Chime
A story about a demotivated Dreamcatcher finally finds his purpose after he experienced a significant incident that happened to his master dreamer.
Synopsis
A story about a demotivated Dreamcatcher finally finds his purpose after he experienced a significant incident that happened to his master dreamer.
Background Story
Dreamcatcher are famously known to ward off nightmares, but what if rather than a charm they're something akin to guardian angel?
Storyboard
Our story starts off with a nightmare dust bunny bubbled and popped away by a lethargic dreamcatcher. Having to capture nightmare after nightmare every night, he's become tired of his job. When he sees a dream bubble he cannot help but be amazed and curious about the little thing, causing him to be distracted and not see the growing nightmare clouds surrounding the child. Noticing the catasthrophy unfold, he has to find a way to bubble it up and save the child from a painful night.
On our first draft, our storyline is way more simpler and straight forward which is just a hero story where the dreamcatcher trying to save the day but after many discussion we wanted to convey a stronger message and bring out a growth in our character to make the story more interesting.
Animatic
Concept Art and Characters Design
Dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher Design
Starting off with our main protagonist, the Dreamcatcher, our main challenge here is how do we come up with concepts which are being considered as a myth. Sooner later we realise there would be an endless possibility of combination so we decides to filter the weapon he uses to catch dreams, and we ended up with a net, and some container to store the good dream. Since he has to run around huge terrain with his small body, we’ll have to make sure the outfit is not that complicated, and perhaps having some sporty look. With the restrictions in mind, the design team have came up with tons of design and we ended up with a sharper and thin silhouette.
Dreamcatcher early exploration:
For details, we played around with the words ‘dream’ in many form, the phrase itself, creature that relates to dream, shapes that might look like dreams. The design team then implemented the possible elements onto the dream catcher.
Dreamcatcher accessories and detail exploration from chosen design:
Poses and expression:
After several discussion, we’ve decided to use pouch as a container to store good dreams, as we often put a charm inside, similar to storing a good dream.
Props Exploration:
Final Concept
Dreamcatcher Modeling
With the concepts done, our modeller starts to block out the basic shape and proportion. Several adjustment to the body are made to bring out the sharp triangular shape that were originally planned, and face proportion were tweaked to make it more appealing.
Props Modeling
Look Development
At this point the overall model for dreamcatcher is done. So we started working on refining the textures, shaders and Xgen. There are a lot of adjustment back and forth as it is hard to grab the balance between stylise and over-exaggeration. The biggest challenge was to adjust the skin tone of the dreamcatcher. As our film was generally in a darker environment, we have to ensure the color works well in that condition but also not to lighten it too much so it will not blow off in the area where light hits.
We face a restriction in Substance Painter which we couldn’t get the embroidery feel that we want, so we decided to turn to a different option, which is to use Substance Designer to procedurally generate the extra clothing details.
Dreamer
Dreamer Design
For our second character, the Dreamer, as description suggested we wanted a lonely and timid personality for the child. Since it’s mostly showing the top half of the body, the design team had put much more effort on the facial expression and hand gesture to bring out the characteristic of the dreamer.
We’ve also added a plushie for the dreamer to interact with while sleeping, to give her some space for comfort when she is having a nightmare.
Props exploration:
Final Concept
Dreamer Modelling
Same as dreamcatcher, our modeller starts by blocking out the shapes and proportion of the dreamer. At first the body is way too small so we enlarge the overall body to make sure the weight shift is still reasonable. And then we started going more details on the base and hair.
Props Modelling
Look Development
For dreamer, the challenge also lies in the skin, since it’s a lot bigger than the dreamcatcher, we have to add a bit more details on the face so things Loom consistent. And adjusted the color towards realistic skin, but still keep the difference between the two.
After several round of checking and refining, we feel that the head might be way too big for a thin neck to hold, so we shrink down the head and polish the Xgen.
Characters Animation Test
We decided to go with more dynamic and flexible animation style, such as Disney, DreamWorks and Pixar are all the good reference for us to learn.
Dreamcatcher has many actions that we can't shot, such as floating and bumping. These actions are new animations that we are exposed to, and they are quite challenging. For dreamer, our concern is the logic of acting. The facial expressions of people sleeping are actually not very exaggerated, but because this is an animated film, we decided to exaggerate her expression a bit, so that the audience can clearly understand her current emotions.
Dreamcatcher
In the early discussion, Dreamcatcher is a 100% perfect and responsible elf, is like a perfect hero, but after discussion, we find that this setting is not resonates with everyone. So, we decided to let him grow on a psychological level, and his mentality has also changed in the ending.
Because of this, the changes in his expressions and emotions are also more diverse. For example, sadness of Dreamcatcher contains guilt, disappointment, fear, regret, and happiness contains pride, moving, rejoicing, growth, etc.
Of course, the subtle emotion changes of the expression animation are a big test for us.
Dreamer
She is the supporting role of our story, but also an important role in the development of the whole story. Although she stayed asleep in the story, we also created her behind-the-scenes plot for her. She is a timid and shy little girl. For her, the company of her parents is what she desires. So, you can see from her posture, we let her have more squash poses in order to reflect her uneasy and introverted characteristic.
Although she has been sleeping, we also need to change her expression to differentiate her emotion. Such as different level of fear, crying, and happiness. Her changing range of motion compared to Dreamcatcher is relatively small. In addition, the story setting also prepared a toy for her to hold when sleeping, so her contact with the toy also became a test of animation team
Environment
Our inspiration came from the cubical home in the heart of Hong Kong, otherwise known as a coffin home. The room tells its own story with its cramped spaces and items being filled to the brim. The bottom bunk bed is the richest in storytelling, showing us how the child sleeps, studies and even draw as the table is too small for anything other than some plates and bowls.
