DISCOQUEEN! - WIP Redesign

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

A few months ago, I shared a trailer for my short film made entirely on my own, DISCOQUEEN!, which you can check out here: DISCOQUEEN! - Animated Short Film (Solo Project)

I submitted it to around ten youth animation festivals, and it was a complete flop, not a single positive response. So, during my summer holidays, I took the opportunity to figure out what went wrong, both with the script and the visuals.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPi-YimgLgI

The film is aimed at a young audience, ages 6–10, and I wanted a very simplistic cel-shading approach. A lot of the lighting was done directly in compositing. While playing Monster Hunter Stories 2 on my Switch, which also has a cel-shaded look, I realized something: cel-shading works much better when there is enough visual information in the image. In my film, it lacked information, as you can see in this older version of the same shot.

The older version.

So, I worked on the set textures (some of them procedural) which gave me this bedroom look. I don’t have the final colors yet, but it works so much better. I also made some extra assets for the bedroom decoration.

For the characters, I also added more shadow and color detail, and even a cute little cat on the t-shirt of Maya, the main character. For the face, I used an SDF technique to get a simplified, more readable shadow.

Here is the render before compositing in Blender (I feel like this version almost has more charm than the composited one, it’s definitely the best direction to go!)

The final render (before/after)

Reworking the film is a real pleasure. I already have a super solid foundation, and I’m just making it better. I’ve watched dozens and dozens of tutorials on the subject to figure out how to level it up. The film is getting better, and so am I on my end. It’s a win-win!

Here I’m mostly talking about the indoor sets, but the entire outdoor section (a big part of the short film takes place in a park) has also been redesigned. I’m planning to make another post later focusing more on the foliage and nature parts.

The film should be uploaded to YouTube by the end of the year.

Enjoy!

[sozap]

This is really cool ! It’s amazing to see the creative process !
On the overal there are a lot of great improvements on the character and set, on the shot maybe we loose bits of readability , the toys tend to steal the focus or at least there is some conflict there, I can try something if you want a mocup as example !
keep up the good work !

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

Thanks so much for your feedback! It’s true that we lose some readability in the shot. I’d definitely welcome a mockup example if you’d like to try something out!

[Khamurai]

The updated toon material looks much better for sure, I assume the world will also incorporate the same shading style at some point?

[sozap]

Ok ! Here is a crude mockup barbarian / bourrin style !

Basically I tried to get a reasonable silhouette on the character, that might be improved a bit, and it was simpler to leave some space around her for that.

For the toys, now they are around the frame so they became more secondary, the trick is to make them look at the girl so we bring more focus on her…

We can make the image’s hierarchy even more obvious by darkening the borders…

And adding some kind of a light beam, not completely sure about how it would look like in reality, you made something cool with the window’s light on the wall that is a bit lost in my attempt.

Obviously, it’s easy when you have only one image to tweak, this might not work in continuity but this might sparks some ideas !

Have fun !

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

Thanks! Yes, absolutely, the plan is to apply a consistent shading style to the rest of the world elements soon to tie everything together.

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

Thanks so much for taking the time to give this feedback! I’ll definitely be applying all of it to the shot.

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

A new version of the shot, based on Sozap’s feedback. I brought more focus to Maya by adjusting the placement of the plushies, desaturating the background further, and pushing the shadows around her (the light comes from the window to her left, perpendicular to the bed). Also, a quick trick I picked up from a concept artist’s video: adding chromatic aberration to secondary areas instead of standard blur. I think it looks more aesthetic than a basic Gaussian blur.

[sozap]

Coool !! This works better !

Keep in mind that eyes and faces are a powerful tool to lead the viewer’s look :

You don’t necessarily need to make them look at the girl, but it’s best if they drive us to the center of the frame, or they can point us to a leading line that will drive us back to the center of the picture.

First off, sorry for that very crude mockup… Even if the house is the main focal point of the image our eyes tend to go outside to follow the path of that animal :

But when we flip it our eyes tend to go back to the house and it will be easier to remain on the center :

Or we can keep the animal going outside but use other elements to drive back the eye to the focal point :

I’m not sure if I’m over sensitive to this stuff by working too much on that, but at least these are tools that can be used to the the image more clear, or the shot a bit shorter to understand.

Anyway, I’m not sure it’s worth tweaking the frame again, it’s just that it’s important to be careful with that stuff when manipulating characters, this can even work with cars or vehicles…

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

Thank you so much for your advice! Removing the cat’s white pupils will probably work better, especially with a bit more darkening. It’s super important to keep reading elements in mind, we often forget about them because we’re so focused on the more technical details of our 3D images!

And here’s another before/after shot, still from the same sequence. We might lose a bit of the childish feel from the previous colors, but I think we gain a lot more clarity.

[sozap]

Really cool those improvements ! As you said everything reads much better !
As for readability in general, things don’t have to be perfect and it’s fine to leave room for improvement. Unless you really want each shot to become as strong as a painting.

However, the more clear things are, the less time is needed for the brain to process the shot after a cut. When you are into slapstick or very fast paced action, all the tools to make sure the viewer look at the right place comes handy. This makes quite a difference going from something confusing to enjoying to follow along. I find that quite fascinating to study even though I still have a long way !

Keep up the good work ! And I’m looking forward to your progress !

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

Thank you so much! I see this visual upgrade of the movie as a great way to level up my Blender skills, so I can have a nice demo reel to show. I’m in full-on exploration mode hahaha

[sozap]

Yes indeed, I’d say to make a short like this on your own it asks for quite some skills already, even if it’s hard to push for the highest quality you can manage because of the huge amount of work you have to deal with alone !

In any case it’s great because each shot is a challenge and a learning opportunity ! On the flipside, you can also work on a few hypothetical shots completely made up as if they are part of something bigger, where you really push every aspects, this is what I’m currently looking into to revamp my reel and polish my skills !

[Okidoki]

Interesting… make the “companions” to “look at” not only something (anywhere) but some (special) thing to guide the viewer never heard of that.. but now will memorize this.

[sozap]

Yes it’s a common trick in painting and cinematography… Once you’re aware of that, it’s everywhere…

An amazing example of mixing people look and leading lines to force the eye to always go back to the focal point :

The few people looking in the opposite direction lead us to parts that bring us back in…
They are some kind of secondary focal points but it’s well balanced/weighted against the main point. Anyway, pretty interesting to look at how the eye navigate the image and how all the leading lines are constructed from various elements…

Original painting :

The Raft of the Medusa

[Okidoki]

Never thought about it but as far as i know about subconscious instinctive behaviour this makes totally sense.. like: At which predator does the other members of my herde look at ?

My weak point.. composition .

And.. to add something to “the topic” :

I like how this scene was “extended”.. even if this is “stylistic” those enhancements in detail and lighting makes it more “natural”: for example the red duvet is now “not so harsh” in color-wise and contrast-wise.. if someone knows what i’m saying

[Rabah_Cheurfa]

We’re continuing the redesign! Here’s Silencia, the short film’s nemesis, who felt a bit lacking in personality in the previous version. I added some texture paint, a few props, and included shadows to keep the design clean while giving it more storytelling.