Ma Voisine

For this short film, i had to do a lot of research and concept creation before hand. I had a lot of fun. Here's a glimpse of it.

Here are some concepts of Shaima

Her final design is inspired from Zuri in "Hair love", Darla Dimple, the little girl from "The Little Prince" and Gaby and Becky from "Vivo". I wanted her to be cute, neat, snobbish but sweet and playful at the same time. 

I wanted to start with this design first, but then I modified it because the shapes were not round enough, and I would've struggled to animate her skirt and arms

So I redesigned her and it came to the final design which can be seen on the right. I wanted her to wear impeccable clothes in pastel tones that reflect her lack of love for outdoor activities that would make her messy.

Her early designs were more untidy. I had fun combining clothes that didn't go together, and drawing cute hairstyles, like she's having fun getting ready for school on her own . I changed her body proportions so that each design was more bizarre than the previous one. At that time, I was inspired a lot by Bonnie from Toy Story 3.

Some of these drafts show Shaima with a way more arrogant and bratty side, and some where with a more geeky look. 

More resarches for early Shaima's outfits. It was hard to make a choice, I love them all

For her handmade armor, i thought about how she would use her toys and her craft materials to make it. I wanted the result to be grotesque but fun

At the beginning of the pre prod, I wanted to do a scene where Shaima imagined herself as a brave knight who was going to fight her wicked neighbor, but my short movie would have been way too long so i scraped the idea.

Liliane/Old lady concepts.

She proved to be a great challenge to write, design, and animate. It was very important to get the right balance between Liliane's excentricity, sweetness and elegance.

 She had to be outstanding, first because of her little screen time but also to make Shaima uncomfortable. So I chose to make her look like a fairy tale witch. I also wanted to highlight a very elderly woman who is single, childless, independent and happy.

I find this design too bland. It needed to be more sharp to contrast with Shaima's round appearance. And her face was not wrinkled enough and lacked personality. In addition, I found the loose knot of her headband cumbersome 

Liliane's clothing has a hippie and witchcore aesthetic, which is mean to reflect her personnality, interest, and past. I took great inspiration of Biba fashion for her jewelry, makeup and color palette. 

During the pre prod, Shaima was supposed to loose her ballon, not her bracelet 

Her peaceful nature contrasts with Shaima's fearfullness

At first, i imagined Liliane scrawnier, cometimes lankier and grumpier. She fitted more the trope of the wicked witch

Inspiration for Liliane also came from Yzma (Kuzco), Sybille Trelawney (Harry Potter), Mémé Oignon (Mom is pouring rain), Hilda (Tante Hilda), Triplets of Belleville, and Yubaba (Spirited Away). I had a lot of fun with her hair and her nose 

It took me forever to be 100% satisified. Possibilities are infinite. On this one, This version of Liliane in the upper left corner was inspired by a random old lady i saw on the street one time. 

I was very close of her final look 

Quernon/Old cat concepts. 

At first, he looks hostile because of his weird look and his eyes, but he is just suspicious of people he doesn't know, like Shaima. 

Before Quernon, I had never designed or animated animals (i mean a real one, not an anthropomorphic one), so for me this character means a lot.

I named him Quernon because of his blue chartreux fur 

I thought huge fluffy eyebrows would be perfect to make him more unique, expressive and looks more like a grumpy old man. I took inspiration from eagle owls. 

At first, Quernon had a more semi-realistic design. But he clashed too much with Shaima and Liliane's, so I made his head bigger and his body smaller.

I took Atchoum the werewolf cat as a model to make Quernon both scruffy and cuddly just like him.

I also paid a lot of attention to the way he looked at people. I wanted to set up some comedic moments that derive humour from the uneasiness he created. 

For a while I had considered making Quernon a ginger cat with blue eyes and a mangled ear called Van Gogh.

It's an idea that I have of their off-camera interactions. I made this illustration because I didn't have the opportunity to make them interact directly in the film, but dont worry Quernon really loves Liliane. 

To draw these concepts, i took inspirations of the concept arts for the cancelled animated Cats movie. I love how they managed to draw the fur. Here, i wanted Quernon to have presence despite his old age and his scruffy look

I also thought of making him a sphynx cat. He looks more menacing.

Background concept. 

The houses and the street are deliberately very bland looking. I wanted to bring to light Shaima's room and Liliane's garden

For Shaima's room, there had to be lots of little details everywhere, showing that she spends a lot of time there: lots of drawings on the walls, books, toys and pastel colors. The bedroom contrasts with Liliane's messy garden

The hardest part was to find a balance between a clear composition of the image and the management of the details

Liliane's garden is a mirror of Shaima's bedroom. It's a place where she spends a lot of time and stores a lot of things that she made herself, just like Shaima

 I used 3d models to give an idea of ​​the scale, and references to place the most important elements. 

I had a hard time designing Liliane's garden. I wanted the vegation being a little overgrowned without the garden looking abandoned, it gives a mystical vibe to the place. I was very inspired by the garden of the aviator in "The Little Prince" and the botanical garden in Tante Hilda.

Liliane filled her garden with lots of quitsch objects that she made herself. She even entirely crafted the pergola, the vegetable garden and the greenhouse.

Final sketch of the horizontal pan

I had to remove this background because i was running out of time, and this short scene wasn't necessary anymay.

Colorscript.

I wanted to reconcile a stylized and natural rendering. The hardest part was placing the shadows according to the time of day, and the location of the elements and characters. 

I struggled for a long time with the management of colors and lights. They were always too bland and flat.

You'll notice that the light warms up as the story progresses. I was inspired by the atmosphere of the TV series Hilda to have this result

Manual activities have an important place in my film, so I worked on light and colors to highlight all the objects that Liliane and Shaima made (drawings, wind chimes, flowerpots...)