Twilight Tales (2018) Graduate Film

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Twilight Tales is an animated short depicting a child’s perception of the world during storytime.

The story is a woven together narrative from a collection of recorded tales gathered from my young sister over a period of a few weeks. The 2D animated characters created from Toonboom were composited in After Effects onto footage and shots from a 3 dimensional built set, showing the contrast of the physical world and imaginary one. My animation is in essence nostalgic, reconnecting the audience to their childhood memories and experiences.

Password: rarajx45

My interest in the imagination has stemmed from experiencing a child’s view of the world once again through playing and spending time with my younger sister. My concept explores childhood imagination, its importance, and the magic and nostalgia people tend to have for that period in their lives. The animation further emphasises this connection by showing how real and vivid imagination feels for a child and recreating the magical atmosphere of storytelling. The endearing, unpredictable quality of how she describes her thoughts has influenced the visual style of the piece.

The tale follows a young girl on her journey through her bedtime story. As the narrator tries to tell a coherent linear story, the child interjects with her own ramblings adding on to the story as they travel through the magical universe of the tale. As her real physical world and the world she has created in her imagination interweave, the line between fantasy and reality increasingly blurs.

Twilight Tales' Screenings List:

Cork Film Festival, Ireland. 18 Nov '18 - Children's Shorts
Kerry Film Festival, Ireland. 19 Oct '18 - Children's Shorts
Gozo Film Festival, Malta. 24-26 Aug '18
Still Voices Short Film Festival, Ballymahon, Ireland.16-19 Aug '18 - Made In the Midlands
Cruthú Arts Festival, Longford, Ireland. 26-29 July '18
Guarimba International Film Festival, Italy. 7-11 Aug '18 - La Grotta dei Piccoli

Pochatok Film Festival, Ukraine. 11-15 June '18
Short to the Point, March Edition, Romania. March '18

Character Designs:

I took some reference video recordings of my sister's movements as she told her stories and acted some out myself to get the movements right.

Talking Tree Character

Fairy World Concept Art:

Environment paintings of the fairy's world

Previsualisation:

Storyboard Shots

Character Technique:

I created my characters in Toonboom but wanted the colouring of them to be the same as if I had painted them in Photoshop. So I painted textures that I could then import onto them to achieve this.

Character Textures:

These are some of the textures I painted for the main character; face, eyes, ears, nose, hair.

Finished Look:

Set Design:

I built the set so the walls could be removable for certain shots I wanted. The blankets, cushions and curtains were sewn. Wardrobe and bed created and some of the toys made.

Shooting of the Set:

Some of the photographs taken from the set which then had the characters and animations composited into them.

Bedroom Scene:

This is the intro shot which had a forest scene put into the greenscreened area, the child character added in and lighting and shadows edited into.

Pre-visualisation of the set:

I first worked out the proportions of the room in 3Ds Max then did two prototypes in cardboard and mounting board. The hallway scene was later discarded leaving the focus solely on the bedroom then.