As the child is timid and quiet, we needed an environment that may have caused her to behave this way. Coffin homes are naturally claustrophobic and overstimulating visual and sound wise, especially to a child's brain, hence why we went with this direction.
We first started off with figuring out the visual language we should convey. It had to be uncomfortable to push the story but it also still needs to feel domestic since it's her own home, so there was a balance we needed to reach. We also took inspirations from our own hometown houses, where clatter was just a part of what made it special.
With proportion being one of the most important element in the environment, the design team make a line up for all the props so they look proportionate when they are put together and around the characters.
After settling down on the proportions of all the props, the design team started to apply some stylise elements to the props so they match with the design language of the characters.
The design team also added concepts for smaller or background props, so we are able to make variations from the already crowded scene.
Posters and package design that showcase the life of a generic Chinese family.
When most of the set dressing is done, we realise the walls are a bit empty in the background, so we decided to add some more posters that reflect the dreamer lifestyle and personality (school poster, calendar, drawings, etc).
Final
Environment Modelling
Out first priority for the environment was to block out the overall shape and placement of objects, by doing so we are able to give the design team rough renders from different angles so they can overlay their drawing on top without worrying about perspective and proportions.
After texturing most of the props, we started to put all the pieces together to check the overall feels and look.
Early stages of props with basic textures and lighting.
Look Development
A lot of effort are put into adjusting the shaders for the environment, as we have tons of props laying all around the room, we have to make sure they are low in contrast but still keep the material property in mind, so that audience are able to tell what they are, but not overwhelming to a point where they distract the audience from the main subject.
There are plenty of challenges when it comes to the environment. The first thing was keeping the shape language as consistent and relatable to the dreamcatcher as possible, since both our character has a more organic and rounder silhouette, all the props in the room are expected to have some sort of similar properties to them as well.
We also have to take into consideration that most of the stuff surrounding the dreamcatcher is way bigger than him, which means the texture are expected to be way closer and bigger, we have to check through every shots for the dreamcatcher and tone down all the texture or graphical elements so they will not steal the spotlight away.
Final
Rigging
Dreamcatcher
All the rig function on him is very common, but we added a parent constraint on his hand with the weapon so can save time for animators. Rigger also add an extra controller on his wrist, so that animator can pose his hand separately without affecting the animation of the weapon.
Probs of Dreamcatcher
For the pouch, we’re using the blend shape function. It makes the movement naturally and saves time for animators as well.
For the weapon, there are common functions as bendy on the stick and the bell.
Dreamer
Dreamer shows her upper body most throughout the animation. So the rigger only applied the simple FK & IK ctrl on the legs, but more details on upper body and facial. Basically, those functions are quite common as we use in the other rigs.
Plushie
Our rigger applied the simple functions to the rig such as body root ctrl and ctrl for bending on every part that is movable. We didn't add more and complicated functions on it because it's just a side probs and not often show up in the film.
Props
For our pillow, we are using the deformer function to set up our rig. It will compressed on the pillow wherever the controller contact on it.
For the blanket, we actually wanted to use simulation on it, but we found that it is really heavy and takes loner on render time. Therefore, we decided to set up a rig for it too.
VFX
Concepts
During the early stages of developing the Bad and Good dream, there’s a debate of whether each of them has to have their own personality, which leads to the dreams being more creature like at the beginning.
Due to time and technical constraint, in the end we decided to remove the creature like concepts and instead use particle simulation to achieve an alternate results.
Good Dream
Our vfx artist made an early version of good dreams, but soon later we realise that it’s having similar properties with the bad dream so we used After Effects to composite the good dream by mixing several layers of effect.
Bad Dream
With bad dream, the most challenging part was the amount of particles that are required in an accumulate scene. We figured out that our budget can’t afford to render all of them, so we make the decision to render just one high quality footage of the bad dream and use After Effects to make different variety of it.
Bubble & Confetti
At the beginning, we cover up the dreams with a bubble, but we found out it looks solid and hard at the edges, so we removed the bubble, so it looks more organic and nature with particles floating around
We also work with different medium like in 2d and 3d with softwares like maya and after effect, this also been through a lot of testing and progress.
We look for a lot of sources and material to achieve the bubble and confetti effects in the video. So in the final discussion, we'll be using all these techniques for the final film in the post production.
Simulation
Simulation is one of the time consuming process throughout this project. As it can be used in environments and props to create realistic effect.
nCloth
We use the nCloth technique to simulate the curtain and the cloth at the scene, as these props will be moving repeatly during the all the scene, the nCloth technique helps to create realistic wind blow effect and it is repeatable.
Xgen grooming
Xgen grooming is also one of the headache process during this whole time. As Xgen hair is already a heavy tool, it consumes more time for the hair to be simulated. So, artists will have to setup and manage the hair adjustment also the effects settings, volume then play the simulation until artists gets to the ideal results. Based on Xgen grooming, different scenes will also have different setups.
Light & Mood
Color Scripts
Our film has an overall cooler tone from the beginning as bad dreams are starting to accumulate, and during the second scene we decided to desaturate the film, to enhance the despair feeling that the dreamcatcher felt. The third scene was a progression from cool tone to a mix of light orange after the big bubble burst, signalling the end of the climax and things are settling down.
Color Keys & Lighting Renders
When we are working on the visual effects for the second scene, we realise that the effect was too heavy and took too long to be rendered out, so instead the concept team had drawn a huge general background for us to use in compositing, this saves a lot of production time.
Key arts for different scene:
3D lighting in comparison to key art (not final)
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