Failure (or?).

The personal reflections on Children Society project.

I should admit, I failed. I failed to finish the Children Society (CS) project on time of the deadline. Not even half of the film is completed.

Well, I thought a lot lately about why this has happened and what I’ve learned during this project.

When we went for summer holidays, the project was in the pre-animation stage. Storyboards and animatic were finished, and I could start to animate it. What I actually did. I helped Kat with her graduation film at that time and began to work on CS film a bit. So, why I didn’t manage to finish the film on time?

First and foremost, I didn’t know my capabilities. In other words, the lack of experience to plan this type of work. I knew that I could do that quality of animation, but didn’t realise how much time it would take, though. Although I saw the first sights of how complicated my planned animations are, I didn’t pay attention. And even decided to take a break of animating at the end of August and September.

I learned Maya, sketched a lot, painted, studied storyboarding, watched shorts and attended online webinars, conferences and animation festivals. Even got a chance to visit some exhibitions, like Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk (wanted to see how Japanese depict and simplify flowers shapes in their art) in Victoria and Albert Museum, Among the Trees in Hayward Gallery and Andy Warhol in Tate Modern. Additionally, I thought about to make changes in the Children Society film style by adding the real flowers instead of drawn ones. So, I took a lot of photos at that time.

Now I see if I would proceed work on the CS project during these months, I could finish it indeed, even with this complicated animation quality. Or might be I would reach one of the tutors to get a piece of advice to find out how I can simplify my animation in that early stage.

node view with masking node

Thus, the lack of proper planning and experience was a critical problem during film production. Accordingly, I’m going to make everything to avoid these mistakes in my graduation film.

Also, another obstacle was that I chose to do animation in Toon Boom Harmony instead of TV Paint. At that time, this software was only slightly explored by me, I just watched a couple of tutorials. However, I knew that Toon Boom is one of the major soft in the animation industry. Therefore I decided to do the film in this programme simultaneously learning it. So, animating took more time than usual for me. Simply because I spend a lot of time watching online tutorials and exploring all different ways to work with Toon Boom and which one works best in my case at the same time.

Although it might look like a disruption in work, especially at the beginning, yet, I learned a tone! Really struggled with brushes. Since they are vectorised, it was hard to adapt to drawing after the TV Paint. However, I managed to overcome it. I’m now more familiar with Harmony’s interface, can easily navigate through it. I can use Node View and add Nodes. I learned how to use an integrated sound manager to move, cut and dissolve or increase track’s audio. Also, I clearly see the advantages of working with Toon Boom. It is like a combination of TV Paint for 2D animation, plus Adobe Animate for cut-outs and Adobe After Effects for VFX. And this is great! I could make fadings-in and out, transparencies and apply blur effect easy. Add masks and camera movements and many more without switching to AE. Everything can be done in one software.

Clearly, this experiment was worth it. And the best way to learn any software is to make an actual project in it. Furthermore, I’m going to proceed to learn it and currently doing an additional short course.

3D reference shot

On the whole, this project was a constant studying experience. I shoot many references, even did a 3D ref in Maya, learned a lot, and tried different ways to animate. Even tutors saw significant progress in my work. Also, not only speaking about the technical side. Besides, I know more about my abilities and weak sides and about my work approach now. Therefore I can avoid these mistakes in my future work.

After all, I want to add that I will work on it bit by bit and hope to finish it this year.

Blue Zoo Animation Studio: How to pitch

The UK animation studio Blue Zoo made a series of online webinars during this September, to celebrate 20 years of animating.

In one of the events, they covered the pitching questions. From what pitching is and how to do it, what kind of materials should be prepared and what to expect on every step of the process. What kind of help you can find from the studio.

And also how to finance and fund your project.

I found this information very useful and decided to save it for the future. So, I screenshotted these panels.

© all images below are by Blue Zoo Animation Studio

Storyboarding workshop part 2

As I’ve mentioned some posts before I took a storyboarding workshop during summer break. In the first part, I shared an overall impression and experience and described what we did during that day. Also, I slightly mentioned about the homework. So, in this part im going to touch this particular subject more.

So, the week before the actual course, I got an email with a homework assignment and a deadline it must be emailed back to the instructor no later than two days before the class, so he could review it properly. Also, there was a time limit for the assignment- since this task is developed only as a warm-up, it should be done no more than about 45 minutes.

