Character Turnaround – Autumn Inspiration

So initially I was really struggling to come up with connecting my character (I just call her autumn girl – I still need to give her a name) to autumn, other than the colours of her clothes, and the fact that the character actually likes this season! Shaun suggested back in December that maybe she needs some kind of a motif to represent her love for autumn on her and I also got some good suggestions from my classmates about maybe having a motif on her jacket.

I was also asked to research autumn and what it represents and so I started looking up what the season actually meant! Here is a quick summary of what I have learnt so far:

Autumn – Image from Google

Autumn is a season of harvest and maturity. The fruits ripen, the leaves mature into their ‘adulthood’ and come winter as it gets colder, they “fall” symbolising the onset of death in winter. The trees literally shed their leaves and they turn into these beautiful colours until they fade into brown (which is often the last stage) before you know that winter is looming.

Although it sounds pretty depressing, autumn can also represent change, acceptance and letting go. It can also be seen as a season of bringing people together to give thanks, celebrate life, rejoice in the victory of good over evil!

In India, as per the traditions of the Hindus, we celebrate the festival of Diwali – the Festival of Lights! Thousands of lamps are lit across the country to symbolise that good prevails over evil, light over darkness. We celebrate the story of Lord Ram (a mythological folklore) who finally comes home after defeating the evil Ravana; the lamps being lit to honour his victory and him finally returning home after his exile. We also honour the goddess Lakshmi, who we believe brings us wealth and prosperity! This festival is also seen in some parts of India as a way to please the god of Death (Yamraj) and to ward off unwanted evil.

Bringing light into our homes and warding off darkness/evil

During the festival, diyas are lit and placed in rows along the parapets of temples and houses and set adrift on rivers and streams. Homes are decorated, and floors inside and out are covered with rangoli, consisting of elaborate designs made of coloured rice, sand, or flower petals. The doors and windows of houses are kept open in the hope that Lakshmi will find her way inside and bless the residents with wealth and success.

Brittanica.com

An interesting article about why they pray to Goddess Kali (Durga) during Diwali in West Bengal, India: https://indianexpress.com/article/research/diwali-special-decoding-the-many-forms-of-goddess-kali-in-india-5436248/

Website from where I sourced some of this info: https://allthatsinteresting.com/autumn-celebrations#14

For instance American traditions such as Halloween and Thanksgiving take place in October/November.

Thanksgiving celebrated in America (Google)
Halloween – The Scotsman

Halloween is believed to be a descendant of the festival of Samhain, a Gaelic celebration that marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the darker half of the year. During the Samhain celebration, the Celts would light great bonfires and pound on drums to guide visitors from the underworld, while wearing costumes to ward off malevolent spirits.

The Scotsman (https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/family/why-do-we-celebrate-halloween-traditions-and-history-october-holiday-explained-3009182)

Guy Fawkes day is celebrated on November 5th in the UK, where bonfires are lit in celebration!

From Pinterest

Today Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom, and in a number of countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, with parades, fireworks, bonfires, and food. Straw effigies of Fawkes are tossed on the bonfire, as are—in more recent years in some places—those of contemporary political figures. Traditionally, children carried these effigies, called “Guys,” through the streets in the days leading up to Guy Fawkes Day and asked passersby for “a penny for the guy,” often reciting rhymes associated with the occasion, the best known of which dates from the 18th century

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Guy-Fawkes-Day

Mid Autumn Festival in China:

Mid Autumn Festival in China

The celebration focuses on three important concepts: gathering, thanksgiving and praying.

Weekend Notes

In China, it’s a reunion time for families, just like Thanksgiving, while in Vietnam, it’s more like a children’s day.

https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/mid-autumn-festival.htm

Day of the Dead that takes place in Mexico: it brings people together in a day of remembering the loved ones they lost amidst celebrating life

Day of the Dead – National Geographic

Traditions associated with the holiday include building altars to remember the dead, making food offerings to the dead and caring for graves. The Catrina or female skeleton is a popular figure of Day of the Dead.

Wikimedia

Kaboom Festival Talk – Wolfwalkers

Apple TV (idownloadblog)

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Lunchbox Lecture Series talk with the directors of Wolfwalkers – Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, which was hosted by the Kaboom Animation Festival! I received amazing insight into how they came up with the storyline for the film and how they produced it. It was extremely interesting to learn about the production process and how they came up with the concepts for the film. I also got a chance to watch the entire film and was absolutely mesmerised with not just the story but also the animation! It was beautifully animated and I fell in love with the character designs and backgrounds!

Here is the trailer of the film(which is absolutely amazing!):

Pixar’s Soul!

Finally watched this movie! It premiered on the 25th and I did want to watch it then, but I missed it so I ended up watching it a week later with my family!

Such a beautiful film with a such a wonderful message! It was just splendid and I completely enjoyed it 😀 The story and the animation itself were so captivating that I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen! The acting in this film is superb, especially when the characters have a ‘Freaky Friday’ moment and switch bodies, you can still see the original character shine through underneath 😀 Since I’m currently on a Character Animation Course, this movie functioned as a great acting and performance reference!

