My thesis film (SVA 2020)
I had a great time working on Take Out, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!
Screened at FIAF Animation First Festival 2021, Animafest Zagreb 2021, Crazy Talented Asians and Friends 2021, and TIAF (2020) - Tbilisi International Animation Festival
I had a great time working on Take Out, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!
Screened at FIAF Animation First Festival 2021, Animafest Zagreb 2021, Crazy Talented Asians and Friends 2021, and TIAF (2020) - Tbilisi International Animation Festival
Take Out is a story loop of delivery people being killed for witnessing the previous delivery person's death. The only person unknowingly in the know is a hermit kettle man, thanks to his clairvoyant TV.
Score and Sound Design by Sean Porio
seanporio.com/
seanporio.com/
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The first presentation I made about my film to apply for a college grant. (It worked!)
The story's story
For my thesis film I wanted to pack together as many of my interests as possible - non linear storytelling, grimy cities, action, comic books, offbeat characters, strange humour, food, and a touch of the absurd. Thus came to be - Take Out. It did go through a couple of iterations, art style and story wise, but the core idea about delivery peoples' weird encounters in a city never changed.
Before starting on my thesis year I had watched Mr. Madila (or The Colour of Nothing). I then wanted to animate someone's lived experiences, and I tried to think of groups of people who are usually overlooked but have probably seen a lot of strange things in cities, I thought of delivery people. That idea later pivoted, because I felt like doing some non linear story telling and playing with time loops.
I have always lived in cities (Gurgaon and then NYC, each gritty and grubby in their own way), so it came to me naturally that the film would be set in a city more on the greasy side. Somewhere along the way I decided to use half tone print effects and paper textures on the backgrounds to pay homage to comic books that I love reading, noir and otherwise.
I have always lived in cities (Gurgaon and then NYC, each gritty and grubby in their own way), so it came to me naturally that the film would be set in a city more on the greasy side. Somewhere along the way I decided to use half tone print effects and paper textures on the backgrounds to pay homage to comic books that I love reading, noir and otherwise.
The henchmen in Howl's Moving Castle gave me the idea of making my bad guys well dressed, shadowy, and with 'abilities'.
I wanted to make the places that the delivery people had to go to very sketchy, so I figured I'd make the first delivery be to a speakeasy or sorts. Speakeasies made me think of jazz or blues music, but with a mix of hip hop and funky electronica for the score. So my scratch tracks comprised of songs from Cowboy Bebop, until my very talented composer Sean Porio took over, and knocked the music out of the park with his own original score.
I wanted to make the places that the delivery people had to go to very sketchy, so I figured I'd make the first delivery be to a speakeasy or sorts. Speakeasies made me think of jazz or blues music, but with a mix of hip hop and funky electronica for the score. So my scratch tracks comprised of songs from Cowboy Bebop, until my very talented composer Sean Porio took over, and knocked the music out of the park with his own original score.
Left to Right - Feet, Banger, Sprinkles, Chives, Fizz, Cotswold, and Onion
The character design guidelines - Hats, and food
In order to design characters I set some style guidelines for myself using food shapes and hat shapes. I'll explain - I enjoy drawing headgear and thought that each character should have some kind of hat. I wanted to stylize the designs yet keep them animation friendly, so I decided to draw as many different types of hats as possible while drawing the shape and brim of each hat with just one simple line each. Then, I kept varying the brim types as well as crown shapes and sizes to draw hats that suited different character types.
I found it easy to visualize the type of hat that would fit a character's personality, this made it easier to find a food shape to fit both the hat and traits. I did go back and forth sometimes, changing hat types if I decided that a food shape didn't fit the hat but did fit my notion of the character.
I found it easy to visualize the type of hat that would fit a character's personality, this made it easier to find a food shape to fit both the hat and traits. I did go back and forth sometimes, changing hat types if I decided that a food shape didn't fit the hat but did fit my notion of the character.
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Characters' names are never mentioned in the film but I still put some thought into naming them. Cotswold, Onion, and Chives came from a flavour of cheese I really liked called Cotswold Double Gloucester with Onions and Chives.
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The Not So Bad Guys
I drew Chives pretty quickly, his design helped me figure out the hat concept and that I would base my characters on food shapes. Once I drew his shape I thought he looked like a fish/mozzarella stick. He was delivering burgers and fries so I based his colours further on ketchup, brown paper bags, and fries. Once I'd done that I stuck with the food theme for the other characters as well.
I found Cotswold the hardest to design. I didn't try hats for him because he didn't seem like a character who'd wear a hat. He was more in the vein of a doomsdayer wearing pots and pans on his head. I began playing with eye shapes instead, and I drew a pair that look just right. I already knew what his his entrance would be noisy as he stumbled through his kitchen. Thats when it all came together, he would be the noisy pots and pans himself, an old kettle with a clanking lid instead of a hat!
