aurora
Final Year University Project
The aim for my final year was to combine my love for storytelling with a new creative medium that I had not attempted yet, which was 3D Animation. My aim was to work towards the completion of an animated short, whilst learning about the workflow of 3D Animation. I wrote the initial draft for this film in February 2019 and continued to evolve on it throughout my Final Year in 2019/20.
The short attempted to portray the traumatic grief of an artist, who had lost her wife and how grief presented itself to her throughout the duration of an evening. As the year progressed, I decided to pivot into creating a teaser for the final submission, whilst continuing to work on the full product after submission.
Grief can often be a subject that is uncomfortable for many to discuss openly and express when experiencing it. For my short, I wanted to touch on this mindset towards grief and the difficulties of dealing with it through the character. I want the film to be a reflection of grief through the characters perspective, rather than a project about how to deal with grief. There is no set way to deal with grief, no universal mindset towards managing it, therefore I did not think it would be correct for my project to try tell people how to manage their grief.
Understanding this allowed me to write from what I know based off my experiences with grief and how I had seen it affect those around me, whilst also helping to set a theme to which the audience could hopefully relate to. Grief is something that will affects all differently, but my hope was to write and produce a story that could translate the commonalities we share in our emotions when challenged with grief.
I wanted to used short bursts of 2D Abstract Animated shots to visualise the characters Grief. When dealing with grief, the impact of it can be incredibly profound and will hit you hardest when you least expect it before disappearing just as quick. Inspired by this sentiment, the abstract scenes which reflect the emotions of Auroras grief, flash in and out when she least expects it. Sometimes it is triggered by looking at the glasses, something that reminds her of her wife and sometimes it appears randomly, triggered more by Aurora’s frustrations. The use of colourful and abstract painted scenes for the grief is inspired by Isabella Nazzarri, aimed to reflect the powerful nature of the emotion.
Aurora Development Character Sheet
Aurora Character Sheet
Wife Character Sheet
Script Development
Script Development
Script development from the initial draft to final development
The initial final storyboard for the full short film. Entombed with grief, she stepped where her wife once stood as an artist, inspiring her to just paint. She had to get it out of her. Inspired by Goya, the emotion spills off the canvas and surrounds her, much like the emotion does in life. She is not fixed either. The grief is still real. Aurora uses her wife’s art style to help remind her that she has to move forward with her memory. Her memory inspires her creativity again and helps her to take a step forward to healing. As the film progresses, the story of her wife’s death builds through the hand painted scenes. I wanted all the memories and flashbacks, which are surrounded with the emotions of grief, to be 2D and hand painted rather than 3D. I felt as if this contrast of styles would better to communicate the emotions and the idea of a memory, or pain of a memory, being a fleeting moment of time that continues to haunt her. When we think back to memories in our life, rarely do you imagine the entire scene as it played out, but rather with vivid images that appear and disappear as quick as you can conjure them. I wanted to avoid the trope of creating the scene with blurred distortion, slow motion or over saturationto indicate that it is a memory.
I made the decision to make the whole short film take place in a single location, their apartment. This was to reflect the distant state of Aurora and to make the impact of her loneliness more aparent. For Aurora, the outside world ceased to exist once she closes the door. She was not aware of it, did not care for it, because whilst the world continued to turn, hers had stopped. From a production point of view, this would also help me to organise my time better and allow me sufficient time to create the full character too.
Lighting Tests
Lighting Tests
Testing different ways to convey the characters emotions with the lighting
Paintings completed to use as textures for the canvases in the final shot. A lot of the research for the traditional art section of this project revolved around Memento Mori and Vanitas art, with symbolism of death/grief. My aim was to reflect this symbology in the final piece.
My film does not have a happy ending per-Se, because with grief, its a process of time that allows you to heal as you learn to manoeuvre through life again. Art can become a vital vessel for helping you to express your grief and I wanted this to be shown with Aurora. The abstract exploration scene followed by the reveal that it was Aurora expressing her emotions is a reflection of how grief as an emotion is that is hard to communicate. It’s messy and individual to each person. I want portray to intensity, visceral and messy nature of the emotion through a wide colour palette and intriguing pattern scheme.
