21T2 Virtual Showcase Perth - Studio 3

An ANC230 project by Tara TurpinFeaturing work by Jeremy La'Brooy and Lux Della Vecchia

Chosen Role: Motion Storyboarding

I am Tara Turpin, a student here at SAE studying a Bachelors in Animation. For my Major Role Development, I have decided to focus my time and effort on storyboarding.

Storyboarding in animation (as well as live-action film and tv in the entertainment industry) is the core stage in the visualization process of the final product. It is all about staging a story in the cinematic language and perspective, utilizing film to visually depict a narrative, characters, and themes that could impact people and their perception of the world.

By roughly sketching up panels consisting of a scene, you are establishing angles, framing, movements, timing, and possibly lighting that signify tone, balance, and focus to the audience. When you storyboard, it is your top priority to not only have the key and in-between animators, but also the audience understand and follow what is happening on screen, and to make the shots 'readable'. Another part of converting a script to a visual medium is to make the end result enjoyable or at least intriguing, as one of the purposes of going to see a movie is to experience creativity from an entire team in a way reality cannot replicate.

CONNECTED centers around a woman on her way home from a 9-5 job, and is catching public transportation when she notices a man harassing her, and may be following her. Being reasonably concerned, she uses her phone to connect to a close companion for safety.

Throughout the short, she communicates with her friend through text messages on her whereabouts and the man’s actions, and while we don’t have speech bubbles with the text being written smack-bang on front of the screen, we have an idea of what is being written to and back through background details (ex. posters, adverts, lights), and I wanted to accomplish that within dynamic camera movement, an established tone, and a clear visual direction in communicating to the audience what she and her friend is saying.

My inspirations for this project was based around Edgar Wright's work as a filmmaker, specifically in the opening sequence of the 2017 film, Baby Driver. I also took some influence from Sam Levinson and Marcell Rév's work in HBO's Euphoria, in terms of the use of camerawork.

Throughout this assessment, and in order to create a vertical slice demonstrating my skills through a major project, I created the concept for CONNECTED starting with concept art and a story outline. Then, with the help of Jeremy La' Brooy, I wrote that would later be used repetitively for the storyboard progress, with the created panels being composited for the animatic. The animatic is also combined with the lovely instrumental track by Lux Della Vecchia, who had the soundtrack from the 2016 game Oxenfree, and from the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind as references.

Previous Work

Below is some of my work in storyboarding and camerawork in animation over the years before I worked on this major project.

This was my work for Vi & The Bytes, a short pitch made in a group as a part of my studies in the Diploma of 3D Animation. I only created storyboard thumbnails that would be used during the animation process for this project in the form of post-it notes, which I used a lot (and still do!).

This was a finalized shot I did early in my Bachelors. While there was no storyboarding or planning for this shot, I demonstrated skills in compositing and layering in animation here.

Interdisciplinary Collaborators

Jeremy La' Brooy

Film Student

Jeremy La’Brooy is an aspiring cinematographer. However, he has spent the majority of his time at university developing his screenwriting, as well as directing theoretical and practical techniques in film. He has since pitched four short stories turned into short films, and was the first to host his own film festival outside of the school, therefore showcasing a great ability to produce and manage events.

Jeremy has a great keenness for visual detail, cinematic look, and has impressive techniques and processes for pre-visuals using 3D software.

Whilst keeping a finger on the pulse of new upcoming technologies and trends in the industry, he pushes the boundaries and finds opportunities to allow anyone on the team to flourish, grow and develop their craft.

Lux Della Vecchia

Audio Student

I'm Lux Della Vecchia, currently studying at SAE Perth and in Trimester 5 of a Bachelors in Audio.

For my music, I like to create soundtracks that inspire and enhance different emotions and weave a journey for the listener to experience. I tend to lean towards ambient, medieval, and alternative, but I can always tackle different genres too.

Some of the work I've done was Vengeance, Cube Castle, and Breathe. Vengeance needed sorrowful, medieval music that conveyed anger, determination, and revenge. This was quite enjoyable to create, for it has dramatic, cinematic drums, alongside beautiful string and wind instruments. Cube Castle had a similar medieval feel, except it was more on the lighthearted side.

Breathe is my personal major project. The main theme behind it is that it's ok to take a pause. I expressed this by creating 2 tracks; One that represented reality with the daily stress, anxiety, and harshness of what the world has to offer. This leads into the second track representing fantasy; transcending to a peaceful, relaxing world that will meld all the stress and worries away.

Planning Stage

Concept Art and Notes

Rough character concept art done on 4/6/21.

Environmental assets and background character concept art, done on 18/6/21.

Notes, done on 4/6/21.

Software used: Adobe Photoshop (2021).

Script

With the assistance of Jeremy La' Brooy, we worked on the script that the storyboard process would eventually be based off.

This was also my very first time writing a screenplay. Because of this, I learnt how to properly format it, and the language conventions in scriptwriting. Throughout this stage, I have received and addressed feedback on what I can do to improve the quality in the process; anything that could help get readers all the more immersed into the world I have constructed, that puts us into the shoes of the main protagonist.

'CONNECTED' v.3

Software used: Google Docs (2021).

Live Action Referencing

The photographs that I took below are references to details and assets to implement into the environment where 'CONNECTED' is set. This also helps me to plan out where typography and written language would be put into the shots, as you can see with the pictures of sticker tags on the lampposts and the back of signs, advertisements in the form of large banners and billboards among the examples documented.

Environment Layout References (Inspired by Live Action Referencing)

Software used: Adobe Photoshop (2021).

Storyboarding Process

This is where I embed everything that has influenced my thinking process in the planning stage; to create a visualization of the story I wrote and made a vision of.

Using the storyboard template I made and Adobe Photoshop as a workspace, I made 28 pages worth of visual storytelling. Altogether, there are 108 panels, and 37 unique shots drawn during this process in the span of 4 weeks.

Software used: Adobe Photoshop (2021).

Animatic (Final Output)

The panels that I made in the storyboard process would then be used as separate frames for an animatic. This was made in Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, and the music was composed by Lux Della Vecchia, while the SFX was royalty-free and arranged by them.