Find out how this epic animated short about monsters vs robots was created using a combination of Autodesk’s Maya, Adobe’s After Effects and Photoshop. Watch the film here too
As Indie Film Week continues, we catch up with Hillary Yeo, director of the short film Godaizer, to find out how he managed to fund his ambitious project.
At 19-minutes long, Godaizer is not your average animated short. It tells the story of a young boy names Ah Seng, who lives and works with his elderly grandfather. Together they run a storage warehouse, which houses all kinds of robots in various states of repair.
As the pair go about their daily routine, an experiment in a nearby secret government facility goes wrong and a giant monster escape. With the military unable to destroy the creature, Ah Seng and his grandfather use their robot Godaizer to stop it.
“The film started out when I quit from Lucasfilm Singapore in 2007,” Yeo says. “I always wanted to do a 3D fight scene between a robot and giant monsters, so I tried to build a decent story around that.”
This led to the introduction of the film’s two human characters, which were inspired by actors in old Kung Fu movies.
“I am always drawn to the relationship between an old grandfather and his grandson,” Yeo explains. “A mentor-student relationship. And it’s kind of based on Mr Miyagi and Alfredo from Cinema Paradiso and a Hong Kong actor called Law Yar Ying. I was keen to explore the different types of relationship dynamics within this construct.”
Early sketches were made of the film's environments in order to finalise the overall style and mood. The designs were heavily influenced by Yeo's love of artists Kazuo Oga and Yoshiyuki Takani
Characters and environments set, the next thing for the director to decide was the overall style of the film, which was heavily inspired by the background paintings that feature in Studio Ghilbi movies. “Kazuo Oga, who painted many of these, was a huge influence on me visually. To me his work always triggers an emotional reaction and I desperately wanted to capture that.
“Another inspirational source was Yoshiyuki Takani whose cover art feature prominently on the old Japanese toy box covers. Something about his paintings evoke a sense of awe and believeability of those robots. Absolutely brilliant.”
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Posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at 11:15 am under Shorts, Showcase. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: 3D animation, Adobe, After Effects, Animated short, Autodesk, Indie Film Week:, Maya, Photoshop
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