Fantastic Voyage Project:The Life Cycle of a Fern

MAKING OFBy Josh Aldis

CONTENTS

Initial ResearchThumbnails & IdeasStoryboardingConcept ArtProduction ArtMatte PaintingMusic

Camera ShotsLightingModellingFinal Outcome

INITIAL RESEARCH

Initial ideas of using a pop-up book with animated features were inspired by the Pottermore announcement video, which then led to experimentation with which setting would best reflect the magical concept of the journey to self-fertilisation.

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THUMBNAILS & IDEAS

These thumbnails show the book in its early stages, with a woodland setting surrounding the display. The original life-cycle

designs have stayed fairly consistant.

THUMBNAILS & IDEAS

With my target audience being unenthused secondary school students, I began brainstorming interesting environment concepts in mundane settings, whilst also

drawing out the cycle itself to gain a better knowledge of the process.

THUMBNAILS & IDEAS

Having had my ideas analysed, I decided to set my animation in a botanical study to coincide with the theme. I drew out some basic sketches of cluttered rooms filled with glass cabinets and botanical artworks, which inspired me to pursue the setting further.

STORYBOARDING

This rough storyboard demonstrates how the animatic would play out, using supporting text as explanation in coordination with

movement and music.

STORYBOARDING

The animation would primarily focus on the book and reflect its self-development by releasing spores and having them coincide with

other areas of the book.

ANIMATIC FRAMES

These stills from my animatic show a rough idea of the botanical study setting I had chosen to work in, trying to display a sense of

natural light hitting the room by using a beige colour palette.

CONCEPT ART

Spores represented as X and Y symbols as they return towards the book to produce the Gamete.

CONCEPT ART

Sunset hitting the desk as the fully-formed Gametophyte constructs itself.

CONCEPT ART

The Archegonium absorbs the erupted sperm cells to complete the fertilisation.

PRODUCTION ART

‘Botanical Study’

MATTE PAINTING

Initially I had planned for the exterior environment to be demonstrated through a matte painting, however I found that building an atmosphere

proved from polygons gave a better sense of depth.

MUSIC

The music was produced using Garage Band, which gave me the opportunity to produce various versions of the soundtrack. I finally produced two different pieces

of music, setting a more relaxed scene than the animatic.

CAMERA SHOTS

I tried to use the sunlight effect as a basis for which I would position the camera. Most shots were intended to focus on the journey of the

life cycle, particularly as we follow the spores into the air.

LIGHTING

Lighting played a crucial part in my idea from the beginning, with most actions centred around the lazy sunset. I experimented with a night-

time colour palette using purple and blue shades to suggest moonlight, but this proved to be less of a relaxed atmosphere.

MODELLING

The structural forms that represent each stage of the life cycle were modelled in order to expand with the book pages

and have use of their own pully-systems.

TEXTURES

This sample of textures reflects the colour palette and the botanical atmosphere of the animation.

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FINAL OUTCOME