Fizz came about as a result of the food that he was delivering - pizza. Soda and pizza go well together, but another factor that made me stick with the can design was Fizz's role - to be killed. I remembered that soda cans spray and flip around wildly if they're shaken and opened - it's a bit startling. So, I figured his death by pull tab would be pretty gruesome in the food world as whatever its equivalent would be in the human world.
Onion is unique in being upbeat, and the only one with a hairstyle. I did still give her a headband to keep her in theme with the other characters with head gear. Another reason I gave her a headband was because once I had drawn her hair it reminded me of Bjorn Borg, so I had to put a sweatband on it.
Commissioner Pepper, along with Chives, was one of my earliest designs and what helped me nail down guidelines for the other characters. Unfortunately the Commissioner never made it into the film.
I found Cotswold the hardest to design. I didn't try hats for him because he didn't seem like a character who'd wear a hat. He was more in the vein of a doomsdayer wearing pots and pans on his head. I began playing with eye shapes instead, and I drew a pair that look just right. I already knew what his his entrance would be noisy as he stumbled through his kitchen. Thats when it all came together, he would be the noisy pots and pans himself, an old kettle with a clanking lid instead of a hat!
Fizz came about as a result of the food that he was delivering - pizza. Soda and pizza go well together, but another factor that made me stick with the can design was Fizz's role - to be killed. I remembered that soda cans spray and flip around wildly if they're shaken and opened - it's a bit startling. So, I figured his death by pull tab would be pretty gruesome in the food world as whatever its equivalent would be in the human world.
Onion is unique in being upbeat, and the only one with a hairstyle. I did still give her a headband to keep her in theme with the other characters with head gear. Another reason I gave her a headband was because once I had drawn her hair it reminded me of Bjorn Borg, so I had to put a sweatband on it.
Commissioner Pepper, along with Chives, was one of my earliest designs and what helped me nail down guidelines for the other characters. Unfortunately the Commissioner never made it into the film.
The High Tea Hooligans (The Bad guys)
Initially they were going to be shadowy clones with a hive mind of sorts, but different hat shapes made me think about separating the goons out and giving them unique traits. Among the three mobster era bad guys one would be the sinister leader, another would be the silent enforcer, and the last would be the maniac. Based on that figuring out their hats was simple - a tall slick hat for the leader, a well worn, squat hat for the enforcer, and a ratty, manky hat for the maniac. I then thought of shapes and food that fit those hats and my notions of the characters.
Giving them trench coats added to their sketchiness. Who knows what lies beneath, tentacles perhaps! This was sort of what lead me to giving Banger shadow arms. I found that giving him proper arms took away from his sausage design, and it felt like a cheat reveal for them to be hidden beneath a trench coat that looks flush to Banger's body. He still needed some form of arms, I thought that making them come out of his hat would be pretty unexpected, and it would sort play out as the opposite to Sprinkles' reveal. Initially the hatch in the hat was for a pop out gun at the end of the film, but that seemed too murder-y so I changed it to just storing a ridiculous amount of shadow arms.
As with all three of the Hooligans, I drew Sprinkles' trench coat avatar first but I didn't know what her design looked like on the inside. I knew what her hat looked like, and that she was built like a solid wall. To figure out her inner shape I sort of followed the shape of the trench coat I'd drawn, and it clicked that I should make her a donut. A pink glazed donut with sprinkles because it seemed too cheerful and ironic for an intimidating enforcer.
Then with their sufficiently silly names, the Hooligans were ready.
Giving them trench coats added to their sketchiness. Who knows what lies beneath, tentacles perhaps! This was sort of what lead me to giving Banger shadow arms. I found that giving him proper arms took away from his sausage design, and it felt like a cheat reveal for them to be hidden beneath a trench coat that looks flush to Banger's body. He still needed some form of arms, I thought that making them come out of his hat would be pretty unexpected, and it would sort play out as the opposite to Sprinkles' reveal. Initially the hatch in the hat was for a pop out gun at the end of the film, but that seemed too murder-y so I changed it to just storing a ridiculous amount of shadow arms.
As with all three of the Hooligans, I drew Sprinkles' trench coat avatar first but I didn't know what her design looked like on the inside. I knew what her hat looked like, and that she was built like a solid wall. To figure out her inner shape I sort of followed the shape of the trench coat I'd drawn, and it clicked that I should make her a donut. A pink glazed donut with sprinkles because it seemed too cheerful and ironic for an intimidating enforcer.
Then with their sufficiently silly names, the Hooligans were ready.
Backgrounds
Initially I wanted to build physical sets of which I would click pictures and then animate on digitally, but I quickly decided against that and switched to comic book textured backgrounds instead. Since the film is set in a city, I was able to incorporate my interests in graffiti and street art into the story. I could freely vandalize all the walls in the backgrounds I made and leave as many easter eggs as I liked for anyone who was looking closely.