Adeline Teoh
Warped Mirrors
Media: Video Animatic
Software: Procreate, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects
Published on: Website
Concept and Research:
This project was made in light of Russian's invasion upon Ukraine, in which it was made clear some time later that the soldiers themselves had not been informed they were conducting an invasion, many forms of media showcasing both the perspectives of the Ukrainians in the midst of the invasion as well as the select Russian soldiers who refused to fight upon realising what they had been ordered to do, and how both sides are subsequent victims of political machinations.
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I wanted to use the perspectives of actual Ukrainian and Russians for my research, and thus looked into Youtube vlogs, interview articles, and captured video of bits and pieces of how the tragedy affected both sides. Upon collecting my research and cutting it down to the bare essentials, I decided to create an animatic that portrayed the duality of their situation as well as how they have their own sets of similarities and differences as subjects to the event. On one side, a Russian soldier, the other, a young Ukrainian civilian.
Character Design:
I wanted a clear duality between the two main perspectives I had, making them as different as possible in appearance, using the binary of male/female, adult/child, large/small, and so on. I had also decided I wanted to keep the colour palette of the animatic limited to greyscale, which provides a grim atmosphere to the overall work and maintains a certain simplicity that makes it easier to animate.
Storyboarding:
When it came to storyboarding, I simply storyboarded the key scenes I wanted to include, making sure to adjust the layout and balance of each frame and maintain the duality between the two frames, mirrored against each other. I also had to keep the framing in mind as there was a size difference I had to consider when scaling down the Girl to show contrast between the characters.
Illustration and Animation:
Post-Production:
Majority of the animation was compiled on Adobe After Effects, and the editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. I sourced free, non-copyrighted sound effects, and decided against adding music as I wanted to keep the audio focused just on the sounds of the tragedy, as one's mind would naturally be wired to listen for in times of crisis.