A lovely interview I came across about the making of this film!

I love how the 3D animation was intermixed with a more abstract and graphical 2D style! Some of the characters were just flat lines, but I noticed that their personality was reflected so strongly in the way the line was structured! The way they move (especially with Terry the accountant) also depicted their character traits! It goes to show that as long as your characters have a strong personality and can exhibit this through their performance and acting, you don’t need to have a very thorough drawing. Although the two styles occur within the same scene, they don’t seem to overtake each other. They come together so beautifully, that it seems they are all part of one world!

The Great Before: Jerry’s speaking to Joe (in the hat) and 22’s soul

The Jerry’s in the picture above function in the Great Before, where souls get their personalities given to them. The Jerry’s are like teachers assigning random souls to be aloof/excitable/lazy, etc before they are assigned mentors (selected souls of humans who have achieved something great in their life usually – like doctors, musicians, researchers, etc). The mentors help the souls find their ‘spark’ – the very thing that gives them purpose on this Earth! They can only enter the earth once they find their spark – in the film its called an Earth Pass (kind of like in the scouts/camps where people earn badges for what they have achieved).

22 and Joe in the Hall of Everything

Here is the main antagonist of the film called ‘Terry’; just a character made up of lines, but the way the lines moved and the facial expression shown, really built up the mood and the personality of the character! So Terry is an accountant in ‘The Great Beyond'(place where all the souls of the dead people go), who keeps track of every soul that has come into the Great Beyond.

Yingzong X – character designer for Soul

What’s funny is that when I watched this film, I thought that this character was male, which after doing some research, I found that its a female! Voiced by a famous New Zealand actor, called Rachel House who has actually done voice overs for many Pixar films! Apparently I’m not the only one who mistook the character as male!

Terry has often been mistaken for a male by viewers due to her androgynous sounding voice and unisex name.

Terry|Disney Wiki|Fandom

This reminded me of what MaryClare got us to do in one of the life drawing sessions! She asked us to feel the emotion that the model was exhibiting and use it to make the appropriate marks in our drawing. So ideally we were feeling the mood of the pose and using the energy of the lines to convey it!

Taking a look at our protagonists: Joe Gardener and 22

Joe Gardener in Soul

Joe Gardener is bright, positive, patient and determined. He is extremely passionate about his music! Although his dream of making it big in the jazz industry hasn’t come through yet, he still doesn’t give up on his hopes and dreams! He teaches music to middle school kids, and the way he reacts to them playing speaks volumes about his personality. We also see his intense connection to music and this is depicted by the suspension of his soul in the Astral Plane.

Joe Gardener in the Astral Plane

Astral projection (or astral travel) is a term used in esotericism to describe an intentional out-of-body experience (OBE)[1][2] that assumes the existence of a soul called an “astral body” that is separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe.[3][4][5]

Wikipedia
22

22 is pretty much the opposite of Joe – she is like a teenager with the voice of a middle aged lady as she thinks people find it extremely annoying. She doesn’t want to go to Earth because she feels that its not worth living life as a human. She has a dull and sarcastic personality, but she is also determined in her own way. She has had many mentors trying to help her as illustrated in the film -but none can actually change her view on wanting to live on Earth.

Both these characters experience a stark change in their personality through the course of this film. They are a sort of cause and effect for each other – for instance 22 making Joe realise in finding her ‘spark’ that in chasing his big dream, he has missed out on the little moments of life that bring true happiness. In much the same way, when 22 finds her ‘spark’ and earns her pass, Joe in a burst of anger sets her off into a spiral of self doubt.

Overall this film is absolutely wonderful and tells a very emotional story that seems so relevant in the times that we are living in! With the ongoing pandemic and our limited connection with the world outside, this film conveys a beautiful message, I think we all need to remember – to take a moment out of our day to enjoy the little things in our life that bring us true happiness! And to also follow our heart and do what we love and be passionate about it 😀

Lift exercise

This is the lift exercise that I submitted for my 15th December assessment. I had a lot of fun animating this, especially learning how to convey the concept of weight! I think the timing works alright, but I sometimes feel like the animation lost its energy when I cleaned it up. I still need to add a chest and the other arm to this animation so I look forward to doing that!

Lift exercise by Vaibhavi Venkataraman

Character Bounce

A lil character bounce exercise I did as part of my MACA course assignment! I decided to try and animate an animal. It was really hard to figure out at first, especially since I’ve never animated animals before, but I was quite happy with the outcome! I hope to work on this and make it better with all the wonderful feedback I’ve been receiving from my tutors 🙂

Character Turnaround

Here is my character design turnaround that I did back in December as part of the workshop taught by the lovely Bianca Ansems! My character is a little girl who is cheerful and bright and positive. She loves helping people and will always look out for others before thinking about herself! Her biggest flaw is her self doubt.

She loves autumn and dressing up to stay warm. I tried to use colours inspired by the fall season for her clothes – a lot of brownish reds, green and orange – just like the changing leaves in the fall! I did give her a slightly bright pink hat and gloves, only to heighten her bright mindset and positivity.