I spent roughly one and a half months on story development, character design and storyboard/animatic, two and a half months animating, one month on digital coloring and compositing.
My brother Carlo composed an original soundtrack for the film.

Story development
I come from a town on the shore in Sicily, so most of my memories are related to the sea, the beach, pebbles and sand. That’s the setting.
Since this is an animated short with no dialogue, the story had to be told in a visual fashion, and I needed elements and actions that could speak for the characters.

Character Design and Visual Development
The girl has a starfish earring. Starfishes are a bit rare on the beaches of my island, so I like to think of her as a rare beauty you don’t find often.
The story is set in a timeless era. We only see a beach with no building of any kind, it could be a thousand years ago or even into the future.
On the background there’s a cliff with an interesting shape, like the one visible from a beach in Salina, a small island not far from where I’m from.
The boy wears his hair in a top knot, like I used to. This is also a reference to the Japanese legend of Urashima Taro.

Here are some early concepts and designs:

Color Grading
Here are the color script and palettes for sunset, night and sunrise, the three sequences of the movie.

Storyboard

Animation
I know, the animation is somehow crude, most shots have only keyframes and no inbetweens. I also think I didn’t take full advantage of the 2D medium. Truth is that with this short I stepped into a field a bit uncomfortable to me, having to animate partly clothed human anatomy. And waves are only three frames per shot! It’s cheating, I know… but it works! Anyway, I animated this traditionally, pencil and paper on an animation desk, rolling sheets with fingers.

Digital Ink and Paint
A batch scanner is a cool thing! Once I acquired all the drawings I adjusted the levels to get rid of the lighter lines, leaving only the darkest ones (tutorial here). So, there never was a real cleanup process, I just kept the pencil tests. But I like how it looks, a bit sketchy. Hey, I’m a sketchy person after all!
All digital cleanup, coloring and compositing was done using only FOSS (Free and Open Source Software): GIMP+GAP and Blender on a GNU/Linux system.

Compositing and CG Animation
I used Blender to composite all assets in a 3D environment, so I could easily perform camera moves, focus racking, glow, color grading, cast shadows.

I can tell it’s what makes this short look good.

Formats for online distribution
In year 2011, it’s sad that there is no definitive video codec for online distribution. To be sure to make the movie playable on every device and system I had to encode it into several formats: H.264, WebM, Theora, Mjpeg, as well as uploading it to Vimeo and YouTube.

That’s it!
Thanks to all the friends who gave me their feedback on this project.

I started it as a final project for the class Traditional Animation 1 at AAU, but I eventually decided to bring it beyond the required pencil tests and add sound, color and shading.
The dog is animated the old-school way: blue pencil on animation paper, and this is why the outline looks a bit fuzzy. Analog drawings, how quaint…

The frames were scanned and processed with GIMP for clean-up, check this brief tutorial I wrote about this solution. Nothing is GIMPossible!

This is a 2D animation, but at some point it gets up to 2.5D! Using Blender I could stack different assets and move around them in a 3D environment. However, the drawings are flat planes, not 3D elements, and this is why we call it 2.5D. But it fools the eye, and it’s a technique very similar to the multiplane camera used in Disney Studios since the 1930′s.

I also tried to squeeze in a subtle visual effect, the glow from the TV set. Well, maybe it’s not so subtle…

This animated short was entirely made with free software: GIMP+GAP, Blender, Audacity, ffmpeg on GNU/Linux.

I got the idea after running into my neighbor walking the dogs in pyjamas (the neighbor was wearing the pyjamas, not the dogs).
I’d like to consider it as a deep reflection on the blindness toward the feelings and the basic needs of our closest friends, but this description might appear inappropriate…
The moral of this story? Suffering always finds its way out.

In order to let GAP see the images as a sequence, the files must be named sequentially, like image-000001.xcf, image-000002.xcf, image-000003.xcf…
Let’s start by opening the first frame:

Now we need to make the dark lines darker, and to push the grayish background to pure white. We first have to play with levels adjustment and make some tests to find the right values for our image. A quick way to do this is by selecting Color > Levels… from the main menu, but without committing the changes. Once we know the right Input Levels values, we can run the batch action. Select Video > Frames Modify… from the main menu.

