Beyond The Frame
There is something extraordinary in each and every heart that must be expressed, shared and explored at all costs. - Anonymous
As an illustrator it felt important to pay homage to the skills that brought me to animation. These are the three illustrations that, although having been painted years prior, played a major role as concept art for each animation of the anthology.
Express
'Beyond The Frame' was an exploration of literally that, a journey beyond the frame of a single piece of artwork and creating a past, present and/or future for each image while keeping a common theme through all animations. The idea to have the butterfly explosion contrast against the apparent heart attack felt like I no brainer for what happens beyond the frame of this piece.
Initially I attempted to have the butterflies explode rapidly from his chest in the animation as per the illustration but it was difficult to see the details within the butterflies. After much trial and error I decided to go with a much less 'explodey' effect which resulted in the softer feel for the first animation being much more suited to the over all feel of the whole anthology.
Share
Here I took some artistic liberties when translating this illustration into a moving picture. One whale just wasn't enough. Also it made much more sense to model a plastic floaty lounge as it felt much less like it would sink. The moon and background mist were simply to add appeal and to augment the serenity I wanted the audience to feel.
Explore
The original picture was inspired by a super cool kid and his love for bouncing the hours away on his trampoline. This animation explores the worlds he might traverse beyond the frame of this captured moment.
Above are three panels from the original story boards. Originally each animation was at least a minute long but after many sensible discussions the whole piece was reduced to an effective 1.5 minutes.
The butterflies were important. It was a pivotal and beautiful part of the first animation and it was important not to have the audience distracted by a lack of attention to their appearance. 4 butterflies were created and using random instanced particles and a seemingly infinite adjusting of emitter settings the final effect was worth the effort.
Here are some early version of what became known as "The Butterfly Explosion".
Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com
The final piece was only possible with the skills and mastery of Matthew Davidson who is a master of all things Audio and the mentorship and guidance of Brent McKee my technical supervisor and master 3D generalist.
Also thanks to the patience, encouragement and guidance of our teachers at SAE Byron Bay
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