Where The Sunset Weeps - Animated Film

As per our expertise, we decided to use TVPaint Animation for our software of choice, with Photoshop used for key storyboarding, and often for even quicker brainstorming; classic pencil and paper.

What It Was

The story follows the story of a young boy who is transported to another world, where the only means of escape is to confront the personal hell within them.

The client emphasized a sense of being trapped and utterly lost, the main character isn’t in a state of wonder being transported to an alternative world, rather his face is always set to confusion and anxiety, the moment he steps in; Similar to a Silent Hill-esque story. 

However the color palette was to be kept minimal, where hues were instead used to convey moods instead of textures and lighting. The sound engineering was also done originally by crafting unique sounds together in Reaper, with post production done inside Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro.

The first half of the movie/storyboards center on more dynamic, birds eye view and low-dutch angle shots, specifically to create a power imbalance between the state of the main character, whose facial expressions easily convey his discomfort, and the size of the “antagonist” golem as well as the indifferent residents of this world. 

Whereas, the second half of the film focused more on quite, close shots with hints of subtlety, as well as graphic horror on scenes that were reflective of the writer’s emotions and experiences.

As visual storytellers, we were keen on digging deep into the experiences of the author, having multiple conversations for stories and emotions to flow easily so that we could capture the essence of a world where others may relate as much as the author did.

We made sure to experiment with a variety of shot compositions, angles and facial animated expressions in order to craft not only the essence in the moment, but also the themes overarching the whole story; one of complex bitter-sweet mixed feelings between a father and a son.