Change the function to Apply filter on layer(s). Set layer selection and frame range, then click OK.

We now have to select what function we want to run with our batch action. Let’s choose plug-in-wr-color-levels, then click on Apply Constant.

We now have to use the values found earlier. For my scans, I just set Low Input to 150 and High Input to 200, but you might need a different adjustment.

After confirming the action, every frame will be affected by the new levels adjustment. This is what you’ll get:

It’s now time to clean up the rough drawings, frame by frame. Pick the brush of your choice, set the foreground color to white, and start painting over the excess lines. You can add black strokes where needed.

Some people won’t need to go any further with the cleanup process, as we now have clean black and white drawings. In my case, though, I need solid black lines over transparent background. We can execute another batch action selecting Video > Frames Modify… from the main menu. This time, the function has to be set to plug-in-colortoalpha.

Confirm the default color setting (white), and we’re done!

If you don’t want this cleanup process to be performed on the whole image sequence, you can manually adjust the levels of each frame, and then run Colors > Color to Alpha… from the main menu.

I hope this tutorial can be useful to some animator out there!

(This post is in Italian)

In occasione dell’anniversario della liberazione, rendo disponibile on-line un breve promo del cartoon a cui sto lavorando.
“La Costituzione per tutti” è l’animazione dei principi fondamentali della costituzione italiana.
Un tentativo di educare, divertendo, al rispetto verso la legge fondamentale della nostra Repubblica.

Questo cartoon è vivo e scalciante grazie alle idee e al lavoro di semiotica di Nino Arcidiacono, che aveva steso una prima sceneggiatura, e alla voce, furbetta ma buona, di Marco De Domenico.

Il progetto è incompleto, e per essere portato a temine necessita di finanziamenti o sovvenzioni.

Per realizzare i filmati si è fatto uso di solo software libero: GIMP, Blender, Inkscape, LMMS, su sistema GNU/Linux.

Molti elementi che compongono questo promo sono provvisori, come anche il titolo. Le musiche verranno arrangiate da un bravo musicista.

Durata stimata: ~ 8′
Formato: HDTV 1080p (full HD)
Regia e animazione: Turi Scandurra ( http://www.turiscandurra.com/ )
Soggetto: Nino Arcidiacono
Voce: Marco De Domenico ( http://www.marcodedomenico.com/ )

Play WoStation online

Original Italian version here.

The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (CC-BY-3.0), that allows playing, sharing and to remix, as long as I get credited as the author.
Full license is here.

Credits:
Script and Animation: Turi Scandurra (http://www.turiscandurra.com/)
Screenplay: Nino Arcidiacono
Music: Peppe Gullotta (http://www.naxosinmusica.it/)
Thanks to Alessandro Sciglio (voice for Italian version)

Here’s the transcription:

One hundred eighty millions years ago Tethys Ocean splits Pangaea
mountain ranges rise up among coral reeves
it’s hot
flora, fauna and dwarf elephants
the volcano Etna grows up by underwater eruptions
then five thousands years ago in Stentinello the first neolithic civilization
Sicanians get overpowered by Sicels
Pantalica is a necropolis for all the dead
phoenician sailors
sea urchins and swordfishes
here come the Greeks
Naxos and Syracuse
theaters carved in rocks or built on a hill like in Taormina
Polyphemus and mermaids
Archimedes and his burning mirrors
Scilla and Cariddi
first Punic War with Rome
Republic and Empire
corn and gladiators, then Vandals and Ostrogoths
Byzantines, Arabians and Muslims
tuna nets, orange and lemon trees
scimitars and sheiks
watering and architecture
ceramics and cassata cakes
Roger II and the Normans
heritage to Suebi
Frederick II and Poetry School
Ciullo d’Alcamo, the first parliament
Aragonese and Angevins
The Vespers when the French drove us mad
then peace of Caltabellotta
House of Hapsburg and Charles V
Bourbon dynasty
Garibaldi who got injuried
Piedmontese army Carabiniers
the Serval, puppetteers
unification of Italy
the Messina Earthquake
bandits and mafia
coppola and lupara
Giovanni Verga and Luigi Pirandello
emigration and First World War
fascism
allied landings, Lucky Luciano
the bandit Giuliano and laced coffee (Sicilian style)
Placido Rizzotto and Peppino Impastato
Tano Badalamenti and Marlon Brando as the godfather
Andreotti and the mafia
the disappearance of Mauro De Mauro
the strange case Mattei and a certain Sindona
lots of Christian Democracy and then Socialist Party
Pizza Connection
Falcone and the Maxi Trial
the Corleonesi and Totò Schillaci at World Cup
Buscetta and Dalla Chiesa
the mafia massacres of Capaci and via d’Amelio
money of Ciancimino, Totò Cuffaro and Raffaele Lombardo
the Strait Bridge and Franza ferryboats
and then, many things still have to happen
but in the end the island will be eaten by the sea.

