#buraija

***Below is a lot of backstory and lore - It’s a lot to read, so if you just want the meat of the production-side of the post, skip down to “The Fight” section for details relating specifically to the animation, followed by inspirations and technical talk***

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Preamble:

I won’t lie - the reason I became an animator is because I have some ideas that [I think] I are awesome, and I want to see get created. So far I have mostly showcased work in my classes that are somewhat distant from me, merely to get a good grade; “assignment fillers,” if you will. But never have I been more excited for what is to come. This short film comes truly from my heart, and will mark a turning point in my academic career, where I begin to unpack some of the latent ideas I’ve stored in my mind for years developing. 

This will be a [tentatively] five minute piece of animation - a fight scene, between a couple of my favorite original characters. This should NOT be seen as a self-contained story, but rather a tiny little sliver of a much larger one. I will try to provide as best I can a brief backstory as an opening to the piece, so that audiences are not totally lost as to what is going on in the narrative. This “short film” will be engineered to exhibit, to the best of my ability, the workings of the action sequences and narrative structure of the concept, and so it is not my intention for it to be a showy film festival winner. Nevertheless, hopefully this will be a good opportunity for me to learn from, and further develop my techniques so that the characters, story, and aesthetic style grow in their identity. And if it happens to be enjoyable to others, that would be a happy coincidence.

The Lore of the World:

The planet Meidan is a far, far away world, where things found only in mythology to us are a reality for the people here. In this pseudo-medieval realm, ravaged by the forces of the Underworld, humans naturally possess super-human strength. And with proper training, they can harness the power of their life energy - transforming it into powerful elemental energy blasts and an arrangement of other interesting fighting techniques.

Amidst the chaos of war and banditry, one jewel lies safely guarded; the City of Farawen. Forested valleys lay on one side, and a river plain leading to an ocean on the other. After many devastating attacks, this beautiful city had a short lived period of peace. But now it is under attack once again. It is up to the orphaned children of warriors and sages long passed to protect this city using their powers and talents.

Of all the treasures in this world, there is one that stands above the rest. A tool of healing, as well as a weapon of ultimate destruction, sought after by man and Underworld entities alike. They are called Talvitra’s - “Life Weapons.” No one really knows where they come from or who made them. Some say they are as old as time itself. But what is certain is that they are receptacles and conductors of virtually unlimited power, and small enough to fit in your pocket. Just one Talvitra in your possession is said to grant you the power to overcome any obstacle in your way. But should the true depths of their power be unleashed, they could be used to destroy the whole world... or save it.

Characters:

                                                  Juna Ajin

A smug but polite, albeit slightly tomboyish girl, born with the disease of Lycanthropy - that is to say, she is a Werewolf. Shunned by society, Juna was an orphan since birth, but she fights desperately not only to control her power, but to use it to protect her friends and hometown of Farawen. Her goal is to prove to everyone that she is not a monster, but in fact a tremendous force for good.

                                                 Buraija Tannin

On the outside, a cold, quiet, and imposing young man, but on the inside, a lost child with only one reason to exist. At the age of 8, Buraija was captured during a raid on his village by members of the Cult of Abooza. His family was murdered before his eyes, and he was forced to be subject to dreadful experimentation by the Cult’s Alchemist. Unlike the other young boys who died in this process however, Buraija managed to survive; clinging to life through his hatred and drive to seek revenge on them. He was given a serum that caused him to contract an artificial form of Lycathropy, modified to be even more powerful than in nature. He follows the orders of his captors, waiting for the right time to strike back, avenge his family, and gain his freedom.

Prelude to the Fight: Up to this point in the story, Juna, the main protagonist, has managed to learn to control her Werewolf powers. She proved her battle prowess by defeating the former King of the Underworld, a dragon named Agaroth. Afterwards she spent a year in the ethereal plane of Aremea, training with the spirit of her deceased father, a legendary hunter in his own right, and honing her control of the Were Form (a half-human, half-wolf state - not a full Werewolf, giving her partial control over her mind at the expense of a diminished strength boost.) 

One day without warning, a pair of Abooza Cult members attack Farawen. Coming to its defense is the city’s super-powered young protectors, several of which are Juna’s close friends, who helped her defeat Agaroth and retrieve the Talvitra from atop his mountain one year ago. Juna is informed of the situation and rushes back to the physical plane of Meidan where a pair of Cult members unleash a dragon of their own - one of Agaroth’s old servants, to wreak havoc. As Juna’s friends struggle to hold this beast at bay, Juna arrives to the aid of her friends just in time. But then, from seemingly out of nowhere, they witness a mysterious young man, Buraija, transform into the Were Form before their eyes and obliterate the dragon with ease.

