Final Project: “The Firebird”

Treatment:

           The story for my Final Project will be titled “The Firebird.”  The title comes from the score composed by Igor Stravinsky for his 1910 ballet, The Firebird, and it was also the inspiration for my story.  This is one of my personal favorite pieces of music, which is why it sparked my interest for using it in the Final Project.  My animated short will be set to selected clips from Stravinsky’s score, using the score to help tell the story, but with a comedic twist.

My short opens to an aged firebird going for a walk during the daytime.  It is apparent that he is an aged firebird do to his droopy feathers, the bags under his eyes, and the walking cane clutched by his wing.  He is a happy firebird going for a walk on this sunny day until he sees a few regular birds flying overhead.  Our firebird looks down at his cane and his smile turns into a frown.  He looks back up to the skies, and then gets an idea.  With a determined look on his face now, he drops his cane.  The firebird then bursts into flames!  The flames die down, and smoke fills the air.  The smoke clears to reveal a single pile of ashes.  The firebird is gone, along with his cane, ending his old life to start a new one and once again take to the skies.  The pile of ashes starts to shift a little.  We see the firebird’s right wing break out from underneath the ashes, then the left wing erupts from the ashes, and then the firebird’s head explodes from the ashes.  The firebird looks pleased with his newfound life, with a grin on his face, as clouds whizz behind his head.  But then the firebird realizes that he is not actually moving anywhere.  He looks down at his new body, and sees that it is a baby firebird’s body, tiny wings and all.  The firebird’s new body is not yet mature enough to fly up into the air.  The firebird remains stationary, flapping his wings vigorously, but to no avail.  Then, his head falls down to the ground.  His new body is no longer able to support his head, which is seemingly the same size as it was when he was an old firebird.  My short closes on the firebird still flapping his wings rapidly as his oversized head lies on the ground and a few more regular birds fly overhead. 

             I want to make this short because, like I said in the beginning, Stravinsky’s The Firebird is one of my favorite pieces of music, and when trying to come up with a story idea for the Final Project short, I thought of this music.  The idea for the story came from the music, and how the music starts off soft (the beginning, old age firebird, of my short), and then builds up very dramatically into flames (where my firebird bursts into flames), to then being quiet and still (the smoke and pile of ashes), and to the music swelling up for a grand finale.  Where I intend to have a comedic spin on the music is at the final point where the music is supposed to rise up for the finale, but instead, when my firebird rises from his ashes and realizes that he cannot fly with his undeveloped new body, I want to cut out the music, possibly adding in a vinyl record scratch sound effect.  I also intend to only pick certain, minimal clips of music to tell my story, so I can make my short meet the minimum time requirement of one minute.

            My plan for creating this short is to mainly use the parenting option that we learned in class, to move the firebird and flap his wings.  The firebird and the regular birds that fly overhead will be hand-drawn, scanned into the computer, then rotoscoped, and manipulated in Photoshop, and then animated in After Effects.  For the background, I will either take a picture of some trees and rotoscope them, or I will draw a couple of trees and then duplicate them on the computer.  To get some more experience with After Effects and to help cut time from rotoscoping, I intend to create the fire and smoke by using Fractal Noise and/or Particle effects within this software. I discovered how to create these types of effects through some research via online tutorials.  This is all a ton of work, but I feel it will end up being a rewarding project and experience. 

Storyboards:

Production Schedule:

• Week One - Nov. 1^st:  Draw characters and backgrounds, and scan them into the computer.  Rotoscope the images, and begin to fill in the colors in Photoshop.
• Week Two - Nov. 8^th:  Finish filling in the colors of the characters and backgrounds.  Start dissecting the images to make them animation ready and start dropping them into After Effects.
• Week Three - Nov. 15^th:  Work on and finish animating the images in After Effects.
• Week Four - Nov. 22^nd:  Create the fire and smoke effects in After Effects, and start adding the music.
• Week Five - Nov. 29^th:  Finish adding the music, do any last adjustments, and render out project as an HD file.