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“Vanity” Animation Animatic (Version 2)

*Planning to cut down and create a 3rd Version*

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“Vanity” Animation Storyboard

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Concept Art of Alzena

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Vanity “Team and Cast” (Potential)

TEAM

Director/Animator/Producer/Character Design/ Post-Production: Nygilia McClain

Voice Actor/Poet/Assistant Script Writer: Saili Katebe

Music Producer: Vaughn Hunter

Environment Concept Artist: Tea Charlton

VR Assistant: Rob “The Plug” Harris

CAST

Main Character (Alzena): Orieoma Chukwu

Supporting Characters-

Spirit of the Forest: Presley Guobadia

Spirit of Colour: Juliette I.

Background characters-

Alzena’s Creatures: Alia Wilson, Zigwai Akut, Afua Baidoo, Carlee Hirt

Forest Spirits: Tobi Adeola, Taiwo Badmus, Yeisi Guzman, Adedayo Dada

City Kids: Anthony Ghatt, Tafara Chizarura, Jalissa Adams, Domonique Sims, Michael Lines

Rotoscoping Models (mainly classmates):

James Evans

Bridgette Williams

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Story Breakdown of “Vanity” (Potential Main Plot)

Alzena is asleep in a broken city. She opens her hands and plants begin to grow. Alzena travels and creates color + life. While traveling, she arrives at a forest and meets a spirit. She falls in love with the spirit of the forest. Suddenly, all goes black and white. The Spirit of the Forest betrays Alzena, bringing darkness and chaos into existence. Alzena resists his control and uses all her energy to stop him. The world flashes and spirals. All goes black. Alzena awakens in a garden. She meets the spirit of color, the power which was released from being locked away in Alzena’s body. She invites Alzena to dance. As they danced with each other, the color begins to flourish back into existence. Alzena and the Spirit of Colour begin to spread nature as they danced around the area. They revived the dead city and helped children feel alive again through dance, color, and rhythm.

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It’s all about NYC

I decided the ending scene will revolve around the revival of a city into vibrant colors. Within that city, kids from different areas will come back to life and exist again as well. 

Inspiration: Into the Spiderverse, Oliver & Company, An American Tail, and James and the Giant Peach

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Other inspirations from Dreamworks

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Alice’s Madness Returns (Video Game) (Climax Color Study)

Alongside looking at Prince of Egypt, I have also been watching some old game commentaries. Pewdiepie, a famous game commentator on youtube, was playing this game called “Alice’s Madness Returns”. It is based on the story “Alice in Wonderland” but in a horror aspect. What made me connect the two was its dramatic use of color during dark, emotional moments. The blood is designed with the scenery, whether part of it or slow-mo off the character fights. Either way, it inspires how Alzena may transition when she enters a nightmare.   

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THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT (CLIMAX INSPIRATION)

While watching the movie, there’s a very powerful scene where Rameses refuses to free the Israelites from slavery. So as the biblical story goes, God unleashes the 10 plagues upon Egypt to punish them for their cruelty towards human slavery. This scene is emotional, expressing a variety of reds, blacks, dark blues, dark purples, and blacks. By watching this, it unraveled the mood of how I wanted the climax of “Vanity” to be.

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PRINCE OF EGYPT

While watching this, I was drawn to their face and eye structure. What was really nice about this quality was their sense of realism, while also preserving ethnic surrealism. It’s a beautiful film and story, going back to the deeper roots of Egypt. 

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Creative Block for Climax

For the story “Vanity”, I was stuck on the story and how I wanted the main character, Alzena, to deal with some sort of hardship. Does it remain just a colorful film or does it have depth? I really wanted to show perspective. Capture an audience off guard. 

I began to watch some older animations. For some reason, I was inspired to revisit some classic DreamWorks films, such as “The Prince of Egypt” and “The Road to El Dorado”.

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With writing the “Vanity” Poem and revisiting different scenes, I concentrated on the visual language via for cinematic shots. I wanted to look into how I would capture the mood/energy of each scene by studying various media. With that, it has helped me breakdown words and simplifies the story. 

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List of Afrofuturism Inspiration

Here is an overall list as to what I have been looking into for my film “Vanity”. Constantly looking and learning for new ideas.

-Into the Spiderverse (Animation Movie)

-Black Panther (Movie)

-Bjork (Singer)

-Deep Forest (Band)

-Keith Haring (Fashion)

-Jean Paul (Fashion)

-Rei Kawakubo (Fashion)

-Invisible Kingdom (Comic)

-Dani Diez (Artist)

-Jhene Aiko (Singer)

-Sade (Singer)

-SIA (Singer)

-Beyonce (Singer)

-Childish Gambino (Singer)

-Legend of Zelda (Video Game)

-Kandinsky (Artist)

-When the Day Breaks (Animation Movie)

-The Human Condition (Animation Movie)

-Hayao Miyazaki (Director)

-Disney’s Tapestry of Nations (Parade)

-Paper Mario (Video Game)

-Steven Universe (TV Show)

-Jim Batt (Stop Motion Animator)

-Arthur Schopenhauer (Philosopher)

-Lotte Reiniger (Stop Motion Animator) 

-Child of Light (Video Game)

-Kendrick Lamar (Singer)

-Deep Dark Fears (Book)

-Rihanna (Singer)

-Solange (Singer)

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VISUAL COMPARISON TO JEAN PAUL’S FASHION 

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Jean Paul’s Work Samples

From looking at Jean Paul’s work, I really appreciated the crown-like features the most. It reminds me of afrofuturistic symbolism that artists have used, such as Solange Knowles and Janelle Monae. 

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Rei Kawakubo’s Work Samples

She designs natural and avant-garde pieces, which promotes a wide range of colors. Also, she designed for one of my favorite singers, Rihanna, at the Met Gala. It really shows form into the figure, which makes me connect back to Pierre Huyghe’s work, where he makes the face the identity of the piece. 

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Kathryn Presentation

Kath, A fashion tutor, came in to talk about her appreciation of combining animation and fashion into one sequence of art. During her talk, she mentioned a few artists that inspired her. I decided to take a look into Rei Kawakubo and Jean Paul’s work.