What had started as my final thesis project grew into enormous effort that channeled many disciplines within the field of entertainment art. I had sought to create a piece that would evoke the day to day human experience of living a 9 -5 lifestyle. The only thing is that this lifestyle would last for an eternity. The visual language that had closely resembled this were machines. It was this concept that I had taken to fully flesh out the world and characters of the piece. The narrative was derived from the questions, "In an unending motion of repetitiveness, how would finding purpose affect the rhythm?" I was mainly inspired by the film Koyaanisqatsi. In Hopi the term means, "a life out of balance."
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| 1920 |
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| 2' x 3' |
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| I painted this city |
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| I built this city |
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Enter The Catacombs
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| Resting Chair |
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| Catacomb Room Layout |
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| Lighting and Color Process |
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| It's off to work we go |
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| Work Room Front View |
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| Work Room 3 Quarter Perspective - Layout Reference |
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| Some Dis-assembly Required |
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| Shell of Tarturas |
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| Like clockwork |
By constantly sketching out concepts, I laid out the storyboard. Numerous critiques had altered the rhythm of the story, yet I kept it close to the vision I had wanted from the start. Prior to fully committing to the production I had taken an intensive workshop that forced me employ mixed media to tell a story. (click here for more details)
With the concept art fully fleshed out, I had devised a shot-list that would streamline production pipeline. Organization was extremely crucial, so I had preemptively create a comprehensive folder structure. From there it was a matter of clockwork. The 3D render assets were the first to be completed. I then took the playblasts and animated on top of them. This took a considerable amount of time because of the efforts made to maintain volume and proportion through the stages, (roughs, cleaning, color, and lighting.)
For more behind the scenes animation, >
click here!<
With less than a month left for the deadline, I had begun compositing the pieces in After Effects. It was through this stage I learned of different methods to combine the 2D and 3D footage seemless. It was all a matter of messing around with color and lighting levels. Consecutively, on my off time from my full time job, I would go around the city collecting soundbytes and trying to mix them to create the distinctive sounds that are spread out within the film. It was definitely a challenge to not only synchronize them, but finding the right weight to give each element within the film.
Finally, the time came to compose the soundtrack. After days of searching, I was introduced to a highly talented duo. The importance of sound never occurred to me not until we had collaborated together on the piece. Through rigorous back and forth, they had finally came with a soundtrack that had given life to the film. The important thing to note was being firm with the cuts on the film. Once the edits are locked in, the soundtrack will cement it in place. I was fortunate enough to have made the right cuts for it was only a few days before the deadline submission.
When I received the track, it was a thing of beauty. I kept saying to myself that this was it. Initially what we started with were a few Phillip Glass tracks, given that he composed Koyaanisqatsi. However, the track that was composed completed transcended my expectations. I am truly grateful for that.
The film itself had gone on to win numerous awards and recognition. I have been responsive to the feedback, and that has made yearn to make better stuff in the
future.
