Final Deathtination
What is the film about?
Final Deathtination is about a suicidal man who is about to hang himself but then encounters Death who is a “travel agent”. Death tries to find the best place to die and together they go on a world tour.
What influenced it?
The story of Final Deathtination started with my little thoughtーa mash-up of Death and a travel agent. When I combined this mash-up with a depressed man, the story did write itself! However, Final Deathtination was influenced by various films and actors in terms of its style, design, and animation.
The inspiration for the personality of Norman (main character) includes Brooks from the Shawshank Redemption and Carl from Up. Norman needed to look sad and miserable but also somewhat endearing; and these characters helped me find a good balance. Norman’s acting was also influenced by a Japanese actor, Kenichi Takito. Although I also film myself for animation references, I got a lot of ideas by watching professional actors; this process helped me give the characters specificities, details, and nuances.
Death had to be an annoying yet appealing character. Watching Pixar’s Coco definitely helped me build the flexible skeleton rig but I also tried to differentiate my character from Coco. The final design ended up being angular to show his aggressive character; also, his face is made of two separate pieces (head and jaw) in order to push his goofy expressions. His acting and cartoony motion was inspired by Jim Carrey from Mask. I also watched many infomercial videos to capture his “salesman” energy!
In terms of the environment design, I learned a lot from the exaggerated designs in SPA Studio’s Klaus. In order to make each location intimidating for Norman, I used a lot of angular and sharp shapes. On the other hand, everything is tapered and downward in Norman’s room to emphasize his unstable mental state.
A little background information...
While the film is a dark-comedy and explores the serious topic of suicide, I created this film to share the message that “as long as you are alive, you can find a new joy and purpose to live”. Traveling is not possible for everyone, especially in these challenging times. My intention is not to say that everyone should go outside and see the world to overcome your depression. For Norman, his new joy was traveling. However, it can be any small things in daily life that give you a little joy and hope. The same can be said for Death in the film; we don’t have someone like him who could come to save us. However, we all can be someone’s support who will help them have that little positivity in their life.
Set design
How was the film made?
I created Final Deathtination as a thesis film while at Ringling College of Art & Design. While I was responsible for all aspects except its audio, I would not be able to complete this film without amazing support from my family, friends, faculties, and mentors! During the pandemic, I was fortunately able to use my school’s facilities in-person; but all the communication with my professor was done remotely. However, all the faculties and IT members’ hard-work and dedication made it possible for us to have clear communication and amazing lectures even remotely.
Character design
I spent about 10 weeks writing, storyboarding, and designing characters and environments. Then I had about 8 months fully dedicated to all the CG aspects, including modeling, layout, animation, texturing, lighting, rendering, and compositing. Even though it was tough working day and night, I had a blast creating my film!
Software: Maya, Arnold, Nuke, Zbrush, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, Substance Painter