Italian version of “History of Sicily in one hundred seconds”.

Dopo quasi due mesi di lavoro, posso finalmente pubblicare il mio ultimo documentario breve: lo scarabocchio animato “Storia della Sicilia in cento secondi”.
Come suggerisce già il titolo, c’è da correre attraverso una narrazione incalzante e ipercompatta.
Chi sapeva poco o nulla degli eventi narrati sarà forse sorpreso dal gran numero di conflitti, guerre, monarchie, dominazioni, martiri e delinquenze che hanno sventrato l’isola nei millenni.
Consiglio di non battere mai le palpebre mentre si guarda il video: c’è il rischio di perdersi un secolo intero.

Qui la versione in inglese.

L’opera è rilasciata sotto licenza Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC-BY-3.0), che ne permette riproduzione, distribuzione e modifica, a patto che me ne venga attribuita la paternità.
La licenza completa si trova qui.

Credits:
Soggetto e animazione: Turi Scandurra (http://www.turiscandurra.com/)
Testi: Nino Arcidiacono
Voce: Alessandro Sciglio
Musiche: Peppe Gullotta (http://www.naxosinmusica.it/)

Riporto di seguito la trascrizione:

180 milioni di anni fa l’oceano Tetide spezza la Pangea
tra i blocchi corallini emergono Madonie Nebrodi Peloritani ed Erei
fa caldo
flora, fauna ed elefanti nani
dalle eruzioni sottomarine si forma il vulcano Etna
poi 5000 anni fa a Stentinello la prima civiltà neolitica
i sicani vengono sopraffatti dai siculi
Pantalica è la necropoli per tutti i morti
marinai fenici
ricci e pesce spada
arrivano i greci
Naxos e Siracusa
teatri scavati nella roccia o incastrati su un promontorio come a Taormina
Polifemo e le sirene
Archimede e gli specchi ustori
Scilla e Cariddi
prima guerra punica con i romani
Repubblica e Impero
grano e gladiatori, poi vandali e ostrogoti
bizantini, arabi e musulmani
tonnare, aranci e limoni
scimitarre e sceicchi
irrigazione ed architettura
ceramiche e cassata
Ruggero II e i normanni
eredità agli svevi
Federico II e la scuola poetica
Ciullo d’Alcamo e il primo parlamento
aragonesi e angioini
i Vespri quandi i francesi ci fanno arrabbiare
e poi pace a Caltabellotta
gli Asburgo e Carlo V
i Borboni e il Regno delle Due Sicilie
Garibaldi che fu ferito
i piemontesi sbirri e carabinieri
il gattopardo, i pupari
unità d’Italia
terremoto di Messina
i banditi e la mafia, coppola e lupara
Giovanni Verga e Luigi Pirandello
emigrazione e guerra mondiale
fascismo
sbarco degli alleati e Lucky Luciano
il bandito Giuliano e il caffè corretto alla siciliana
Placido Rizzotto e Peppino Impastato
Tano Badalamenti e Marlon Brando che fa il padrino
Andreotti e la mafia
la scomparsa di Mauro De Mauro
lo strano caso Mattei e un certo Sindona
tanta Democrazia Cristiana e poi il Partito Socialista
pizza connection
Falcone e il maxiprocesso
i corleonesi e Totò Schillaci ai mondiali
Buscetta e Dalla Chiesa
le stragi mafiose di Capaci e via d’Amelio
i soldi di Ciancimino, Totò Cuffaro e Raffaele Lombardo
il ponte sullo stretto e i traghetti Franza
e poi tante cose che ancora devono accadere
ma alla fine l’isola verrà mangiata dal mare.