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The Project
The Project
My idea for Grey World is to expand on the concept, by creating a short animation snippet of the story. This animation would be a great way to introduce the most important elements of the story, such as the world, characters, situation and monster. It would act as an introduction to a non-existent show about the characters surviving in Grey World. The premise follows the protagonist, Hiemi, who suddenly wakes up, and has nothing to do but explore the wheat fields and structures all about. He learns about small things, such as how to avoid tripping over tyres on the road, or how to enter half-buried buildings. He encounters Equinox, who gives him a bag of supplies and runs away, leaving him confused. He tries and fails to follow her, but comes across a walled town. Arriving at its gate, he's chased off by Aestas and Autumna, but in the process, runs into a large monster, which chases him. He's able to use what he's learnt to slow down the monster, such as tripping it on the tyres. Equinox calls to Hiemi from a side entrance of the city, and in one last dash, he barely reaches the door, just avoiding getting caught. That's where the animation ends, I knew it would be a lot of work and would likely be shortened.
Another goal of the project was to have a focus on background design since that is my specialisation. Grey World has a huge focus on creating quiet experiences with its aesthetics, vibes and imagery. So I wanted to further my skills, techniques and limits in background design.
As the project went on, there were many different things outside of the project that got in the way of doing much for the idea. So I had to heavily rescope most of the idea. With feedback from the class, I was told that I could simply create a proof of concept for my project. Essentially develop the idea so that it's understood what I intend from it. My impression was that I didn't need to create an animation for the assignment, but in my research, a proof of concept in animation is essentially a small animated video that helps to represent all aspects of the intended full project. So I decided to do something along those lines. Due to the lack of time, I would have, I decided to create a simple video in the style of the trailer for Over the Garden Wall (2016). Where it displayed random scenes from the show, with somber and atmospheric piano music on top.
This new idea starts with Hiemi waking up and is followed by an assortment of scenes where Hiemi is exploring and interacting with things in Grey World, as well as simple background scenes. The animation would end with Hiemi finding the city, and then having the monster move without his knowing. Ending the scene and giving the audience a sense of dread. The specific sequence goes, after waking up, we follow Hiemi's panicked gaze at the world around him, and then it shows him in the field. The scene would then cut to a bird's eye view, which gets higher and higher, to show the extensive Hiemi is in. Next, we follow Hiemi, as he cautiously walks along the muddy paths, looking at different structures along the way, ending with him walking under the tapeworm-inspired machine. We cut to a dark scene, where rain is pouring down on a machine that's broken in a way that looks like a monstrous mouth. Hiemi is inside the machine, waiting for the storm to pass, until rain suddenly falls sideways and into the machine, catching him by surprise. The next few scenes follow Hiemi as he explores more things, such as the inside of buildings, to break up the number of wheat fields in other backgrounds. We see wheat blowing in the wind, a teddy bear on a fence post, and Hiemi sleeping on a couch with mechanical legs poking out of it. The final scene has Hiemi walking and noticing the city, but not seeing the dark leg of a monster rising out of the scene. The animation finishes with the title and credits.
Even this had to be rescoped a bit, as more complicated scenes had to be cut or replaced. Some of these replacements include a scene with Hiemi struggling to reach an apple on a brick wall, with posters on it. The final result came out pretty well, even if it doesn't have all the elements I wished it did. Each scene introduces a unique aspect of Grey World, as well as developing some of Hiemi's character in some of the scenes. I think I managed to create an animation that intrigues audiences to want to find out more about Grey World, as seen from the feedback I got from friends and peers. I also think I succeeded in my goal of further developing my background design skills. A lot of the feedback focused on how much people liked the backgrounds, especially for their mechanical nature, and for how much detail was put into them. This was one of my goals for this project, as I wanted to create standout backgrounds that people liked, and would enhance the story and quality of the animation. Below are the individual scenes that created, as well as my choice of music.
Video Music
Video Music
Following the format of the trailer for Over the Garden Wall (2016), I found a song that I thought was perfect for this animation. This is a Life, is a nice song from the playlist of the soundtrack for the movie, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022). Although I'm unsure if it's actually in the movie, that's beside the point. Created by Son Lux, Mitski and David Bryne, it's a song that fits well with the movie's themes. Such as, if life is meaningless and full of suffering, then we can find our own meaning, and do it with family and friends. It's very introspective for me, in regards to thinking about life and all its struggles and victories. It's melancholic and also softly celebratory, and I think that's why I chose this for the animation. It encapsulates the feelings of suffering in life and finding a way through it, which not only makes the tone good for creating an immersive experience. It is also thematically relevant to the themes of my project. I would've liked to have used more of the song, but with the cut scenes, it wasn't feasible time-wise. If I hadn't used this song, I probably would've used Lotus or Jalan Jalan. A song that uses Indonesian instruments and vocals to create a melancholic, lonely and beautiful experience. Which would've changed the tone of the animation to be a little more sad in nature.
