Karthik nagarajan diploma film documentation by Karthik Nagarajan

DIPLOMA PROJECT Chair Affair Sponsor : Self

Volume : 1 STUDENT : KARTHIK NAGARAJAN PROGRAMME : Post-Graduate Diploma Programme

GUIDE : AJAY TIWARI

2013 COMMUNICATION DESIGN (ANIMATION FILM DESIGN)

National Institute of Design Ahmedabad Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

The Evaluation Jury recommends KARTHIK NAGARAJAN for the

Diploma of the National Institute of Design IN COMMUNICATION DESIGN (ANIMATION FILM DESIGN)

herewith, for the project titled "CHAIR AFFAIR" on fulfilling the further requirements by

Chairman Members :

*Subsequent remarks regarding fulfilling the requirements :

Registrar(Academics) Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Chair Affair Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Acknowledgments I would like to firstly thank Ajay Tiwari for being my guide and helping me in my attempt at making a film, having faith in it and giving a lot of assurance throughout. I am thankful to Sekhar Mukherjee, my discpiline co ordinator who is much like the captain of a ship and extremely motivating. I would like to thank Arjun Gupte who got me introduced to the amazing medium of CGI animation and urged me to make this film in CGI. Next I need to thank Sandhya Ramachandran for believing in me and my work to the extent that sometimes it even surpasses how much I personally do myself. I would like to further thank Krishna, Matthew, Ankitha, Naveen, Diwas, Haninder, Gunjan, Neerav, Swathi, Venkatram, Neer and Abeer Gupta for their feedback on the film at several stages in its process. I am thankful to Shivi Pal for jazzing up my diploma docmument by several folds. I am thankful to all my batchmates from UG and PG who have contributed to my journey here at NID. I am also thankful to my friends from past who have been constantly interested in my work here at NID and been a large source of encouragement. I would also like to thank Sri Pradumnya Vyas (Director NID), Dr. Vijaya Deshmukh (Registrar, NID) and Vijay Singh Katiyar (Education Chairperson, NID), Sanjiv Shah and everybody else from the Animation Dept. Lastly I need to thank my Mom, Dad any my family to whom I simply owe everything. Thank you!

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

vii

Contents

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

About the project ............................... 01 Cost of the project .............................. 03 Schedule of the project .................... 03 Origin of the idea ............................... 05 Research .............................................. 06 Preproduction Final Script ........................................... Character Sketch ............................... Character Explorations ................... Character Turn Arounds .................. Set Design ........................................... Mood Boards ...................................... Rough Storyboards ........................... Final Storyboards .............................. Colour Script ....................................... Production Models .................................................. Animation ...........................................

16 22 24 38 40 44 46 50 65 67 72

Postproduction Compositing ....................................... 78 Sound & Music ................................... 81 Conclusion .......................................... 83 Reference ............................................. 85 Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

About the Project Synopsis .....................................................................................................

A household chair of an old man breaks at a point when he has surrendered to a boring routine and does not know how to change it. He makes the most of the situation by buying a bean bag instead.

Character Sketch ...................................................................................... The old man is 75 years of age and lives with his wife. He is a retired engineer who served with the airlines 20 years ago. Now he has simply succumbed to his daily routine of waking everyday and having nothing exciting to do.

The wife on the other hand worked as a teacher at a school and somehow has a better outlook towards her old age. She takes care of the old man, visits the doctor with him for his check ups, teaches the neighbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kid in the evening and so on and keeps herself engaged.

Target audience ........................................................................................ For all age groups

Treatment .................................................................................................. 3D animation

Duration...................................................................................................... 5 min

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Cost of the Project Cost of studio material......................................................................................................15,000 Cost of services outside NID............................................................................................10,000 Cost of one copy of diploma document........................................................................3,000 Cost of Guide visit by student...........................................................................................7,500 Cost of travel and conveyance..........................................................................................3,000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TOTAL 38,500 /-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Schedule of the Project

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Origin of the Idea Having lived all of my life with grandparents and having seen them age very closely it was natural that I would tell a story that was based on old age. So why make a film about the old? Because old people are often ignored. The mainstream animated content in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s context is largely involving kids and children or caters to these age groups. There are very few films that celebrate oldage or throw light on the physical, emotional requirements of the old. Personally I think it is extremely important to be aware of this to better cope with elders and the natural process of aging. Maybe it might even help handle oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldage better. My film attempts to bring the old into the limelight and narrate a tale about a couple whose roles in each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives are presumed. How their outlooks towards retirement and elderhood are different and yet how they function together harmoniously. Being an architect and having had an exposure in interior design, it is natural for me to simultaneously think about the space that my characters reside in, their spatial requirements, the furniture they use, the character of their space while they are getting better defined themselves. Also I realized that in several ways today the old themselves are looked upon as not more than furniture in the house. Hence I thought the connection would make sense.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Research

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Aging has a lot of effect on an individual: physical, biological, psychological and so on. As much as the physical and biological changes are known I felt that the psychological effects of age would be interesting to note. The following is a summary of each theory that has been proposed.

