Growth

Background

Growth is always inevitable, but deliberate growth in the right direction is always best. As part of exploring styles, and passion projects, I thought to explore something that had to do with animating plants. And what better message to tell with that than their depiction of growth.

This project was completed in 6 hours, from conception to rendering.

Conception

In this piece, I thought of using plant growth, to show how growth takes process, but will eventually get you to your desired goal. The thought of making a piece using a plant came even before I got the title. The title came afterwards.

The Major words Mind mapped for this project were HOPE and INSPIRING. As these were what I wanted the reaction of the viewers to be after watching the piece. I put together a quick mood board using these words, and they gave a good direction for the piece.

The design style was influenced by my mood and reference boards, I specifically looked for moods to show the major words I highlighted during the mind mapping phase.

Process

Writing

I started out this process with writing down the ideas I had, but as I learnt from my previous project, I needed to clearly note each scene, and transitions, in order not to be stuck at the design or animation phase. So I had to spend a long time on this phase, as I was not getting a concrete idea, and was not seeing the entire flow in my mind.

I was able to conquer the challenge, by putting together a moodboard. The moodboard helped me visualize how the idea could be better represented, and also helped with the flow of the entire piece. I usually create a moodboard with the script, but this time, I needed to interject my usual workflow, and use the moodboard to concretize my script.

Mood Board

Reference Board

Storyboard

Having concluded on the direction of the piece, with the script, the storyboarding phase was quite easy, and fun. I endeavored to stretch my storyboarding skill a little bit here, making the frames look a little better than before. I ended up not using some of the frames as they were storyboarded, but the entire process was fun, and enjoyable still.

Styleframes

I love the designs I made here. From the concepts I played around with for the leaves, to how the stem looked, and felt, to the scene designs, to the color choice. It is the phase I am most proud of in the entire process for this piece.

Leaf variations

I designed some variations for the leaf to go on the plant, but these two stood out, but I had to go with just one of them.

Challenge

The most challenging part of this piece was the scripting, and creative direction phase. As I spent close to 2 hours thinking of what direction I needed to take. But it was worth it, and every other aspect of the process was seamless seeing I had the entire concept locked down already.

Sound Design

John Green, A sound designer, and I am super excited about the great work he did on the sound. He really brought the project to life!

Takeaways

The major takeaway from this piece is that it is very advisable to get your scripting, and creative direction locked down before you do anything. As this will make every other aspect of the design process very seamless.

Thanks for viewing!