[Behind The Scenes]

Phase I: Pre-production

[Artistic Research]

Here are some amazing animated works that I found inspiring or aesthetically appealing.

Re-Main (2021) - MAPPA

‘Re-Main’ is an original Japanese anime TV series with 12 episodes. It tells the story of how a strong water polo player works hard to retrieve his skills after being in a coma and losing his memories for three years. I was so excited when this anime first came out, as no animations related to water polo (technically accurate) were created before. I can relate to many scenes because they really happen, such as how they train and play the game. I believe the animation team spent quite a lot of time researching to produce such a unique story with fantastic animation effects.

[Sound Design]

Since I would like my animation to be in sync with the BGM, I searched for upbeat, energetic soundtracks from West One Music Group before working on the visuals.

After some research and selection, I finally chose the underscore version of ‘And Rock’ to be the music for my work.

Soundtrack: AND_ROCK_(C)_BEA_PARKS_(PRS)_The_Scoring_House_TSH_252_033.wav

[Brainstorming]

Using a mind map to help brainstorm concepts

Initial frame layout design

Inspired by ‘The End of The World in Four Seasons’ by Paul Driessen, I separated the frame into five smaller ones. The surrounding four will be looping rotoscope animations on various training events, while the centre frame will be a short animation about my mental experience during training. However, after consultation, I 8 realized it would be too much work within a short production period. Therefore, I abandoned this idea and focused on the short animation, hoping to create a higher quality work.