Elsa's Super Animation

Category: FMP

Categories
FMP

FMP Proposal | Updates and Development 02

As my FMP project has developed, I have made several changes to the original proposal, including the project title, theme, character design, and story structure. I have also updated the storyboard and completed an initial music demo.

These changes are mainly inspired by my personal feelings as graduation approaches. I want the animation to reflect the anxiety, uncertainty, and questions about the future and freedom that I am experiencing as I prepare to enter the working world.

1. Project Title

Rushing Place

The project title has changed from Through the Snow to Rushing Place.

The new title better reflects the feeling I want to express: constantly chasing time, efficiency, and the pace of others without knowing exactly where we are heading.

Rather than telling a specific story, I want to create an experience of constantly moving forward without being able to stop.

2. Project Overview

Rushing Place is an experimental animation exploring urban anxiety and the boundaries of freedom.

The film focuses on a numb but persistent feeling of anxiety. People constantly chase time, efficiency, and the pace of others, often without knowing what they are chasing.

Through stylised black-and-white visuals, experimental imagery, and music that gradually accelerates into chaos, the animation turns this psychological state into an audiovisual experience.

The project is inspired by the uncertainty and pressure young people face as they prepare to enter society. Influenced by social expectations and conventional life paths, we often feel pushed towards the next stage without questioning whether it is truly our own choice.

The film also explores the relationship between freedom and boundaries: does escaping established rules and directions necessarily mean finding true freedom?

3. Character Introduction

Elsa

Elsa is named after my English name and represents my personal emotions and experiences. The entire animation unfolds through her inner perspective.

She often feels trapped in a crowd, her body carried forward by the movement and rhythm of those around her. Time, social expectations, and traditional life stages constantly define her next “destination”. Gradually, she begins to question whether she is choosing her own direction or simply following others.

Elsa longs for nature and freedom. Her thoughts often drift away from the crowded city into open, boundless natural spaces.

However, when familiar structures and directions disappear, she begins to feel a different kind of uncertainty and unease.

She wants to escape restrictions but is also afraid of losing direction. Caught between order and freedom, she continues searching for a rhythm that feels truly her own.

4. Storyboard Development

Following the changes to the project theme, I have redesigned and expanded the storyboard.

Compared with the original version, the new storyboard includes more shots and environments, with a faster and tighter overall pace.

I have focused more on creating fast and smooth transitions between scenes. By using similar compositions, shapes, and movement directions, I aim to connect different spaces naturally.

I also want to use changes in editing pace to reflect Elsa’s emotional state. As the animation progresses, the cuts become faster, allowing the audience to experience her anxiety and the feeling of being constantly pushed forward.

These changes make the animation less dependent on traditional linear storytelling, with a stronger focus on visual rhythm and emotional expression.

5. Music Development

I have completed an initial music demo for the animation.

As Rushing Place mainly communicates emotions through visuals and sound, music will play an important role in the storytelling.

The demo is built around a gradually accelerating rhythm. As the animation progresses, the music becomes faster, with more sound elements layered together, eventually creating a dense and chaotic listening experience.

I also plan to synchronise the music with camera movements, cuts, and scene transitions to create a consistent audiovisual rhythm.

The demo is still an early version and will be further developed alongside the animation.

Categories
FMP

FMP Proposal ｜ Update and Development

Through the Snow

A Halftone Psychological Animation

Concept Design

1. Project Concept

This is a 4–5 minute stylised 3D animated short film.

The story follows a young woman who has just lost her job and gradually collapses under the pressure of the city and the subway. She moves through crowded, cold, and repetitive urban spaces before unexpectedly entering a “snow forest” made of black-and-white dots, noise, scanning traces, and photocopy-like textures.

At first, she believes that she has entered a place where she can escape from reality. However, as the story develops, she slowly realises that this snow forest is not a natural environment. Instead, it is an internal psychological space formed by her accumulated anxiety, shame, self-denial, and frozen emotions.

