During this year, the 4th year students of Animation of L’Idem have completed their final degree project: a group short film. In it, they put themselves to the test, correct errors, improve skills and finish polishing themselves as animators. The students of the 3D Animation and Concept Art specializations have worked as a team to create ‘Noah’.
Under Under the supervision of Miquel Aloy, the school’s Concept Art teacher, the students of the Art specialization have developed the visual section of ‘Noah’. That is to say, they have put a face and eyes to everything that has been previously written in the story script. And, as a result, they have generated designs to capture and reinforce in the best possible way what they wanted to tell in the 3D Animation project.
In his first year at L’Idem, Miguel has debuted as concept art supervisor of the final short film. “The experience has been really enriching,” he told us. “And I find it incredible the opportunity offered to students to create a professional short film in which to put into practice the knowledge acquired throughout their training.” In each project, the work process emulates the operation of a real studio. And this means that the student leaves truly prepared and with a fairly clear idea of the different facets and workloads that can be encountered in a professional production.

Concept Art in ‘Noah’

In the concept art work on ‘Noah’, the Art specialization students have paid special attention to two areas of work. On the one hand, the design of characters and their costumes. And, on the other hand, the design of the background in which the story takes place.

Erika and Noah: the protagonists of the short film

Two brothers with totally different personalities are the protagonists of ‘Noah’:

• Erika: The older sister who is the most determined and self-convinced.
• Noah: a very insecure and fearful child who has a hard time making and executing any decision.

For our students, their design had to convey their personality and emotions, not only through acting and body posture, but also in the wardrobe and physiognomy. As Miquel points out, elements such as the armor of our protagonists in the two realities that are interrelated in the short play a fundamental role in this regard. On the one hand, Erika’s armor has more pointed shapes. And, on the other hand, Noah’s is dominated by more rounded and friendly shapes.

The design of backgrounds

‘Noah’ presents an autumn story set in a forest in Spain. To design this environment, our Concept Art students decided on the geography and vegetation most appropriate for this time of year to nourish the forest. In addition, they provided a point of stylization in the forms so that the environment and characters maintained a coherence of style.
In addition, the short is narrated during a round trip on foot throughout an afternoon. So our students played with ambient light to capture the passage of time. To do this, they generated a series of color shots that showed the passage from afternoon to night and, at the same time, reinforced the story on an emotional level.
In the background area, it is worth highlighting the work carried out in areas key as “the infernal abyss”, the “death gorge” or the cliff itself. The specificity of these locations was that, at a certain moment in the story, they had to show a transformation to capture the fear of our protagonist. To achieve this and, at the same time, facilitate the work of the 3D and animation teams, the Art students chose to work with light effects. In this way they provided a more infernal point with the lava and a more mystical-scary touch with the hieroglyphs and totems.