My short movie "A fox tale"

A fox tale from A Fox Tale on Vimeo.

Character Design and Research for "A FOX TALE"

At the end of my 4th year, I've been selected by the teachers to realise my idea. My team was composed of Alexandre talented in creation of 3d pictures, Thomas great animator and Julien who is a working hard person and full of ideas for the story. They were all three motivated to realise with me this film. I continued to finish the story with them. In the same time I worked on the character design and graphic/visual research.








Amount all the character designs I've made, I decided finally to mix them. I kept the two brothers side to give more value to the story (two brothers or friends who are fighting for a woman is much funnier than two strangers who are doing the same thing). I tried to make difference between them with their physics body, their character and their fight style.





For the fox I was desapointing to remove the nine tails but it will add technical problems and it was not very important in the story. So we need a little clever fox in the film.


CHARACTERS MODELSHEETS





Little bother WU SONG is big, strong and having big arms. He is simple, naive, obedient to his old brother (WU DA) but aggresiv.
The big brother WU DA is small, well dressed, pretentious and nervous.




I continued to precise the character of the girl. She must have a very nice eastern face and a young sexy body.


CHARACTERS BODILY MOVEMENTS RESEARCHES



Kung fu style for the two brothers are totally opposite. WU SONG hits a lot with his big arms. He is violent and never tired. WU DA knows a lot of technical fight, is rapid, can jump very high and is very dynamic.




I did a lot of posing for the girl Doing the same movements than a fox would do.

CHARACTERS FACIALS EXPRESSIONS RESEARCHES


CHARACTERS SCULPTURES




I did statues to see better the 3d volume in view of the modelisation.


I finished to designed, modeled, skinned, textured the girl (hairfairm by julien legay).


VEGETATION DESIGN







VISUAL RESEARCHES

Original Idea For "A FOX TALE"

Today I graduated from Supinfocom arles. So I finished my graduated short film 'A FOX TALE'. I'm very happy.
Here you can see some of my works I did.
Two years ago, I had an idea inspired by a chinese legendary. It deals with a battle
between two hunters who are figthing for a woman. To begin with I did a lot of drawings
to find the visual aspect I wanted. It helped me also to improve the story and to precise
my ideas.
In the article, I will show you the work I did before having a team.
This is the very first draw I design. I wanted to create two chineses hunters brothers. Their name are 'WU DA' and 'WU SONG' as two famous people from an old chinese book named 'WATER MARGIN' (the story and the characters are totally different than mine.) I just liked their names and the history period in China (arms, costumes, characters personnality).

WU SONG is strong, brave and cool. He got a hunting knife and a stick. He can fight face to face with huge animals.
Raher than WU DA is funny, cunning. He got an arc and a secret bag to create trap.


I painted pictures to think about the visual aspect and to improve the story.


Here the two brothers should enter in the fox's house.

They found a beautiful woman with a red skirt in her home.

After some little seduction games with the girl, the two brothers fight against each other.

In the same time, I did a lot of research on the charater designs. I really enjoyed doing this job. When I draw them I imagine them funny, proud of themselves, sometimes quite bad as brigand and very strong as kungfu fighters.

As people from the book I told you, they are drinking a lot of wine with friends. They are generous, brave and free from any commitment. I wanted to add this kind of personnality in my film.

The battle is important in the film. I did little drawings to find posing and choregraphy.
As in chinese tales, the fox's spirit who goes nine tails have magic power to create illusions for instance. Nine tails are a challenge for animation because it has to be beautiful, magic with nice curves.

I didn't want to just realise a fight movie. I choose the fox girl as an important character in the story. She is very beautiful, clever with a very special sensuality. I mean she is from the old chinese time. Her movments are graceful but she is also a fox. We also should see her animal side.


I spoke with the teachers from my school and my friends about the film. They told me to do more research on the characters and precise the story. I think it was right. So I started to create the others characters for this story, exagerated personalities and funnier. So I create two others perple instande of the two brothers. One is a hermit and this other is a lost soldier of old chinese army.

So the hermit is wearing nice and elegant clothes and know some little magic. He is very pretentious and narcissistic.
The lost soldier is wearing an old armor. He is fat, a little bit stupid but strong. He is a simple guy.

It's easier to create comics situation with people very different. When the hermit faces the girl he becomes very gentlemen to impress her, for instance he can create flowers thanks to his magic power.
At that moment, the soldier decides to create a much better flowers. As he doesn't have magic power, he breaks his arrows to create arrows flowers. During the battle the hermit is so much talented he goes time to watch him in a mirror. But the soldier goes so much strongness he can raise a huge rocks to throw it to the hermit.