Another Man s Treasure. J. H. Freedman

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Brett Evans
5 years ago
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1 Another Man s Treasure

2 Contents Story... 3 Storyboard... 5 Animatic... 7 Character Design... 8 Setting Design Influence Conclusion Credits... 13

3 Story Logline: A jackal searches for a drink a surreal desert. A pair of hands enter the reflection of a gray-blue sky, sending riples throughout the oasis. They belong to a malnourished jackal looking for a drink. He fails to find it here as he chokes on the salty tears of a giant eye. Out of pity the eye points him in the direction of the ancient Skull Temple. After a trek through the desert he arrives at the temple to find a bound up cadaver at the end of a floating pathway. Cautiously, the jackal approaches it. But a scent overwhelms him. A strong, intoxicating scent. His mouth gapes; his tongue falls out; he salivates. In a savage, voracious frenzy, he tears open the cadaver s chest and rips out its heart. This wakes the cadaver, but all it can do is wearily watch itself get mutilated. Ignoring this, the jackal drinks the golden blood from the heart and, now satisfied, he turns to leave. Unfortunately, he didn t notice that the puddle of blood on the ground solidified around his feet and is climbing up his legs. He falls, dooming his hands as well. There is a struggle to be free that ends with him knocking over the cadaver, freeing it of its bondage, and taking its place. The cadaver falls into a pile of corpses and accepts its fate. The full script is written on the following page: 3

4 Another Man s Treasure DESERT - EXT. A pair of hands enter the reflection of a gray-blue sky, sending rips throughout the salt water oasis. They belong to a JACKAL looking for a drink. After a big gulp his eyes bulge and he spits out the salty mess. While coughing up the rest of the salt water, the oasis reveals itself as a GIANT EYE. The JACKAL jumps in shock. Overcoming his fear, he crawls back to stare at the GIANT EYE. The GIANT EYE blinks twice. The JACKAL blinks back. The GIANT EYE responds with a blink and a look in the direction of a SKULL TEMPLE. The JACKAL treks through the desert, walking past sand dunes of peculiar shapes and creatures in hiding. He takes pause at the jawbone of the SKULL TEMPLE. After a quick breath he proceeds towards its entrance, a spinal hole at the base of the gargantuan skull. SKULL TEMPLE - INT. The inside is large, dark, and empty. When the JACKAL walks in, only one thing is illuminated: a CADAVER suspended by its arms on a platform at the end of a long, floating pathway. It has obviously been here a long time. Its face is gaunt with a mouth overrun by organic mesh. This organic material overruns the entire temple including the CADAVER, whom is a husk bound by his arms in this substance. The JACKAL reluctantly walks on the soft, fleshy path towards the CADAVER. When he gets to the platform he sniffs around, and his nose leads him to its chest cavity. The JACKAL knows what he must do and turns frighteningly savage. He frantically digs open the chest cavity to get what s inside. The CADAVER wearily opens its eyes and observes its body being mutilated. The JACKAL wears a voracious smirk as he pulls out the CADAVER s large heart covered in golden blood. He punctures the it and slurps the liquid down. Excess blood drips all around him on the floor which causes the area to pulsate, but the JACKAL doesn t notice nor care. After he s done drinking, he tosses the heart aside into darkness and turns to leave, but the fleshy floor wrapped around his feet. When he tries to take a step, he falls down and the fleshy ground creeps up his hands. He tries to pull away, but the flesh tenses up. With all the strength he can muster, he tries to stand up. Suddenly, the flesh relaxes and the JACKAL scrambles backwards into the CADAVER. Its bonds break and the flesh on the JACKAL s hands attach to the loose strands. The CADAV- ER falls into the empty abyss and lands on a pile of similar cadavers. It watches the JACKAL struggle to escape and slowly closes its eyes to embrace its new found slumber. 4

5 Storyboard I designed my storyboards specifically to create the animatic and displaying my animation process. I do this by keeping three simple things in mind: easier -Design the background and foreground seperately -Design slides for the purpose of moving -Have strong lines on the moving figures to make the Photoshop process After drawing them out on notecards I can them by the ten, crop them, and isolate the moving parts. 5

6 Another Man s Treasure 6

7 Animatic Because the storyboards are streamlined, making the animatic is simple. It involves dragging and dropping foreground to background, timing the shots out, moving the movable parts, then retiming. Once layered, it looks like the image above. 7

8 Another Man s Treasure Charactor Design I studied at a lot of images of jackals, both silverback and golden, to capture the beauty and furiosity in a sleek and simple design. To achieve this I based the design off of a series of triangles. Once I started animating, I made another choice: emphasis on flow over consistancy. This can be seen in both the pencil test version and the finalized version seen below. I emphasized the flow for the sake of strong animation and interesting movements. Inconsistant details may push into the uncanny, which is perfect for the uncomfortable atmosphere of the piece. 8

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10 Another Man s Treasure Setting Design Jaw Arch concept Eye Lake concept Spinal Enterence concept Cadaver concept 10

11 Influence Aeon Flux deserves special mention because it hasn t just influenced my work; it has changed it. It showed me that loose animation can still look clean and that uncanny motions can still be beautiful. 11

12 Another Man s Treasure Final Reflection Another Man s Treasure has been an exploration of surrealsim and everything the genre entails. I had to dive into my subconsious to pull from primal thoughts and urges that I still fear. Many design choices and movements are based on an automated process and have no deliberation behind. This has caused some interesting confusion on my part. Even though this is my creation, I don t know what it means. I instead have a personal interpretation. Through closer examination I found several alternate interpretations, all of which perfectly valid. I honestly don t know what to think of Another Man s Treasure other than the fact that is a part of me to share with the world. 12

13 Credits All work pertaining to Another Man s Treasure has been done by me. 13

14 Another Man s Treasure

After a few beats, Nicko STOPS at the sight of:

After a few beats, Nicko STOPS at the sight of: EXT. THE COMPOUND - NIGHT GAYGE and NICKO (early twenties) make their way across the campus, wearing their black leather, hiding in the shadows. The campus is empty, making it easy for them to get to where