Diploma Document

Rajmohan Chozhiath

Diploma Project2010

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COVER PAGEl o t t e r y

A D i p l o m a P r o j e c t A n i m a t i o n

2 |Animation Short Film | Rajmohan Chozhiath | DJ Academy of Design

Document:Animation Short film 2010

Student:Rajmohan ChozhiathD.J. Academy of DesignCoimbatore

Guide:Priyankar GuptaMumbai

Institute:D.J. Academy of DesignThe D J Academy of Design, (a unit of G.K.D Charity trust, founded by Cav. Dr. G.K.Devarajulu, founder Chairman of LMW group of companies) conducts 3 year PG program and 4 year UG program in De-sign. Industrial Design, Communication Design and Accessory Design are three broad programs that are offered at DJAD.

Sponsored by:Pumpkin Design StudioB43, Gurudev Apts,Oppo. MTNL office,Chembur NakaChemburMumbai400071

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D J ACADEMY OF DESIGN

Approval

The following document is duly approved by the designated jury as credible work on the chosen subject, carried out and presented in a manner sufficiently satisfactory for acceptance as diploma project of this Institute. This approval however does not necessarily endorse any statements, comments or conclusions drawn in. This is a partial fulfillment for the award of the Undergraduate / Postgraduate level Diploma in Industrial / Communication Design.

Title of the Project : …………………………………..……………………….…

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Student : ………………………………...………………………….…

Guide/s : ……………………………………...……………...……….

…………………. ………………….. Internal Jury External Jury Name & Signature Name & Signature …………………….. Place : Coimbatore Dean / Jury Chairman Date : …………………. Name & Signature

Coimbatore – Pollachi Highway, Othakkalmandapam (P.O.), Coimbatore 641 032. Phone : 0422-2610333, 2610428 Fax : 0422-2610348

A Animation short film - Lottery (malayalam)

Rajmohan Chozhiath

Priyankar Gupta


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content

introduction

storyline

storyboard

character sheet

animatics

animation

reference

acknowledgement 07

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acknowledgement

It is my privilege to express my sincerest regards to my project guide, Mr. Priyankar Gupta, Mr. Sheshadiri Kalpathy (Pumpkin Studio, Mumbai) and Ms. Anitha Sun-der (Pumpkin Studio, Mumbai) for their valuable inputs, able guidance, encouragement, whole-hearted co-opera-tion and constructive criticism throughout the duration of my project.

I take this opportunity to thank Rohit Rajan, Col-lins Samuel, Sohan Varghese, Gautham Manoj - who gave the voice over. I deeply express my sincere thanks to my friends Deepak Nair, Jaikishan Patel, Rahul Laisram, Uttara Sivadas and Uma Madhu for supporting and encouraging me to finish my Diploma Project Animation, and Muthiah Kasi, Pankaj Uthekar, Sanket Patade, Shalik Kesharwani, Thasleem AM and all my friends for all thier support which have directly or indirectly helped me in my project. I pay my respects and love to my parents and all other family members for their love and encouragement throughout my project.

Last but not the least, I express my thanks to my dean Prof. S Balaram and all other faculties and office staffs at D.J. Academy of Design, Coimbatore for their co-operation and support.


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introduction

Animation is a graphic representation of drawings to show movement within those drawings. A series of drawings are linked together and usually photo-graphed by a camera. The drawings have been slightly changed between individualized frames so when they are played back in rapid succession (24 frames per second) there appears to be seamless movement within the draw-ings.

There are different techniques for animation, the first one is Traditional animation which is also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation, and this was the pro-cess used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photo-graphs of drawings, which are first drawn on paper. To cre-ate the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators’ drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cel, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed charac-ter cels are photographed one-by-one onto motion picture film against a painted background by a rostrum camera. Then we have the Stop-motion animation which is used to describe animation created by physically ma-nipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the type of media used to create the animation. Puppet animation, Clay animation, cut out ani-mation, Pixilation all comes under Stop-motion animation.

