Constructing the Audio

In this elective, we were tasked to make an audio track and animate something based around it, meaning the sound comes before the visuals. Out of the prompts given I chose to do “End of Line”, which I then interpreted as the end of the telephone line.

Since my last project for Out of Your Head was lighthearted and action-based, I wanted to try an ominous and slow route this time. Using Adobe Audition, I compiled a variety of sounds from caves, cave water drips, tv static noises etc. that best suited my goal of creating a constricting feeling. One of the static noises was made through processing the raw data of a .tif image through another audio program Audacity.

As I was constructing the audio, I wanted two distinct atmospheres- one which is menacing and otherworldly, as if you’ve been transported to another plane when the call is made, and the other peaceful and surrounded by nature outside of the call. To do this, I played around with reverb and fades for the former, with a rhythmic beat of cave ambience to give a sense of momentary stability which then rises in pitch at the end when the danger comes close. The abrupt cut and transition to the quiet rustling of nature was also done with the intent to bring a lingering sense of unease.

Audio Track

Moodboard

The next step was to create a moodboard animatic. The tv static heavily reminded me of an area in the video game OMORI called Blackspace, a place in the protagonist’s mind where his deepest fears are buried, and I was inspired by how unsettling the crude mixture of sketches and image dithering was. The crunchiness of the audio also made me think of scratched out drawings, which I also incorporated into my moodboard.

For the last few seconds, I wanted a heavy emphasis on lighting and contrast and decided to go for a sunset look, since that time of day has an air of tranquil, quiet reflection, completely throwing off the intensity of the static.

Moodboard animatic: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pvqRqPNVHOxwEW8AeqBO7_1gIbcTaYKS/view?usp=sharing

Storyboard

While editing the moodboard, I started to think of a storyline using the backstories of two characters I’ve been developing in my own time, where one of them (Shio) has been trying to search for the other (Rei) for a very long time but doesn’t remember what he looks like. The latter however, doesn’t want to be found. Through the phone call, Shio manages to reach Rei but doesn’t receive a warm welcome.

Storyboard: https://drive.google.com/file/d/111XPS_ojhgSt0aKQ29yu_QK8Lo0T3IUP/view?usp=sharing

Misc relevant backstory:

• They originated from a grass hut in the forest, hence the bushes and leaves surrounding them in the call section.
• Shio lost his memory and only has a feeling that he should be finding someone important. He has very fragmented memories of what their home and what Rei looks like.
• They both liked to draw together and hung the sketches up around their home. The sketches will be scratched out in the animation.

One of my goals was also to practice show not tell, and I used dutch angles with deliberate layout to build on the uneasiness Shio feels, while also obscuring Rei’s face as much as possible in all shots until the end to make him more mysterious and threatening.

Feedback from tutor:

• The storyboard and moodboard at first seemed like two different films, but after explaining that the moodboard was more for developing atmosphere and textures while the storyboard was more focused on the plot, we agreed that it could work as a combination of both
  • The backgrounds would be glitchy and obscured, and the characters would be purely outlined in scratchy strokes (only in the void section)
• When asked how I would implement pixilation, I explained that I wanted the call section to be pixilated by filming myself in stop-motion acting out the characters’ actions, then rotoscoping it. The backgrounds will be slightly pixilated too by having 3-frame cycles of idle movement. The idea was greenlit!
• There was a point where Rei reaches out for Shio’s phone ominously before grabbing it and forcefully slamming it down, but at the moment it seemed like Shio was the one cutting the call since the movement was very fast.
  • To make intentions clearer, I could have Rei seemingly reaching for Shio’s throat more to make the moment more menacing.
  • Have Shio let go of the phone in surprise at the end instead of holding it in place

Production

Animating the characters

The animation method was split into two parts: the shots outside of the call (indicated by the white background in the storyboard) will be done in Adobe Animate in 1s and 2s, with digitally painted backgrounds. The shots in the void (in black background) will be rotoscoped, and the backgrounds made from real photos as to establish a jarring contrast between the two environments.

The first step was to film myself acting in stop motion using Stop Motion Studio on my phone. I had my storyboard up on my laptop for reference, but even then getting the perspective right on my camera was pretty difficult.

Getting my acting accurately timed was even harder- there were a lot of factors I hadn’t thought I’d have to deal with like my positioning, whether my actions would end up moving out of the frame, as well as the difference in cartoony and realistic proportions. Sometimes I put my phone screen up on the TV so I could see my own acting, and doing a few takes per shot helped in seeing what went wrong and which frames to keep. The last shot was taken twice (one for each character) and put together with masks in After Effects.

Afterwards, I put the videos and storyboard together: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GP0BFO3j1r7nGu4Rw9JxWIW2wFhdwwdX/view?usp=sharing

Which was then imported into TVPaint for rotoscoping.

Since it was my first time using this software, it took a little while to get used to it especially with the fact that it was bitmap based (I am more familiar with vector strokes), meaning that I couldn’t edit my strokes quite as cleanly. I did anticipate this though, which is part of the reason why I wanted sketchy outlines so I could allow myself to experiment with the software and use a more carefree linearting style. I really liked the variety of brushes it offered and was playing around with them to see which suited the sketchiness I wanted.

Another challenge was having to rotoscope my cartoony characters to fit more realistic proportions, so I used the underlay of the pixilated film as more of a reference for the movement instead and kept an eye out for inconsistencies in size.

Other minor issues were getting the colours of the outlines to stand out enough against the dark background, so the multi-colour replacer was a big help. I did wish editing multiple frames was a simpler process though.

Creating the background

The backgrounds were heavily inspired by OMORI’s battle backgrounds, which are usually a collage of real images with dithering to make it look hand-drawn. Combined with the limited colour palette, I loved the way they seem so familiarly real yet artificial, like looking at another world through video game lenses.

Another inspiration came from the environments in the game Yume Nikki, where the protagonist traverses their dream. I especially took notice of how separated each element was, as if they were floating in a void without purpose much like how dreams are- blurry and abstract. I also tried implementing this into my own background designs.

Using some photos I took on a hike, I originally tried using the website Dither It! to achieve the same effect OMORI’s did. However, the bright colours that came out weren’t exactly what I was looking for- I wanted a mostly dark purplish background for the ominous factor, so this method was scrapped.

I then tried editing them in an art program Medibang, where I cut out the most important elements, filtered and colour corrected them to achieve my goal. (Photo captions detail the process)

To implement the hanging drawings, I sketched them out in real life and hung them around my room using fake leaf vines, took photos of them and edited them. Originally I tried using After Effects to isolate them, but I didn’t get the effects or colours I wanted and went back to using Medibang.

Next was to paint the backgrounds outside of the call. I chose to use mostly yellow for that sunset feel and also to contrast the purple tones to really drill in that they are two different areas. Smaller details like the advertisement for a magic phone that can reach anyone being stacked on top of Rei’s missing poster were added for storytelling purposes.

Final backgrounds (in order of appearance)

Final Outcome

(Reflection in pdf submission)