Yuanfen (2018)
Yuanfen is a CG animated short film and senior thesis, directed by Amanda Sparso and produced at the School of Visual Arts (2018). The film was completed in 8 months time and included a team of 30 artists in production.
Leading the Animation Team
My primary responsibilities on the film included being Lead Animator as well as Animation Supervisor, working to push and support the other fourteen animators we had on the project, while also leading the animation effort as a whole. Initially, being asked to lead and supervise the film and the other animators at the same time seemed like an impossible and daunting task. I had never supervised before, however it was an opportunity I was excited to be given. One of the biggest challenges I found was working on my own shots while simultaneously helping/maintaining the work of the other artists. I was constantly messaging the other teammates, scheduling days to meet in person and review their work, giving feedback and steering them in the right direction for the emotional drive of each individual shot, all while working on my own shots and having so many other responsibilities at the same time. The second most challenging task was working constantly to keep consistency between every shot in the film, making sure there was no visual break or strange change between each artist's shot that would inevitably take the viewer out of the emotion of the film.
Ultimately, although I was challenged and put under incredible pressure, it was an amazing new experience for me to learn from. Being thrown into it made the process of testing and learning as quickly as possible, actually become an extremely enjoyable and rewarding process. I learned so much about being a leader, knowing how to help each person on a team as an individual, and helping others to work well together and build off of everyone around them. It taught me a lot about communication and teamwork, and it was amazing getting to work with so many awesome artists and animators, and bounce off each other's ideas to create the best shots we could as a team.
Telling A Heartfelt Story
Before the real animation phase began, however, what came first was building the driving story line and laying out the previs/cameras. This was such a fun process to be a part of, as we were telling a real and personal story and it was an amazing experience to be second in command and aid in crafting the beautiful story and succession of scenes we see in the final film. Along the way, we found that cameras and compositions/framing were a key in the story as well, so I worked to make sure the cameras kept the film alive when it needed to soar, and quiet when the emotion needed space to speak on its own.
Taking on Unexpected Roles
I also had the opportunity to take on the role of lead matte painter. In this instance, I was never originally planned to be a matte painter on the production, however, when the time came for the paintings to be done I could see there were issues in getting across the right look, style, and production of the paintings that were needed. While still working toward finishing the animation, I decided to put in additional efforts to help in driving home the matte painting role of the film. I took over as lead, helped bring the current matte paintings together to a consistent style, and finished producing the majority of the film's paintings to the style we felt told the story best. I especially wanted to keep the color story interesting between each scene's paintings to aid in the story's arc. Additionally, I had the opportunity to work on a few other tasks for the production, including film poster/film credits designer as well as teaser trailer editor. It was also exciting to get to give feedback and critique on all aspects of the pipeline and to have a very large impact on the direction of the overall film.
