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXJcwn_rfqM.               

- The Whoosh sound effects came from these YouTube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gvwhl505-o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozKXkQS0rEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hBHt317mw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww4OFge6tu0

- The Sparkle Magic Chimes sound effect came from this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIXH3I6NzB4.

- Most of the grunts and gasps for the characters:

girl laughing.mp3 :  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oncW85LwpQk)

Female ,yes, what _, scream ,oh no Sound Effects All Sounds.mp3 : ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0E7duaq2dg.)

Male Gasps and Female Surprised Sound  :  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyrCtco_eyg.)

Male Grunts All Sounds Effects :  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipJKjqmK_uU&t=430s. )

The sound effects for Kai (the child) were sourced from the YouTube channel X Sound Effect. Here's the link:  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHWwnOus5Ik. )

Modelling and Set 

Jerome Oduro helped with modelling the set that we'll use for the animation and the animatic, as well as help find other models on the internet like the trees to use for the set. 

Jerome also remade the models into a low poly form, to make it more convenient for us to reference into Maya, otherwise the scene will slow down and it'll be difficult to use.    

Charlotte had also helped edit the model characters were using, by adding horns or color. 

Molly McCabe and Ella Grunberger had made some textures for the characters as well.

(Modelling Textures By Ella Grunberger and Molly McCabe)

(Model By Charlotte Ann Gimbird)

(Modelling Set By Jerome Oduro)

Animatic and Story Boarding

The story board artists in the group project was Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman, Eliezer Girma and Molly McCabe. The story board was used to visualise the script and offers insight to how the story should be played out. We also used the story board to make up an animatic, to give us even further insight to what the final animation will look like.

Story Board 

This was our storyboard  before making frames for the animatic, made by Eliezer Girma and Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman. We saw the big issues with the storyboard and went to change it in the animatic. 

One of the biggest changes we've made from the storyboard, was the ending. Where in the storyboard the ending had a big flash of light before everything gained back its color. In the animatic however, we had a long shot of the village and showed the giant explosion of light. 

Additionally we also showed the villagers regain their colors and another shot with the main characters growing plants around them. This therefore concluded the story with a happy ending.    

(Story Board By Eliezer Girma and Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman)

Animatic Frames / Story Board 

In our animatic we've added more changes from the story board, so that the story makes more sense for the viewers. Like for example, how we've added more grass to the village to show that the setting is at a more plant oriented place or how we gave Clara and Moshoku a mixture of color's.

(Story Board By Eliezer Girma)

(Story Board By Molly McCabe)

(Story Board By Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman)

CG Supervisor

Darren Moynihan and Molly McCabe is our CG supervisor and special effects artists. He's done jobs in our team like, testing the effects for the beam of light that will come at the end of the animation.   

Molly McCabe had helped by adding in a magical spark effect to aid viewers by showing that the plants are being given life.

Rough Blast Effects  

(Special Effects By Darren Moynihan)

(Special Effects By Darren Moynihan)

Sparkle Effects

(Special Effects By Molly McCabe)

Render Tests and Lighting

Darren Moynihan has been working on render tests for the animation and on the 3D layout.    

Charlotte Ann Gimbird and Jerome Oduro also had a hand in the lighting (help create a "physical sky" and "sun direction") in the final render. 

(Render Test by Darren Moynihan)

(Lighting By Charlotte Ann Gimbird and Jerome Oduro)

Editing

Liam Mann worked as our editor. Editing the short film and animatic is necessary to prepare it for an audience viewing, like adding the sound clips to the film or fixing camera movements for the animatic.  

Animatic Draft 1

One of our first animatics was with our first storyboard, as said before there were problems with some shots and the bits of storytelling of our first story board that we changed later in the other animatics. 

There was also a tiny mistake that Liam made by using some old storyboards in JPEG instead of the updated PNG ones. That's the reason why some parts are of the animatic have low quality.  

(Storyboard By Eliezer Girma, Molly McCabe and Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman) 

(Editing By Liam Mann)

Animatic Draft 2

In our second animatic we still had issues for the story. One issue being that the rocky dessert like setting doesn't really mix with the story well, as the alien villagers jobs are to give plant life to their surroundings. 

