Journey to the Four Seasons
Journey to the Four Seasons loop animation.
A lone dragon travels through the endless forest to search for its discovery and origin to seek a return home. Countless days have passed, yet the dragon has not found its way home. As each season shifts, the forest alters its leaves’ colour, like switching clothes in the rotation of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The persistence of the lone dragon is voyaging across the vast land endlessly.
This loop animation is part of the final uni assignment. I performed rough and cleaned lines frame by frame for the lone dragon. Then, I coloured them in and placed them in front of the background of the four different seasons. The animation of the dragon is done using Blender Grease Pencil and the background of the four seasons I created in Blender. The background is purely 3D with non-photorealistic renderings.
This short loop-de-loop animation mirrors our daily lives, where our goals are something we crave but cannot obtain. It perfectly resembles how the lone dragon faces happiness or unhappiness during its long, persistent journey across the distance with changing seasons. The journey is pain from the very start to no end in sight, just like our life journey. The changing season reveals the timing when we face countless future opportunities, whether positive or not. The dragon’s emotional response changes as it responds to different seasons. This loop-de-loop is a perfect example of how the dragon’s life has been dedicated to searching for its home as a goal as it travels far and wide but has not found its home.
Credits:
Music
Reverberating Slam
https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCdt7gDPgnvD4VLAhoGtFzMg/music
The Two Seasons by Dan Bodan
https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCdt7gDPgnvD4VLAhoGtFzMg/music
Sound FX
A Zombie Trying To Grab You by MATRIXXX_
https://freesound.org/people/MATRIXXX_/sounds/516704/
Whoosh Bamboo 4 by Sadiquecat
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/706679/
whoosh_long_high by DJT4NN3R
https://freesound.org/people/DJT4NN3R/sounds/449991/
fast_whoosh by alanmcki
https://freesound.org/people/alanmcki/sounds/461017/
Bamboo Swing, B14 by InspectorJ
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/394446/
Rough concept (left) and loop storyboard (right).
Rough concept art (left) and character designs (right).
Forest process.
Colour material shaders and lighting process.
Falling leaves and landscape.
Four seasons.
Animatics.
Rough line drawings (top left), cleaned line drawings (top right), coloured drawings (bottom left), & effects applied (bottom right).
