A girl meets a whale in captivity and through their experience she realizes it needs to be free.
Honors & Awards:
FILE Anima+, Featured at the Electronic Language International Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil ..................JUNE 2016
WhaleFest, Featured at this outdoor activity show run by the WCA, in London, England ............................FEB 2016
Minnesota Electronic Theater (MET), Finalist in this film festival in Minneapolis, MN ..............................OCT 2015
Phinfest, Curator's Choice Award, in Dana Point, CA ..................................................................................MARCH 2015
Blockhead Film Festival, Awarded 1st Place, Minneapolis, MN .....................................................................OCT 2014
Process:
Hand drawn 2D animation created in Photoshop, while also utilized some After Effects and Maya.
Storyboarding
It was important to us that this project added a new line of dialogue to the conversation on captivity. Many early boards focused on the capture or training of the whale, and in the end it was the experience between the two main characters that was all we needed to tell our story.
Character Design
Whale
I designed the whale to have a large head and belly to give her an impressively large scale. Her round lines and shapes keep her cute and youthful, like her large eye spot and small rostrum (nose).
Character Animation
Whale
My process with animating the whale began many times with a straight ahead approach. To first map out the overall flow and driving the motion through the whole body. Then from there, going back in and adding in-between frames to get the right timing down.
Effects Animation
Water Effects
This film had many new challenges and one of those was the water animation. I studied both filmed footage of water as well as animated water to get inspiration and reference.