The three main spaces in the project use different stylised visual languages:

City Space

The city uses dot matrix, halftone dots, and printed grain to express information overload, job-hunting pressure, and the feeling of the individual being compressed and flattened by the urban system.

Subway Space

The subway uses scanning, CCTV textures, low-resolution imagery, and horizontal scan lines to express mechanical repetition, surveillance, and the feeling of the character being constantly read, observed, and squeezed by the crowd and the city system.

Snow Forest Space

The snow forest uses X-ray-like imagery, negative images, psychological visuals, and black-and-white noise to reveal the emotions that are frozen, hidden, and finally exposed inside the character.

2. Logline

An unemployed young woman escapes from the pressure of the city into a snowy forest made of printed noise, only to realise that the snow is formed from her own frozen emotions.

3. Theme

This animation explores how people under pressure, unemployment, self-denial, and anxiety often believe they are only trapped by external reality. However, what truly traps them may also be the internal emotions that have been accumulated and frozen over time.

The central idea is:

The snow is not natural snow, but emotional noise.

4. Genre

3D Animated Short Film / Experimental Psychological Animation / Artistic Narrative Video

5. Visual Style

The overall visual style is built around black and white, low-resolution imagery, scanning, dot matrix, photocopy texture, X-ray imagery, noise, and psychological visuals.


 

Moodboard

1.Scene 1: City

Visual Style:

Halftone / Dot Matrix / Printed Noise / Urban Poster Texture

The city scene represents the pressure the young woman faces after losing her job. Visually, the city can look like an enlarged newspaper photograph, a low-resolution printed advertisement, or a black-and-white poster. Characters, buildings, streets, and advertising screens are covered with halftone dots and printed textures.

The city is not presented as a warm and realistic living space. Instead, it feels like an urban image that has been repeatedly copied, distributed, and consumed. As the girl moves through this space, her body is gradually covered by dot patterns, suggesting that she is being compressed and flattened by job pressure, social judgement, and information noise.

Keywords:

Halftone Dots / Dot Matrix / Printed Noise / Newspaper Texture / Urban Poster

Video Reference:

https://builders-club.com/3d-motion/openai-the-intelligence-age

Scene 2: Subway

Visual Style:

Scanning / CCTV / Horizontal Scan Lines / Digital Compression

The subway scene represents the pressure of commuting space and the crowd. The image can resemble CCTV footage, security scanning imagery, or a low-resolution screen image, with horizontal scan lines, flickering, image tearing, and digital compression noise.

The subway carriage feels like a constantly operating machine, while the passengers appear like images scanned by a system. The girl is squeezed, observed, and read inside the carriage. Her emotions become increasingly unstable as the scan lines flicker.

When her anxiety intensifies, the scan lines become denser and faster. The edges of the characters begin to shake, and the whole image starts to resemble a broken surveillance screen, showing that she is gradually unable to cope with the pressure of reality.

Keywords:

Scanning Lines / CCTV Texture / Digital Glitch / Compression Noise / Surveillance Image

Video Reference:

https://www.zippyframes.com/shorts/forever-mitch-mcglocklin

Scene 3: Snow Forest

Visual Style:

X-ray / Negative Image / Frozen Noise / Psychological Landscape

The snow forest is the girl’s inner psychological space. The snow here is not natural snow, but is made of noise, black-and-white particles, negative-image textures, and X-ray-like imagery.

The trees, snow, and the girl’s body can have a semi-transparent or X-ray-like layered quality, as if her hidden emotions are finally being exposed. The snow particles represent her long-accumulated anxiety, shame, self-denial, and emotional freezing.

As she begins to face herself, the chaotic noise gradually gains direction and eventually gathers into butterflies. The butterflies are not simply a symbol of healing, but a sign that her emotions are beginning to flow again. They guide her away from the snow forest, not towards a perfect ending, but towards the courage to face reality again.

Keywords:

X-ray Texture / Negative Image / Frozen Noise / Emotional Landscape / Butterfly Particles

Video Reference:

https://www.aliaschman.com/films/bodyecho

Storyboard

Progress Update

So far, I have completed the initial project concept, some visual style tests, and part of the storyboard shot design.