3............................................................................................................................................................. Disengagement theory is the withdrawal of an elder from a social life with the anticipation of death older people become free from work and family responsibilities allowing them to enjoy the rest of their lives peacefully. They begin to interact less often and activity levels are decreased. The disengagement theory cannot be viewed wrt to the older alone as it connects with his/her social participation. Hence one must also understand the society that the elder is in for a better perspective. Since the modern day society values high efficiency and contribution and as the old cannot provide either they are looked upon as a burden to the society. So this results in a mutual disengagement between the society and the elder.

1.........................................................................................................................................................

4.............................................................................................................................................................

Erick Erickson came up with the theory of 8 stages of life which talks about the psycho social crisis that is the outcome at every stage. Considering 65 years and above as the last stage of one life this is also the stage after retirement where one invariably does a lot of retrospection. This leads to looking back at life and making an assessment of one’s accomplishments. If the elder is content with his/ her past then one can be at peace and satisfaction at old age. Instead one feels a sense of lack or feels he/she hasn’t achieved to their fullest, hasn’t served any great purpose of living and so on then one goes into a guilt trip and eventually depression. Hence this stage is characterized by ‘Ego Integrity vs. Despair’.

Activity theory that came up in retaliation to the disengagement theory states that successful aging comes up with the elders stay active and maintain social interaction. It believes that by doing so the aging process is delayed and the quality of life is enhanced. One author suggests that activity enables older adults adjust to retirement and is named “the busy ethic”.

2............................................................................................................................................................. Newman and Newman took the 8 stages of life theory forward and introduced another stage: the 9th stage, Elderhood. This is concerning those who live past the life expectancy of their birth cohorts. There are two different types of people described in this stage of life. The “young old” are those healthy individuals who can function on their own without assistance and can complete their daily tasks independently. The “old old” are those who depend on specific services due to declining health or diseases. This period of life is characterized as a period of “immortality vs. extinction” Immortality is the belief that your life will go on past death; some examples are an afterlife or living on through one’s family. Extinction refers to feeling as if life has no purpose, an individual could have lived past all family and friends and feel a great loss.

5............................................................................................................................................................. Selectivity theory is a combination of the disengagement and activity theory and says that the old should selectively be active in certain activities but detach one from others. 6............................................................................................................................................................. Continuity theory of aging states that the elders will usually maintain the same activity that they have been carrying out in their life so far. According to this theory, older adults try to maintain this continuity of lifestyle by adapting strategies that are connected to their past experiences. The theory deals with the internal structure and the external structure of continuity to describe how people adapt to their situation and set their goals. The internal structure of an individual such as personality, ideas, and beliefs remain constant throughout the life course.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Ayudham, Delhi One episode of Satyameva Jayate covered the theme of old age and old people. It discussed the ways in which old age is looked at by the elderly and the youngsters alike. Looking at old age as a problem it discussed ways people handle it starting from extreme measures such as the very children of these old people killing their parents when they get sick and old, abandoning them and fleeing elsewhere and so on. On a more positive note it discussed a scenario where the old have understood the fact that they cannot burden their children anymore and expect to be looked after by them. So they have opted to live together with other people similar to their state in an old age home and support each other mentally and socially. Known as Ayudham an old age home in Delhi is one such place that has a healthy environment to cater to old situated next to a school of primary kids. This results in a very healthy relationship between the children and the old people as both have much love to give to each other. The children help the old with their chores and keep them company through the day. And the old also look after them and care for them as their own grandchildren. Some of the old people even engage in teaching the kids in school. The celebrate birthdays together and live in beautiful harmony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDH0YD4BVA

Mumbai Dada Dadi Park Psychology suggests that being physically active helps in coping up with aging better as one does not waste time in retrospection of life and regretting not having accomplished all that one wanted. This is what the Dada Dadi Park in Mumbai believes in. It aims at creating an environment for the senior citizens where they get to socialize with others of their age groups and interest. They get to share their emotions, sorrows and happiness and provide audience to each other. They also get to indulge in physical activities such as exercises, games, dance, theatre, plays, computer education and so on and that gives them a feeling of still being young and alive. The parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management also makes plans for pilgrimages and tours with the elders and this is one thing that most elderly look forward to making in the last leg of their life.

http://www.panoramio.com/

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Vina Mulya Amulya Sewa

Mr. and Mrs. Joshi

Random internet video

This is an organization that was started by Natubhai Patel in Ahmadabad at the time when Gujarat faced severe earthquakes and several spouses were left without a partner. Soon this brought everyone to a common platform irrespective of caste and creed where single partners could meet others and initiate the process of settling down once more. It is also the first of its kind in India. Surprisingly the first response to an advertisement about such an organization was largely positive and nearly 150 elders turned up to find suitable partners to live in with. Soon over the years 34 such gatherings have been conducted in several places like Bangalore, Kota etc and arranged 26 marriages and 4 live in relationships. The children of several single parents also encourage their parents to find suitable partners. Natubhai is looking at growing this idea further and reaching more cities and people.

