"Dog Days" Animated Short Film

"Dog Days" Animated Short Film

When a young boy named Max wishes for a puppy on his 8th birthday, a magical puff of smoke brings a balloon dog to life instead. Though at first hesitant, Max soon learns to love and accept his new pet, endearingly naming him Squeaky. With his new companion, Max experiences the ups and downs of pet ownership and the unique circumstances of having a balloon dog for a pet.

Process Work

Squeaky

In order to bring the film to life, I knew I had to get Squeaky's look and movement just right. To avoid his textures looking too much like plastic, I was able to use rough and opacity maps to vary textures across the surface, so that Squeaky is more shiny and transparent where the balloon material would be more stretched, and matte and opaque closer to where the knots would be. Furthermore, I spent a lot of time ensuring Squeaky's animation had a bouncy and exaggerated quality, while still being reminiscent of a real puppy. It was a challenge working with Squeaky's front and back legs tied together, but this limitation ultimately gave him a unique and entertaining personality while staying true to how a balloon dog is made in real life.

Max

Max's design and rigging process was much more straightforward than Squeaky's. The biggest setback I ran into while working on Max was the large number of wardrobe changes which occur throughout the film. In less than two and a half minutes, Max appears in nine different outfits. Through these wardrobe changes, I tried to maintain a consistent child-like and energetic style with graphic tees, sports jerseys, and sneakers. Max's blue, black, grey, and khaki color palette consistently works to balance Squeaky's bright red design and the greens and yellows found in the set. 

Shot Breakdowns

Many shots in the film differed from their initial storyboards, while others remained exactly the same. Here are two breakdowns showing the process between storyboarding, modeling, lighting, and finally compositing.

Visual Development

I wanted to create a fun and whimsical set for the film, yet one that wouldn't take away from the story between Max and Squeaky. The overall layout of the house remained mostly unchanged from the initial design to the final product, but story changes throughout production required even more locations, including a kid's bathroom, a front yard, and an entire neighborhood street to be added.

Thank you so much for looking at my work!

I hope you enjoyed my film. If you are interested in seeing more of my work, please feel free to browse my portfolio here: https://haileybair.portfoliobox.net/