The assignment was given to choose a favourite film, and by using only nine storyboard panels (sound pretty easy!), I should be trying to tell the story of the film. The film could be in any media or genre as long as it is something favourite and it is a story that I know well.

I did not think long and chose the Robin Hood (1973) by Walt Disney studio. This film is one of my all-time favourites, and I really enjoy to watch it from time to time. This is a joyful adaptation of classic English folklore about adventures of anthropomorphic heroic outlaw Robin Hood as a fox and his sidekick Little John the bear who are inhabitants of an animal kingdom in Sherwood Forest.

In the beginning, I truly believed that it would be an easy task. Just nine panels and favourite cartoon what could be more straightforward. That’s how naive I was.

Firstly, I decided to watch the film and break it down into a list of significant events in the story and then draw the storyboard. And right in the middle of the viewing, I started to understand that it is no that simple as it looks. In the end, my list went way beyond nine panels- I wrote sixteen ‘crucial’ incidents which I thought must be in the storyboard. I really wanted to introduce almost half of the characters, and include robbery, taxes, tournaments and all battles and actions. Additionally, a Love Story between Robin Hood and Maid Marian (how even possible to not have this in the boards!)

planning notes

This was when my challenge began. I had to find a way to reduce the list to nine panels. I read through all notes a couple of times and made the first version of the storyboard. As I still tried to incorporate everything and everyone into drawings, my panels did not look like a coherent narrative, but more like independent illustrations without any sequential progression.

Honestly, I felt stuck. How it is even possible to force an hour and a half storyline into reduced version in nine pictures? At this point, I decided to watch the animation again and made marks in my notes. At this moment, I started to realise that I can divide my list into three several story workflows. One will be about Robin as a hero, another one could be all around Prince John, and another could entirely be concentrated about love and Maid Marian. And instantly, I started to realise what if I will focus only on one main character, I will quickly reduce and resolve my assignment!

So, I decided to concentrate on the main story about Robin, who helped villagers and about his bravery. And here you can see the final result.

final storyboard

And on the day of the workshop, Sam Horton, our instructor, reviewed and commented on everyone’s works.

lecturer’s comments

Altogether, I genuinely think that this is a fantastic exercise that helps think critically about our own story, additionally, build it more efficiently. Moreover, I believe that this kind of activity should be acquired for the Central Saint Martins MA Character Animation curriculum.

Graduation Film idea

What if… there are two kiddos, a Sis and a lil’ Brother and a long rainy day in early spring.

characters

In one window looked two. One saw the rain and mud. Other – green foliage ligature, spring and sky is blue. In one window looked two.

Omar Khayyám

The story going to be based on this quote. 

Well, basically, I will show how two kids see the same surrounding- their backyard.

But, additionally, I want to show their relationship- what in the end, actually, a person who is right here beside you, can help you to overcome bad moods and get over this dull day.

I’m not sure is it going to be narrated or not, but definitely without dialogues—just sounds.

Firstly, I’m going to show that it is a rainy day: moody, low, grey sky, rain.

(probably) the quote will appear, then disappears. The camera moves down; we see the chimney, then the rooftop, tree of the left. Lower; windows, now a fence. And we got into the middle of someone’s backyard—that tree on the left, of the fence, just a dark silhouette. We see a handmade tyre swing. There is a football goal on the right and a ball. Maybe some toys here and there. Everything is wet in the centre of all this a large rain puddle. Rains constantly.

Next scene- we see the house (like you turn around). Not the whole house, a lower part- great window, the fence now on the right, hides around the right corner of the house. A silhouette in the window draws our attention. It’s not very clear, but we can say that it is a person, probably a kid, under a dark-coloured blanket that covers him from head to toes. And we see him in a bad mood- eyebrows to touch each other and are really close to the nose. His small mouth in the shape of an arc sits right under his nose. Beside him on the right a kite. Might be it is coloured but for now everything in that greyish mood, so we can say what colours are there.

Next scene- we are in the room, on a distance from the window. Now we see him from the back. It is a kids room. A camera lowered, so room and window look huge, there is no light inside, so the interior is dimmed.

