Category: Concept

The Prayer

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This will be a short 3D animation about the strength monastic prayer has on the lives of people living in the world. The spirit of it will try to be truthful to the Orthodox Christian faith most of Eastern Europe shares. The story follows a prayerful monk as he quietly retreats into his desert cave to pray as the world outside struggles with sin. The monk’s prayers are then shown to alleviate the world’s pain through the help of the Holy Spirit, Who connects all people in God’s love.

The animation will be in 3D and requires a small group of freelance artists to work on it via tasks. These tasks can run for 2-5 days. Each artist can choose one or more tasks to focus on every week.

The artists chosen are either early career professionals or benefactors who wish to contribute to our work. We would like to pay our freelancers for their efforts, hence we made this fundraiser: Go Fund Me for The Prayer

Thank you for any help you can give!

Artists and Websites

Directed by Anamaria Weston, music composer Emma Hetherington, 3D modeller Anca-Luiza Ciuches, concept artist Andrei Lungu, art director Natalia Nikitin, and technical director Helena Josol.

King Oakenair of Pagefort

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KingOakenair_Motions_smallKingOakenair

King Oakenair of Pagefort is the maker of worlds in humans’ imagination, when they read books. He paints the mountains and clouds, the trees and lakes from descriptions. The cloud on top of his cape shows his mood and can thunder and cast lighting when he is angry. His cape can show the stars in a moonlit sky.

Oakenair is most joyous when children read as that is when he creates his best work. He is sad when his imagery bubbles disappear, as children draw away from books. These bubbles hold the descriptions painted and the emotions felt while reading the story.

Inspiration

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WhatInspires
A few things I love

What inspires you when you design your own characters and stories? Sometimes I like to think of a few things I love and start from there. A bumblebee queen in a grand crinoline is floating on the sea, in her oak leaf boat. She is on a quest to find the Book of Wisdom, to learn how to become human. Little does she know that Grey Rabbit has stolen the book and hidden it in ol’ man Barrel’s cherry orchard. It’s a start…

Abstract Mark

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Story

Mark is self-isolating. In the silence of his home his mind becomes abstract, as thoughts soar for a brighter future. Mark feels empty. Pieces of himself vanish day by day. Light will soon shine through the emptiness he once knew and loneliness will become a distant memory.

Technical Details

Abstract Mark started as an experiment with basic tools in Houdini. Elements like extracting the wireframe from edges and voxelization allowed the creation of a cage-like structure for the geometry. Mark’s 3D head model was created in Maya through edge modelling techniques.

Madam Bouldeve

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Sketches_Bouldev_01
Madam Bouldeve initial sketches

Colours_Bouldev_01
Madam Bouldeve initial colour palette

These are some initial sketches and concept art for Madam Bouldeve’s look. A short animation, Madam Bouldeve’s Patiserie, is currently in production, so there’s more to come!

Story

It is another day at Madam Bouldeve’s patiserie. The sun shines through the tall glass windows as the flour bags play chess. A couple of eggs have cracked playing hopscotch. The milk is recovering from a round of spin the bottle. He can’t handle any more kisses from salt bag.

Bouldeve bursts the doors open and gives the place a steely look. ‘Those ingredients are slacking again’, she says. ‘I need to put my foot down!’

As she quickly shuffles, head first, down a long and straight corridor, the oven sounds the alarm. All the ingredients need to jump inside before the lady of the house finds them. One small sacrifice for milk, a big reward for mankind – cake!

Three Bridges

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Link: Buy/Read story here

TreeBridges_small
Three Bridges concept art (Wax crayons)

This is a piece of concept art for Three Bridges, a story about children saving their grandparents from being forgotten. In a world separated by efficiency, there is no room for the inefficient. Children, grown-ups and the elderly each have their own district, according to their purpose in society. The children in the Blue District live in care homes, waiting for a visiting ticket from their labouring parents in the Green District. The Violet District is the place to retire, knit, paint and drink tea. Two stone bridges connect the three areas. Little do people know, however, that a third bridge exists, hidden from curious eyes. Those crossing it go to be forgotten forever.