Leina Joshi and Jayant Joshi narrate their lovely tale of how they met each other in their late 70s when they were looking for a companion in their elderhood. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very heartwarming to see how they have discovered love even now when most elders tend to give up. They lead such simple lives together after marriage when one would be afraid of unnecessary complications. This couple is truly an inspiration to all.

More inspiration came from this video on YouTube where a couple had gone to an eye clinic in Iowa and played an impromptu duet there on a piano for their own pleasure. This video became so popular that the couple were invited again to the clinic and gave an encore of their duet along with a lot of other performances. A large crowd gathered to watch the performance and meet with this couple who seem to be carrying old age with style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDH0YD4BVA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_14wbmbM5A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDH0YD4BVA

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Up is a film by Pixar that comes really close to my story thematically. And being a big house production there was a lot of preproduction material available for study on the internet. The following are the storyboards of a sequence from the film that shows the aging of Charles and his wife. What I had to learn from this sequence is how they communicate the passing of several years and how the bond between the couple gets further beautiful with simple shot divisions and transitions.

http://www.pixar.com/

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Arrugas is a 2011 Spanish animated drama film directed by Ignacio Ferreras, based on the comic book with the same title by Paco Roca. Wrinkles portrays the friendship between Emilio and Miguel, two aged gentlemen shut away in a care home. Recent arrival Emilio, in the early stages of Alzheimer, is helped by Miguel and colleagues to avoid ending up on the feared top floor of the care home, also known as the lost causes or â&#x20AC;&#x153;assistedâ&#x20AC;? floor. Their wild plan infuses their otherwise tedious day-to-day with humor and tenderness, because although for some their lives are coming to an end, for them it is just a new beginning. The story gives insights into the lives of the elderly, their conditions, the general environment of a retirement home.

http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.in/

Screenshots from the film Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Mon Oncle is a classic from Jacques Tati. This film served as a good material to study techniques of staging and scene composing. This is a film that has a theatre sort of a feel to it where the scene is set, the camera is fixed and the characters enter and exit much like what was intended for my film as well. It is an extremely acting driven film and the protagonist of my film bears some resemblance to the character of the uncle in the film in terms of their quirks and behaviour.

Screenshots from the film

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

City Lights is a film that was referred to for basic film making techniques such and staging, posing and acting. Like mon oncle, this too is a silent film. Also the lead character of my film has a chaplinesque spirit in him once the bean bag enters his life. The story is basically a commentary on the contrast of a rich business man who has everything at his disposal but is still unhappy with his life versus a blind girl and her grandmum without much money at hand being content with life and small things. And how when chaplin befriends the millionaire and earns some money he still does not forget his earlier life.

Screenshots from the film

Second childhood is a film that echoes themes as my film. It tells the story of an old woman on the day of her 65th birthday. Somehow she is in no mood to celebrate inspite of her butlers being excited on her behalf. A toy plane from a bunch of kids playing outside her house comes in through the window and breaks a flower vase. The old woman is alarmed and marches up to the kids and asks them to pay up for the damage. The kids make a deal with her that they will do chores for the old lady and whatever money they earn off it she may keep it. Soon the old lady finds herself enjoying the company of these kids much to her surprise. She sings with them and starts to feel young. The feeling continues to grow inside her and causes her to break away from her grumpy self and engages in play with the children irrespective of her age or health.

Screenshots from the film

Der Besuch is a tragicomedy about an old woman who to the horror of her son is cooking up a dinner in the middle of the night for her long deceased friends. It focuses on aspects of oldage, its physiological and psychological effects and ultimately caring for the old.

Screenshots from the film Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

The little boy and the beast is a short film that combines CGI characters composited with a 2D hand drawn background. It served as a reference to develop the look and feel of my film.