A dark silhouette, half of the body(might be legs only) appears in front, a bit left, of us. The figure runs toward the window. Now in the light of the window, we see a girl. The camera is closer to them. We can see them clearly. She carried a sketchbook and a pack or just a couple of pencils(or crayons). She puts it on the windowsill and starts climbing on. She accidentally touches her brother with her leg. The boy turns to head her way, angry and pushes her with hand. Not like with real power, but sort of slightly, to show that he doesn’t want her here, but more like simply ’why you are here?’. Turns his head back immediately and pull his kite closer to himself.

By the way, now we can see the difference between siblings. While brother is in a sullen mood and covered in a greyish/dark blanket and has a narrowed eyes, sisters eyes are big and bright, as well her sweater and sock are very colourful.

Then the girl settled down, grabs pencil and paper and look at the boy smiling (shows that she don’t care about push, even don’t want to pay attention to it, or already forgot about it). Extreme close up to boys face, he sighs deeply and looks out of the window.

Now the camera shows what he sees- close up on raindrops patter over tyre swing, then it shows that puddle in the middle and mud around.

The camera still outside showing both a bit from a distance, but we pay more attention to a happy girls face. She’s now overlooking the backyard. I want to show the same points but with the difference! Sister sees the same tyre swing, but her attention is on the tiny green leaves on the tree’s branch. Then she sees a couple of crocuses on the edge of the puddle. And all the sudden through the small rain ray of light touches the flowers (spring and the sky is blue)

Camera switches back to our characters (from the outside). The girl immediately starts sketching/doodling something in her block with enthusiasm. She then happy touches her brother with hand, he turns to head a bit furious, but she shows him her drawing. And now we see his face changes to smile(slowly), and then swiftly up to his legs throwing down blanket, full big smile over his face. He began to gesticulating, showing something to Sis. She follows him with happiness, immediately draws something on paper. She shows him, he sits beside her on knees and nods quickly, and they start laughing (we don’t hear that laugh). 

Now we see changes in the boy. Not only a big smile, fully opened eyes but after he threw down his blanket, we see colourful sweatshirt and pants and socks.

Camera same position. It stops raining! Kids like freezes for a second, then shortly they off from the window, so we see only sketch block (some lines on the paper surface) and pencils (the boy took the kite). After a second, we hear laughing sounds and footsteps outside. We don’t see kids, just sounds. The camera slowly started going up, over the roof, the see clear blue sky. Sounds- laugh and bids are singing.

END

(if not at the beginning of the film show quote, so it will appears now)

Credits. 

mood board

Storyboarding workshop part 1

During summer holidays, I took several online courses, masterclasses and workshops to keep myself busy. One of them was a Storyboard one-day workshop from Aardman Studio

Because the whole unprecedented situation in the country Aardamn moved all their courses online with all kind of classes available form time to time, from stop-motion to model and puppet making.

Since over the pre-production stage on our team project for LIAF, I worked a lot with storyboards; therefore, I decided to take this additional class to get more about this discipline. I wanted to know more about how it works in the real studio and how different it is from my own experience so far and to learn something new about storyboarding.

The course was taught by Sam Horton. He is an artist who behind such projects as Morph from Aardman, Go Jetters Blue Zoo, Denis and Gnasher Unleashed Jellyfish Pictures, and many more.

In view of the course only one day long, the schedule was very intensive.

Over the first part of the day, Sam introduced himself, he gave us overall about his experience, about projects he worked. Then we got a chance to introduce ourselves- all participants were from different backgrounds, with various drawing skills and with little or no experience in storyboarding at all. After that was a bit thrilling moment- evaluation of pre-course homework 🙂 (I will get back to it later).

Shortly after that, Sam Horton gave us behind the scenes in storyboarding from script to pitch to finished work. He provided a lot of tip and tricks like acting and exaggeration are the best friend of the artist, and perspective lines help enormously for staging and camera placement. More than that, you should always ask for references. And one, that I found really important, test your board on your friends or co-workers. It will help you to make changes before actual viewing with directors and get a better critique of your work.

Right after lunch, we were divided into teams of four and worked on a given script to produce a storyboard. The script was for one of the Morph episodes, and each team had 30 minutes only for work. 

I would say it was challenging. Firstly, if you are not familiar with this cartoon, you might not know who are the characters and how they look like. For instance, we had Chas and The Very Small Creatures. So, we googled to find about them. Secondly, for no-English speakers, some specific names of objects were new. Like particular brands of cookies and specific kind of fireworks were mentioned in our script. 

