K-Animates

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“First you quickly splash out on paper everything that has flashed by in your head, then you do a more detailed storyboard for the animatic. Usually I don’t show my “splashes”, nobody understands them except myself. But looks like here something can be guessed)”

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Art for the animatic, shot 1-2

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Vitalik: “I wanted very much to pile up the locations in the movie with giant pipes, just as I like to do. But I guess I’ll have to keep this idea for something else — there’s no place for them in this movie 😅 In Spike’s hand I have drawn a key, but it looks like a cross from afar. In case if someone’s remembered Castlevania — this is why I decided not to change anything ))))”

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Spike’s joyfully misbehaving in anticipation of his big adventure! (by Lena Volk)

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Vitaliy Shushko — art, story, directing Elena Volk — 2d/3d-animation, compositing Pavel Mira — compositing, 3d-modeling, 3d-animation Denis Pisarev — compositing, 3d-modeling Timur Gibadulin — 3d-modeling Viktor Gullichsen — music Henri Keinala — music DZA — additional music Thomas Karagiannis — additional music Juhana Vihervaara — sound design Tomas Ihonen — sound design Florian Calmer — additional sound design Special Thanks Vasili Zorin Pavel Vasin Nadya Mira Ilya Shekiladze

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Creature concept for the Last Goliath!

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Blink Story Beats and Treatment

·         We see a Tapestry scroll down screen, a narration plays over it for exposition.

·         it’s last illustration fades to become the Dark City.

·         Aushna walks through the city, carrying her hoverboard and waving at street children as they run pass

·         She comes to the gates of the city, where three elders are waiting, looking weary and grim.

·         One of them hands her a small and flickering light

·         Aushna takes the light and fits it into her hoverboard, which slowly flickers to life.

·         They each clasp Aushna on the shoulder, nodding, and send her off.

·         We see a montage of Aushna traveling:

o   We see her pass through the gates of the Dark City

o   Continue through the over grown ruins of the Old City

o   We see the Sands, where large pieces of fallen Goliaths scattering the landscape.

o   And finally, in the distance and surrounded by crumbling spires and arches, we see the Tower, a bright light glowing at its summit.

·         We see Aushna at the base of the Tower, where she steps off her hoverboard, which is flickering and running out of power.

·         She collapses it and puts it in her pocket

·         Aushna finally looks up at the Tower and takes a deep breath.

·         She walks towards the tower.

·         Three options on how she gets to the top:

o   Montage of her Climbing the tower, it is difficult and there are no stairs

o   There are stairs on the side of the tower, spiraling up to the top. It is still a long, and dangerous climb.

o   There are cubes floating around the tower. She uses these to climb. (maybe they form the spiral stairs? Maybe they bring her up to the top like a cube elevator?)

·         Once at the top, Aushna takes a moment to catch her breath

·         She looks at the light with an expression of awe.

·         She walks close to where its floating.

·         She closes her eyes.

·         When she opens them again, her eyebrows are pulled down and she seems determined.

·         Aushna reaches into the light and pulls.

·         The light is very very heavy and doesn’t budge for a few seconds.

·         When she pulls the light out of place, she falls back with it

·         The light begins acting erratically, brightening in color, and jerks out of her hands.

·         The light shoots high into the sky before diving down quickly, sinking into the sand with a ripple.

·         There is a moment’s pause.

·         The arches and spires around the Tower being to move, circling.

·         The Last Goliath raises his head from the sand, we can see the light is gleaming at its forehead, and we can see that the spires were only part’s of the Goliath’s back that rose above the sand.

·         It roars

·         Aushna fights the Last Goliath.

·         Eventually, using the last bit of power from her hoverboard, Aushna tears the light away from the Goliath.

·         Her board has enough power to soften her fall, but shatters on impact.

·         She hides behind a piece of rubble.

·         Behind her, the tower begins to crumble and the light fades from it.

·         The Goliath is crying in pain, and the light in it is dying.

·         We see Aushna still struggling to hold the light.

·         She looks back and forth between the horizon, the Goliath and crumbling tower, and her broken board.

