A Level Creative Critical Reflection

When It Rains - Short Film

Film

Website

amegafutara.wordpress.com

Postcards

Blog About It!!

Creating the promotional website for "When It Rains" was tricky. As I established several times before, it is a Japanese foreign film which would mean that the film would first need to be established in Japan. Of course, I wouldn't go as far as to make the entire website for the film in Japanese (for project purposes), so I made it a little easier for the English speaking viewers to look at.

My inspiration for creating the website (though not at all similar to it) was based on three anime from my favorite animation studio, Kyoto Animation from Japan. The websites are linked below:

Kyoukai no Kanata: I'll Be Here

Free! Starting Days

Hibike Euphonium

Two of these websites are for the newly released and premiering films from KyoAni that debuts the characters, includes galleries and official art from the show, ticket sales, preview dates, and shops for souvenirs. "Ame Ga Futtara" also has the options of previewing and learning about the characters and includes galleries and screenshots from the movie as a way to promote viewers to watch it.

The style for the website is rather simple; nothing flashy or terribly detailed and beautiful like the websites listed above from KyoAni (I'm not a professional after all). The simplistic style is meant to mirror the style of the film, simple, sweet, and very whimsical. The child's book aspect of the film transitions into the website, which allows access for children to view and see the characters and provides information for upcoming news and information. It's a great way to let people know and promote the film.

Link to my website provided here:

amegafutara.wordpress.com

How Its Done

Here's the process I take to color, draw, and animate my film, "When It Rains."

(Recorded with LiveStream, Painted on Paint Tool SAI with Wacom Bamboo Create Tablet.)

Promotional Postcards

Postcards make adorable greetings and awesome souvenirs from travels to many exotic and wonderful places. I myself have a few from keeping connections with my cousins from Japan and Denmark. But I also have postcards from some of my favorite animated films. A "My Neighbor Totoro" postcard sits on display among all my Studio Ghibli souvenirs that I've collected. Postcards can also serve as small movie posters, and creating the design for mine required some level of research.

In order to create a postcard that sells, details of showtime and an interesting focus must be included in the piece. Since my film is animated and Japanese, I decided to find postcards under the same category. One such example I found is here:

Psycho-Pass is a popular two seasoned anime series with a film that was released on February of 2013. This is one of the promotional postcards given at the movie release as a way to kick start the series. Since Psycho-Pass got such a thrilling, remarkable success as an anime TV series, getting fans to keep up and watch the movie was cake.

Other examples of animated film postcards are included here:

(Tamako's Love Story - Kyoto Animation)

(Kyoukai no Kanata; I'll Be Here - Kyoto Animation)

This particular example states that along with a purchase of a ticket pre-order, consumers may also get this complimentary official art postcard with the four main characters, Mirai, Akihito, Hiroomi and Mitsuki.

Back In Business

I just got back from New York. My head is literally throbbing as I write this blog post (I really hate plane rides with a passion |"D), but I feel like I have a pretty important blog post I need to add here.

One of the most crucial elements to the final parts of this animation is the walking cycle. With the walking cycle done, I pretty have the rest of my animation done. All I need to add is bits and pieces of action and interaction and backgrounds. Walking cycles are probably one of the basic forms of animation done, but it's crucial to know. Crucial because everything evolves from walking. Every basic movement evolves from walking. Running, sprinting, leaping, jumping; knowing how to animate walking will be able to help me animate more advanced movements.

Since the cat is the only thing that requires walking here, I decided to focus on drawing and animating the cat's walking cycle more than Teru's. Here's the reference I used for the cat's walking cycle:

These are all keyframes, but this is all I needed to get this motion for the cat (Teru is riding on his back like a horseman);

With the walking cycle done, all that's left is basic copy and pasting options or a constant loop of the same frames to create the walk. With this done, the rest of the animation process should be smooth sailing. I can't wait to get this done! Only a few days left before the end.

Tour of Tokyo

As the story progresses, we delve in deeper into the typical life in Japan. "When It Rains", while being childish and fun, is supposed to represent Japanese life and everyday culture through the eyes of a little kid. Similar to how I used to view Japan.

When I was younger, I visited Japan during the summer time very often. Some of these sights and sounds in the film are similarly based on my past experiences in Japan as well. The sound and chirps of cicadas during a hot summer day, the relentless flurries of summer showers, and of course, a few of the stray cats that wandered around the streets were all a part of the daily life in Japan.

(The video below is what a semi or cicada looks and sounds like. Ah, the sound of my youth)

Delving into the research of Tokyo itself will help better paint a picture of what Japanese culture is really like, in comparison to what most people are used to seeing. 

(An example of what I mean presented below)

This also works to help break the typical norms and stereotypes that most people in Western culture believes to be true about Japan. Rather than living in the big city, surrounded by outrageously dressed people and constant jokes and pranks, I chose for "When It Rains" to be located in suburban Tokyo, which in comparison is much quieter, much more subdued, and very casual. In a way, it's truly like a tour of Tokyo and the life I was so used to when visiting Japan.