The Treasure All animation is an experimental, vertical format film about growing up with autism, through the eyes and words of Peyton Goddard. Here are a few of the tasks that went into creating this moving short film.
Process
- The animation process began with meetings between the Director L. V. O’Connell, Producer Elaine Dill, and the Goddards. A brief for the project was created and filming was done with Peyton.
- Pre-production consisted of researching, writing the script, and creating storyboards. After storyboards were refined character and background design began.
- Production fell into two phases. The first phase required casting two actresses (Juniper and Laurel Davidson) to voice the narration parts and recording the audio (thanks to Frank Forth ). The second phase involved rigging and animating the final character designs and placing them in their environments.
- Post production included editing the animation together, adding sound (effects and
Experimental Vertical Format
The vertical format allowed us to play with the space in a new way. The main character is shown quite small at times to show how the world came down around her. We also wanted a sense of falling into darkness, to capture the isolation, and the sensation of being trapped that she must have felt when she lost her ability to communicate.
Peyton’s Voice
Peyton’s autism makes it difficult for her to speak. She uses a device that allows her to type in order to communicate. Her written word is quite unusual, unique and poetic. Her ‘voice’ in this format gives us an insight into her thought process and the depth of the world inside her mind. That voice was used as the basis for the script.
When creating the short film we wanted to depict her early life and the heartbreaking challenges of a child, and the change that came to her later in life. To help with this distinction, we were able to use two lovely young voice actors, Juniper Davidson and Laurel Davidson, together with the sound work from Frank Forth of Forth Dimensions Video Productions, they were able to translate Peyton’s words into a wonderful soundtrack.
Treasure All Animation Character Design
The short film features two character designs. The first is the main character and narrator as a young girl. We wanted a young girl that reflected Peyton’s age and innocence. We also wanted a hand-drawn and imperfect appearance to compliment her imperfect movements.
Photographs of Peyton as a child were used as inspiration for the young character design.
For the second character, Peyton as an adult we stayed with a 2D character but a more polished design. She is shown larger on the screen, with more confidence, due to her ability to communicate via a device and advocate for herself.
The artwork for each character was first sketched by hand and refined. The art work was then scanned and transferred to Adobe Illustrator, and further refined. The young Peyton was rigged and animated with Adobe Character Animator, while the adult character was animated in After Effects.
O’Connell Design is a consultancy offering creative services in Animation, Motion Graphics, and Visual Effects for film and television.