The old lady and the pigeons A starving Parisian policeman discovers an old lady who feeds pigeons in a park. He comes up with the idea to build a pigeon suit for himself. He figures out where the lady lives and when the suit is finished he puts it on and visits her. She buys his bluff, and the policeman in his pigeon suit begins to make regular visits to the ladyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s apartment, where she spoils

him with food. As time passes the policeman grows fatter and fatter. Eventually the policeman discovers the ladyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s other pet: a woman dressed up as a cat, also spoiled with food. As it turns out, the lady had the whole time been fattening the pigeon only to feed it to the cat as a treat. The policeman has grown too fat to be able to remove his fake pigeon head. The lady tries to slaughter him with a pair of scissors, but he narrowly succeeds in escaping. In the final scene the policeman is skinny again and without his pigeon suit, and is seen behaving like a pigeon in front of the Eiffel tower.

http://charblarg.blogspot.in/2010/09/uwe-heidschoetter.html

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Preproduction

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Final Script

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

WORKING TITLE: Chair Affair ACT 1 Act 1 is a montage of shots that intends to convey the monotony of the old man’s life and the chairs that he uses everyday. It is shown through the repetition of his routine where he simply sits in chairs throughout the day. Although he has a chair assigned for each spot and activity. The montage is editted to El Choclo by Katica Illenyi EXT. OLD MAN’S RESIDENCE – EARLY MORNING Camera pans down from a morning sky down onto a façade, covering windows and balconies of an old residence that is at the dead end down a road. <old man cough hard and loudly>

EXT. RESIDENCE – DAY The camera pans down from a bright sun to the old man who is sun bathing on his terrace. The sun is a little too harsh for him to take. INT. KITCHEN – DAY The wife is multi tasking with cooking and speaking on the phone. She turns to her right and waves the phone at the oldman signalling him to answer it. The old man draws a chair toward the phone desk. It creaks loudly. He sits on it and picks up the reciever.

INT. RESIDENCE – EARLY MORNING A hand opens the front door to collect the morning’s newspaper

INT. DINING – AFTERNOON After the couple have lunch together at the table the old man brings a game of Scrabble. The wife plays her turn and makes the word ART. The old man play his turn. He looks up at the board and back at his pieces. Picks up pieces one by one and places them on the board. Soon he is seen making an extension to the word the wife had made. ART becomes ARTHRITIS.

The old man is sitting at the dining table and reads his paper. His expression is stern and focused. A hand places his morning beverage on the table.

The wife loses hope on him and sighs while he counts the points on the board and makes a note of it. He still wears the same dull face.

His wife looks at him as she is about to sit at the table. Gives him a warm smile. The old man gets up from his chair causing the chair to be pushed back. The chair makes a loud creak.

EXT. BALCONY – EVENING <Sounds of children playing cricket in the street> The old man sits in his chair in the balcony. He looks at them as the ball tosses in the air every now and then.

INT. TOILET – DAY The old man sits down on the closet. He looks bored.

CUT TO Close up on his face. Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

CUT TO EXT. BEACH – LATE EVENING The old man and the lady sit with friends at the beach. They just sit and stare vacantly at the sea. The old man gets up, folds his chair, waves goodbye to his friends and walks away. INT. RESIDENCE – NIGHT The couple have dinner. The old man watches TV and goes to bed. The following shots are a repetition of his daily activities but his expression goes more morose with each day. The montage ends with a shot of the lady coming to sit at the table in the morning. And there is a loud clank of wood. The old man is startled and looks up from his newspaper. The lady stand across the table looking down and is equally shocked. She bends down and picks up what was once her chair but is now broken. Inspects the pieces in disbelief and drops them back realizing that they cannot be fixed. The old couple look at each other worried that their life is now upset and wishing they were never in this situation. CUT TO INT. RESIDENCE – DAY The old man reaches out to the Yellow Pages from the shelf. He opens it and turns to the furniture section. He glances through pages of Chairs, sofas, tables and so on. As he flips through the pages he only gets more anxious. Suddenly something catches his attention. Camera tracks into his face – fade into close up of 18

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

the book. Camera pans slowly over an advertisement for a bean bag. The old man is smitten at first sight (He has absolutely no idea what a bean bag is). The advertisement has him completely captive with images of people enjoying their time around the bean bag and feeling young and alive. Something that he would definitely love for himself given his state presently. He closes the book with a slam. It is evident what he has decided to replace the chair with. ACT II INT. RESIDENCE – DAY The bean bag has arrived and it is placed in the centre of the room inbetween the couple. The wife is absolutely shocked. She looks up and down at the bean bag and the old man in disbelief while he just stands there and wears a guilty smile anticipating trouble. She does not say a word, thinks quietly to herself and leaves. The old man jumps up and down in excitement. Pulls the bean bag towards the balcony and places it there and prepares to sit on it for the very first time. Touchdown. Camera tracks into his face to capture his reaction which is pure bliss. FADE INTO The old man enters a fantasy world where he dances

with the beanbag, explores all ways to sit on it, loves it thoroughly, sits on it, smells a flower and feels good about life. While his wife is seen in the background showing early signs of annoyance. CUT TO EXT. BEACH – EVENING The old man flaunts his new love to his friends at the beach. Like his wife they too are at shock. He tells them (in mime) how excited he is about the beanbag and that they must get one too. Quickly he goes and grabs an old woman’s hand and persuades her to try it. She is scared to death and refuses to sit on the bean bag. Somehow after a lot of persuasion he forces her into it. <Sound of a cricket bat hit> CUT TO EXT. BALCONY – EVENING A tennis ball hits the glass pane and breaks it. INT. RESIDENCE - EVENING The wife is reading a book when she hears the glass break. EXT. BALCONY – EVENING She opens the door to check and finds a tennis ball lying in the balcony. She picks it up and looks down at the street to see who is responsible for this. CUT TO The old man stands there. Posing with the cricket bat and wearing a sheepish smile on his face. Not sure how to react.