When we got back into one zoom-room, each team presented their work and Sam gave some constructive critique and comments. That was the most comical part of the day because we used funny noises while pitching our storyboards. Also, we watched the original episodes for every script to see how close we were with our boards. That was great.

We finished the workshop with a Q&A session and contacts exchanging.

Well, in general, I would say that as a one-day class, it was great and we got a lot of comprehensive information about storyboarding as a profession, about necessary skills and how-does-it-work. I also realised how much I still need to learn and improve my skills enough to work as a storyboarder artist.

To be continued …

Personal contribution to the group project.

By the spring, I was teamed with Hsin (the director and initials idea’s author) and Limbo to work on a film ‘Jumping to the Unknown‘. 

The film will represent the Abstract Showcase of the upcoming London International Film Festival (27 November- 6 December).

The produced animation is a combination of two traditional technics: stop-motion and digitally drawn 2D frame by frame.

In the beginning, I would like to divide the work experience on the film into two parts: the first one is pre-production, that happened during the spring, right before the summer holidays. The second part, post-production got around the month from October to November.

By and large, over the first part of the production, we had a lot of meetings and discussions about and around the story. It was a lot of teamwork, where each of us commits to the inquiries about the narrative itself and about the technical part of our future film. We tried to predict what kind of challenges we will meet and how to avoid them by meticulously schedule each step.

Besides all that, I worked on visual content for the project. For this reason, I had plenty of conversations with our director Hsin about what worlds look like, what the difference between birds, how we are going to show it understandably so that it will not leave any doubts. I draw images which then use to produce storyboards as well as a presentation for the client.

Because of the strictly limited time of the final trailer, that should be no more than 1 min; the story changes drastically throughout the pre-production stage. The crucial point was to make it shorter, while do not lose the initial idea. Therefore, I draw and redraw a lot of pictures, either making minor changes or draw whole sequences from scratch. After every meeting with either client or course leads or invited industry professional, there was a lot of work and adjustments to make. 

I found that throughout the pre-production step, it is quite crucial to make clear visuals and present the story in the right way and be confident about technical nuances to avoid future misunderstanding with the clients.

Even though I had a quite distinguish role in the first part of creating the film, I would say that overall, it felt more like a team effort. 

However, in contrast to the first stage of production, the next step was an absolutely different experience.

For this part, our director decided not to distribute roles between us (a stop-motion animator, an editor, 2D animator, colourist, etc.), but sections of the film instead. So, each team member got his own part to work on from the very beginning until the sequence is absolutely finished. I got the first 10 seconds of animation.

We got much artistic freedom, however, were provided with comprehensive instructions about what kind of actions Hsin would love to see.

Firstly, when we got access to the studio, I helped Hsin to set up the shooting space, by installing a camera, lights and computer for animating our stop-motion backgrounds. We shoot fist sequence in two days. For the first day, it was a lot of experimenting, cutting paper, pros and cons about which method will be more comfortable and faster.

Following, I worked in Photoshop, editing all images for my sequence, by removing unnecessary shadows and adjusting colours and lights. 

The next step was animation. Firstly, the background itself. I used our animatic with sounds to roughly time whole clip. I manipulated with images in Photoshop to add some additional frames to make more smooth flight of the platform without the necessity to go to the studio to shoot additional images.

When I was happy with the result, I started working with the main character, the Red Bird. 

While on the Red Bird animation, I got approval from the first pass, conversely, it took me a couple of tries to get the right movements for White Birds. I even made a test animation for how they are going to appear on the platform.

And finally, COLOURING stage: we got a colouring palette and list of tools that we should use from the director, so it was a straightforward work.

In the end, I want to add that in spite of it was a challenging project in point of time, however also a great experience. Nevertheless, for sure, a real pleasure to work with Hsin and Limbo.

Personal project

Autumn Fires
by Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardens
And all up the Vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

As for a person who always struggled to express and describe her own thoughts and feelings with words, poetry was a lifesaver starting way back from middle school years. So, poetry and often music helped me to reveal clear meaning and convey ideas and mood.

Hence, then autumn just started to touch leaves with yellow and red colours, I felt a deep need to find words that will represent my inner thoughts about changes that happening around with nature. Additionally, I collected some leaves during long walks in surrounded parks.