For the visual test, I started experimenting in UE5 with a 3D scene combined with a Post Process Halftone material. I first built a simple 3D scene, then used a post-process material to turn the image into a black-and-white halftone dot effect. This test is mainly used to develop the printed, low-resolution, and noisy visual style for the city scene.

The halftone material creates dots based on the brightness of the image: darker areas have larger and denser dots, while brighter areas have fewer or smaller dots. This creates a look similar to newspaper printing or photocopied images. Through this test, I found that this visual style can express the pressure of the city and the feeling of the character being compressed and flattened.

I have also completed part of the storyboard shot design, focusing on the girl’s emotional journey after losing her job: moving through the city, entering the subway, and gradually reaching the snow forest. Next, I will continue developing the storyboard and further test the subway scanning-line effect and the X-ray / negative-image style for the snow forest.

Timeline

Month 1: Concept Development and Visual Tests

In the first month, I will continue developing the project concept, character background, and story structure. I will also refine the storyboard and decide the main shots for the city, subway, and snow forest scenes. At the same time, I will keep testing the visual style in UE5, especially the halftone effect for the city, the scanning-line effect for the subway, and the X-ray / negative-image look for the snow forest.

Month 2: Previs and Scene Building

In the second month, I will start building simple 3D versions of the main environments and create a rough previs based on the storyboard. The focus will be on camera movement, scene transitions, and the emotional rhythm of the film. I will also test how the character moves through the different spaces and how the visual style changes from one scene to another.

Month 3: Animation Tests and Project Refinement

In the third month, I will begin testing key animation moments, such as the girl walking through the city, feeling trapped in the subway, and entering the snow forest. I will also test the butterfly particles and how they appear from the noise. By the end of this stage, I hope to have a clearer previs, stronger visual tests, and a more complete production plan for the next stage of the project.

Categories
2.1 Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques FMP

Week 9：Project 1 | Through the Snow

She thought she was escaping from a snowy forest, only to realize later that it was ice formed from her own emotions.

Project Overview

  • 3D animated short film / Artistic narrative video (approximately 5 minutes)
  • Female growth / Emotional healing / Urban survival
  • Logline: An unemployed girl accidentally enters an inner world like a “icy forest”, fleeing in fear, shame, and collapse. Eventually, she follows the butterflies formed from her tears to find a new exit – even if the exit remains reality.

Character Design

  • Girl (20+): Recently unemployed, has suffered from long-term self-denial, anxiety and insomnia.
  • External state: Running, avoiding, looking disheveled
  • Internal arc: Fear → Collapse → Being guided → Facing reality directly

Artistic style

This film is planned to adopt a 3D visual style with the texture of digital painting, and to construct the emotional space of the ice and snow forest with low-saturation cool tones. The scenes emphasize the sense of brushwork, the sense of volume, and the interplay of light and shadow with ambiguity, making the trees, snow, and shadows present a state between reality and illusion. The overall atmosphere is restrained, desolate, and full of poetic charm, serving the psychological changes of the characters as they are lost, depressed, and undergoing self-repair.

Technical reference and testing

Through studying the workflow of Arcane, I found that it builds on 3D scenes and, under a fixed camera view, uses projection mapping, material control, and lighting consistency to create an effect close to 2D illustration and hand-painted collage. This inspired me to focus on making key shots visually convincing, rather than pursuing complete realism and consistency from every angle.

  • First, build the three-dimensional scene
  • Determine the final viewing angle
  • Generate UVs from the camera perspective
  • Attach the two-dimensional image or design draft to the model
  • Adjust the picture in the fixed shot
  • Use lighting and materials to unify the style

Storyboard

This sequence progresses from a close-up to wider shots.
The first frame is a close-up of the girl’s feet, filmed from a low angle with a tracking shot, emphasizing her footsteps and the tension.
The second frame is a medium long shot, with the camera following from the rear-side angle, showing the girl moving through the forest while her shadow suggests that something ghost-like is chasing her.
The third frame cuts to a long shot, reinforcing the character’s smallness within the space.
The fourth frame is an extreme long shot, fully revealing the monstrous tree and the oppressive atmosphere of the environment.
Overall, the sequence gradually builds suspense through the progression of shot size and camera movement.

