One of the most fascinating topics I have ever learned was the concept of stellar evolution, a process that describes how stars go from one stage to another. The story of a young star finding his place in the universe became the basic premise. I drew up some story boards and realized the best way to simplify production was to use 2.5 D animation. In other words, I was animating clay characters that were as flat as cookies. The technique is very similar to cut out animation. Once I figured out the story, I did some animation testing for faces and I also wanted to see if I could get some decent green screen effects.
Recently, I have been rereading The Animator's Survival Kit which was written by Richard Williams. The section on drawing breakdowns especially provided insight on how to create interesting animation in the face. You see, in traditional animation key poses are drawn, and then a drawing in the middle dictates how the movement will look. This is called the breakdown. Choosing a proper breakdown will add more life to a scene. Instead of going from a smile to a frown directly the expression in the middle can be something other than a face with a straight line for a mouth. Obviously, this doesn't apply all the time. Sometimes you need to go directly in the middle. As I stood over my camera, I did the best I could to know when to apply this principle properly. The result is facial animation that has real life. I am really proud how this film turned out.
I also did my best to follow my own rules. Mostly all the characters stay in the same relative space unless something more powerful knocks them out of their spot.
The nebulae is made out of pillow stuffing colored by markers. The stars in the background are copies of a small clay model in different positions that were scanned directly into the computer. For the mouths, I used replacements and added flexibility to them by stretching the lips to better transition from one mouth to another. I used a little bit of focal blur to give an impression to depth,and to also help the audience focus on the main characters. The highlight effects are bright colored blobs that were blurred out and given transparency.
Typically when people speak of the cosmos, they talk about being part of a bigger picture, so the concept of the constellation really nailed this film. To further cement it, I added the bible verse at the end. It's probably one of those few space films that combines some science and religion. My only regret is that I didn't incorporate a black hole. It could have made an excellent climax. If I ever get a chance to make a film like this again, I would do it.
Thanks again for reading and may God bless you!
