Languishing Hiraeth Progress in Pre-Production!

Languishing Hiraeth is not only an adventure for myself but an adventure for viewers to relate to my interests, and everyday psychological displacements. It has become a thrill in learning everything from storyboarding to character development, to the way we perceive a short/film in action. Storyboarding has been a level up for me, I feel that I have progressed in my storytelling, and storyboarding techniques through Dermot O’Connor. I was able to really take a step back and understand the development of my storyboards through his direction. It came as a major surprise that many of my already developed storyboards lacked the actual design and understanding to be represented to the intended audience. I thought that in a storyboarding the overall design and structure of the film/live action/or short was not of importance in design, but distinguishing the overall was very important to the audience, and the character development/design. 

Original Concept Design of Einar Onfroi.

I took into consideration the development of character design throughout the Linked-In Learning course from Mary Jane Begin. I wanted to also refresh my skills in concept art, along with painting over the semester. I learned a wide range of skill sets to incorporate into my designs and development, but my improvement is something that matters to me overall. I look back on the majority of my painting skills to my illustration/illustrator skills and I personally feel that they have improved drastically. It is a huge surprise that when I develop a concept, line art, and then paint my idea, it actually makes sense. Rather than having a really robust file, and or multiple files that I cannot seem to recall where I may have left off or need to progress. One thing I have noticed is that I have tried to incorporate my sketching skills into learning it digitally, and it has not been an easy transition. I have made some overall improvements, but then of course, still have a major amount to learn. With practice comes progress is my overall goal in this matter. I did not learn to play guitar overnight, but from the age of eight to 14 I was able to accomplish goals, and then learn many other instruments, and then become a lead vocalist/guitarist in a touring band. This did not stop me from at this point in my life, when I was asked to accompany many other bigger bands, and write, play, do sound, and then be an addition in the studio overall bands. I was really successful in my music career which kept leading me to learn and more, then I realized at one point I hit a wall. I needed to keep furthering myself in the overall development of my life to get further in two passions. Art and music. Here is the finished concept design for the main character.

Original Concept Design of Einar Onfroi.

Line Art of Einar Onfroi.

Einar Onfroi Concept Design.

I was able to accomplish a goal of the overall story development through the title scene this week, along with the fully developed major character in the story. Storyboarding is a unique process that makes me second guess the way I would like the entire short to be planned out. The process then led me to evaluate each section I had already developed. It seems as if it lacked in many ways from giving the precise and professional wording, the suggested transitions, to the way the sequences flowed. Here is the original Storyboard for the title sequence that I sketched out before learning more about the process through Dermot O'Connor Storyboarding course on Linked-In Learning. 

Original title sequence Storyboard.

I then began to study more about the suggestions that Dermot gave in his course and started applying them to a new version of the title sequence. Fading into a scene or suggesting to fade out was a unique way to look at how a beginning sequence can be brought forth to the audience. He mentioned that it is not necessary to use black to fade in and out of a scene, you can use white, or any other color for that matter. Dissolving the frames and sequence is a great way to explore a short amount of time passing by through each transition. Simple cuts are probably going to be a style that is explored throughout my short, meaning the break/cut between each camera will shift the viewer's attention to what is happening within the sequence. Another transition that I desperately want to explore and research through Dermot’s suggestions are the reaction cuts, it will be able to give me a dramatic effect or other camera angles to achieve while possibly exploring the atmosphere of the environment while the sequence is taking place. I have several ideas for this to explore as to giving an open space a moment when Einar sees the note from the A.I. system that his robot is almost finished, and gives a secondary camera view to the process of the A.I. system making the robot, then cuts right back to Einar’s reaction. This will give me a unique way to display the environment(s) around the sequences and introduce another character to the sequence such as the A.I. system. The concept of the A.I. is still under development because of trying to find a happy medium between holographic cliche sci-fi computers, or creating a different type of it through an actual rigged character. But, I wanted to also show that the A.I. system can control the ship, and other surrounding props as well. So this has been the next step in development, in which I will explore a resource given to me from Professor Redding. The AEIOU design thinking worksheet, and drawing ideas resources from the drawing ideas book website. (drawingideasbook.com) 

I then realized that there are more concepts to the short than I realized! Yet I did not have them designed or ready to be a part of the process. This made me take a step back and stop at this point in the storyboarding process, because I need a concept in order to design the boards around. The spaceship I wanted to design as a fish/underwater animal, but yet be a sci-fi spaceship. I have a lot of work to get done!

