updated aim

My aim is to create an impressive animation combining traditional ink painting with motion graphics. I hope my animation could be gorgeous, vivid impressed in visualization, and the story could be emotional.

Learning Outcomes:
- To improve my editing skills.
- To improve my After Effects skills.
- To improve my narrative skills.
- To explore the right way to combine traditional illustration with modern technique.
- To improve skills of drawing characters in any angles, and different facial expressions.

animatic

Here is my animatic that I've changed the beginning to explain the story better and make sence.

storyboard（二）

Then these parts of the ghost gather again.

The girl wakes up.

The ghost points to the sky, the girl nods.

The ghost want to push the girl through a swing.

She is higher in air.

The ghost is happy.

Unfortunately， she falls down.

The girl struggles in air.

That reminds the ghost something, the ghost smiles again.

The ghost runs to catch the girl.

The ghost carries her on its shoulder and keeps her mouth open.

They run towards the moon, and the girl's body is bigger and bigger, like an inflated balloon.

They fly together towards the moon.

storyboard（一）

A woman always stared at the moon.

She leaves, we know she is a ghost.

The ghost drags a girl out of the window. The ghost drags laboriously, because the girl is too fat.

They fall down.

The girl pressed on the ghost. The ghost is scattered.

two animation as reference

The visual part of the animation is what I am trying to do. To use traditional illustration style in animation.


And this one is a similar one.

one more script

One night, a friendly ghost wants to help a moon fan to fly to the moon. The moon fan is sleeping, so the ghost drags her out of the window. She falls down straightly because she is too fat. The ghost feels to worry about how to help her. It steps hard on her stomach to let her spit. Then the ghost ties her with a rope, throw her to sky. The girl throws up every time when she is in sky. The ghost think the girl is light enough, so it drags her and runs fast. At the same time, the girl's body is full of air because the ghost keeps her mouth open, and she is like a balloon. The girl is flying to the moon with the ghost.

visualization of the story

A girl is sitting at a table, she is looking at a clock.


The devil is totally coming out from her ear. The devil is tagging his fingers on the table.

The girl is cutting vegetables。 The devil is waving her sword.
A close-up shot of a potato.
It is cut by the girl.
A close-up shot of the flower.

The flower is cut by the devil in just a second.

characters

I want to do the story of the camera, so I designed two characters of that story, the girl and the devil.

In my opinion, the devil is very rough， she destroyes something she hates through the sword she holds.

The old lady is a design for another story that I wanted to do originally.

my scipts (二)

• An old woman sat and smoked a pipe. She exhaled smoke from her mouth. The smoke became images what in her memory. She coughed, stopped her memory.

• What if using the Kuleshov Effect in my film to misguide audience?

The camera focused on an old lady’s face. She looked at the camera, and then closed eyes. [cut to another shot] A young girl going down stairs, she met a young man, the scene was so romantic. [cut to the shot of old lady.] She opened eyes and smiled. [cut to previous shot] The girl’s boyfriend left her; she was so sad and crying. [Cut to shot of the old lady] She was in tears quietly, too, and then closed eyes again. [Cut] The girl stood on top of a hill, then the end titles moved up. The old lady went to sleep when she was watching the film.

• What if the lady had an opportunity to change her life?

A lady holding a lantern was running in evening. She held a ticket tightly. She went on board ship, and wanted to leave here with her lover. They arrived at a new place and began a new life. They had babies and happy life.
Cut to shot of an old lady. She looked at an old ticket in her hand. The ticket had never been used. Tears dropped on it.

• An old lady lives alone in an old house. Every day she cooks for herself, seems so alone. But this day, she cooked for two persons, set the table for one more person. She ate alone, after a while, a young man sat beside her. The old woman seemed quite happy and smiled to the man. After finishing the meal, she tidied up, but food in the man’s bowl was not eaten at all. (That day was 14th July in the lunar calendar, like Chinese Halloween.)
  

• What if it’s something’s memory? a photo? a camera?

[We can read the story through camera’s eye]
What if the camera can see something human cannot see? like inner personality.
The camera always follows a girl. She is beautiful, happy and bright in camera’s eye. One day, the camera’s owner left the girl, he went out for a trip. The girl was always waiting for the man day after day. She became more and more nervous. There were three personalities appearing in image through camera. One was a cowardly little girl crying. One was a raging devil taking out anger on anything. The last personality was the same as the one in beginning, is positive and bright. But this personality was eaten by the angry devil in the end. And then it broke the camera.

