Coutdown is a short animated film about a kid with an exaggerated imagination who is constantly challenged by his fiendish teacher who thwarts the kid's intergalactic excursions.
This short film is my masters degree thesis project. From the start it was designed to have a very graphic look, while all animation and effects created in 3d. The rendering was a toon style, stylized to look like traditional hand drawings.
Final one sheet, revised after premiering at some film festivals and the awards received.
As an example for promotional purposes which shows a final render in 3d, prior to lighting and shading (left) and the same render after adding toon lines, lighting and shading to create the flat appearance giving the film it's final flat 2d look.
Production still. This is a cropped frame of one of the shots. Rendered in Autodesk Maya.
Production still. This is a cropped frame of one of the shots. Rendered in Autodesk Maya.
One of the shots showing the texture used in the classroom environment. The texture was created using Adobe Illustrator. This was designed for the flat look of the animation to appear hand drawn.
Another shot showing the texture used for the moon in space. The texture was created using Adobe Illustrator. The design for this texture was based on reference images of the moon, but was intended to mimic flat look of the animation to appear hand drawn.
A shot that displays a texture used for the environment of the moon. The texture file was created using Adobe Illustrator. The style of the texture needed to fit with the flat look of the animation.
Character turn-around for the Kid in his plain clothes. Created using Adobe Illustrator.
Character turn-around for the Kid in his space suit. Created using Adobe Illustrator.
Character turn-around for the Teacher, Created using Adobe Illustrator.
This board was created for the final project presentation which showed the progression of one of the sequences. In the original storyboards, the story had more realistic space scenes, but was more cartoony looking in the kid's classroom. Through development, the look became more consistent between the two.
One of the many pages of thumbnails, after several revisions to the original story. This is one that worked, and the sequence was nearly the same in the final animation.
Another page of thumbnails showing one of the sequences that ended up getting shortened to improve the pacing of the story. However, the idea behind the sequence was still the same.