- VFX Artist
Mid September, 2025: Revisions
Post in-class critique updates:
Layout updates:
-
The throne room is no longer a rectangular
-
Added a side door and variety to wall decor to avoid perfect symmetry
-
After reviewing my references, the dining chairs have been replaced by benches
Shot updates:
-
Reworked door shot/transition to ice creeping in
-
Added several extreme(ish?) close-ups
-
Cut overhead of entire room for ending
I am still not satisfied with the door shot or ending shot and intend to revisit them later. Alongside revisions, I've also spent time brainstorming a title for the fake series. Between 15 contenders, I settled on the title Hall of Hail.
(See Latest Version at top of page for new animatic)
Late August, 2025: Storyboards + 3D Blocking
Halfway through the process of creating my boards, I blocked out a rough room layout in Maya to experiment with different camera angles more easily.
Seeing the actual camera movements was more effective than my attempts to depict camera movement with arrows in the 2D boards, so I've opted to playblast all camera movements to be inset in the corner of my animatic. Temporary music and credits have been included in the animatic.
Completed first draft of storyboard for class 1:
Early August: Shot List + Storyboards
Going into creating the shotlist, I already had a plan for the first draft. I started with time codes for every 2.5 seconds (the average length one credit was held on screen in the opening titles I researched).
Ultimately, I wanted the second half of my project --where the throne room ices over-- to mirror the shots in the beginning. By showing the same visuals in the reverse order, I'd like to give the feeling that the viewer is moving backwards through the scene.
After completing the shotlist's first draft, I started developing rough paper sketches and searching for photo references (for assets and compositions). Once my vision for the shots was more concrete, I began working on cleaner, digital storyboard art.
Mid July, 2025: Concept Development
During July, I developed 3 potential concepts for a title sequence where I could explore mood shifts and building up intensity/urgency using visual storytelling:
-
A series of landscapes depicting both a journey and signs of death in each location
-
A glorious throne room that starts to slowly ice and rust over.
-
The forging of a weapon, interspaced with shots that hinted to death and bloodshed.
Originally, I intended to create concept boards for each concept, but I ended up only moving forwards with concept 2. Using my concept and theme of "Coming Winter", I derived a color palette for the overall sequence and created 2 mood boards for my throne room before and after it ices over and falls into ruin.
Pre-Freeze Mood Board -- warm, lustrous, and grand
Frozen Over Mood Board -- desolate and eerie
I also researched what different roles I needed to credit in my title sequence, as that would dictate the rough length of shots and the overall project. Referring to my inspiration sources, I determined that most credits are held on screen for 2 - 2.5 seconds.
Early June, 2025: Inspiration + Ideation
My main inspiration for my project is the title sequence of FX's Shōgun. --> Shōgun | Official Title Sequence | FX
Each shot in the sequence is stunning and surreal, and the artists were able to create significant shifts in mood using subtle color shifts and music.
My secondary inspiration is the short film Themes and Variations by Ziye Liu-- > Themes and Variations Vimeo
The use of reoccurring visuals and the build up in pacing to tell a narrative with only simple objects is incredibly impressive.
Initially, I planned to base my project off an existing novel, but this concept was scrapped. However, I'm continuing to use themes from several novels and other media I looked at during my research/ideation phase, such as:
- Death - Great Halls and Kingdoms - Coming of Winter - Wines and Ales - Brewing Wars --