Fakir - Pre Production Sketches

These are the Pre-Production images of my 1 minute film 'Fakir'. As you will see the character of the fakir went through a lot of changes throughout the pre production process. I tried a lot of designs before finalizing on the one that you see in the film.

These were a few initial designs. The first step was to try and get the silhouette of the character right, which fits the story and the personality of the character as per the story.

This is the final design of the fakir. I finalized on this design because I wanted the guy to look a bit like an insect. He has lived in the garbage all his life and it has got in to his physical appearance. 

This was the first step in designing the set for my story. Just like I did for the character, I started of with small thumbnails. Once I was happy with a few of them, I started developing them with more details.

These were the initial designs for the set. I had to get rid of a few sets because the production time was'nt enough for me to have more than 1 set in my film.

 This was the sketch that was finalized for the film. I finalized on this one because it was exactly what I was looking for when I started designing the set for my film. The main aim was to have a compressed set that has a bit of personality to it and also something that would be possible to finish modelling very quickly as per the production time.

Again a few more designs which I did not use in my final film.

My story went through a major change after my original pitch during the holidays. Fakir was initially a story of a homeless guy based in ''Paris'' and the film was titled 'Bon Apettit'. He was playing a broken violin in the initial story.

Below are the story boards for Fakir. As you will see in the story boards a lot did not change in the final film. Having a story board really helped a lot throughout the production and especially while making the final animatic for the film. That's when you realize if your 'story' works or not. 

Amour Pre-Production work

These are some more work from my Internship in Green Forest Animation (China). I was responsible for designing 3 characters for their next independent short film 'Amour'. Amour is a film about an alien who wants to be able to dance like humans, but his body makes it impossible for him to do so. This film is about the accidents that happen when he comes to earth to fulfill his dream. I designed 3 human characters, which were later modeled in Maya. 2 of my colleagues modeled the 2 female characters, I was responsible for modeling the male character. Below, are some scans from the Pre-Production followed by the snapshots of my 3d model.

This is Cici, the superhot blonde who can seduce any guy on earth with her beauty.

This is Betty, she is a very innocent girl and a nerd. She likes studying about space and she has a strong belief in the existence of extra terrestrial life

This is Charming. As his name says, he is the owner of the cafe Amour, and he is very popular among the ladies. He is confident and believes that he can attract any girl to his cafe.

Below is the modelsheet for Charming. I modeled the basic shape in Maya first and then sculpted the details on Z brush.

The basic model in Maya.

This is the final model with the details on Zbrush.

Illustrations for the walls

These are a few selected Illustrations I did on my Internship at Green Forest Animation (China). Since the Studio was shifting to a new and bigger office, they asked me to do illustrations for their glass walls. I always wanted to have a chance to paint a huge wall, although it was not exactly painting, but it was a chance for me to exhibit my work in a big platform. and what better place than the walls of an animation studio itself. So it was a big job, and I tried my best. The pencil illustrations were later traced digitally by a few of my colleagues and I filled in the colors on the final inked drawings, which were later printed on transparent plastic sheets. Since the name of the company is 'Green forest animation', I tried to come up with a theme that goes with the name of the studio. Below are the pencil sketches followed by the pictures of the walls. Enjoy!

I tried making this illustration funny,although it has a very dark meaning hidden inside. So, you guys are free to take any meaning out of it ;) 

 Unfortunately , these mourning chickens dint make it to the walls of the studio. The boss dint want crying chickens on his studio walls. well, that's understandable

Out of these only the first elephant made it to the wall. A few changes had to be made as per the Art directors instructions.

 This monkey is not just pissed for no reason. Anyone who works on Autodesk Maya must have gone through a stage when they felt like doing that. This monkey's software just got crashed. ;)

This Panda is supposed to be a script writer. He has not got sleep since a few days and he needs to be high to come up with creative ideas.  

This illustration was made for the Editing room door. hopefully it makes sense.

This one was for the door of the Finance room.

You always come across software developers and salesmen when you are working in a studio. This snake is trying to sell his apple products. In this case, its actually an apple.

And Finally, below are the pictures of  the glass walls. 

These 2 people did an amazing job of pasting all the posters on the glass walls. It was a very clean and perfect job.

This is how it looks from the inside.