There were also some shots that needed some working on. For example the beginning establishing shot, although it tells the viewers that its set in a village, it doesn't indicate that its on an alien planet. 

There was also a shot  where a parent teaches a child how to give color and life to plants but that was unclear (SH07_02).

This animatic was also lacking in voice clips and some sounds needed to be edited.  

(Storyboard By Eliezer Girma, Molly McCabe and Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman)

(Editing By Liam Mann)

Animatic Draft 3

This animatic was better but still had tiny issues. Like how we gave our characters horns with the intention to differentiate they're character, but it caused confusion to whether or not they from the same species so we had to change it. 

We also changed the ending for the better by showing the greyness being taken back from the village and flowers, returning back to their original colors and are giving life .

(Storyboard By Eliezer Girma, Molly McCabe and Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman)

(Editing By Liam Mann)

Final Animatic

In the final animatic we gave everyone the same horns to help prevent any more confusion, we also tried editing up sound clips and added more grass to the environment, making it look more like a plant based. 

There was also a changing to some shots to improve story telling. Like how the mother shows the child how to give plant life before teaching him (SH07_01).

(Storyboard By Eliezer Girma, Molly McCabe and Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzmen)

(Editing By Liam Mann)

Animation Tests

Our team has also made some test animations as a way to getting used to the rigs for when we start animating, as well as to test its limits.        

(Testing By Louis Chevis)

(Testing By Eliezer Girma)

(Testing By Molly McCabe)

(Testing By Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman)

Animation

In the final animation and its stages to it (such as blocking and splining), each person on the team were assigned to different shots for the animation:

Ekeoma Amuchie - Shot 1 and Shot 8

Eliezer Girma - Shot 2, Shot 7 and Shot 15

Joshua-Ibrahim De Guzman - Shot 3 and Shot 12

Louis Chevis - Shot 4 and Shot 13

Liam Mann - Shot 5 and Shot 10

Molly McCabe - Shot 6 and Shot 14 

Charlotte Ann Gimbird - Shot 16

Ella Grunberger - Shot 17

Darren Moynihan - Shot 9

Jerome Oduro - Shot 11

 

3D Layout

Louis Chevis and Ekeoma Amuchie worked on the 3D layout for the animation, along with the 3D model poses. They took shots and character poses from the animatic and applied them onto the 3D set. 

However, because there were so many issues with the first drafts of the 3D layout (in terms of camera movement, composition and character poses), Charlotte Ann Gimbird took the layout to rework it and then finalize it.

Liam Mann also did the editing for these videos. 

  

3D Layout Draft 1

For the first draft and second draft of the 3D layout we've found that some shots had clear issues like having too much negative space in some camera angles as well as having awkward positions and poses. 

(3D Layout By Ekeoma Amuchie and Louis Chevis)

(Edited By Liam Mann)

3D Layout Draft 2

(3D Layout By Ekeoma Amuchie and Louis Chevis)
(Edited By Liam Mann)

Final 3D Layout

Taking the shots from the previous layouts Charlotte Ann Gimbird helped solve some of the major issues from the layout drafts, such as the negative space problem being fixed by bringing the characters closer (e.g.SHOT 2). 

We've also decided to place to rename sequences and shots into just shots at the bottom right corner. Likewise we've added our storyboard at top left corner for comparing.

(3D Layout By Charlotte Ann Gimbird)

(Edited By Liam Mann)

Blocked And Spline Animation 

Our team also worked on the blocking and spline animation of the shots that we were assigned to and put it together as in editing to test and view what the final edit will look like fully animated.  

First Blocking / Spline Animation

(Blocking / Spline Animation By Everyone)

(Edited By Liam Mann)

Second Blocking / Spline Animation

(Blocking / Spline Animation By Everyone)

(Edited By Liam Mann)

Final Spline Animation

There weren't too many changes made in the blocking and spline animations. The major changes made before the final spline animation however were the changes in position and movements of the characters, mostly because they were either stiff or had their feet slip on the ground during walking animations.

(Blocking / Spline Animation By Everyone)

(Edited By Liam Mann)