Moreover, then I discovered this beautiful poem from R. L. Stevenson, it gave me an idea to make a stop-motion animation using natural supplies that could be found outside.

So, this is a final result

I would add that it wasn’t the most straightforward task. Since we had no access to the university building and use the studio’s resources for stop-motion, I needed to figure out how to make it at home with tools available. Luckily I had a small tripod with flexible legs that I can adjust to basically to everything.

camera setup

You can see my tricky camera setup. I used a Stop Motion Studio app for the phone. I decided to get a paid version since it gives more flexibility to working on a project.

But the most challenging part of making this animation was the lighting. In the beginning, I tried to set up a station in the room using two desk lamps. However, the artificial light changes colours of leaves and other supplies drastically. Therefore I decided to use natural light and set the station on the windowsill.

Even though it helped a lot, however, pictures still had to be edited to get rid of unnecessary shadows. So, I transfer them to Photoshop to edit.

The next step, I uploaded all materials to After Effects, composed and add some finishing touches, so the colour will be even for the whole video.

Evidently, it turns out not the easiest and quickest “project for a day”, as I planed. Despite this, I enjoyed working on it. I successfully overcame all small challenges and recalled how to use Photoshop and After Effects. And I really like the final result of the work.

Styles_03

To my amazement, I came across animated short film The Man Who Planted Trees (1987) this week, and I was immediately swept away by almost poetical beauty of this work.

The film directed by Canadian animator Frederic Back, well known for his scrupulous, airy cinematic works, won Academy Award in 1988 for the Best Animated Short Film and competed for other festivals.

The Man Who Planted Trees is based on the short novel by French author Jean Giono (wiki link) with the same name, that first published in 1953. It tells the story of a young man, the narrator, who hiking through a desolate and windy provincial valley and old villages in the Alps and met a solitary shepherd named Elzeard Bouffier. The shepherd lives a quiet life and… planting trees every day. The narrative takes us over four decades, through two world wars, following the life paths of both the narrator and the Bouffier. 

The most that fascinated me, of course, is a beauty of simple, tranquil pencil drawings. Minimalistic faded hues of sepia-toned colour at the beginning of the film, showing broken villages and catching the bleakness of the surrounded environment with rocks and poor weeds lashed by a bitter wind, and people without hope.

And the latter half of the narrative, we see utterly different aesthetic; when brown and grey give way to rich, plentiful colours and frames finally blossomed, bringing lavishness and spectacle to all they touche. Each next scene gradually turns brighter, the animation becomes more sophisticated, highlighting the return of hope, peace and rebirth of the area. And at this point, Black’s visuals strongly reminded me of classic pointillism and impressionists such as Monet and Sisley.

It is worth to mention that watching how shapes and visuals morphing through the animation from one picture to another making almost dream-like sequences, I recall so much of two much-beloved animators Yuri Norstein and Aleksandr Petrov. Same as these masters, Back, by using traditional tools, coloured pencils and crayons, conveys chances, visualise movements and life in his works. Mastering animation over the years, he transforms the great story into the film that entrancing to watch over and over again.

Notes about storyboarding: visual tools

I’ve recently worked on storyboards for our LIAF team project (since my story did not get through, I was assigned to another project). I watched and read a lot of materials about the topic, and I found that all articles are about camera views and movements, compositions, character posing and terminology. Although that all are important, however, there not that much information about visual ‘helpers’ to build storyboards. I’m talking about lines, shapes, colour and tone. By using these simple tools, we can convey the story more precisely.

Storyboards are quick drawings that represent a frame of the film, and by putting them together in sequences helps us to visualise the movie before actual work on animation. 

The right composition is one of the fundamental rules for storyboarding. It is the visually organised layout of elements in a scene. And the relationship between the linesshapesright tones and colour within frame should convey meaning and express emotions in the narrative. 

I think every storyboard frame begins with the line. The striking thing about this visual tool is that it can have many different properties. 

frame from SB for The X_files (1998)

First of all, we use it to show the direction of movement or direction of the camera to point. The line can really force viewers eyes in the right direction.

Additionally, we can change the weight of a line. If one character or object is drawn thick line, it is essential in the current scene.

