Charon Project

An astronaut captain finds herself outside her ship in a fish-filled space world. When she realises that her crew and her have died she must let go of the grief and failure that she feels to join them in the afterlife.

Our graduation project is an animated short about the themes of death, grief and acceptance.

During this project I took the role of Visual developer (backgrounds), Background artist, Animator and Producer. As artist I think it's important to put real and difficult topics in fantasy settings, it is easier to touch on hard feelings if it's done in metaphores. 'Charon Project' is an ongoing project and estimated to be finished next winter.

Genre Length Target audience Animation medium

Drama 3 minutes Young Adult 2d animation with TvPaint

MAKING OF:

Creating the visual identity of the Backgrounds

'Charon Project' is a film about an astronaut finding herself lost in outerspace. Throughout the film she realizes she has already passed on. The emotions of this film revolve around loss, grief and acceptence. This journey, from dark to lighter emotional states is translated through the background colours. It was my job to find that visual identity of the backgrounds which symbolizes that journey.

The colloration between the Sea, outer Space and Death in our film is symbolism. Because, these topics all can invoke a feeling of uncertainty. No one knows where we go after we pass, no one knows what is at the bottom of the ocean floor and no one knows what is beyond the furthest galaxy. This is why I researched the 'Fear of the unknown' and the cosmic horror genre for my research paper.

Concepting Stage

To start off the concepting stage, I started with making styleframes, basing my inspiration on media with a similar theme, for this instance Gravity(2013) by Alfonso Cuarón is where I drew inspiration from.

Experimenting with inky lineart and flat colors. with inspiration taken from the short film 'Baozha'(2017) by Jasper Liu.

Different medium, ditching the celestial body as backdrop and replacing it for a milky-way. Going heavier on the water symbolism. The crayon and pencil textures are inspiration taken from 'Wolfwalkers'(2020)

I experimented awith different digital brushes, watercolor overlays and the pencil strokes that are reminiscent of the sketchlines you can see in 'Wolfwalker's' backgrounds. I wanted to go for a watercolor look since our film relies on themes of the sea. The spaceclouds are drawn in the shapes of waves, as the ocean and space both mirror the unknown

The final looks of the deep space would be drawn in this style. The watercolors were further amplifying the dreaminess and strangeness of the area. By using cold colors it felt unknown and uncertain, The blues makes it look cold and unfamiliar.

Shaping the Duality

After exploring the different approaches I could take of the deep space it was time to start creating this contrast between the 'real world' which needed to be familliar and comforting, and the 'space world' which was unknown, unfamilliar and a little unsettling.

With these styleframes I wanted to show the difference between the two worlds by using the inside of the ship as example

I started off with the 'real world'

I decided that the underpaint for the 'space world' should be a bright blue, since they were already supposed to be contrasting colors.

However, the ship is still drawn with crayons and pencils to subtly show the familiary of the ship in contrast to the watercolors of the space.

The blues were a perfect backdrop for the colorfull fish that would inhabit this strange place and a perfect baseline for darker cooler colours if the mood got more tense.

I started off with the 'real world'. The colors were most important to me. By using orange, a warm color, as underpaint I contrasted it with the cool blues form the 'space world.'

The ship was made with crayon and pencil texture to contrast the watercolor. The grittyness of the texture symbolizing the rock and grains and stability of the earth.

Finalized 'earth' identity was meant to look stable and familliar, green, blues are the colours of the earth, and orange was to symbolize the warm rock of the earth.

With these final styleframes down I could start my guide on how to construct these backgrounds for my teammates. Containing different brushes, guides and steps I took during the process.

'resillience'(2023) by Yunie Choi and ' the Lovers'(2023) by Studioheartbreak are both inspiration for the visual direction of the ' earth backgrounds. The cellshaded square shapes and more gritty textures felt like a good fit.

Ship designs

The Ship also needed a design from the outside.

The designs I made for the ship were based on fish for the shape and I used shipwrecks as reference

Process of Backgrounds

The blue was too bright for the setting of this background, using the knowledge I learned from my research paper about the fear of the unknown, I applied it to my background and made it more unsettling. By creating dark obscured corners, desaturated colors (in comparison to the rest of the project) and using cool tones to give an impression of a cold unwelcoming area.

From Sketch to finalized product

With the visual direction I created I set background I set up, so my teammates could finalize them

The Final Backgrounds

Rendered background by Michelle Jansen Rivas

Rendered background by Michelle Jansen Rivas

Rendered background by Tamara Starken

Rendered background by Michelle Jansen Rivas

Earth backgrounds

For the earth backgrounds it was important that we used warm colors, opposite on the colorwheel from the spaceworld. The backgrounds are bright and the brushstroked are made with gritty crayon and pencil. This is all to symbolize the feeling of stability and familiarity of the earth.

Deep space and ruined ship backgrounds

The space starts off dark and gradually gets brighter throughout the short. But during this part there is tension, our main character is in an unknown place and it is scary. Combining aesthetics of space and the deep sea which are both known for their unexplored vastness amplifies the fear of the unknown. By showcasing a lack of bright lights and having cool colors opposite of the real world, this unease gets amplified.

The wreckage of the ship is a panning shot, in which you can see all the dark nooks and crannies, further amplifying that the once familiar ship is now broken down and unfamillair territory. However, the brushes used for the ship are the same brushes as from the 'real world', subtly hinting towards that familiarity.

ascending to hereafter

Ascending towards the light is often considered as symbolisation for passing away, in context of horror and scary media light in dark spaces can be a false sense of security. Our main character feels that way at first, but later realizes the light is a guiding prescence. our film also benefits of that trope. As our character comes to terms with her and her friends passing away, she swims towards the light, which is a metaphor for dying. Sticking with the water themes, the 'light' she's ascending towards is a milkyway which is supposed to scatter light like rays of light shine through the surface of water. The milkyway is where we live, and the surface of water means we are close to air, this is all much more familiar than the deep sea or space. Thus subconsgiving the audience a feeling of relief.

Animation

These are some shots I've animated. The one on the right I've also colored. I colored and lined some other shots in the animation too.

Latest shots I've animated on the project

I also animated in this project, both rough animation, clean-up (lineart) and coloring.

But, before I started working on the actual animation I did some tests to animate fish and the character.

Raw animation before lining and coloring.

This still taken from our animated short demonstrates the final look of our animation.

Producer role

List of funding and festivals, our first filmfestival is still unknown.

Breakdownsheet, detailed list of all the shots in our animated short that need to be animated, colored, lined or are in need of a background. This was to keep our team on track.

-We intend to get our funding on our Voordekunst page which is undercontruction, to gain traction to our animated short we will post on social media, mainly tiktok and instagram.

-Our animated shortfilm is estimated to be finished next winter, type of premiering is still uncertain. But after premiering the short will be on youtube.

The Presskit of out animated short

(Compact identity of our project to send to film festivals)