Metamorphosis

ರೂಪಾಂತರ

INTRODUCTION

Yelahanka was a quaint space with its vast natural expanse. It took Srishti in, in its raw wild artistic form and let it grow and manifest into what it has become today.

The constant interactions of different ideologies that took place between Srishti and Yelahanka manifested into the artists mindset, where an amalgamation of old and new ways come together towards problem solving which facilitates a balanced and holistic growth of the mind.

This is what resonates with Srishti till this very day, where it has created a space for free thinkers / artists to come in and find their own individual voices.

This would be our way of saying thank you to the town that let us be, as we move on to the next phase of our evolution and move to a new campus, filled with new ideas and possibilities.

Based on the initial prompt of ‘Srishti’s way of saying goodbye to yelahanka’ and the fact that I had twenty students to mentor and facilitate, I began my journey of ideating the short animation. To tackle the less number of days and the fact that most of the students were going to try 3D for the first time, I kept the visuals very simple and stylized. To further add to simplifying the project, i went for a short with only music and sfx, no dialogues. Which kept the project open enough for change based on student output.

 

SCRIPT

The first thing to tackle was the story. I used KIT Scenarist to write my script in a clean format. The best thing i liked about the software is that it give an estimate of how long the script might run.

 

RESEARCH

Once i had my story in place, I mapped my references and influences which would help me develop the visual language for this story. I paid a lot of attention to visually breakdown the references to understand how i could use them to my advantage. I thought about the type of animation the batch would go for, along with music, colour palette and the way shots would be edited.

I researched for the local flora and fauna in Bangalore and started observation studies and stylized/simplified them for animation.

Based on some of the plants and locations, i came up with a bunch of characters, each contributing to one element. From earth, water and air. The initial aquatic character designs felt out of place, and ended up choosing a rock by the pond as the aquatic character. Designed a few side characters that would populate the scene. They too were designed according to the elemental they came from.

At this point i started thinking about staging, storyboarding and colour treatment that would drive the project ahead.
Based on the references and influences that i had mapped out for this project, i came up with a simple division of foreground, midground and background of every shot.

based on the preliminary explorations and research, i came up with my first style frame that i was happy with, and that became the reference frame for all the other shots to follow.

Based on the previous progress, the next logical thing was to come up with a storyboard, and think about the mood, tone and the colour palette for the entire short. A line up of all the assets together was also made to have an inter asset ratio.

 

PITCH DECK

Once the storyboard was in place, the frames were sent off to Ranjitha to create a sound design for this project. While she was doing so, i compiled all the data needed and turned it into one PDF which would be shared with everyone as a pitch deck to start working from.

 

ROUGH ANIMATIC

After the storyboard was complete, I lined up all the frames in a video sequencer to quickly come up with an animatic to see if the shots lined up and worked visually.

The images and description/references gave Ranjitha a starting point for her sound design and expression.

Metamorphosis animatic | first few seconds

 

SCRATCH SOUND

//WIP
Based on the rough animatic and sound description and references provided, Ranjitha started her sound designing process. The output she gave helped us time and visualize actions better. It was a back and forth of ideas and suggestions which helped us fix on the appropriate time required.

I kept listening to a lot of sounds and music till i found something that matched with the mood you had described. I went for something familiar yet magical, like you feel when you go to your happy place. For me it’s the mountains. So the music that made me feel that, i picked that up as the scratch sound. That helped me with the rough cut. Find the highs and the lows. Decide on the rough shot length.

- Ranjitha Rajeevan

 

PRODUCTION PLANNING

Once the pitch deck was in place, it was time to plan the entire animation. The interim project went on for 15 days, which meant that we had to finish it in 10 days, if we wanted to keep some buffer zone incase of a hiccup.

The project plan was mapped in two ways. 1. shot wise plan and breakdown 2. week wise and day wise plan, that tracked the overall learning required to make the project happen.

 

WEEK 1 | ASSETS AND LAYOUT

Week 1 was basically split into learning and getting comfortable with the software in the AM section. and completing a specific task using the skills learnt in the PM section.

Based on the shots, an asset list was created with all the models needed for the animation. Students modelled all the characters, environments and props needed throughout the film.

Modelling, Texturing, smart rigs and layouts were created during this week.

 

WEEK 2 | ANIMATION

Week 2 was all about picking up one shot and animating both 3d and 2d elements to completion using all the assets generated in the previous week.

Final render

3D animation in Blender

2D animation in blender grease pencil

Everyday white Board notes to stay on track and to motivated.

 

WEEK 3 | POLISH, POSE AND PIZZA

week 3 was all about fixing shots and noticeable mistakes and working on finalizing sound. It was understanding how work can keep improving over time and that every version of it needs to be functioning. For the people who had finished their work, helped troubleshoot their peers issues. and at the end of it all, everything came down to some well deserved pizza party.

Last day of interim created a void within that could only be filled with pizza. It was the day before we saw the project on big screen.

 

FINAL SOUND

//WIP
Through the entire project, we went through 6-8 versions of edits to find something that just felt right.

I gave it to Sonal to recreate the similar mood and texture. He then put his thought to that and created the piece. Then we went back and forth fixing little things.

- Ranjitha Rajeevan

 

BEYOND WEEK 3 | PRESENTATION

We had the great opportunity to screen our animation in an public space on a huge 12X10 ft LED screen at Yelahanka, followed by Open house at new campus SMI.

 

BEYOND WEEK 3 | FESTIVALS

Post the big screen public display of our work, we have focused our energies towards submitting this animated short to multiple festivals. And bagged our first win as one of the Quarter-Finalist under the Best Super Short Film category at 2023 Student World Impact Film Festival #SWIFF.

Our project was chosen from a pool of 13,868 submissions from 120 countries. That feels humbling and awesome at the same time as most of the students who worked on this project were first time 3d users. And this project has definitely become a great proof of concept for me personally for pre-production and planning. Of course none of this was possible without the students putting in effort and right kind of energy ! Kudos to the Metamorphosis team !

While the short its still making its festival rounds, here is a quick trailer we edited to be shown, hope you like it.

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