CUT TO INT. RESIDENCE – NOON The wife is at the dining table having lunch. The old man arrives happily with his beanbag. plunks it at the table and sits down. In a few moments he finds himself sinking into the beanbag. The wife just looks at him without being very concerned. The old man sinks further into the beanbag that he can no longer reach the table. He just ends up getting grumpy for that. CUT TO INT. BEDROOM – EVENING The old man opens his cupboard to pick up a shirt. He sees his usual collection of boring checks and stripes. Disgusted by them he quickly turns and looks further into the cupboard to find a colourful beach shirt. He picks it up. CUT TO The old man dances around the house wearing the shirt. Suddenly he feels a lot younger and more energetic than usual. All the jumping and dancing causes a catch in his back. He surely didn’t see that happen. CUT TO The wife on the other hand had a good idea it would. She stands behind him without his notice and looks at the tragedy. CUT TO EXT. STREET – EVENING The wife is riding the scooter with the old man sitting at the back INT. CLINIC – EVENING The doctor inspects the X-ray of the old man’s Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

back. It shows a severely bent spine as a result of sitting on the beanbag and the dancing.

his wife is not awake and aware of his state. The wife remains silent.

He lowers the x-ray

ACT III

In front of him are sitting the old man and the wife. The old man looks extremely guilty for what he has been but does not speak a word. The wife turns toward the doctor and starts to tell him about the old man’s recent obsession. The old man gets alarmed as he didn’t want to tell the doctor anything. He tries to shut her up quickly and tells the doctor that she is lying.

EXT. RESIDENCE – MORNING Sun rays start showing up on rooftops and terraces

CUT TO INT. RESIDENCE – EVENING The couple returns home. The old man looks highly irritated by what his wife just did at the clinic. The wife on the other hand is having a good laugh at it. INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT The couple is sleeping. The old man wakes up to check if the wife is awake. He gets out of the bed. Heads down to the kitchen and boils a pan of water. He pours the water into a hot water bag, seals the top. He walks toward the bedroom upstairs and notices the beanbag placed at the dining table. He pauses for a moment and takes a long look at it. The beanbag also stares back at him. The old man thinks to himself. And heads up to the bedroom. INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT The old man places the hot water bag on the bed and lies down on it. Not able to bear the pain he tosses and turns around. He does not realise that 20

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

INT. RESIDENCE – MORNING A hand reaches out to the Yellow Pages and a phone. CUT TO The old man is sitting and looking down in guilt/ shame. He mumbles to himself. Trying to reason things out in his head first. Trying to get convinced first as to why he did all this in the first place. Which is when the wife catched his attention. The wife is standing in front of him and is holding advertisement in the yellow pages open and pointing at a telephone number. CLOSE UP READS “In case of any problems, call #########.” The wife offers the phone to the old man. The old man says nothing. The wife dials the number from the Yellow Pages. As he hears the sounds of the button he starts to worry. The line starts to ring. The old man gets anxious. His face looks flustered. The phone continues to ring. The old man is unwilling to talk. The line

connects but no one is talking. The wife looks sternly at the old man with the phone stretched at him. The old man finally gives in, takes the phone from the wife, turns around. He stares out of the window as he starts to talk.

He opens the door. We see the wife in the kitchen taking out something from the cupboard below.

FADE IN Bean bag

End

We hear a loud sound of the cricket bat. followed by the sound of the glass pane breaking.

FADE IN A chair wrapped around with a lot of sponge and corrugated cardboard with a few labels on it. The old man looks at it from behind. CUT TO The old man is sitting on the chair. Grumpy. He is not at all happy his wife made him return the beanbag. Moreover he hates the idea that he is expected to show a lot more maturity. He just sits on the chair muttering. Irritable. The wife is entertained by most of this. She knows she did the old man good by getting the beanbag out. Something that he wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have done let to himself. Also watching him murmur and curse amuses her most. But she tries hard to hide it afraid it might piss him off more. Eventually she gets up, walks toward the old man and gives him a tight hug as he is sitting in the chair. He is taken aback. They both freeze for a moment. She lets go of him, smiling to herself and walks toward the kitchen. The old man is still at shock. Somehow all the anger and frustration has gone. And he feels he is back to how he used to be. A smile grows on his face. Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Character Sketch

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Physiology................................

Sociology.............................................................................................................

Psychology...............................