The third type is Computer animation; it encom-passes a variety of techniques, the unifying factor being that the animation is created digitally on a computer. This technique has 2D animation, in which figures are created and/or edited on the computer using 2D bitmap graphics or created and edited using 2D vector graphics. And 3D ani-mation, which are digitally modeled and manipulated by an animator. In order to manipulate a mesh, it is given a digital skeletal structure that can be used to control the mesh. In my animation I have used the traditional cell

animation and the modern 2D animation style. I have fol-lowed the traditional method till drawing each frames and clicking them, and then took them to computer for inking it. The background was drawn separately and added to the animation using Adobe After Effects.

The story is about a poor fisherman in Cochin, Krishnankutty. It is about how a poor man dreams of a better life but for which money is a short come .It shows how a poor man struggles to live his dream. It talks about the ironical situation of needing money to get out of pov-erty. It throws light on the viscous circle of poverty. It is a small part of a poor man’s life. Krishnankutty strived hard throughout the day in a Chinese fishing company for his bread and butter. He struggled to make both ends of his living meet. All he had in life was a small hut on the shore, a dream to buy a boat and a wife who always complained of Krishnankutty not contributing anything to the house. Though Krishnankutty worked very hard, misfortune and ill-luck never seemed to leave him. Krishnankutty had a dream of buying a boat to earn better. He could not afford to take a loan because the interest was too high. So, he resorted to buying lottery tickets to try his luck. However, luck and fate seemed to be mocking at his life. He spent all his money on lottery tickets but never won anything. His wife considered him a failure. Krishnankutty was made to face defeats and losses all his life. Krishnankutty decides to borrow money from a money lender and he ends up be-ing robbed of that money too. At this stage, all he has is a lottery ticket. The story is about how his life changes when finally lady luck shows kindness and brings fortune into his doomed life in the form of a lottery ticket.


script layout 1

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storyline

The scene opens with his money getting stolen. He goes back home with a heavy heart. His wife starts shouting at him as always. He gets irritated and walks out of the house. He meets the lottery man on the way out. The lottery guy increases the announcement to get his atten-tion. He buys a ticket from him. Lottery guy asks him what happened but he does not reply. Then a flashback of what happened to him. He is talking to the money lender and takes the money from the lender. Back to present - wife shouts again when he returns back, he hides the ticket. Then he reads the newspaper in the teashop and he finds that he has won. He reaches home and find out that the ticket is missing. There are two kinds of climax:a) Wife tells that she threw it in the stove so he takes the lottery from there.b) Wife tells that she threw it in dustbin; he goes out and sees that the garbage has been taken by the municipal-ity truck. So he runs behind it and finds his lottery in the garbage.


script layout 2

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The opening scene shows him jumping with joy. And he is running somewhere. Then he begins to think and the flashback starts . He is talking to the moneylender and he takes the money from him. Then on his way out some one steals the money from him. He goes back home with a heavy heart. On reaching home his wife begins to com-plain as always. He gets angry and walks out of the house. When he goes out he notices the lottery guy stil standing. On seeing him the lottery guy makes his announcement louder. Eventually he buys the ticket from him. Now pres-ent - he reaches home happy and excited but the ticket is missing. There are two kinds of climax:a) Wife tells that she threw it in the stove so he takes the lottery from there.b) Wife tells that she threw it in the dustbin; he goes out and sees that the garbage has been taken by the munici-pality truck. So he runs behind it and finds his lottery in the garbage.


script layout 3

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The opening scene is the conversation between Money lender and the fisherman. He comes out of the house with the money which he borrowed from the money lender. Then he meets the lottery guy. He tried not to buy it but the lottery guy persuaded him to buy one. He buys a ticket and on his way back someone attacks him and takes all the money he borrowed. He goes home sad. Wife shouts as always for not buying anything for the house. He goes out of the house but he hides the ticket next to the old one. He reads the newspaper from the teashop and finds that he has won the prize. He reaches home happy and excited but the ticket is missing. There are two kinds of climaxa) Wife tells that she threw it in the stove so he takes the lottery from there.b) Wife tells that she threw it in the dustbin; he goes out and sees that the garbage has been taken by the munici-pality truck. So he runs behind it and finds his lottery in the garbage.


