“THE SHROUD”
"The Shroud" is a stop-motion puppet animation crafted through needle felting, adapted from the Grimm Brothers' tale of the same name. The film follows a haunting tale of a mother unable to move on from the death of her beloved son. The story explores the themes of life, death and to some extent life after death.
This film was created as part of my self-funded Bachelor of Design graduation project. The assignment was to pitch and produce an animated short film of at least five minutes in length. The goal was to craft an emotionally resonant and visually striking animated film, experimenting with various materials and techniques. The project also aimed to explore new ideas and bring them to life, building on the skills I had developed while acquiring new ones along the way.
Visual style
The style is heavily inspired by Tim Burton’s aesthetic. Like his films the concept is dark, offbeat and sympathises with the outcast. The main inspiration comes from his film ‘Vincent’- a misunderstood goth kid in suburbia and his obsession with dark subjects that manifest in.
“Storyboard”
“Animatic”
“Production Schedule”
“Character Design”
The main inspiration for the characters came from Tim Burton’s style. While reading the story initially, I pictured it taking place in a 1800s-1900s Gothic Americana, I started off by making a note of the character personality and behaviour traits, along with some basic facts about them to help me visualise them better. Then making character silhouettes for the characters.
THE MOTHER
She is a stern mother, who is overly protective of her son and loves him very much. Her world revolves around her son and she would do anything for him. She mostly keeps to herself.
Born in 1928, she is 30 years old. She is a tall and lean woman with sharp features and a delicate body.
THE SON
He is a very beautiful and obedient child who loves his mother very much. He is playful and kind hearted. His demeanour is shy and reserved.
Born in 1948, he is 10 years old. He’s tall, lean and fragile with delicate features.
Out of all the explorations, numbers 12 and 18 for “The Mother”, 3 and 8 for “The Boy” looked the most promising and I decided to explore the designs further through line drawings.
Final Design
“Crafting the characters”
The head was carved out of foam using a tracing of the character’s head and later shaped.
The height of the mother and the boy are 8 inches and 5 inches respectively.
The armature is made by twisting aluminium wires together. It’s further strengthened with masking tape. The chest and crouch area is secured with m-seal.
The face and the body is then modelled with wool by needle felting. Finally clothes are stitched.
Further details and facial expressions and features added by 2D drawings.
“Set Design”
Set Design is a very important component of a film in terms of aesthetics and overall look and feel.
Since the film is based I the 1800s Gothic America, I started looking into references for the same. What intrigued me the most was the set design from a live action film. ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events’. The weirdly shaped furniture, crooked staircases and huge curved windows with a wallpaper walls gave the film a dramatic and unsettling look.
As this was exactly what I needed, keeping this in mind, I started to sketch out the dimensions and initial designs for my film.
Rough sketches and room layouts and measurements
Rough sketches to mock-up model
To make sure I get my dimensions and placements right. Also to get a rough idea as to how the final set would look and to plot and place my shots to get a better idea of what it would be like to work with the set. So I got a few cardboard boxes and started gluing them together, sometimes improvising the designs along the way.
