Buddy by Casey Lafalce a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Franklin College Interdisciplinary
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L a F a l c e | 1 Buddy By Casey LaFalce A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Franklin College Interdisciplinary Studies degree in: Animation & Illustration University of Georgia 2018 Grade Earned: Approved by: __________________________________________ Date:___________________ IDS Chair/Advisor IDS Committee Members: __________________________________________ Date:___________________ __________________________________________ Date:___________________ Dean: __________________________________________ Date:___________________ L a F a l c e | 2 Acknowledgements This thesis never would have come to fruition without the unstoppable love and support of my parents, Steve and Leigh LaFalce. Thank you for so patiently raising an art student. To my advisor and animation professor, Mike Hussey, you’ve been an incredible guide and cheerleader throughout this tough process. Thank you for all of your instruction and time. None of this would be as it is without my force-of-nature of a sister, Becca LaFalce, the Red Friend to my Blue Friend. Let’s go on an adventure! L a F a l c e | 3 Table of Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………… 1 Concept …………………………………………………………………………… 2 Inspiration ………………………………………………………………… 4 Personality ………………………………………………………………… 4 Goals ……………………………………………………………………………… 5 Pre-Production …………………………………………………………………………… 6 Planning …………………………………………………………………………… 7 Aesthetic Inspiration …………………………………………………………… 8 Character Design ……………………………………………………………… 10 Storyboards ……………………………………………………………………… 12 Production ……………………………………………………………………………… 15 Photoshop ……………………………………………………………………… 16 Painting Digitally ……………………………………………………… 18 Colors …………………………………………………………………… 21 From PaintTool SAI to Photoshop …………………………………… 24 OpenToonz ……………………………………………………………………… 25 Traditional Cel Animation …………………………………………… 26 What to Hand-Animate ……………………………………………… 27 Post-Production ………………………………………………………………………… 28 Music and Sound ……………………………………………………………… 28 After Effects …………………………………………………………………… 30 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………… 33 The Final Product ……………………………………………………………… 33 Reevaluation of Goals ………………………………………………………… 33 Changing the Process ………………………………………………………… 34 L a F a l c e | 4 Figure Reference Figure 1: Two boards, fantastical and grounded …………………………………… 3 Figure 2: Scene Layout in Excel ……………………………………………………… 8 Figure 3: Aesthetic Inspirations ……………………………………………………… 9 Figure 4: Blue Friend and Red Friend color and form reference ………………… 11 Figure 5: Boards for Scenes 7-12 …………………………………………………… 13 Figure 6: Boards for Scenes 25-30 …………………………………………………… 14 Figure 7: Basic Photoshop Layout, Scene ………………………………………… 13 Figure 8: Mike Yamada Brushes for Photoshop …………………………………… 16 Figure 9: Jon Neimeister Digital Oil Brushes for Photoshop ……………………… 17 Figure 10: Digital Painting Process …………………………………………………… 19 Figure 11: Using Photoshop’s mosaic feature to make a color palette ………… 22 Figure 12: Basic Colour Constructor Layout ………………………………………… 22 Figure 13: An Example of Blue Friend’s palette by Colour Constructor ………… 23 Figure 14: Basic PaintTool SAI Layout, Scene 22 …………………………………… 24 Figure 15: Basic OpenToonz Layout, Scene 15 ……………………………………… 25 Figure 16: Animating in OpenToonz …………………………………………………… 26 Figure 17: Music in After Effects ……………………………………………………… 29 Figure 18: Basic After Effects Layout, Scene 15 …………………………………… 30 Figure 19: Pre-Composition ……………………………………………………………… 32 Figure 20: Nearing the end of the compiling process in After Effects …………… 32 Figure 21: Background of Scene 21 …………………………………………………… 35 L a F a l c e | 1 T Introduction U Drawing is an art of the utmost importance, as it sets the stage for what cannot be conveyed with words. Most artists I meet like to talk about how they knew they would be an artist from the moment they first picked up a crayon, how for as long as they can remember art was all they were interested in. This was not the case for me! I didn’t realize how important art was to me until I became invested in cartoons. Morning cartoons, slapstick cartoons, weighty cartoons, cartoons I would tape and watch later with my friends, cartoons of fantasy into which I could fall and live for twenty-four minutes at a time. I was engrossed in cartoons for a long time and took that for granted before I began exploring what appealed to me about animation; I realized that, freed from earthly limitations, animation could take the infinite possibilities offered by innumerable artists’ hands to create feelings so specific and relatable, then transform those feelings into movement and narrative that could only further strike chords within an audience. No matter the audience. This understanding and chord-striking is what pushed me to create the senior thesis project that I did. We all have strong emotions tied to certain people and places; I wanted to evoke my emotions in a way that would leave others with no choice but to connect my art to people and places that they know. This connection through