Milestone1 | cgt341

Milestone 1

Premises

Clumsy magical fire dancer attempts to successfully call a magical spirit after humorously failing multiple times.
Young girl washes up on a fantasy “alien” beach alone, coping with past memories she has shared with her older sister.
Shark plushies bounce and fight over for a single piece of candy.
An older brother betrays against his young sister, which provokes him to become mentally ill to the point he calls magical destruction upon an entire village.

Story Plan

Setup – The story begins showing Sahara lying on the sands of an alien beach, wet and soaked as if she was just recently washed up on shore. Sahara regains consciousness, as she awakens to notice a photo that also washed up with her.

Catalyst – Upon closer examination, the photo show cases both Sahara and her older sister together. Sahara begins to re-live some of her past memories that they shared together, which would resemble very similarly to casual living in our (human) present day.

First Turning Point - Sahara begins to smirk after remembering some of her past moments. She begins to wonder more about her sister and any other clues that might tell her how she washed up on this beach.

Final Confrontation – Sahara finally remembers how she has finally separated from her sister at last. She re-enacts the scene where she becomes separated from her sister, where Sahara gets carried away from the ocean waves.

Climax – Feeling heart-torned from remembering this incident, Sahara bursts into tears, not wanting to accept that she’s completely alone in the beach and that she might not have a way to return to her past life.

Resolution – A local native arrives and notices Sahara crying. She invites Sahara to start a new life living with her kind in this environment.

Characters

Sahara - Sahara is a 20 year old anthropomorphic reptile. Her clothing mirrors casual-wear from a warm location. She is generally a stubborn introvert that is difficult to please. As a result, Sahara rarely smiles. If she is smiling, it's usually because she's finding humor in other people's failures. She gets curious on anything that captures her interest, but her curiosity often leads her into trouble. While Sahara likes cute objects, she hates looking cute and 'girly' to others. Sahara usually cares about having Lumi around, despite the fact that they often get into a lot of sisterly arguments.

Lumi - Lumi is a 29 year old anthropomorphic reptile, and she is Sahara's older sister. Her ram horns are longer as they grow longer with age. She is much physically larger than Sahara to give that 'caretaker' appearance. Lumi has a lively personality. She is usually rash and playful which can usually pressure others – especially Sahara. Considering Lumi and Sahara's parents have disappeared while they were only around then teen years, Lumi has taken up the 'motherly' position. Due to Lumi's fear of losing Sahara, Lumi can be strict at times to the point it easily agitates Sahara.

Lei'lani - Lei'lani is a teal anthropomorphic serpent. Since Lei’lani resides in a location that doesn’t have much access to outsiders, Lei’lani’s clothing looks more ‘exotic’. Her clothes are light and easy to move in, loosely based from a belly dancer. Lei’lani is generally always seen with a smile. She often acts cheery and childlike to try to brighten the mood, even during inappropriately dark situations. Truth be told, her happy personality can be fake because she often likes to hide her fears and worries from others.

Environments

'Alien' Beach - The beach that Sahara gets washed up in. During nighttime, there is a lot of bio-luminescence from the local wildlife. The water has a glow-ish tint, and there are magical aurora's that light up the ambience of the region. Local species usually have glow marks or other traits to match the environment.

Normal Beach - Resembles a typical tropical beach with clear, blue waters and palm trees.

Ocean Storm - Takes places on a Yacht during a thunderstorm. The ocean waves knock the yacht around too.

Bedroom - A background for an eventually cut scene.

Treatment

1) First, an establishing shot shows off that we are in an alien-looking beach. Sahara is shown lying on the side, as if she was recently washed from from the shore. No one else is actually there. Sahara opens her eyes and awakens, in which she notices a photo. She then extends her arm and hand out to reach it, and upon further examination, the photo is a printed picture of herself with Lumi (although funnily Sahara would like camera-shy in the photo).

– FADE TO WHITE, AND THEN SHOW THE NEXT SCENE –

2) Now we are witnessing a flashback from Sahara’s past. It ttakes place on the beach near her homeland. Lumi is taking a selfie pic together with Sahara. Sahara will have the same camera-shy look on the photo. Turns out the pose they strike happens to be the exact same pose that is shown in the printed photo.

– FADE TO BACK TO THE ALIEN WORLD –

3) During the fade transition, we see the photo that Sahara is currently holding actually reflects the events of the previous flashback. We see that Sahara is currently sitting upright, where she is shown smirking out of joy from remembering those moments.

– FLASH QUICKLY ALONG WITH A BOOM (like a lightning storm) –

4) We then notice a brief scene with Lumi and Sahara both on a boat during a storm. Sahara is holding Lumi's shark plush while standing along the railing. Lumi bust opens the door yelling at Sahara to come, but then she refuses. The boat suddenly jerks and Sahara then falls off the edge of the boat. Lumi quickly attempts towards the wall to reach out a hand in order to try to rescue Sahara, but she's too late

– FLASH BACK TO THE ALIEN WORLD –

5) We see Sahara fall over to her elbows and knees, tearing up due to remembering the incident that separated her away from Lumi and potentially her past life in general. We see another anthropomorphic shadow cast over Sahara. Turns out Lei’lani is standing over look at her. She tilts her head and winks, and then then offers a hand out to Sahara. Sahara grabs Lei’lani’s hand and gets up, and then we begin to see them running off.

– FADE TO WHITE WHILE THEY BEGIN TO RUN–

Preliminary Storyboard

Art Style

I plan to work closer towards a stylized low-poly style for the modeling and texturing of this animation. The first reason is that because the models are simple, I can emphasize more on the color palette to help show off more emotion during the animation. The second reason is that by having ideally simpler models, I should be able to model all of the environments and concepts above within a semester.

I have attached a collage below that showcases some inspiration reference images from other animations or video games.