I move into the staging and composition, direction of action, lighting and depth, because I want to revisit these episodes of the storyboarding course while making progress in the boards for the short. It will help me develop and correct the ways to portray my concepts. I have old developed storyboards, that I look at and the seems to make sense to me, but not to someone else that would be working on my team for example, I need to revisit the structure of them in order to have a better understanding myself of what I am trying to achieve in the short, as well as for others to explore and critique. Here are my current workings of the next sequence in the short, and I will display the old storyboards to show the progression made in my research and development.

Title Sequence 0.0 - Storyboard - Languishing Hiraeth

Sequence 1.0 - Storyboard - Languishing Hiraeth

The overall design and thinking for the character development was driven in a way to understand most of what Quad development workflow can be a great influence on 3D animation. It also gave me the opportunity to revisit the concept creation of Einar Onfroi and give the model the correct edge flows and Quad-development it needed. I noticed in my last attempt at the start of this process through Professor Collins, that the skinning of the low poly design, stretched and had weird indentations of things I didn't quite understand at the time. I went back to see what the issue may be, and it is that the original low poly design had triangles, and n-gons, which are 5 sided points, and poles in areas that did not necessarily need to be there. A pole in when you build quads of one point, for example:

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These can sometimes be a pain and cause issues. I was able to restructure somewhat of a better retopology (which is the process of taking a high poly sculpture and creating a low resolution/low poly count for the details to bake to). Here is the result of my research and development into a better suited model for animation. I know that it is not completely correct, but while I still research and develop the skill set for this project, I will be able to make the changes off of this base that I have created. 

Einar Onfroi - Retopology

Einar Onfroi - Retopology

Einar Onfroi - Retopology

So far my written story development has hit a wall because I find it extremely difficult to put my concepts and ideas into words. I am really working on finding a way to convey this in more professional way. So far after much thought the short story to the film is as follows:

Einar Onfroi Is in languish longing for home “earth” and is trapped aboard a spaceship. He was charged with doing research to help develop a stable way of living in the polluted oceans by humans.

The story starts out as the storyboards show, the title, then it transitions to space. Space is empty but the camera moves up to the ship floating within space. The camera moves into the space ship, to see the fish robot character working. The A.I. voice comes over the speaker and says excuse me sir (whomever the name is) I do not want to interrupt your work but we are passing by Earth.

The fish robot character gets extremely excited and turns around and tries to go towards the ships window, but the character loses his robot response helmet. He then slams his face into the glass tank of the robot twice trying to get him to move. He then scurries to get his response system back on and then blurb blurb blurb he speaks and robot scurries in a frantic to the window, the fish slams against the back of the glass helmet like whoa!!!! And the robot races through the sci fi scene up the stairs to glare out the window to see earth.

Although I am thinking to follow more suggestions and concept development as Dermot O’Connor says, sometimes the writing is not necessary. This can be all conveyed in well developed storyboards.  I will not have much dialogue in the overall short, because facial rigging is a process that is all too new to me, and I may not be able to achieve this in a short amount of time. Although I will study facial rigging in order to achieve facial expressions. I will continue that skillset on my own time to understand and learn the process.

Stay tuned for more on Languishing Hiraeth!

Works Cited/References

Anderson, Kenneth, et al. Creating Characters for the Entertainment Industry: Character Design for Animation, Illustration & Video Games. 3dTotal Publishing, 2019.

Begin, Mary Jane. “Welcome - Learning Character Development and Design Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 12 Apr. 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-     character-development-and-design/welcome?u=76811570.

Connor, Dermot O'. “Exercise Files - Animation Foundations: Storyboarding Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 26 July 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-storyboarding/exercise-files?u=76811570.

Connor, Dermot O'. “Welcome - Animation Foundations: Drawing Cartoon Characters Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 31 Aug. 2015, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-drawing-cartoon-characters/welcome?u=76811570.

“Sharon Ross: Designer for 2D Animation - Sharon Ross: Character Designer for 2D Animation Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/learning/sharon-ross-character-designer-for-2d-animation/sharon-ross-designer-for-2d-animation?u=76811570.

Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2019.

Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook: Volume 01. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2018.

Williams, Richard. The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators (Expanded). Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.