With the group’s attention fixed on Buraija, he demands that they give him the Talvitra they have housed in their city. Juna steps forward and tells Buraija it’s hidden away elsewhere, and he’ll have to follow her to get it. The two fly off, enabling Juna to lead the conflict out of the city, while Juna’s friends scramble to chase after the other two Cult members. ____________________________________________________

The Fight:

After flying for a short time, Buraija gets impatient trailing behind Juna. He realizes she is just stalling for time, and brings their conflict to the ground. Juna and Buraija stand in the center of an ancient ruin in the middle of a field. Buraija tells Juna to hand over the Talvitra, and he may spare her life. Juna reacts to his serious threat with a dash of snarky humor, and tells him he’ll have to take it from her. Buraija arrogantly scoffs at her remark and, engages Juna in battle. She nimbly leaps out of the way of his blasts, and the two lock in on each other, matching blow for blow, both trying to one-up the other, using their various powers and abilities. 

At first they seem evenly matched. Then Juna pulls out her most powerful technique; the Were Form. She briefly gains the upper hand on Buraija, until he reveals his Were Form as well. From there, Buraija seems to have the edge in strength, while Juna has the edge in speed. The two are giving it their all, but Juna finally manages to land a devastating blow to Buraija, at the expense of all her energy. The fight ends with Buraija recovering from the attack, as if to continue the fight, and just then, the words “To Be Continued” flash on screen.

As I stated previously, don’t think of this as a deep story meant to motivate or move people to see life differently with its message. It is a fight - the impact is in feeling the weight of the struggle, and sympathizing with the characters through that feeling.

Inspiration: As a low-key anime fan, I take a lot of inspiration from particular action anime stretching all the way back to childhood. These include Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, InuYasha, Bleach, and a host of others. These have a particular effect on the presentation and execution of the fighting moves, not to mention the art style. Much of the inspiration for the settings and characters also stem from my favorite film and video game franchises such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Elder Scrolls.

Watching and playing these shows, movies, and games is really my brainstorming process - often it’s even almost therapeutic. If the truth be told, many of the concepts for these characters and world stretch back almost 8 years. Unlike most assignments where I come up with something really quickly to work on, this idea was an inevitable project that I simply waited for the right time to present. And my hope is that I can continue with it through college and into my career. It is really the reason I became an animator in the first place.

Throughout the tests and trials of life, I have always thought back to various fight scenes from the aforementioned media, and as odd as it may seem, sometimes the thing that got me through those struggles was by identifying with the physical and emotional struggles of characters of fiction, as being analogous to the day to day struggles I faced. A giant math test was just the “final boss” of this story arc in my life. I think this phenomenon is something that goes totally unrecognized and underappreciated by the entertainment industry. Whether it is ever realized or not, I want to bring more of this type of work to the entertainment industry, as I feel it is something many films and TV shows sorely lack nowadays. The Technical Side: The fight will be animated using traditional paper and pens, scanned and then digitally colored. As a huge fan of cel animation, I will attempt to recreate that “old school” technique, though not exactly the same. Despite this, it will still feature modern rendering, compositing, and visual quality levels. The bulk of the work will be drawn on animation paper using an old fashioned light box I built a year ago for my ACM216 class. The work will then be scanned directly to my computer.

The Drawing and Coloring Process:

I discovered that by drawing in reds, blues, or greens, then inking it over, scanning it, and keying out the colors, I can create very crisp, very appealing line art in a relatively short amount of time, which I can then color digitally. See the example of the process below:

Step 1 - Outlining Basic Character Shape

Step 2 - Adding Details

Step 3 - Inking and Scanning

Step 4 - Keying, Coloring, and Shading

The process may seem long and unnecessarily tedious, at least compared to using a cintiq and animation software, or 3D animation tools like Maya. But it is something I want to do; it is a stylistic choice, as much as a means of developing my skill in emulating the old school hand-drawn style, relying less on technology, and more on scheduling and willpower. Time will be the judge of whether it is a success or not. I will say this however: I have managed to get it down to the point where, if I’m really giving it my all to shell out work, I can produce a frame of character animation fully colored and shaded in between one and two hours. That may seem like a while, but I know my capabilities and limits. I have never been one to start a big project like this only to leave it half baked, and I wouldn’t be aiming for such high standards if I knew that I couldn’t pull it off. I’ll put the time and effort in to make this happen to its conclusion.