Amanda Williams

Observance

Bachelor of Design Motion Capture 3D animation Compositing Performance Capture Character Animation Rotoscoping Video Moving Image Narrative Science Fiction Realism

A Timeless Story

This is a live action film with a CG character and props integrated in. Using a combination of motion capture and cloth simulations, my character Emit, (Pronounced Emette) was created. Being god of time is a sad and lonely job.  Among the stars the worlds he observes just waste his precious gift. At the end of all his visits he must choose whether they should keep their time or stop. With Earth next, his decision will impact all of us.

About:

My 2020 Capstone project is about time. I wanted to look at how people only see the bad side of time wastage and how they never look at all the good seen when spending time on others. My character Emit/The Guardian of Time has given his precious gift to thousands of planets yet he only sees the wastage of it. With his pocket watch he can choose when time is up for the planet he visits. His magical staff allows him to sift back and forth to make judgement. In the end he must decide whether Earth deserves to keep its time or not.

Plot (With Spoilers):

Among the stars, the guardian of time has found nothing but his precious gift being wasted. With his pocket watch he can choose which planets deserve to keep their time and which do not. Finding Earth to be next for judgement, he finds its natural world absolutely breathtaking. It’s only when he begins to sift through time he sees the destruction and chaos that we have caused. Disgusted he stops sifting to land in our present time. The sound of more gun shots draws him to find a young artist with a black page. With no work being produced he becomes frustrated and angry with all the time being wasted. He chooses to end Earth’s time. On the verge of leaving his attention is caught by the young artist, but this time he is celebrating the poster he has been working on for so long. Getting closer, the guardian rewinds to find that he has not been observing close enough the love and care that humans are capable of. With seconds to spare he stops his clock and leaves Earth alone with a new perspective on life.

Technology:

I knew in the beginning I wanted to use motion capture. Coming up with a story where a being controls time was the perfect opportunity. I began designing a character made of old materials like rock and stone with many different costume ideas. After a few months, his costumes design was complete and it was time to simulate. With Marvelous Designer it was a breeze. His costume was made and simulated giving me control over gravity, material type, wind, and everything in between.

Fun:

In high school I studied a lot of product design so making the pocket watch and staff were very exciting. Thinking about weathering and damage that they would have endured over millions of years made them feel a lot more to me whenever I saw them rendered.

The whole process from beginning to end was very enjoyable so when I finally finished it was amazing to see all the hard work come together. I learnt a lot from the experience and what I am capable of so I’m excited to see where it takes me.