#pine devil

[germ-t-ripper]

World of death Pine Devil

[cinemamind]

Pine Devil was meant to be short, quick and kinetic. An ugly little beast with minimal design and rough animation. 

 Faragon and I love the legends of the Jersey Devil, but were disappointed in the lack of outlets in films and animations about it. And whenever there was, it would always be very different from the  source material and descriptions. We both agreed that the fear factor of the monster carried so much potential.

I mean, just look at this thing! I was also heavily inspired by Woosh, an animated short by Julien Grande. I wanted to try to capture that frenetic camerawork and animation into Pine Devil.

So the short arose from the concept of realizing this creature into animation. What would you do if you saw this thing in the woods?

Characters

The character of the huntsman was originally going to be much older. But because of his similarities with the homeless man from Midnight Snack, I made him younger with much longer hair. It turned out better because visually, he looked like Jesus Christ and that dynamic worked out perfectly for the short. Jesus vs The Devil.

The Pine Devil itself was an amalgamation of woodland creatures perverted into one monster. I wanted it to have spindly legs like a deer and the membraneous wings of a bat. I referenced movements from newborn animals as well as the wing movements of vampire bats. Faragon also provided the voice of the creature.

The color scheme of the huntsman was actually the color palette of the whole short. His long hair and coat made for some excellent secondary movement. 

Storyboards

Because I’m the only one who sees the storyboards, they are kept very rough. Below are some font designs for the title done in ink brush. 

And because the film moves very quickly, I wanted to inject single frame shots of a grotesque devil head, which is highly detailed compared to the rest of the short (à la Jacob’s Ladder or The Exorcist).

Color and Backgrounds

The color script was very simple. We start with cool colors like blues and greens and as the tension escalates, it gets warmer with reds and oranges. The backgrounds are digitally painted and where kept very loose, almost like watercolor paintings. 

The colors also signify the spacial relationship between the character and his environment. the beginning is more open space and as we get to the end, the environment becomes more and more claustrophobic. 

[eumorpha-dream]

Two Saturniids from my trip this past weekend. On the left is Citheronia sepulcralis and the right is Eacles imperialis.

[eumorpha-dream]

Moth of the Day! - National Moth Week

Citheronia sepulcralis (Pine Devil Moth)! These guys have 1 image on tumblr (mine) so I added more. Let's get these beautiful Pine-loving species some love. These are cousins to the Citheronia regalis. The string you see is a piece of fishing line used to attach this female to a tree to call for males.