Grey World Scenes
Grey World Scenes
Hiemi wakes up in Grey World. I'm able to use the shocked expression with the white lines to create a moving effect in the scene.
After a black screen, this scene helps establish the setting of Grey World. The music has also started just before this scene. I used a trick of slightly zooming in and moving the scene from one side to another. This helps to make the static image more dynamic within the animation. I've used this trick for many other backgrounds below.
Hiemi looks around the landscape. I've made sure to point his gaze in a certain direction so that it lined up with the following scene.
A scene looking up at an iconic machine in Grey World, which I affectionately call the Giraffe Pipe. This begins a short montage of specific things. I made sure to focus on the values of the colours and perspective to craft a highly detailed scene, despite how simple it is.
The oil rig scene plays with composition to create a striking background of just an isolated structure in a place where it's not supposed to be. I did also reused some assets from other backgrounds to help achieve the desired effect for the scene.
The final scene in the montage. It is a fridge-like machine, getting parasitised by a tick-like monster. In this simple scene, the monster maybe front and centre, but the casual nature of the sequence makes it blend in plain sight. Which I had hoped would be the case, as I want audiences to realise there are monsters in the final scene.
In this replacement scene, here I got to use a special technique to construct an interesting design for the brick wall. I also added little warped details in the brickwork, to add to the strangeness of the setting. Hiemi here is trying to reach an apple that is implied to have been warped in some way. Adding an ironic twist, that Hiemi may be safer not being able to reach it. I also used the trick from the first scene to create an effect with the sweet droplets.
The next scene has much more animation in it, and is about Hiemi hiding from the rain, inside a broken machine. Which is striking, as the damage makes it look like a monstrous mouth. I used composition to help create this simple, but dynamic and interesting scene. I created multiple versions of the rain cycled between them quickly, to create an effective animation of falling rain. I also used a new technique to design the wheat field, which was an experiment based on small things I've learnt over the years. I mixed different colours and then used a small brush to create a grass-like effect.
Afterwards, the rain strangely changes direction and starts falling sideways. Using the same technique, I was able to create quite an interesting scene.
In between the outside raining scenes, we cut to Hiemi sitting in the machine, only to be surprised by the sideway rain. I used multiple frames to create a simple and limited, but effective animation for the sequence. I also think this scene helps to bring some charm to Hiemi's character in this strange and humerous situation.
A simple static background, it is a teddy bear sitting on a fence post, overlooking the vast landscape and the gigantic structure in the distance. I enjoyed designing the teddy bear with fun little details, and I made sure to use colours that made it stand out. I also imployed a texturing technique for the wooden post, that I also learnt over time. I have a soft spot for drawing trees, so it was great to use this technique adding colours that follow the grain.
This quiet indoor scene shows Hiemi sleeping on a sofa chair, with mechanical legs coming out of it. I thought this would be a fun scene, that not only brings some character to Hiemi but also creates a unique and striking scene. I chose to make it indoors, as the animation needed some variety from all the scenes having wheat in them. I used a technique I learnt of using certain brushes to create a drainage effect for pipes. I also created two versions with different 'ZZZ' sounds, so I could cycle between them in the animation. Creating an animated effect that makes the scene much more exciting and interesting.
This is a simple scene of Hiemi walking a bird-like machine. I used animation to help simulate walking, as we hadn't really seen him walking in other scenes. Although I do admit, it is quite long.
This scene is implied to have continued from the last one. It was quite experimental, as I was creating a simple animation of Hiemi walking towards the camera and turning his head. I think it worked out quite well in the end, as I felt the animation had a strange smoothness to it. With one bit of feedback mention how well it worked.
In the final scene of the animation, Hiemi has turned to face the walled city in the distance. The dark line in the scene, then suddenly lifts up and out of the scene. Which I think does well in implying a dangerous creature, since it's behind Hiemi. I like it as well, because its placement at the start, makes it look like another strange structure.
Credits
Credits
When it came to the credits, I decided to keep things simple, and so I used early 20th-century title cards, as inspiration for Grey World's title card. However, I didn't get the desired effect for it, as I wanted to radiate light in a certain way. For the credits, I decided that it was a good place to add all the other characters so that they would get represented in the end.
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