Joy Cao
Novaturient
https://novaturientanimation.wordpress.com
https://vimeo.com/648963548
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-cao-0000/
"Novaturient" - desiring or seeking powerful change in one's life, behaviour, or situation.
In a ruined city, the Nemphans (shadow creatures) live at the top of the social hierarchy and look down on the Lotopis. Monti, a Lotopi, has an old book that shows a place where Nemphan and Lotopis once lived in harmony. Monti sets off on a journey to find this place but ends up in a fight with a Nemphan. They both get transported into the book, which brings them to an unfamiliar world. Now forced to travel together, Nemphan constantly shows a lack of enthusiasm for his new surroundings. However, he slowly becomes more curious and begins to see the beauty of nature. Perhaps both Monti and this new world aren't as bad as he first thought.
This is an 2D-animated short film following the characters Monti and Nemphan. The animation completed so far focuses on the second half of the story. This project was created by Darlene Hassencamp and me. The project needed to be visually attractive so it features a variety of landscape scenery as Monti and Nemphan make their way towards their final destination. We both have a deep passion for animation and illustration, so for this project we truly wanted to bring out our passion for art and the inspirations we took from other animators.
I focused on the animation of Nemphan, the shadow creature. One of my main tasks was to bring out his uniqueness of being a shadow. The ideas on how a shadow creature could move really intrigued me so that is why many of his movements involve a lot of morphing to show off his abilities and traits as a shadow. Nemphan lacks facial features so body language was crucial to communicating his character. I especially focused on his ears to accurately portray his emotions.
While producing "Novaturient", we took the creation of the backgrounds very seriously. Darlene and I are greatly inspired by iconic Japanese animated movies, so we tried to emulate their style. By incorporating colour theory and colour semiotics into our work, we tried to bring each illustration to its fullest potential and make it as attractive as possible.