This sequence is driven by emotion.
The first frame is a close-up, shot at eye level, emphasizing the girl’s rapid breathing and frightened expression.
The second frame cuts to a side medium close-up, with the camera following her quick turn, allowing the movement to drive the shot.
The third frame is a close-up of the scattered papers, using a rotational camera movement and an upward motion path to create a sudden sense of impact.
The fourth frame cuts to a long shot / empty shot, where the papers transform into birds during the transition and fly into the snowy forest, completing the shift from reality to psychological space.
Overall, the sequence progresses through close-up – turn – rotation – long shot, reinforcing the sense of panic and the surreal transition.

This sequence uses continuous movement to create a spatial transition from the city to the forest.
The first frame is a long shot from a slightly high angle, showing the character running through the narrow gaps of the city.
The second frame remains a long shot, with the camera tracking smoothly alongside her, while the buildings gradually transform into tree trunks, completing the scene transition.
The third frame cuts to a close-up of the feet, filmed from a low angle with a tracking shot, reinforcing the rhythm of the run and the continuity of the transition.
The fourth frame returns to a long shot, with the camera continuing to follow the character into the real forest, creating a smooth shift from urban oppression to the unknown snowy woods.
Overall, the spatial transformation is achieved through a unified direction of movement and the progression of shot sizes.

This sequence shifts from an emotional close-up into an imagistic shot.
The first frame is a close-up at eye level, emphasizing the girl’s fragile emotions after becoming lost and the moment her tears begin to fall.
The second frame cuts to an extreme close-up of a teardrop, with a blank background, as the camera follows the tear falling and slows the rhythm of the scene.
The third frame is an extreme close-up of the lake surface, capturing the tear hitting the water and the ripples spreading outward, creating an emotional pause.
The fourth frame cuts to a close shot, where a butterfly emerges from the water and rises into the air, with the camera slightly tilting upward to complete the visual transformation from sadness to guidance.
Overall, the sequence uses a progression of close-ups and a slower camera rhythm to strengthen the poetic and hopeful tone.

This sequence uses a following shot to complete the process of being guided, walking out of the forest, and reaching the exit.
The first group begins with a close-up of the reflection on the water, then the camera slowly tilts up to reveal the girl herself and her footsteps, completing the transition from reflection to reality. It then continues with medium close-up to medium shot follow shots, showing the girl moving forward under the butterfly’s guidance. The pacing of the camera slows down, emphasizing her shift from panic to a guided state.
The second group continues with a rear tracking shot in medium shot to long shot, following the girl as she walks through the forest while the space gradually opens up. Finally, it cuts to a long shot of the edge of the forest, where a subway train passes horizontally across the frame, creating a strong intrusion of reality and revealing the forest’s exit.
Overall, the sequence is mainly structured through tilting up, following, pushing forward, and horizontal movement, while keeping the character’s direction of motion consistent to reinforce continuity and the sense of arrival.

This sequence closes the film with the oppressive feeling of real space.
It begins with a long shot of the platform / subway door, showing the girl walking toward the train and preparing to re-enter the reality of job hunting. It then shifts to a medium close-up and a close-up of her hands, focusing on the résumé in her arms and her anxious expression.
Inside the carriage, the scene uses a medium tracking shot and a slightly shaky camera to convey crowding, imbalance, and psychological pressure. The flow of people and the swaying of the train create a constant sense of oppression. At the moment of the sudden brake, the shot cuts to a close-up of the résumé pages scattering, using the abrupt action to disrupt the brief sense of order the character had managed to hold onto.
Finally, a medium shot / long shot after the doors open reveals the girl standing there in a disheveled state, lingering on the moment when reality has not truly changed. Overall, the sequence progresses through entering – crowding – losing control – pause, and the open ending preserves the uncertainty of the girl’s future: the exit has appeared, but the road ahead is still undefined.