script layout 4

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The opening scene is the wife shouting at him. He goes out irritated. He goes to the money lender’s house to borrow money. He talks and convinces the money lender to give him money. As he comes out of the money lend-ers house he sees the lottery guy. He tried to avoid him but the lottery guy persuaded him to buy one. As he takes out the money someone sees the money with him. That person steals the money from him on his way home. He goes home sad and badly disturbed. He reaches home and keeps the ticket near the old one. His wife shouts as he does not to buy anything from the market. He goes out of the house irritated and reached the teashop. He takes the newspaper and finds that he has won the prize for his lottery. He reaches home happy and excited but the ticket is missing. There are two kinds of climaxa) Wife tells that she threw it in stove so he takes the lottery from there.b) Wife tells that she threw it in garbage box; he goes out and sees that the garbage has been taken by the munici-pality truck. So he runs behind it and finds his lottery in the garbage.


script layout 5

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The opening scene shows the hero with the lot-tery guy. He thinks about the money lender and how he convinces the moneylender to give him money. The sound of the lottery guy brings him back to senses. He buys a lottery from the lottery guy. Lottery guy asks him why is he so sad he does not reply and starts walking. While walk-ing he thinks again - he is walking and someone attacks him and takes the money which he had borrowed from the money lender. He came back to his senses when he heard his wife shouting at him for not buying anything from the market. He keeps the lottery ticket next to the old ones, and walks out of the house disturbed. He reaches a teashop and takes the newspaper out to check the result of the lot-tery. He finds that he has won the prize for his lottery. He reaches home happy and excited but the ticket is missing. There are two kinds of climax:a) Wife tells that she threw it in the stove so he takes the lottery from there.b) Wife tells that she threw it in the dustbin; he goes out and sees that the garbage has been taken by the munici-pality truck. So he runs behind it and finds his lottery in the garbage


final storyline

Krishnankutty had been working tirelessly throughout the morning at the fishing net. He had come home tired and exhausted and went straight to the crevice in the wall where he had hidden a lottery ticket. He took the ticket when he heard his wife from behind and he pre-tended to be praying. He took the ticket and left the house not bothering to answer his wife. His mind was already oc-cupied with thoughts of the lottery results. He walked to the teashop and he passed by a money lender”s house which had a board ‘wealth’. He stopped and thought about his situation. He was no where even close to being wealthy. He had set all his hopes on the ticket in his hands. He went to the tea shop and checked the newspaper. He checked the numbers in the newspaper with the ticket. They did not match. He crushed the ticket in disappointment .He was mocked at once again. All he wished for was a better life and he struggled for it. He had lost once again. His efforts brought no results. He was grief- stricken and started walk-ing with a heavy heart.

He walked from the tea shop and reached the money lenders house. He saw the lottery seller there. He wanted to buy a ticket, try his luck once more. But he did not have money for the ticket. He continued to walk dis-heartened when he reached the gate of a money lender, his master. His pace became slower and his mind began to think. He could go to the money lender for money, buy a boat, earn and repay the amount, but he was unsure. What if luck never favoured him? He would lose even his small hut and land if he did not pay the money back with the in-terest. A thousand questions thronged his mind.

He walked into the money lender’s house hope-fully, hesitantly and helplessly. He was not sure if he would be able to pay back the money but he saw no other way. He had to buy a boat and for that he had to borrow money. He entered the house or rather a mansion. The money lender was indeed a personification of wealth. Everything around him was expensive and sparkling. The money lender was a stern, well-built man and was resting on a chair. He wore

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a long white kurta which looked magnificently white to the poor man who was worn out from poverty. Taken over by the pomposity around him. Krishnankutty stood in front of his master dumbfounded. He mustered courage and told his master that he wanted to buy a boat and the money that he got from his present job was not enough. The mon-ey lender agreed to loan him the money but made it crystal clear to Krishnankutty that he would have to pay him back at any cost.

