Mystery Box

Mystery Box 

My first animated piece created during my first year at Norwich University of the Arts. For our end of year project we were tasked with creating a 10 second animated piece where a character opens a mysterious box and discovers something inside. I went with a cyberpunk aesthetic for my project because it allowed me to get creative with the character design, the environment, the plot, the colours and with what he finds inside the box.

I animated this in TVPaint.

Experimentation and Exploration 

Experimenting with colour, environments and shapes.

I started off by creating value concepts so I can plan out shots and how I wanted the scene to look and then I added colours. I wanted to use lots of blue and purples because they create that futuristic feel that I'm going for and also I really like how they look on the page.

Character, Environment and Prop Design

I liked the idea that he was someone who dressed in suits instead of streetwear because it let me play with the idea that he worked as an agent or enforcer for a corporation.

The place he's in is a hideout so I wanted to make it look functional with weapons and gear everywhere but I decided to change it to have pipes and tubes leading to the box to create a more futuristic feel.

I really enjoyed the sketching and iteration phase because I could constantly rework and update my ideas which was a lot of fun.

Animatic

Making the animatic helped me a lot with the types of shots I would use and the way the character would move through the scene. For example combing the the side profile and front on walk to make the three quarter walk; which I really enjoyed animating because it was challenging, new and exciting.

Character Turnaround

I referred to this a lot during the animation process so I could keep the character and his proportions consistent.

Style Frame

I created the style frame so I could see how my final animation should look with the character, environment, the props and colours together. I used this style frame as reference when I was animating because I really liked the shot and what was happening within the scene.

Three Quarter Walk Sketch

Clean Up

Lineart

Colour and Tones