RAVIE CHALLENGE #2
A boy traverses a desolate yet beautiful snowscape with nothing but the robe on his back, his trusty sword, and a mysterious crystal in his hand. He gazes at it, curiously. Does he know the full extent of its powers? Above, a watcher in the form of an owl swoops down, and this fateful meeting reverberates forward through time.
This was another entry into an animation challenge by Ravie Co. Participants were given the prompt “Glint” and approximately 11 days to complete a vertical format animation of 30 seconds or under. This challenge was a bit of a special project for me, as I’ve fancied myself a fantasy writer for most of my life, but putting that passion to visuals has escaped me. I’m not an illustrator by trade and client projects rarely veer into the fantastical like this. But, I felt the pull.
Even in the beginning, I knew this would be a heavy lift within the time constraints. Assets kept piling up as the story grew in my head. I wanted to attempt a lot of tough scenes and try out many things. It took well over 40 hours of work up until the last minute of the deadline as I scrambled through a surprise 5 hour render time, mostly due to some wild effects and the tricky way I created the crystal. But I finished it, and now you can view my 30 second fantasy epic!
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THE WORLD
The style frame for the world came first in my head. As I looked through fantasy references, one stuck out to me and that was the covers to the re-release of the Dune series, in particular the first novel’s sweeping sand waves and minimal style. I aimed to do something similar except with bright white snow. I wanted the camera to pan up across this landscape to my character during the pivotal scene, where he would suddenly look almost inconsequential in the face of the cosmos. The aura
borealis I sketched out was nothing more than a placeholder and the idea of the smaller planet being broken would come later.
THE CHARACTER
When I sketched out my landscape I knew I needed something bright to stand out from the white snow. I wanted something dramatic and flowing like a cloak, and so the red clothing was born. Next, I drew out exactly how the destined boy would look in Adobe Illustrator.
JOYSTICKS 'N SLIDERS
After designing my character, I wanted to try out a plugin called Joysticks ‘N Sliders, which, with some lengthy setup, can aid in much more complex facial movements than I’d ever attempted before. It could help me tackle head turns and morphing emotions. When I was happy with the results of the face turn, I moved on to eyes, then mouth emotions and eyebrows. The drawback to this plugin is that once you’ve locked in your extreme poses, it’s hard to go back. I needed to predict how my character would act within my story, even if the story was only partially finished.
I opted for more somber looks, eschewing big bright smiles and exuberant eyebrows. I imbued him with a sense of wonder and curiosity I thought he’d need in this new world.
CHARACTER RIGGING
In the end I needed to rig seven different poses / characters throughout my animation, from a more typical human walk cycle to an overhead view of an owl. Once again, I drew all of these out in Adobe Illustrator and used DUIK to connect them within After Effects.
I feel like the first roadblock in the project was trying to translate this character to other poses. Things can look a bit off if the proportions aren’t quite similar. The boy had a wider, flat face in the straight-on view that I really liked, and it took a few attempts before I was satisfied with his profile look.
I wanted this walk cycle to be curious and slow. The boy lifts his hand each step to gaze down at the object he totes through the frozen landscape. His sword dangles listlessly in the other hand and his robes sway gently.
STYLE
I didn’t want a fully clean style throughout. I knew I would be using gradients on the snow and horizon line, so I needed to match some of that on some of the other objects and characters, so I used a plugin called Shadethrower for the first time. Even the snow on the character was added with another duplicated layer of clothing and the settings tweaked and turned to a screen blending mode. Sometimes I animated this gradient to accentuate the lighting, like on the sword and fire.
To match these gradients I also added a dissolve effect layer over top of the aurora borealis in the sky at the end.
THE OWL
After blocking out a few scenes I realized I needed something else. The boy was too lonely, and I felt the story lacked another perspective. I needed something to add a twist as well. The owl was that perfect addition. I kept his design clean and I didn’t want to add gradients or noise texture at all. I wanted him to feel otherworldly and pure, like some sort of god or guardian. His design was a mix of a snowy owl and a barn owl, something not quite real. I colored him blue as though the land the boy traversed perhaps belonged to him.
The first scene I added him to was the campfire, when he flutters into the trees and you can see his reflection in the crystal. After that, I decided I wanted him following the boy throughout the entire journey, and so I needed to create an overhead view as well.
