Cosmic Control

Cosmic Control was the finished product of my animation workshop 2 class. We had from the beginning of January to the beginning of May. With this short film I wanted to create a set of fun and interesting characters that I could have fun animating with.

The first try at character designs for each of the 3 characters. I wanted the twins to have similar elements (since they are twins), but then have those elements be opposite of each other. Orion has sharper, spikier features while Orbit has softer, rounder ones. With BEEf I wanted it to be clear he is a dog, but while also looking very far from anything that we’d normally consider a dog.

With the designs created I began to try out different character expressions and poses. The expressions for BEEf are all mostly the same as he doesn’t really express emotion, but the different emotions that are present are meant to convey the mystery and slightly off-putting nature of BEEf.

This is an earlier version of the animatic. The beginning and ending 3rd remained fairly similar with the middle section having a clear shift by the final version. I have included the final animatic below to show the changes that occured.

This is the final cut of the animatic before heading into production. The most significant change from the previous version being the swap to the anti-gravity section. I believe swapping out the previous section with this was much more effective and plays into the setting of space that I have set them in.

Before entering into production I created color scripts to explore the way color would play a role in the final product. I wanted a wacky retro feel to visuals. There is a color shift once the gravity is turned off, but that idea came later and was done with after effects and so the original color scripts do not include that.