THE LONG AND SISYPHEAN JOURNEY OF BILLY
PRODUCTION
Walk Cycle
Since the first videoboard I knew I will need an interesting walk cycle, so I started working on it in a very early stage. The first stage was gathering references, and, as always, filming an akward reference.
Skip cycles references
After that I started to work on the classic animation. at first I made Billy's body more organic and rubber like, but my mentor - "Tal Gadon", recommended on making the body stiff, to make an interesting contrast. Since I've already started working on the 3D model, I used it for tracing.
Billy's skip cycles' breakdown
Scenery Illustrations
The first part of the film (The 2D world) contains several drawings, that visualises the places Billy passed through on his journey. Some of the places didn't make it to the last cut, such as a swamp, or the gate of the orchard in the 2D world.
Scenery illustrations
Orchard illustration breakdown
Orchard coloring versions
3D Model
The 3D model of Billy was made using "maya", the first model was kind of shit, it was too coherent to the first 2D design, which didn't quite work in the 3D environment.
Billy's first and second 3D model
I spent alot of time adding facial expression possibilities to Billy's face, unfortunately Billy ended up only blinking. But I did get to render that cool frame for instagram!
#THE HIPE IS REAL!
Billy's 3D rig testing render
The Gatekeeper
The gatekeeper's face was created in flash then put into After Effects in order to create the light bulbs and glitching effect, then composed in maya. Fun fact! Billy and the gatekeeper were dubbed by me :]
Gate keeper's face development. flash > afx > maya.
Most of the scene's compositions were based on the cave scene from Disney's Aladdin, in order to achieve the frightning effect that I needed.
Shots from Disney's Aladdin cave scene, compared to shots from the film's gatekeeper scene
Falling apple
Two shots before the freak out sequence, we see a framed drawing of Billy and an apple falls in front of his face, adding the crucial ingredient to Magritte's "Son of Man" reference.
(left to right) Magritte's - "Son of man", Billy - drawing, Screenshot from the film
The shot was actually filmed as it is, without compositing (except for CC and CG) using an apple attached to a fishing string above the painting.
Shooting the falling apple shot
Cracking
Before the freak out sequence Billy is cracking into the physical world, to support this idea and creating the feel of the passage of time, I made a shot of the painting starting to crack. To do that I smeared glue over the painting and used Dragonframe to make a timelapse of the cracking effect.
Cracking shot from the film
Printer
In the middle of the film, Billy Follows the little girl, and enters the concrete world through a printer. The printer didn't work, so in order to make the illusion of printing, I shoved the prints into the printer, then slowly pulled it out, and masked myself out of the final shot.
Printer shot, Final result and raw footage
It came out a bit laggy and weird, but it actually added freakines to the shot, which contributed to the current films evolution.
Filming Day
The filming day demanded a lot of preparations, The first step was creating videoboard of the live action sequence.
Videoboard for the Live action sequence
Amit Ashkenazi as Billy, on the filming day
Other preparations included finding an actor, getting the makeup and creating the custom. for the makeup I met with "Anna", a professional makeup artist and a lovely human being. "Amit Ashkenazi", did an enormous favor, and volunteered to act as Billy, My mom sewed the custom and me and my dad colored the shoes.
Shoes colored in pink paint
The second step was finding a loaction, so I was looking for an orange field. At one of my trips back to my parents' house, I came across the perfect orchard for the filming,
Photo of the filming location
In Order to make the filming day short and precise, I wrote for each shot it's description, props, shot size, length, and directive orders, along with a small sketch of the shot (showing the general angle, composition and lighting).
Shots table for filming day
Familiar Voice
And now to the question that everyone asks me: How did I get Hanny Nahmias to sing in the film (Hanny Nahmias is a Big Israeli childhood star, bigger than XUXA!)
A week before the presentation I sat with "Adi Cohen" and we went through the soundtrack together. The main problem was that the characterization of the song was not suitable, and we agreed that the style should be more of a children's song.
I met with "Daniel Shemer" the sound designer, and we thought about how to characterize the song as a children's song. the crucial part was re-recording a signer.
Little Mrs. Pepperpot - opening song in hebrew
During my studies I worked as a graphic artist in a production company for Events for children. They worked with childhood stars, actors and singers. The CEO, Tali Dror, herself, used to sing and dub puppets in kids' shows. I asked her if I can record her for the film as a favor. As a joke, I told her that I want to record Hanny Nahmias, but I will compromise on recording her.
She loved the idea and suggested that I would work with them for three weeks (on salary) in return, since I was thirsty for a vacation after this journey and toward the end of my degree, I hesitated. An hour later, Tali called me and told me that Hanny would come and record instead of her and that I'm starting to work on July.
Hanny Nahmias and me at Daniel Shemer's tudio
At the end, Daniel recorded Hanny on the same day of the submission, (unfortunately I did not got to the recording itself because there were monstrous traffic jams, on the way to Tel Aviv). Of course Hanny nailed it and there was no need for another recording. After final touches on the soundtrack, Daniel processed the recording and sent it to me, (an hour before the submission) I added the soundtrack to the film and voila!