·         Aushna looks into the light

·         She grimaces, closes her eyes, and pulls the light close

·         Aushna stands from behind the rubble and raises the light high

·         The Goliath screeches, advancing towards it.

·         The light grows brighter and blanks out the screen.

·         When the light fades, we see Aushna on the ground and the Goliath calm, no longer crying, and the tower is rebuilt.

·         Aushna looks up.

·         The Goliath closes his eyes, dips his head, and the light at his forehead slowly splits in two.

·         Aushna gets to her feet as the light lowers towards her and settles in her hands, light as a feather.

·         When it touches her, Aushna’s wounds heal and her hover board is repaired.

·         We see Aushna look to the Goliath and lay her hand on his head.

·         The scene fades out to the same view of the dark city that we began on.

·         First one we see one flickering light, then another, and then more, until the whole city is alight.

·         Behind the now shining city, the sun slowly rises.

 We open on a tapestry, scrolling down with the history of the Dark City. Once we reach the tattered end, the scene fades into a view of the actual city. Its massive and has three large spires that reach into the sky. We then see Aushna walking through the city, carrying a hoverboard and waving to children as she walks past. She looks jovial here, at home.  Parts of her city are run down and deserted, and all of it is dark. Aushna then reaches the elders, who are waiting for her under the gates of the city. The three of them look equal parts determined and grim. One of them give her a small and dim light to power her board and bit her farewell, sending her off on her journey.  

Aushna’s travels take a while, bringing her through the gates of the Dark City, the ruins of the Old City, and then into the desert. Eventually we see the tower rising up form the horizon, dwarfing all the other small structures around it. The light is shining at the top of the spire, bright against the dark sky. Aushna takes a deep breath and readies herself for the hard climb.

When Aushna reaches the top of the Tower, she is exhausted but still determined. Up closer, the light is almost blinding, but she steels her resolve and walks towards it. Thinking of her city and all the people that she could save with this, Aushna reaches in and steals the light. It is impossibly heavy and takes all of her weight to pull it off it’s platform, but in the end, she cannot control it. The light brightens and becomes sharper, erratic, and shoots from her grasp. Aushna does her best to hold on, but she doesn’t stand a chance. Aushna watches as the last hope for her people shoots high into the sky and the dives into the sand, leaving ripples of blue light.

Slowly, everything around her and the tower begin to move. The Goliath raises its head from the sand, the light gleaming on its forehead. It roars, and Aushna can hardly stay on her feet. She sees the light at its forehead, knowing that’s what she needs to get before she can get back home. She readies herself for a fight and runs off the tower to climb on the Goliath. Eventually, she uses the last bit her hoverboard power to grab the light and get to the ground, but crash lands. The hoverboard is shattered.

Aushna dives behind a piece of rubble, and behind her, the Goliath is crying out and the tower falling apart. The light is fading from them both now that Aushna has succeeded in stealing it, and all the plants around the tower and Aushna are withering and dying. The light is still erratic and heavy in Aushna’s hands, and with her board broken, she has no way out. Aushna looks between the Goliath and her board, thinking of her people but also hearing the pained sounds of the creature behind her. Aushna takes a deep breath and holds the light close before standing tall and holding it out, returning it to the Goliath.

When the dust clears, we see the Goliath is calm, and the tower has repaired itself. The plants are turning green again, and the light is shining bright on the forehead of the Goliath. Aushna is on her knees and looks defeated. The Goliath Slowly lower his head and closes his eyes. On his forehead, the light splits softly into two, and one-half floats down into Aushna’s hands, light as a feather. She looks up at the Goliath in Awe, and the scene fades.

We now the see the dark city as it was in the beginning. A narration plays, explaining how the Light could never be stolen, and all who tried failed. This was because it could only be given freely to those who proved themselves (worthy? Compassionate?). During the narration, one light flickers in the city. Then more, and more, until finally the whole things is alight. The sun behind the gleaming city slowly rises.

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Steps to making my short film, Blink!

Blink was a project I made over 9 weeks, designed, animated, and then composited myself! Made with Toom Boom Harmony and After Effects.