WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.199 --> 00:00:04.259 I found out about the short film Here’s the Plan about a year ago and I’ve been 00:00:04.259 --> 00:00:08.620 waiting excitedly for it to come out because it was the first thing I’ve seen in a long 00:00:08.620 --> 00:00:12.049 time that felt honest about romance. 00:00:12.049 --> 00:00:18.200 We’re inundated with super sexy, dramatic adult and teenage romances, but we don’t 00:00:18.200 --> 00:00:21.080 get much that’s about successful long term relationships. 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:26.300 If you’re in a happy marriage or have been together with someone for at least a few years 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:31.000 you’ll know how underrepresented your kind of relationship is in the media. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:33.390 It just doesn’t exist. 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:36.371 Before I talk about Here’s the Plan, here’s your chance to watch it. 00:00:36.371 --> 00:00:38.530 It is almost twenty minutes long. 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:39.530 Okay. 00:00:39.530 --> 00:00:40.530 So, 3D animation. 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:54.100 I happened to watch an interview with Don Bluth - a famous 2D 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:59.070 animator - and he said something that gave me an Ah-Hah moment. 00:00:59.070 --> 00:01:04.100 He said as soon as there was a successful 3D animation, everybody started copying that 00:01:04.100 --> 00:01:07.189 style and now all 3D looks generic. 00:01:07.189 --> 00:01:08.189 Think about it. 00:01:08.189 --> 00:01:10.749 All 3D movies kind of look the same, don’t they? 00:01:10.749 --> 00:01:14.950 Especially if you compare them to 3D video games that have such drastically different 00:01:14.950 --> 00:01:15.950 art. 00:01:15.950 --> 00:01:21.740 3D animated movies all use this same style and only on a rare occasion do you get a movie 00:01:21.740 --> 00:01:26.520 like The Book Of Life which is so visually different that as an artist you stop and say, 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:27.530 “I have to see that.” 00:01:27.530 --> 00:01:30.899 Here’s the Plan is that different style. 00:01:30.899 --> 00:01:35.359 The characters have simple black pupils instead of detailed cartoon eyes. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:38.299 The animal puppet models don’t have fur. 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:40.069 Instead they have a hand painted texture. 00:01:40.069 --> 00:01:45.409 The shader is a flat 2D toon shader instead of complex soft shadows. 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:49.649 I would say some of the style choices were because it’s an independent animation with 00:01:49.649 --> 00:01:54.999 a small team and budget, but that’s not the case - the style choices were intentional. 00:01:54.999 --> 00:02:01.219 Everybody knew in the beginning it had to be simple or the movie would never be finished. 00:02:01.219 --> 00:02:05.170 The cultural influence on the art style is also different from what artists in North 00:02:05.170 --> 00:02:10.019 America are exposed to, since the director Fernanda Frick is Chilean, and the animation 00:02:10.019 --> 00:02:11.360 is made in Chile. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:16.319 Frick directed this with team of 32 people and finished it in two years. 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:22.060 The film’s budget was $50,000 and Frick had to supplement that by doing art commissions 00:02:22.060 --> 00:02:24.450 and teaching classes to make more money. 00:02:24.450 --> 00:02:25.849 Kind of like in the film, hee hee. 00:02:25.849 --> 00:02:30.420 What’s surprising to me and what you may find incredibly useful is how well documented 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:32.379 the making of the film is. 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:35.420 Normally animators make these projects and they don’t talk about what their thought 00:02:35.420 --> 00:02:37.360 process was. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:41.920 Frick has a blog where she’s posted articles about how to come up with ideas for short 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:46.049 movies, how to design characters, and they’re well written and easy to understand. 00:02:46.049 --> 00:02:47.860 I’ll put the link to that below. 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:52.739 One element of animation the blogs don’t talk about is something called a color script. 00:02:52.739 --> 00:02:57.670 This is where you make concept art for your movie in order and apply the right type of 00:02:57.670 --> 00:03:02.819 setting colors and lighting to fit the emotional progression of the film. 00:03:02.819 --> 00:03:06.430 This way you can show the other artists on your team what colors and mood lighting to 00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:08.040 use at every scene. 00:03:08.040 --> 00:03:11.670 At the beginning of Here’s the Plan everything is clear and bright. 00:03:11.670 --> 00:03:17.010 As the plot goes on the set becomes more grayscale and the lighting toned in blue as the characters 00:03:17.010 --> 00:03:20.689 stray further and further from their dream and from each other. 00:03:20.689 --> 00:03:25.110 I think what really gets me about the movie is that while it’s about this couple, it’s 00:03:25.110 --> 00:03:32.749 also about losing sight of what’s important. 00:03:32.749 --> 00:03:38.569 It takes a lot of work, a long time, and some unplanned detours to make a big dream come 00:03:38.569 --> 00:03:39.569 true. 00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:44.299 Sometimes good or bad things happen that distract you, but no matter how stuck you think you 00:03:44.299 --> 00:03:46.689 are, you can always choose to change. 00:03:46.689 --> 00:03:53.989 There may be a big sacrifice, but it’s worth it. 00:03:53.989 --> 00:03:55.280 It’s worth it. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:25.630 So… what’s your plan?