Short Film Idea/Motivation
The general goal of my short was intended to hopefully showcase my animation ability. I wanted it to reach out to potential future hirers not only as an example of quality but also an example of interest in regards to style and tone for projects. My dream place to work for would be as an animator for Fortiche studios. So the choice to create a serious action scene, I thought would at least be good practice in regards to developing a showreel that would be fitting to send to Fortiche and studios like them. I essentially tried my best to make something that I wanted to work on, in the hopes that the end result would somewhat contribute to when I eventually reach out to similar future projects.
Poster
From the get go I wanted the name of my film to be something short, I took inspiration from recent Netflix names such as KIN or LOU. So I thought about shortening my main characters name Lilly, to LIL, which I thought was similar to both of the examples, but also easy to remember. I knew the poster for my film would most likely be the first thing that people saw, so I wanted to put a good bit of effort into making sure it accurately reflected what my short film was about. When designing my poster, I first looked towards pieces of media that were similar to mine in tone and general style. The Last of Us came to mind, so I began researching posters for it.
A noticeable theme that popped out to me was that the characters seemed to constantly be looking back towards to the camera, while traversing a scene representative of the overall setting of each game. The camera seems to point so that you are looking up at characters, making them appear somewhat epic in the composition. And there is seemingly no emphasis on metaphoric imagery, instead focusing on an entirely literal representation of what you will experience. So with that in mind, I got started with my poster.
I ended up creating a quick pose and some Marvellous, then brought it into Unreal Engine 5 with some foliage packs and rendered using the path tracer, then added small fixes in Photoshop.
In regards to my thought process behind the general design of the poster. I loved the idea of creating a strong silhouette for my character, so I created a grounded scene concept around this idea. Having her situated in the middle of a dark forest, with an assumed flashlight or light from a gun in the distance being shone on her. Having her look back towards camera at the viewer in spite of this assumed situation, in my opinion creates a captivating situation for my poster. Drawing the viewer in, and making them ask questions about who she is, and what she might be looking at. I also tried to replicate similar camera positioning, framing her from a low angle looking up, creating a sense of scale making her seem important. I also went with a muted colour scheme, with the only discernible colour other than mostly black and white hopefully, (I am colour blind) being red.
When deciding the font, I again looked towards the aforementioned Netflix films, and chose a font that I thought was most similar to those two. I eventually ended up choosing Franklin Gothic.
Overall I am really happy with how this poster turned out, I think I drew from the inspirations well and managed to create something easily comprehendible and that asks questions about my film and draws viewers in. If I was to change one thing, I would maybe make it a little brighter. Since on some devices it is quite hard to see.
Art Book
For my Artbook I went with an A5, lay flat book consisting of 20 Pages.
I wanted my Art book to have a unique and consistent visual style, so for instance I chose one font, colour palette and general layout style, then tried my best to stick with each throughout the entirety of my book. This way each page of development hopefully flows into one another naturally, making it an easier read. This also means that when I eventually change up the layout style it stands out more, so I intentionally changed up the layout slightly on the animation page, to hopefully draw more attention to it. In regards to wording, I prioritised digestibility over comprehensiveness. Putting the images and actual showcases of my work first, before worrying about the writing and explanations. However a lot of thought went into the writing, for instance the size of my art book is A5, meaning the font size may be hard to read for some. So I kept the wording concise as to allow for bigger fonts, but made sure to dive into workflows and more comprehensive breakdowns where necessary.
Business Card
When creating my business card, I made sure to include my poster in the design, since I am aware that potential visiting employers will most likely not remember my name, but will be more likely to remember my display and short film. I tried to keep it as concise and simple as possible, again following the same colour palette as the Poster and Art Book to ensure consistency in regards to setting up my physical display.
If I was to change one thing about this, it would be that i shouldn’t have listed myself as a generalist. Even though I technically took on a generalist role creating my short film, I have less of an interest in regards to taking on generalist roles. I primarily want to be an animator.
Showreel
When creating my showreel, I wanted to again highlight my animation experience. I focused on finding clips which showed off movement and emotion, and tried to include a wide range of mediums and animation styles as to hopefully showcase a level of flexibility in regards to animation style. I of course have Flickerpix to thank for most of these, as they kindly gave me plenty of opportunities to get involved with the character animation in their projects. I made it incredibly and admittedly for me, painfully short. However I wanted to absolutely ensure quality over quantity.
Art Station
For my Art Station I mostly re-purposed layouts and images I used in my Art Book to showcase work. Since I put a significant amount of effort into the Art Book, and unlike Art Station the Art Book was only going to be available for viewing once. So I saw no issue with reusing some of this work to promote myself in a broader manner. I felt on my Art Station I could focus not only on showcasing animation, but also the modelling side of things, since those who visit my page can choose what they look into and what they don’t. Unlike if they were watching a video showreel, which is a much more linear format in which I feel I have to be more respectful of time.
Link to Art Station: https://www.artstation.com/cain84
I have also created a Link tree, with both my Showreel and Art Station included. To make sharing a broader variety of my work easier and more accessible.
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/cainanimation
Reflection
Overall I am actually really proud of how my industry facing materials turned out, I wouldn’t have usually put nearly as much thought into my presentation and accessibility of work. However throughout this course I have learned just how invaluable good self promotion can be, and have gained a perspective changing insight into ways of marketing both my Final Film, and myself.