The old man is 75 years of age. He is about 5’ 2” tall (if he stood erect that is), thin, lean with a small ponch that bulges out. He hunches his back and buckles his knees when he stands. He moves slowly and carefully with the help of a stick or an umbrella. He is arthritic and the doctors have advised him to sit and sleep on hard surfaces.

He is a middle class Indian who lives with his wife in a small flat in the older part of some Indian metropolitan city. He used to work in a post office as the person incharge of sorting post cards according to destination. He took up this job at a time thinking he would soon get out of it. But sooner than he realised he just ended up settling down there. By then he had gotten too used to it so it was hard for him to switch. Not to mention that there was absolutely no risk involved in the post office job, a fact that he preferred. He did have several ideas for alternate jobs though but none of those ideas ever lasted long. For example there was a time when he wanted to be a waiter in a restaurant and play live music in there occasionally. But soon he figured how impossible it was he couldn’t even play an instrument.

The past 10 years of retirement has only resulted in him getting irritated with life in general. To him it has turned into a loop of things over and over again. Half the days he would just lie in bed before getting up wondering ‘What’s even the point? Why bother?’ He wasn’t even sure what he needed to make it any better. He had no idea where the problem was.

He has an abnormally large head compared to his body and even larger ears. He eyes are tiny and turquoise. He wears spectacles only when he has to read and write or go out. His hair is a well combed mix of grey and black with streaks of white highlights. His skin is a pale pink with discolouration at some places. He has flat arms and feet. Over all he has an appearance of rather a rodent that is shy, timid and in some constant state of uncertainty.

His attitude towards work is pretty neutral. It wasn’t like he was thrilled or anything about the job he was doing and there really is nothing to get thrilled about sorting post cards. Except the chance that you get to read what people are sending each other. Which the old man does. Occasionally. For kicks. Incidentally they turn out to be more mundane than what he expected as most of the time people are just talking about how they are doing and how each other’s family is and so on. Somehow all conversations always seemed to end there. It is as if people stopped exchanging post cards after the first or the second. Other post cards that caught his attention were, of course, answers to contests on television every week, as he was also of the habit of answering those most of the time. So if he wasn’t looking for help for that week’s answer he is probably making an assessment of the general answering public’s IQ to see how well it is or if they are making any progress at all! Soon he was 65 and was time for him to quit.

He is known to be quite moody. And stubborn at times. Much like a child. But thankfully his wife is there to watch over him and make sure he ‘behaves’ appropriately. He is completely obsessed with cricket and news and would watch/ listen to/read any amount of it on tv/radio/newspaper.

He receives a fairly good sum of pension to sustain the two of them. Apart from that they do have a lot of support from their son and daughter who are both settled abroad. They make sure to call up their parents everyday even if there was nothing to talk about really. And once in a while they would come online to have a video call so the old man and woman can get to see the grandchildren. He also has an elder sister who lives in the same city. He has a small circle of friends that he has made at his workplace who are all as old as him and retired from work. They make it a point to meet each other everyday at the beach in the evenings. Which is also the daily walking routine to them. And usually the topic of discussion is either cricket or politics as most of them are huge fans of both. They would even remember cricket statistics of matches that happened several years back and would keep discussing that over and over. Same holds good with politics and elections. Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Character Explorations

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

The following are explorations for the character of the old man based on his description. Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

The character design of the wife was very clear to me right in the start. Since she plays the role of watching over the old man and taking care of him, her nose is the most prominent feature in her face suggesting the idea of an assertive woman once.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Explorations in colour...............................................................................

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

......................................................................Final Characters and Poses

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Character turn arounds

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Old Man

Wife

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Set Design

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Mood boards

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Rough Storyboard

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Final Storyboard

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Establishing shot of an old houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s facade

Hand opens main door to pick up newspaper

An old man is seen reading it while a hand places a cup of beverage on the table for him

That hand belongs to an old lady presumably his wife

Old man gets up from the chair causing a loud creak..

..and sits immediately on a closet

Camera pans down from the sun to the old man sitting on a chair on top of his terrace bathing in the sunlight

The wife is seen multitasking in the kitchen with cooking and talkin on the phone and waves the phone at the old man

Chair creaks again

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Old man picks up the phone and speaks

The couple are at the dining table having lunch

A hand puts a box of Scrabble on the table

The wife is playing her turn

She makes the word ‘art’

The old man plays his turn

He changes ‘art’ into ‘arthritis’

The wife just looks disgusted.....

.....while the old mad promptly notes down his score

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Jump cut to old man at the beach, getting up from his chair, folding it and carrying it away

Old man sits in his balcony watching kids playing down on the street

Camera tracks into his face

Old man has dinner.....

.....and watches TV

Repetition of the initial shots of the film to show monotony

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Off screen sound of wood breaking

The wife picks up whatever is left of her chair, a broken backrest

Chair is clearly broken beyon repair

She turns and looks at the old man wondering what to do

Old man picks up a yellow pages book.....

