AXIOME - ESMA short film 2023

"Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power."

- Epictetus

In a cyberpunk universe, Jia is a young daughter who tries to save her mother from an explosion of her own experiment. With a time portal created as an aftermath of the explosion, Jia has the possibility to go back a few moments before the incident. She will therefore do everything in her power to save her mother, even if it means starting over and over again.

Still frames

CHARACTERS

JIA

Jia is a twenty-year-old girl. She's athletic, has great physical abilities and that gives her self-confidence. She's a tireless runner. 

We decided to give her the look of a girl walking the streets of the city, to reinforce her character and create a contrast with her mother (sporty clothes, flash colors, practical haircut, mechanical arm).

NAMI

Nami is a scientist in her sixties. She's a determined woman, focused on her work. She can sometimes appear cold and unfriendly: very diligent, Nami controls her lab and her drones with an iron fist. She's sure of herself and her skills, and believes in the success of her experiment.

Nami is the opposite of Jia, and we wanted to give her a "corporate" look by choosing sober, practical clothes with few colors, a short haircut and a marked, severe face to reinforce her character.

Drones

There are two types of drone in the film: "DCA" drones, which power the machine using batteries inside the drone, and the "DSA" drone, which is a war drone programmed to protect the laboratory from intruders.

"DCA" drone

"DSA" drone

BREAKDOWN

Pre-production

Credits

Directed by :

Léa Cabiron : Animation, Groom, Concept art, Layout

Hadrien Dalle : FX, Lighting, Shading, Rendering, Environment Modeling, Lookdev, Concept art

Coraline Debien : Animation, Chara design, Storyboard

Maëlle des Abbayes : Lighting, Texturing, Chara design, Lookdev, Compositing, Rendering

Nicolas Garcia : Lighting, Lookdev, Shading, Compositing, Rendering, Sculpt, Environment Modeling, Concept art

Romane Mayer : Animation, Previz, Chara design, Layout, Storyboard

Paolo Peruzzo : Rigging, Rig dev, Production, Animation, Editing, Environment modeling, Setdress, Storytelling

Laurie Sarraute : Animation, Previz, Layout, Storyboard

Lucie Taglienti : Animation, Rigging, Production, Pipeline, Sculpt, Layout, Storytelling

Interns : 

Lise Lett : Compositing

Elisa Cavalli : Animation

Original score : 

Görkem Ağar

Voices :

Juliette Cayatte : Jia

Véronique Augereau : Nami, A.R.G.O.S

Voice recording : 

Collingence Records

Recording, sound editing :

Mickaël Merrheim

José Vicente

Mix 5.1 :

José Vicente

Yoann Poncet

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