Krishnankutty walked out of the moneylender’s house with the money in his hands. His mind was more hopeful and plans clearer with the money in his hands. As he walked he saw the lottery seller waiting for him yelling out how one of his tickets could change his life. Krishnankutty did not think twice. He pulled out a hundred rupees note from the bunch he had borrowed and bought the ticket. He saw from the corner of his eye, a very muscular man eying the bunch of money in his hands. Krishnankutty continued to walk and reached a lonely lane. He felt a heavy hand come across his face. It was the same suspicious man. He snatched the bunch of money from Krishnankutty’s hands while Krishnankutty could do nothing but plead him to let go off him. The man ran away with all the money leaving behind Krishnankutty with only the lottery ticket. That was all he had now. The ticket was the only hope that would save Krishnankutty from utter nothingness. Once again luck seemed to offer only doom to the poor fisherman.

Depressed and blank he went to the shore with the lottery ticket clutched in his hands. He sat there gazing at the wide sea till it became dark. He started to walk back home slowly with dragged footsteps and a heavy heart. As soon as he reached home he hid the lottery ticket in a small crevice in the wall behind a Ganesha photo. His tired body and disturbed mind needed rest. He lied down on his modest bed while the words of the money lender still echoed in his ears “pay the interest”. Intense emotions of fear and anxiety overcame all his senses. His mind kept thinking about the future and he could not sleep. He had

lost track of time. It was dawn when he heard his wife. He went to the Ganesha photo to take the lottery ticket but on realizing that his wife was right behind him he pretended to be praying and left the house.

He walked out aimlessly and happened to reach the tea shop. He took the newspaper and looked at the lottery results. The numbers on the ticket which were etched in his memory matched the numbers in the news-paper…6…3…5…5..0..5!! He had finally won the lottery. His joy knew no bounds. He jumped in joy! He was over-whelmed with happiness.

He ran back home for the lottery ticket. He ran past the money lender’s mansion and reached his hut. His eyes went straight to the place where the Ganesha photo was kept. The obvious change in the position of the photo and everything around kept in order brought to light some inter-vention by his wife. Huge drops of perspiration forming out of strain, anxiety and other intense emotions rolled down his forehead and chest. He threw aside everything search-ing for it and he heard his wife scream” if it is some piece of paper you are looking for ,I put it in the stove!!”. He ran to the stove, kicked the vessel on it and hunted for the ticket. It was a not a mere piece of paper but a piece of paper that would change his life. He found the ticket safe and checked the numbers with the ones in the newspaper. He yelled out in joy to his wife. His wife was extremely happy and realized that finally fortune would come into their lives.


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storyboard


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animaticscharacter sheet

In animation, a model sheet, also known as a character board, character sheet, character study or sim-ply a study, is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of an animated charac-ter. Model sheets are required when large numbers of art-ists are involved in the production of an animated film to help maintain continuity in characters from scene to scene, as one animator may only do one shot out of the several hundred that are required to complete an animated feature film.

In my animation the only person who worked was me so there was not much requirement of an model sheet as i knew all the gestures and poses of my character. But i maintained a character sheet for my reference so that I did not miss any of the details of the character. There are five characters in my animation. The leading person is Krish-nankutty who is a fisherman then his wife, a lottery guy, a money lender and a thug.


