GARG!
Sick of Game-Over screens, a video game hero decides to finally turn the tables on his prankster enemy!
GARG!
⭐Hunter, a video game hero sick of Game Over screens, decides to finally turn the tables on his prankster enemy, Garg! ⭐
Garg! is an animated short I directed at SCAD Atlanta with an awesome team of students.
JUDGES: View film here (private password required)
Below, you can see many of the aspects I worked on as the film's director. These include character designs, storyboards, 2D animation, compositing, and more.
Character Design
Hunter is a determined hero from some 90s video game…who takes his job just a little too seriously!
Garg is a goofball gargoyle who relentlessly pranks any sucker who dares complete the last level of his video game world.
Originally, the story focused on a playful, dog-like gargoyle who gives a greedy treasure hunter his just desserts for breaking and entering. My goal was to playfully deconstruct the “heroic treasure hunter” archetype.
Another early version of the story featured a timid, lonely Garg who is swindled by a greedy treasure hunter. Neither of these characters were particularly interesting, though. My film's tight deadline meant I needed two main characters who were fun and likeable enough to make its short run-time a delight! Thus, the characters evolved drastically into their current, fun selves.
Storyboards
I storyboarded the entire film and edited its animatic, including this opening sequence. (The original video had a scratch track with temporary copyrighted audio, so I've muted it here.)
Animation
I animated some particularly fun shots on the film. I did roughs traditionally, then used Toon Boom Harmony rigs for cleanup. I even finished some of the character rigging. It was crucial that we kept the energy and Looney Tunes-esque exaggeration of the roughs in the rig animation!
Below: Responsible for all character animation. For FX, did color only.
Compositing
I learned so much about After Effects compositing on this film, and it was a lot of fun! I added effects such as parallax, pixel textures, clouds, and trippy blend modes to give the feeling of being inside a video game.
Here are a couple of my favorite shots!
Scene 1: Responsible for compositing and art direction, as well as BG concept, color, and texture.
Scene 3: Responsible for compositing, as well as final character animation.
What's next for Garg?
I'm currently in the process of submitting the film to festivals. So exciting!
Besides that, I love the characters of Hunter and Garg, so I’m expanding their world beyond the short film. Keep an eye out for more projects featuring the duo in the future 👀
Thank you so much for reading!
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