Our finalists will set the score in a neon-tastical duel of shapes!
Disclaimer: there’s no tic-tac-toe gameplay to be seen here.

an ECUAD senior film production

Naughts & Crosses

Process Journal

weekly updates & behind the scenes

Most Recent Animatic

Weekly Updates

Information

Artwork

Turnarounds

Expression sheet

credits: Adrienne Desiderio

Concepts

credits: Esther Bellefontaine

Credits

Always updating.

Director

  • Christy chan

Production Coordinator

  • Angela Almero

Character development

  • Adrienne Desiderio

  • Christy chan

Environment Design

  • Esther Bellefontaine

  • Emily Fakaros

  • Savannah "SavvyGirl18"

  • Andrew Joubert

Storyboard

  • Adrienne Desiderio

  • Christy chan

  • Ling Wan

Music

  • "Showdown" by creo (CC-by)

Modeller

  • Zijian Han

3D Camera

  • Gabe Kwok

UV artists

  • Amanda Lim

  • Monika Yip

2D Layouts

  • esther bellefontaine

  • angela almero

  • asa harrenstein

Voice Actors

  • Nathaniel Gordon as Kua

  • Maya Patrich as Mika

Scratch Actors

  • Eric Falcon Flores as Kua

  • Faustus Cashews as Mika

Animators

  • Christy Chan

  • Alex Choi

  • Skye Allen

  • Asa Harrenstein

Clean up

  • Christy Chan

  • Lorien Allan

  • Paige arace

  • soph! su

  • asa harrenstein

Colorists

  • Christy Chan

  • alexis

  • Soph! Su

  • Skye Allen

  • asa harrenstein

Compositor

  • Christy Chan

Special thanks

instructors

  • Lorelei Pepi

  • Leslie Bishko

  • Martin Rose

  • Darren Brereton

  • Jiwoon Kim

our lovely spectators

  • Shan "Shanoiasuna"

  • Amanda "AMKHeartYT"

  • Stormyx

And all you kua simps out there
(If you just joined, welcome!)

About

Our finalists will set the score in a
neon-tastical duel of shapes!

Disclaimer: there’s no tic-tac-toe gameplay to be seen here.

Animatic

Stage design

by Esther Bellefontaine

expression sheets

by Adrienne Desiderio

prop designs/
VFX concept

by Christy Chan

color palettes

by Emily Fakaros

the contestants

Both contestants are gifted with a simple 2D shape, which they can create and use however they please.
From there, the two developed distinct fighting styles.

Mika "Naughts"

(genderfluid - any pronouns)
Defense is the best offense!
Mika is playful, childish and excitable.She mainly uses her shape as a shield - nearly indestructible
when held close to them. He can also throw them like projectiles (yes, we all know the Captain America comparison), or use them as trampolines to gain a vertical advantage.Very much friend shaped.

Kua "Crosses"

(agender - they/he)
Relentless and aggressive.
Kua is cold, reserved and irritable.
Has a soft spot for Mika, of course.Kua uses their shapes exclusively as melee slashing weapons - however, they have martial art prowess and seemingly superhuman movement. the crosses are just for support.Unironic full time edgelord.

Concept by Esther Bellefontaine

Week 1

...with a summer head-start.

Week 2

new collaborators

This week we have four new members joining the team!
Please welcome:

Environment Design
Esther Bellefontaine
Color scripting
Emily Ever
3D modeling
Zijan Han
Production coordinator
Angela Almero

Special thanks to Nicole for the connection and Angela for approaching me first!

color palettes

Before we create color scripts, we spent some time figuring out suitable color palettes for the film, using references from Promare, Into the Spider-Verse and Blade Runner.

Color Scripts based on the current animatic is work in progress.

Animatic Update

This is the portion that I managed to update during the week.

More changes will roll out, I just don't have enough time to put it all down.

initial stage design

There was an attempt to create a stage design myself. Alas, I looked for someone else to work on it for me. But here's what I came up with.

initial color scripts

Created last week as part of my first digital compositing assignment. Not too happy with these - too dark, or not vibrant enough to my liking.

the post-fight brainstorm

I'm certain I want to create an equally bombastic credits sequence, so, should I do a winding down scene after the fight, it will go post-credits.One idea I have is to feature the other contestants from the tournament, who would invite Kua and Mika to their table. It'll serve as a tease to the greater worldbuilding....but, introducing extra characters in the very last scene, without context, may be bad for a self-contained film.

Finally, a manager!

With the addition of a Production Coordinator to the project, recruiting help, managing collaborators and keeping track of deadlines will be far more streamlined.We will be working on a gnatt sheet, timetables and deadlines this week.Seriously, y'all should get one for your project.

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Made this little graphic for background help.
I used it initially for hiring 3D work, then reused it for visual development help.