..... and flips open the furniture section

He browses through

.....while something catches his attention massively

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Turns out to be an advertisement for the bean bag

The old man knows just what he wants to buy now

Cut to establishing shot of old man and wife and the bean bag inbetween them

The old man looks bashful

while the wife is at disbelief

She just shakes her head and walks away knowing there is no point reasoning out with him

The old man is all excited now,

picks up the bean bag.....

.....and puts it in the balcony and sits on it for his very first time

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

He goes on a fantasy ride with the beanbag doing a lot of crazzy things with it

..... and the wife happens to get a glance of this and sighs a breathe

Cut to old man dragging along his friend at the beach..

.. tries to convince her to sit on it, persuades her eventually and she sits

The wife is startled,

walks up to the door to check it

Off screen sound of a cricket bat strike, a ball flies and breaks the door of the balcony

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

It was actually the old man

He brings the bad to the table for lunch

sits on it and something unexpected happens

The beanbag was probably a bad idea

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

He sinks down

Jump cut to old man opens his wardrobe,

browses through his clothes

No mood for checks

but yes mood for some fancy shirt

Turns on his favourite music and starts to shake a leg

only to break his back.

Wife is quietly watching all this.....

.....but she knew. It was only a matter of time before all this happened.

She rides to old man in her scooter.

An extremely crooked spine can been seen in the X-ray.

The old man has nothing to say but the wife has and so she tells the doctor about the old manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest adventure and gets him into more trouble Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Her idea of fun

That night, the old man’s back pain is unberable.

Secretly walks down into the kitchen..

..boils a pan of hot water.....

..... and empties it into a hot water bag.

He sits down and starts comforting his back with the bag.

‘What have I gotten myself into!!”

The bean bag sort of stared back at him. Like evil

Fade out. Fade into next day morning

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

A clearly confused old man is sitting. Mumbling. He is trying to reason out his choices with himself

The Wife enters. Strongly she tells the old man to dial up the furniture store and get rid of the bean bag

The old man is not sure of anything now. He is partly guilty but not willing to admit it

She just goes ahead and dials the number and hands him over the phone

After a lot of reluctance he takes it from her.....

.....and speaks

Fade into track out shot of bean bag

Fade into track in shot of chair

The old man stands behind the chair and looks at it. He is upset like a child that he wasnt allowed to have his fun Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

He finally sits on his new chair

but he is still grumpy.

He mumbles to himself

The wife just sips her coffee and watches the old man and his antics

He continues to mumble and be grumpy

The wife gets up.....

.....walks towards the old man.....

.....and gives hima hug. track in

She walks away ehile the old man

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

The wife goes back to the kichen and starts to cook

As she opens a shelf to pick up something.....

.....while the old man slips away through the main door

The wife hears the sound of the door

Another tennis ball comes flying at the house and breaks a window

It was the old man of course

End

Some things are not going to change, are they.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Colourscript

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

The colours of this flm have been thought out as much as the rest of the film has. There is a certain flow in the colours that are used, running parallel to the graph of the film. It starts out in dull, desaturated and boring shades of greys and browns reflecting the routine of the old manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life. The general lighting set up of these shots are also indicative of overcast skies with no sunshine. Soon the advertisement of the beanbag is the first colourful thing to be seen in the film in reds, pinks and oranges. From then onwards its a lot of colour and sunshine following the mood of the film closely. At the point when the old man is low and introspecting, the colours change to blue. The point when he is most low is seen in a lot of shadows and darkness. Soon after that the film ends in a brighter, sunnier tone.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Production

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

This is a low poly model of the residence. It was required to set the scene and compose the shot and the action. The model later on served as a reference to be painted digitally while compositing.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

The Idea was to make a low polygonal mesh for the characters for the look that they carry. The edgy look of the characters was somewhat preferred than an extremely smooth mesh. Also a high polygon mesh would make the model unnecessarily heavy and tougher to process while animating.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Both the characters were modelled with a good mesh topology throughout, especially around the joints such as the arms and the legs as those are the areas that need to function better.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Both characters were rigged using the Setup Machine plugin. It is an advanced rigging plugin that provides a template to match the chracterterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proportions and size and it automatically places joints, paints weights and creates controllers. It has several options that facilitate any style of animation preferred from a rigid to a cartoony style with rubbery limbs and so on.

As far as the expressions and lip sync are concerned I opted for blendshapes after trying out several other options such as rigging it with joints, using face machine and so on. Blendshapes worked to the extent that was needed for this film. It is possible to achieve interesting facial expressions by combining several blendshapes together rather than using just one. it also makes the transitions on the face more natural.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Modelling the beanbag was quiet tricky. Although the obvious way to model it would be to stretch a sphere to the required shape of the bean bag, the issuse with that is when it has to deform while sat on, it deforms into a bad mesh owing to its topology. It results in what is known as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pinchingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. A better way to model it would be to start with a cube and subdivide the cube twice or thrice. The resultant form would be a sphere but with equal sized polygons on it. So the mesh deforms better when it has to take the shape of the bean bag.