• What if every injurious thing happened to her left marks on her body? What if scar remained like a marking will never be forgotten? Never vanish?

A kid is running towards the camera. He seemed very poor but happy. He fell down and broke his leg, but he still smiled, and then he grew up (and still running). War broke out, the bomb blew up near him, and his forehead was bleeding. Then he became a soldier, enemy fighter flying above his head, he was still running towards camera. His right leg was cut because of injuring. Then the war ended, he was walking on crutches towards us. Someone running past knocked him down. He’s growing older and walk slower. His teeth dropped out, he had to use wheelchair. In the end, he’s smiling to us with wound all over his body. (This short film is a little bit like the Sony Quantum of Solace HD AD, James Bond was hit by bomb.)

Kuleshov Effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_Effect
Kuleshov used the experiment to indicate how important film editing is.
"The implication is that viewers brought their own emotional reactions to this sequence of images, and then moreover attributed those reactions to the actor, investing his impassive face with their own feelings."

And I found a video that Hitchcock explains the Kuleshov Effect in 1964.

"waht if" script （一）

What if the lady is very old? What if she is dying soon?

• An old lady sat in a room. She was trying to stand up and walk towards a door, but she moved slowly. A girl's body (like a soul) suddenly left the old lady's sluggish body, and she ran brightly in the room, ran around the old lady, really enjoyed herself. The old lady leaned against the door slowly. A grey hair fluttered to the ground. The girl vanished when she touched it.

What if the old lady wants to be young? What if she has some dreams that never come true?

• An old lady sleeping under a pink cherry blossoms was dreaming about her lover who went to war when she was young. Then she waked up, she saw a petal fluttered in her hand. She picked it up and saw her lover (as young) standing before her. She walked towards him, and she became younger and younger, her speed is faster, too. She embraced him like sixty years ago. But all these things were in dream. The old lady was smiling when she dreamed it.
  

a Potential Source of Work

Shanghai Paladin Max Studio http://www.paladinmax.com/

I worked in Paladin Max as an intern for two months in last summer holiday in China. That was a great experience for my professional practice. I did some character designs， original drawings for one of its clients. I really enjoyed working in the company to learn or help. They are all friendly.
What they do:
Shanghai Paladin Max studio is a digital design company that consists of some CG lovers. “To be a classical brand” is their developing stratagem all along, they’ve been dedicated in artist visual creating area, and now have obtained not only plenty of commercial ideas, but also a favorable cultural environment.
They have extensive experience over 3D Animation/ VFX, Company Film, Interactive, and Visual Design.
Clients include Special Olympics, Vogue, Chevrolet, Nike, CCTV-7 (China Central Television) and more.
Who does what:
The team consists of fifteen people, two art directors Eric Zhu and River Huang, one director YueFeng Song.
Point of contact:
Eric Zhu 0086 021 6433 9175-102 or eric@paladinmax.com
Contact info:
Add: Building 4, 2nd floor, No.20, BaoQing Road, Shanghai, P.R. China
Zip: 20031
Tel: 0086 021 64339175
Fax: 0086 021 6433 9176
Mail: info@paladinmax.com

development of drawing scenes

Here are three scenes in my film, I developed pattern of ground, hair and cloth.

two scenes

This is the first scene in my film. The dark room.

I'm drawing scenes and cloth in my short film.

character design

Here are two rough character design for my animation.

Storyboard

• Someone was sleeping on the floor. Light of a lamp was quite weak. Then the lady waked up.
• She walked toward the door.
• She opened the door. The sunlight reached the door.
• She wanted to keep the sun off,because its blinding.
  

• Then, she walked toward a mirror.
• She looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes glazed over.
• [camera moves up] There is a painting on wall.
• [camera moves closer] There is a white bird in the painting.
  

• [camera goes in the world of the painting] Focus on the bird.
  
• The bird flied to a wall.
• The bird stopped above the wall. The bird was hit by a stone, and it fell down.
• Three kids steped on the bird.

• After steping, three kids run away.
• Someone walked close to the child.
• A girl picked it up.
• She looked at the bird, was sad.

• She standed up, still holded the bird.
• A lady came before her. The girl looked up at her.
• The lady smacked the girl.
• Black scene
  

• The girl's face (close-up) [zoom out]
  
• The girl was staring at outside.[camera moves up]
• It's a high wall, moves up, it's sky.
• There is a bird flying in sky. Then it stopped.
  

• [zoom out] It's a painting on the wall.
• There is a cage with a black bird.
• A hand goes close to the bird.
• -END-