Abstract
Action Animation is something that I’ve loved since I was a kid, the dynamic motion, the camera angles, and often the creative artistry behind the work. My love for the craft of animation has largely been fueled by this genre and because of this, I was excited to explore this subject for my thesis in the form of a film.
Dual For The Sundisk is a 2D animated action short film about a wizard in a sci-fi battle suit fighting a magic robot with speakers for limbs. The two fight for a magic artifact called the Sundisk. The film is meant to be a slice of a much larger story that I have had in my head for the last several years. The greater story's premise is that a group of unlikely heroes travels across an alternate earth in which magic was real. The narrative would follow eight characters, four heroes, and four villains. The basic premise would see the two groups constantly clash as the heroes try to keep various magical artifacts safe from the villains all while learning about the different histories of the places they visit. This specific project was going to be much more narrative-heavy and it was to be a sequel to my junior film, “Legend of The Sun Disk” and follow Lee, one of the aforementioned heroes as he fought waveform for the disk in a much more narrative-heavy capacity that would have hinted at the greater story elements in place. However, due to the limited time granted to create this project I retooled it to focus on one goal which was to create an effective fight scene. This meant I got to focus more on the animation itself. The film is animated entirely within the TVPaint software program. The editing was done in Adobe Premiere. The storyboarding and the animatic were completed in the drawing software Procreate.
My goals with this project were fairly simple. I wanted to test my abilities in action animation. More specifically I wanted to push myself to try and deliver on an animated project that has choreography and effects that can come across as visually engaging, I also wanted to test my current abilities as an animator. I haven't had a chance to experiment with this type of animation before and I want to see just how far I can take it.
All of these elements together have created a project that I am very proud of and excited to share at my defense. I feel like through this project I’ve also learned a lot about myself and my current skill level and it has helped me assess what direction I want to go as I continue to pursue my craft and also helped me see where I can improve. I hope this short film can show both my love for the genre of action animation and my passion for my craft as a whole.
Artist Statement
I’ve always had a love for stories and storytelling. When I was very young and discovered Star Wars something about that experience just clicked for me. When I discovered in high school that storytelling was something I wanted to pursue I knew I wanted to animate it. To me, animation is one of the most creative ways you can bring something to life. The ability to draw a design and make it move even though it really shouldn’t is part of why I love the art form. You can make physically impossible things believable. The reason why 2D animation and action-heavy animation in particular appeals to me is because of how fluid and dynamic it can look. I want to tell stories with a lot of intense and entertaining action as well as a deep understanding yet fun narrative. While Dual For The Sundisk is only a part of a grander narrative that I have isolated into one short sequence; I think it's my first big step in that direction.