Design Exploration - The Last Shrew

March 28, 2021

Design Exploration - The Last Shrew

29/3/2021 - 5/7/2021 (Week 1 - Week 15)
Vun Wan Min (0334263)
Design Exploration
The Last Shrew

INSTRUCTION

PROPOSAL

Week 1 - Week 2

We were also introduced on the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as SDG. According to the brief from Ms Anis, it is a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.

There are 17 goals, which are:

1. No Poverty

2. Zero Hunger

3. Good Health and Well-being

4. Quality Education

5. Gender Equality

6. Clean Water and Sanitation

7. Affordable and Clean Energy

8. Decent Work and Economic Growth

9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

10. Reducing Inequality

11. Sustainable Cities and Communities

12. Responsible Consumption and Production

13. Climate Action

14. Life Below Water

15. Life on Land

16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

17. Partnerships for the Goals

Our task this week was to look into the 17 goals and choose 1 goal to make a mock-up from it.

I was interested with goal no. 14 and 15 because it seems more interesting to me, in the end I chose no. 15 Life on Land.

The inspiration of the animation is from a animation about a girl and an Orangutan that loss it home, called "Rang-tan: the story of dirty palm oil" by GreenPeace.

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/TQQXstNh45g

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vS3OeD_v9wrZRxvJ-pM-zkGLWKYvxj2QtfYTfdzazjVx-j08ySIhSZCs29gAnpXSynvD5yxfUEGO-wm/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Week 3

Our task is to find a good and poorly designed social awareness visual and discuss the pros and cons of each design.

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vT6uLmhxmrJM6nm49JnQ_RQtpDjAurAy6pMiDChWzShjYVK-w6M8bY_rFVzoAximDWTDn756N0cXAhG/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Week 4

The task that we were given is to look for potential cultural challenges based on our project.

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSIhxJtmJ4o24BgjH9nTMJL15kFqRgpTUrFUktFUhRWkHQoER75p54cX8K24xKQAKIXOEqfCHN7tmsJ/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Week 5

This week is presentation day, for the project, I want to make people aware that there are endangered animals that are struggling from habitat loss, illegal poaching and climate changes. I had a few ideas for the project mock-up and Ms Anis suggested that I focus on the animation and character design.

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQLOqOXo2Zb5f38VeFU5ZrCMm1aoaQ2YdVJC23LO5OCatwggZ-zuB8LPJ-risIIaepjUbr3vzs2TDML/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Animation

For the animation, it is about the Black Shrew, which only have 1 of it's kind left or may be extinct. There were little information on the Black Shrew but they were similar to a common shrew, so it was not hard to think about it's behaviour. However, thinking about the animal being the last of it's kind was sad and heartbreaking, because of this, I want to make people aware of the presents of the animal as well as saving/preserving the animals/species.

Storyboard:

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX1vTUS0rvSB8qdB_pCIaeafMXsyhybb8SyoWH44TAOZNFi3Bi7Tx0uNNi61vWMgvD044ShKhvtPov822/pub

Fig. 1.1: Storyboard 1

Fig. 1.2: Storyboard 2

Fig. 1.3: Storyboard 3

Fig. 1.4: Storyboard 4

I made a draft for the story in a document, so that I can have the concept of the story and drew the storyboard.

Character Design:

Fig. 2.1: The Little Girl Draft

For the little girl, I wanted her to be cute, simple and ordinary, I had 3 designs and I went with no.3 and the colours were chosen with pink and blue for her clothing while her hair and eyes were brown.

Fig. 2.2: Little Girl - Character Sheet

These are the turn round of the little girl as well as her facial expressions. The colours of her clothes are desaturated because at first the colours were too bright and I went with no.1, the peachy colour seems nice to look at.

Fig. 2.3: Little Girl - Final render

Fig. 2.4: Little Girl - Rigged ready

Fig. 2.5: Little Girl - Other Assets

I had to separate each layer for the parts where I need to animate as well as other assets.

Fig. 3.1: Black Shrew Draft

There were 2 versions of the Black Shrew, Version 1 was a somewhat detail while Version 2 was a very simple design and looks like a Pokemon. In the end, I chose Version 2.

Fig. 3.2: Black Shrew - Character Sheet

Fig. 3.3: Black Shrew - Final render

Fig. 3.4: Black Shrew - Rigged ready

Fig. 3.5: Black Shrew - Other Asset

Same as the little girl, I separate them on each layer.

Fig. 4.1: Room in Zbrush

Fig. 4.2: Room Draft

Fig. 4.3: Room - Full render

Fig. 4.4: Other Asset 1

Fig. 4.5: Other Asset 2

Fig. 4.6: Other Asset 3

For the room, I made simple shapes in Zbrush to get the angle that I wanted as well as the scale of the little girl and black shrew.

Fig. 5.1: Puppet tool

Fig. 5.2: 3D layer

Fig. 5.3: Scenes

Fig. 5.4: Merge scenes

For the animation, I used Adobe After Effect to animate and I mostly used the puppet tool and the general tools (scale, position, etc.). I used the 3D layer to make layers have depth and move it. I separate them in each scene to make it easier to edit in Adobe Premier Pro.

Fig. 5.5: Audio

Fig. 5.6: Final edit

After merging the scenes, I went and make the sound effects from YouTube in Adobe Audition as well as the background music and finally merged video and audio together. The sound effects and background music were done separately.