Official Poster
Screening at the 2nd Annual Glendale International Film Festival
Character Walk Cycle Spread
Dove Flight Animation Spread
Finalized Concepts used in the Film
Arm Exploded View
Various Character Design
Environment Painting for Tartarus
Environment Painting for Main City
VFX Compositing Breakdown
Film Segment
Living Quarters Layout
Render Test and Final Composite
VFX Breakdown of the Living Area Scene
Computer Room View 1
Computer Room View 2
The Control Center, Initial Concept
Control Center, First Render
Control Center Final Image
Style Exploration 2
Style Exploration 1
First Character Concept Pitch
First Concept Pitch for Thesis
A BRIEF ON THE PROJECT
What had started as my final thesis project grew into enormous effort that channeled many disciplines within the field of entertainment art. I had sought to create a piece that would evoke the day to day human experience of living a 9 -5 lifestyle. The only thing is that this lifestyle would last for an eternity. The visual language that had closely resembled this were machines. It was this concept that I had taken to fully flesh out the world and characters of the piece. The narrative was derived from the questions, "In an unending motion of repetitiveness, how would finding purpose affect the rhythm?" I was mainly inspired by the film Koyaanisqatsi. In Hopi the term means, "a life out of balance."
By constantly sketching out concepts, I laid out the storyboard. Numerous critiques had altered the rhythm of the story, yet I kept it close to the vision I had wanted from the start. Prior to fully committing to the production I had taken an intensive workshop that forced me employ mixed media to tell a story.
With the concept art fully fleshed out, I had
devised a shot-list that would streamline production pipeline. Organization was
extremely crucial, so I had preemptively create a comprehensive folder
structure. From there it was a matter of clockwork. The 3D render assets were
the first to be completed. I then took the play-blasts and animated on top of
them. This took a considerable amount of time because of the efforts made to
maintain volume and proportion through the stages, (roughs, cleaning, color,
and lighting.)
With less than a month left for the deadline,
I had begun compositing the pieces in After Effects. It was through this stage
I learned of different methods to combine the 2D and 3D footage seamless. It
was all a matter of messing around with color and lighting levels.
Consecutively, on my off time from my full time job, I would go around the city
collecting sound-bytes and trying to mix them to create the distinctive sounds
that are spread out within the film. It was definitely a challenge to not only
synchronize them, but finding the right weight to give each element within the
film.
Finally, the time came to compose the
soundtrack. After days of searching, I was introduced to a highly talented duo.
The importance of sound never occurred to me not until we had collaborated
together on the piece. Through rigorous back and forth, they had finally came
with a soundtrack that had given life to the film. The important thing to note
was being firm with the cuts on the film. Once the edits are locked in, the
soundtrack will cement it in place. I was fortunate enough to have made the
right cuts for it was only a few days before the deadline submission.
When I received the track, it was a thing of
beauty. I kept saying to myself that this was it. Initially what we started
with were a few Phillip Glass tracks, given that he composed Koyaanisqatsi.
However, the track that was composed completed transcended my expectations. I
am truly grateful for that.
The film itself had gone on to win numerous
awards and recognition. I have been responsive to the feedback, and that has
made yearn to make better stuff in the future
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