Under the glow of the moonlit night, a ninja infiltrates a palace to reclaim her people's sacred treasure.
RENDERS
Original Animatic
After deciding the story concepts I elected to go for the story of a semi realistic story of how a ninja of its time infuriate a palace. Dialogue was not an option for us so I wanted to rely on visual story telling. After the first presentation of the original animatic, my class provided numerous needed suggestions to help with the layout of the differant shots and environmental story telling. This was a repeated process that continued on through the semester of Spring 2023.
Pre-Production
A turnaround of our hero, Yui the ninja. Design is intended to have a simple color scheme. Navy blue, light navy blue, brown and aqua for the eyes were the original colors. Later on I wished to further push Yui's relationship to the stolen Jade Dragon. To do this I changed the eyes to be a bright emerald green, the same color as the relic.
At the top section of the concept sketches is the thought process of what the relic's appearance was going to be. On the top left was the initial idea of a dragon head with a pearl on the top between its horns. This would have appeared unrecognizable in quick glances and could be mistaken for a cow head. The following designs simplified further and further until I ended on a simple swirl pattern with the silhouette of a dragon curling inward.
On the far right are basic sketches are what the thieving clan's insignia would be, this logo is seen in the film on the exterior of the building.
These are sketches of general feudal Japanese architecture. The bases of large important buildings were often raised on tall stacked stone foundations to make infiltration more difficult. I wanted all designs, architecture, and actions to be based in reality to make a believable story. I wanted to avoid modern depiction of "ninja magic" that modern media has portrayed many times before.
Production / Animation Style
Based on the inspirations of Old Boy and old martial arts films, I wanted to use the trope of shadows fighting to animate various complex action scenes for efficiency and to not lose the spectacle of the action being shown. Both scenes being depicted both use this idea to full effect. For the hallway shadow fight, timing and making sure Toon Boom's shadow nodes do not overlap was the longest part of the process. Initially I animated the scene on 3s as this is commonly ised in martial arts movies but was advised that the animation felt "sluggish" as a result. I went back and focused specifically on slow and fast in outs to give the scene more life and speed. The dedication I have placed into this shot alone has put it as a contender for the best scene in the entire film.
My usual process of making the scene starts with the animatic, then to creating the background. Key frame sketches are created for the major poses. Insert and animated the characters whenever and however needed, this includes puppets and hand animating mixing together, refinement if timing and drawings, The last touch will be the addition of shadows for depth.
Credits
Concept, story, backgrounds, choreography and editing by Jerico Ibasco
Shots 8, 9, 15 assistance from Vannessa Namie Palisoc
Music - by Yi Nantiro in Epidemic sound website
"Skilled in the Arts"
"A True Master:
First Animatic Music:
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Mystical Ninja (Sundowner's Garden) by Jamie Christopherson
Fire Bending Training by Jeremy Zuckerman, Legend of Korra
