Amarok

This is "AMAROK", the trailer of my group project at Escape Studios, London. 

The brief was to create a 2 minute animated trailer or short film in six weeks as a group, simulating as close as possible how industry projects would work.

I served as Director on this project and developed it from pitch to story as co-writer, and then as storyboard artist.

Our process.....

We used the "Penelope" character rig, created by CG Artist Matthew Tovar, and customized her by adding additional clothing, in this case a Police-issued Winter jacket, hat, badge and later a flashlight. We also altered her skin textures to give her a beat up look after her accident.

The "Wolf" rig we used was created by CG Artist Truong, with altered fur textures from the original white fur to dark brown fur.

Inspired by the Inuit legend of the "Amarok" - a large wolf that snatches up people who wander alone at night, we set our story in a snowy little town in Northern Canada and explored aspects of the local Inuit culture of the region that influenced our story.

We also explored lighting as a way to enhance our storytelling. As most of the trailer takes place at night, we had to think about areas of our shots that were most important to the story and need to have the viewers focus. 

This is the storyboard animatic I created and edited to realize my vision of the story, the composition, pace and order of shots.

Our team: Nightshade Pictures

Director: Shenaaz Suliman. Writer: Simone Fraser / Shenaaz Suliman. Producer: Josiah Martin-Lofters. Editor: Cameron Haley. CG Supervisor: Harrison Bell. Production Designer: Nicole Widmer. 3D Layout Artist: Miriam Di Benedetto. Lighting Artist: Shessy Idowu.

Additional Animators: Derek Fead / Brandon Barwise

Rigs: "Penelope" by Matthew Tovar. "Wolf" by Truong. "Sam" by Gabriel Salas

Music: "Wolf Cry" by Joseph FireCrow. "Anticipation" by David Fesliyan.