Narration

We have decided that narration will be essential in the film... Maybe a very old male voice... wise... or a very young and naive voice.. we need to try out and see how it goes...
Here is the first draft I wrote, that need to be improved a lot... I know it can get much much better....


"There was a time when the Universe was still very young… and an important star was formed… a star that can be seen and honoured by all living things.
(Title sequence)
The Sun and the Moon were often together and from their Union, they gave the Universe a Gift. A Being that would unfold the most well-know history… the one of creation!
For some… it was destiny, it was already written. For others it was scientifically explained as a combination of small particles of dust…. Neither changes anything…
By waking up to this world the star calmly starts to change its color and form, while a blue light start to emanate from within, so to transform it self in liquid… water floating in the emptiness of the space. Flying through it and diving in and out the water, fishes start to swim in a dance of magic.
Raising arms upwards the star join the hands and bring it closely to the eyes. The light emanates from it, spinning and reflecting in the water. Slowly the star opens the hands… and we see a man, a human being. Creation and creator exchange one look… before it gently drops him in the water.
The man enjoyed the water shortly before tiring out… it was never its perfect habitat. So land is created… and trees and flowers start to grow everywhere.
The man is happy being on firm ground and is fascinated with the flying living creatures of this realm.
A big light comes from the beach, and when it dissipates the man falls in love with what he sees. A female. The female was concealed in this world, for every single creature that now inhabit the space.
After this glorious time the creatures start to multiply faster and overpopulate the world.
The Star flies to the Father Sun and the Mother Moon and tell them what happened…
They know what must be done and start to spin around this world, creating the day and the night. And now the creatures start to get older… When it come to the right time, they become a star and go back to the sky, the place they originally came from.
This is the story of a star that shines the most in the sky… the start that is always looking towards us; the only star that will always be found at the same place. Travellers, looking up at Her, can always find their way. Because this Star is in the true north all the time, The Star is now called, the North Star."

"A lua é nossa Mãe, O Sol é nosso Pai
E Nós somos as Estrelas, só nos resta agradecer"
(quote from Francisco Corrente)

translation:
"The Moon is our Mother, The Sun is our Father
And We Are the Stars, we can only be thankful."

Tree 3D Growing

I have modeled the tree and tested if it could grow in maya easily, and.. yes... it is possible!
Dan Elvins was supposed to make it but he was having difficulties with Blend Shapes. I have also tried out watercolor shader and toon outline. I will give it back to Dan E. as he is one of my textures. Below is a Playblast of the tree growing animation:

Lotus Flower animation

Just finished the animation of the Lotus Flower growing... We were going to do it 3D... but it would be too much effort as we wont have a close up in the flower, and is not something really important in the film. Then was decided that would be easier to animate it 2D. Here it is:
(It would definitely be much better if it was slow, but for the film it might be even faster)

Design for modeling

These are designs I have made to give to "the boys" (Charlie - fish and bird, Danny - plants and flower, Dan E - trees and bamboo and Ajdin - man/ woman and main character) so that they can start modeling. The backgrounds will be 2D.
The trees will be 2D in Maya
Plants will be 2D in Maya
Flowers 3D with toon lines
Fish 3D with 3D lines
Birds 3D with toon lines
3D with toon lines3D with toon line

ANIMATICS

Animatics FINISHED!

... It took quite a while to finish the animatics, just because when I started working on it I felt like changing and improving most of the shots, camera angles and links between the scenes, so that I needed to make a lot of new drawings - character poses and environments - and apply them to see if it was working...! I felt this was a chance to explore After Effects a bit more, as I will need to use all this tricks in the compositing for the Final animation anyway.
Because I started it very polished i need to go until the end the same way... it took me around 2 week working on it full on...! But I feel the story has improved a lot.... Much better then the storyboard at the moment, more interesting. And I hope it is clear enough to understand the whole story without any explanation.
We have decided not to use Narration. We will use it only if the story isn't clear by itself, visually.
The Film is 3:52 minutes... which is quite long! and means more work... A LOT of work.

I hope everybody enjoys this animatics. Please leave your comment if you have anything to add.

Sorry it is squashed! The film is widescreen and it gets like this when i post here... I will fix it but meanwhile you can check it out.

Moodboards

Character Design

This is the main character, The Light Being, God of Light. I have changed the character a fell times, and also the story. The character now is shown in 3 stages through the film. He starts more as a light being, with not much definition of his human form. He also glows more in the beginning. He get more and more human towards the end of the film, while he gets passionate with the world created. His wing are a beam of light, where the colors dance while it moves.... Below is a drawing of the 3 stages he goes through in the film.