During my two week work placement I collaborated with a second year student, Brogan Jones, on her graduation short movie, based on a script by Henry Egar titled Critical Update.
The movie is set in a futuristic city whose inhabitants are immersed in some sort of collective, augmented reality game.
Taya, the protagonist, is an androgynous young woman that, due to a software crash and consequent head set update, is temporarily plunged back into the real world.
Here she bumps into a graffiti artist, the only character that does not operate in the virtual game world. The graffiti artist is rebelling against the real world’s white backdrop, injecting colour with graffiti to bring it back to life.
To visually highlight the contrast between the clinical and bleak real world versus the colourful and vivid virtual reality, the author decided to use two different animation techniques: 3D and 2D respectively. As a result, I was required to produce work in both formats.
For the two-dimensional work, I was given rough sketches to develop into five characters and one background.
It was a very smooth process, overall, as I was able to replicate the style of the author and match her colour palette.
Working on the background was a great chance to make my own creative contribution, whilst still adhering to the brief. The author was happy to take my suggestions on board and was open to how they could complement her work.