The line also can be used to show speed and quick movements. You can vary the shape to show emotions- zig-zagged line looks dangerous and angry, the curve seems calm. Sketching sharp and expressive lines help build a world and bring life, and even portray the emotions. 

frame of SB for Superman Returns (2006)

It is interesting that line also helps to create a sense of space. We can imitate the 3D space by placing lines in perspective- parallel lines appear to get closer together as they move further away. 

Along with lines, the shape also helps us tell stories. For instance, the bigger something is in the frame, the more valuable it is. Or we can visualise the size of the character to the surrounding, like, a small person in an ample space also can illustrate how vulnerable it is, not only how big his world is.

Additionally, basic shapes can imply the characteristics of the characters. For example, triangles can show anger, speed, or tautness. Circles look very friendly, but squares seem strong and durable. 

Although, as we add more details, by stacking two-three shapes together, we can convey more information, expressing, or emotion. The use of shapes can apply to everything. 

Furthermore, if we place more massive shapes at the bottom of the frame and lighter shapes towards the top of the frame, it makes it look like they’re further away from each other. This simple trick mimics the illusion of depth—the position of elements and their size contrast within the frame, placing shapes higher or lower. 

Not only lines and shapes but also tone (shading), or how dark or light something is in a scene, can make it stand out from everything else. 

frame from SB for Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

By adjusting the light and dark values of all the elements in the frame, can lead your viewer’s eyes and even create a specific mood. Light value feels open, calm, while the dark value can add an ambience of mystery, sorrow, or danger. 

By playing with these settings, we can control which information will be revealed to the audience, since our eyes naturally go first to the point of highest contrast.

So, altogether, these tools are like building blocks of visual storytelling that help can create mood, lead the viewer’s eye, and control what information gets unveiled to the audience. 

LIAF Pitch

Recently everyone in our class got a chance to propose an idea for the short stings for this year LIAF (London International Film Festival). This is a part of the Unit 2 Team Project. That means after presentations the invited jury will select several works, and we will be divided into teams to make the film.

Stings are the short animated films which are screened several times before every competition programs of the festival and online in social media and LIAF webpage. They like short representations, intros, for the festival programs. They are approximately in 30-45 seconds length in a broad range of styles, animation techniques and genres.

Overall, there are 8 screening programs:

  • The Abstract Showcase
  • From Absurd to Zany
  • Playing with Emotion
  • Being Human
  • Into the Dark
  • Animated Documentaries
  • Looking for Answers
  • Long Shots

Also, it was essential to watch all presented works during the pitching, since we should select several projects which we would like to work on later.

So, I proceed with the idea for the Into The Dark. 

title screen

Synopsis

There are dark hours on Earth when different scenarios and stories happen, and various characters live their lives.

mood board

The narrative takes place during the late-night hour in a back alley of the city or town. It is a narrow part of the street that is hidden away from the prying eyes, with trash bags in the corners and dark green containers, a ‘missing’ poster on the side of the container, a labyrinth of tubes deck the walls of the buildings and only one blinking light ray in the middle of all it. The unrecognised sounds surround this place, scratchy noises, the electric flickering of the lamp.

style frame

There something that attracts a rat to this place. It smells it and trying to find the source. Finally, it sees the thing in the middle of the light spot. It is the murder of crows. There, inside that pale of bodies and feathers is something that rat smells. And it jumps, another jump, and run straight to the centre of the birds.

style frame

But these birds always aware always on the look-out. One of the birds rises above and make a deafening sound to warn everyone. And right before the rat reaches them, they disappeared.

style frame

The scene opens up with an upper view in the middle of the light we see the peace of a hand in the paddle of blood. This is a source that attracts all these night creatures to this tiny dark alley in the middle of the night. The rat grabs this hand and dragged it into the safety of shadows.

The end.

It supposed to be made by using TV Paint and/or After Effects. Since I thought that most of my classmates familiar with this two software perfectly. I simplified the style of animals and exterior, and made everything with sharp angles without curves to provide unpleasant feeling to scenes. Also, acoustic sounds and music should add the mood and scary atmosphere to the story.

characters exploration

Unfortunately, the story did not get through the draw. It seems to me that the narrative is too simple and basic without any strong points for the festival LIAF level. Additionally, I see that main style frame with the rat and the poster did not play because of the mistake in the composition and lighting of the scene.