cartoons and characters and imagined spaces is what I enjoy creating most of all, and my senior thesis project is a reflection of this. I hope that people watch this final product and can say with confidence, “This video is about me and my sister!” or “me and my husband!” or “my closest friends,” “You captured how I feel when I do X Y or Z,” and over that recognition a connection will be made. L a F a l c e | 2 Concept The product of my senior thesis is a three-minute illustrated video. Acting as a sort of reel of my abilities as an Animation & Illustration major, the final product will be comprised of full illustrations that I have animated to varying degrees. The illustrations will be diverse in approach and in detail to show off my range of artistic know-how, but will remain cohesive due to my innate style as well as the appearance of two established characters who will be present in every scene creating a simple sort of narrative. The emphasis of the video itself will be on design, artistry, and environmental animation. It is important to me that the artist’s hand remain at the forefront of the viewer’s mind while watching this as my primary background is in studio art, drawing, and illustration. I decided very early on in my process to include environments that would be both very foreign and very relatable – places that were fantastical and unfamiliar to which people could find parallels in their own lives, as well as scenes of a sincere grounded nature. For example, a dark flooded cavern asking to be explored and adventured by torchlight, juxtaposed with a cozy couch and late-night video games. These scenes are very different in substance but represent an equal importance to me as they can offer very similar meanings, as well as equally strong reactions. L a F a l c e | 3 Figure 1: Two boards, fantastical and grounded These scenes could be pulled together or pulled apart to invite comparison or contrast, depending on the viewer’s own experiences. And, by design, they also serve to showcase my ability to create both fantastical and mundane spaces – indoor and outdoor, grand and compact. The characters themselves were hugely important to the success of this video as I needed them to remain readable, relatable, generalized, and empathetic all at once. My goal was to create a likable duo that acted mostly as a blank slate, but still projected personality. They would traverse through high fantasy and mundane chores enjoying each other’s company all the time. L a F a l c e | 4 Inspiration The song I chose for this project was one I already loved: “the land of the giant flying beast” by the artist In Love With A Ghost. This song was my initial inspiration – I chose it before I drew any images, knowing that it recalled images of comradery and journeys across landscapes. This song was the driving force behind the whole project, and it didn’t hurt that I knew I would never get bored of it. Before I began my senior thesis I had recently seen The Red Turtle for the first time, and it was hugely impactful to me. A feature-length film with no dialogue was something I hadn’t seen before, and I was really taken aback by how much they were able to communicate. This, partnered with the discovery of my chosen song, I knew I wanted to create an animation with no dialogue. So much animation involves voice actors that when you see one without them, it really makes an impression. Not only this, but I learned repeatedly throughout my collegiate career that a successful animation does not need words; what should be conveyed can always be told through body language and setting. At this point I had gleaned the emotions I wanted to express by choosing a song, and I knew that I wanted to deliver those emotions wordlessly. I then looked to what excited me most – fantasy. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, classic books and films such as these raised me and gave me a huge appreciation for the fantastical and the magical. I would count them among this project’s most important inspirations as well. L a F a l c e | 5 Personality While I pulled from my past influences constantly, it meant the world to me that this video ultimately represented myself and the approach that I can bring to the table as an artist and as a person. I needed my personality to shine through, I needed the find the fine line between creating what comes naturally and creating what I needed to prove to others that I could do. I faced a few speedbumps in deciding whether to tackle narrative in my project. By my initial plan the song goes uninterrupted by conflict, and I debated for a long time whether it was important to include discord of some sort. A narrative with conflict is usually what propels animation with characters, after all. I ultimately decided against it, however, as aesthetics are what drove this project and levity and joy are what drive my love of aesthetics. This is a circuitous way of saying that I didn’t feel as though I needed a narrative or a conflict to feel like I could get myself across as an artist, and my main hope that I could express my feelings of pure adventure and closeness seemed achievable by my stress-free sequences alone.