The bean bag was animated using a lattice deformer. The lattice encloses the mesh in a box which has control points. Hence moving the lattice and its controls causes the mesh inside to move.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Animation

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

This was my first attempt at animating an old man. Hence I needed a thorough understanding of an elderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body movements and dynamics. Along with this I had to incorporate some of my own exaggerations in the action. This required me to study old peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body mechanics, act it out several times, make notes of the dynamics in the action, movements of joints, flow of weight and so on and also make the animation stylized and appealing. I have tried to achieve a smooth naturalistic movement on the character incorporating several principles of animation that I have learnt in these years. All this was necessary as this was an extremely acting driven story and I wanted to render a believable performance at the end of the day.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

This is the reaction shot of the old man when he hears the breaking of the chair. This shot required me to test animate the whole action in flash and translate it to Maya.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

In the II Act of the film (the bean bag sequence) the old man is far more energetic than before. He shows a lot more spirit and enthusiasm in things and this had to be seen in the animation. Most of the Act II are full figure shots of the old man capturing him in good spirit.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Compositing

Compositing for this film was all about making a CGI character blend well with a 2D digitally drawn background. This involved making sure the perspective and the lighting of the character matched with the that of the background. Overall lights and shadows were simulated on top of the composit to create the mood and different blend modes were used.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Render output from Maya with ambient light

Adjusting saturation / levels of the character to match the colour script

Digitally painted background wrt to the colour script

Character pasted on to the background with a shadow gradient on it

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Vignetting

A slight dirt texture on the composition

A warm gradient from the top suggestive of the light from the ventilator

Peripheral blurring and the final composit

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Sound and Music

I had always imagined this as a non verbal, non dialogue oriented film as an extension of the fact that the couple themselves do not indulge in any sort of verbal communication. Hence the film also need not have any, as most of their communication was in the unspoken form. This also meant that I have a lot of room to explore in terms of sound and music for the film to create the necessary mood and emotion that the charater is suffering. Being a violinist, I had a huge personal bias towards the instrument and was keen on using it as part of the music of my film. It was also partly the fact that I have more exposure to music of the violin than any other instrument and I was more confident of it that way. Hence the music for the first act of the film is a Tango, El Choclo written by Angel Villoldo, an Argentinian musician, performed on the violin. This piece captures the mood that I want to create in order to establish his mundane and repetitive routine. The music abruptly stops when the chair breaks and resumes when the old man looks at the advertisement for the beanbag. This music is to bring joy to him and convey the idea of being smitten with love. The music for the second act of the film is to add liveliness, representing the old man himself. It is composed in order to meander around the acting of the characters and enhance their feelings and emotions.

Music for this film is to largely reinforce the emotion that the character is undergoing. The sound design of the film was inspired from several real life instances. Such as the opening shot of the film, the facade of a old house, carries the sound of an old man coughing out loud. This was inspired from a neighbour of mine who was known for his coughing. You might have never seen him. You just know the old man through his cough. Another key sound about the film was the noise that the furniture makes while it is being dragged. It makes a distinct creaky noise everytime the old man moves it around and it gets louder through the Act 1. There are several off screen sounds in the film. One of them is of the kids playing on the street while the old man sits in the balcony watching them - wishing he could be that age again. The breaking of the wife’s chair is also ‘heard’ first before we get to ‘see’ what actually happened. The rest of the film does not have a lot of foley sounds except for key moments. it is intended to be more in sync with music that sound, something that i learned and enjoyed from watching Chaplin and Tati.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Conclusion

The diploma project which is a culmination of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey here at NID has a lot of importance attached to it. It is, in several ways, a tribute to the institute and there is much to give back to this place and its people. Making a film can be extremely satisfying. In the stories that you tell and the journeys that the characters take, lies a parallel journey for the maker and the audience. And this brings about a transformation and this is what makes effort of making a film worthwhile.

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation

Reference

Books Aging and Old Age - Richard A. Posner Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom Films Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa, 1952 My Dog Tulip - Paul Fierlinger, 2009 WWW Theories on Oldage and Aging : http://en.wikipedia.org/ Satyameva Jayate : Sunset years, Sunshine life : http://www.satyamevjayate.in/issue11/ Article on why elders are stuborn : http://www.agingcare.com/stubborn-elderly Mumbai Dada Dadi Park : http://dadadadipark.org/ Tutorials for Maya : http://www.digitaltutors.com Video of Old couple playing the piano at the Mayo Clinic : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI-l0tK8Ok0 Commentary on the above video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_14wbmbM5A

Karthik Nagarajan | PG Animation Film Design | Diploma Film Documentation