krishnankutty - fisherman

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kalyani - wife

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ganeshan - lottery man


bhaskaran - thug

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thomachan- money lender


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animaticsanimatics


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This is the opening scene. The scene opens with the lifting of the net. The presence of the fishing net and a sea establish the location for the story. The main protago-nist of the story Krishnankutty, a poor fisherman is also introduced in this scene. The scene shows the fisherman pulling the net with all his might. The chirping of the birds in early dawn in this scene explains the hard working charac-ter of the fisherman. Though the fisherman is toiling hard, he seems disinterested in the work he is shown doing. He is shown applying all his strength in work but without any zeal. He looks like he has a very mechanical and monoto-nous attitude towards his work. This is further shown when in the same scene, he walks back home with his head hung low and dragged footsteps. His body language shows lack of interest. He is just mechanically walking home. Though he is shown mechanical his mind is busy thinking about something else. There is something that his mind is so oc-cupied with that he just cannot stop thinking about it. His mind and brain revolves around that one thought in his head. The scene ends with the fisherman entering his hut.

shot one


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This scene happens as soon as the fisherman en-ters the house. The minute he enters the house, his eyes search for something. He is shown going straight to the place where a Ganesha photo is kept. He pauses for a mo-ment, looks to his left and to his right and moves the photo. He takes out a small piece of paper from a crevice in the wall behind the photo. While he takes it he hears his wife from behind and as soon as he hears her voice he quickly hides the piece of paper. In this scene it is evident that he is doing something that his wife does not want him to do. Hence, when his wife enters the scene he quickly pretends to be praying in front of the Ganesha photo. Throughout this scene, there is extremely little and ineffective com-munication between the fisherman and his wife. The wife constantly asks him if he had bought anything for the purse to which the fisherman does not bother to reply. He is ner-vous and wants to avoid his wife and all her possible ques-tions. His mind is very busy and occupied with that piece of paper and it is evident that he is hiding it from his wife. His wife is showering him with questions when ,without any response he walks out of the house still hiding the piece of paper which happens to be a lottery ticket.

shot two


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animation


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The animation is nearly 6 minutes and it took around 7months for me to complete the entire animation including the post and the preproduction. Before making the animation I did a line test with the frames i drew and then recorded a rough sound for my animation. The inking was done in Photoshop and these frames were taken to aftereffect for animating it. The final sound was recorded after the animation with the reference of the movie.

Initially I had planned to render the foreground us-ing the same process used for background, by rendering it in Photoshop. However, when I tried out the rendering using Photoshop, the look and feel it gave was too flat and digital and lifeless as opposed to the feel I intended to show. Since I was not very satisfied with the digital flat look I decided to drop the idea of using software for ren-dering the background and tried out other mediums. After many trials and further discussions with my studiomates, I came to the conclusion that the feel created with soft pas-tels was the best. Hence, I have used soft pastels to render the background wanted to enhance the effect of soft pas-tels for which I have used soft pastels on textured paper to achieve the best possible feel. Since the story talks about a poor fisherman in a village i preferred the raw feel as it gelled well with story background and storyline. The entire background was rendered using soft pastels on textured paper for the dry look. Though the background has been rendered manually, it was also edited in Photoshop for very minor adjustments like brightness and contrast.

Reason why I chose my title as lottery?

The protagonist of the story is addicted to buying lottery tickets. He uses all the money he earns in buying lottery tickets. When he borrows money from a money lender, he is robbed of that money because a thug sees his bunch of money while he is buying a lottery ticket. The fisherman is left with only a lottery ticket which later brings him fortune. The lottery ticket which was once the reason for wasting all his earnings becomes his hope and later his fortune. In this way, the fisherman in some way always has a direct or indirect association with lottery tickets. A lottery

ticket brings about drastic changes in different stages of life. The story revolves around a lottery ticket. Hence the title ‘lottery’.


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The Animator’s Survival Kit Richard Williams (author)

Cracking Animations peter lord and brain sibley (author)

The Aniamtion Book A Complete Guide to Animated FilmmakingKit Laybourne (author)

Cartoon Animation (The Collector’s Series)Preston Blair (author)

reference


diploma project 2010

Rajmohan ChozhiathCommunication Design StudentDJ Academy of [email protected]

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