memento mori - Senior Thesis film
For senior thesis, students must create a non-commercial motion design final project that shows a clear and sophisticated sequence of events that are engaging to watch. It must feature a story that evokes some theme or moral.
Moral
Life is beautiful, as is death. Rather than lamenting a loss, celebrate what you had. The aim of this film was to have a death-positive message, as the topic is typically taboo and met with fear and apprehension. Using mysterious in and out of shadow compositions and light reveals, the dreary symbols of death become beautiful once viewed in a new light.
style experimentation
With such a somber topic, the visuals needed to be beautiful with a soft dreamy atmosphere to bring audiences away from that feeling of dread. Though careful lighting would be used to create the initial unease and apprehension. For render styles my reference was the Wednesday titles, as well as the painterly ethereal render quality created in these Mayfair Witches pitch frames. With the animation and design being approved to be done in 3D, style experiments needed to be done to create a sense of variety in atmosphere with the same render styles.
The original storyboard needed more of a narrative. All these aspect shots were creating a spectacle, a cemetery wallpaper. A visual metaphor would be needed to drive the scenario.
pre-production
Originally there was a poem and voice over to accompany the visuals, but after many critique sessions it was decided the visuals could stand alone as they were, and the narration was distracting since the lyrics of the poem created a disconnect.
This final animatic was approved for production due to the clear pacing & correlation between dark to light objects. The “hero” shot is more impactful in this version as opposed to the initial animatic.
Audio suite
Working with sound engineer, Kelly Warner, this piece was inspired by gothic instrumentals, featuring piano and string arrangements to be reminiscent of a darkly beautiful waltz. Amy Lee’s cover of Sally’s Song was used as inspiration.
Using After Effects, various textures and videos would be layered over the 3D renders to enhance the atmosphere of the scenes. Many color correcting tools such as curves, levels, and different blending modes were used to give a purple-pink color cast to everything. Bloom is your friend.
ANIMATION Process
Cinema 4d
Using Cinema 4D & Redshift, some models were acquired from CG Trader. Minimal cloth & wind simulations were used to keep the files small and manageable for my laptop to be able to render in a timely manner. With over 30 shots, a production sheet was made using Google Sheets to keep up with what shots had been completed, which shots had more complicated scenes, and every shots duration. All scenes were optimized so all shots could be fully rendered within a few hours max.