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Natalie Korth
3D Animator & Storyboard Artist
A story about man and dog's best friend
A story about man and dog's best friend
Animated Short Film
Film Posters
First Poster Design
Pitch Design
Final Design
Responsible for chess piece models and renders in Maya
Second Poster Design
Pitch Design
Process Iterations
Final Design
Responsible for art
Teaser Trailer
A short 3D animated film about connection, about love, and about learning. Its a story of small moments over big spans of time and the belief that what we want isnt always out of reach it just may take one move closer at a time.
(below are my contributions to the film that I can show. Due to it my position on the story and layout teams, not all work is available to show yet so we can remain eligible for film festivals )
Posters
Models / Textures
Chess Pieces
Reference Sketch
Importance was piece stylization to look like well chiseled stone and have clear, identifiable silhouettes under strong lighting from multiple angles
Rough Chess Models Light Test
Final Chess Models and Light Test
Responsible for 3D piece models shown. 2D visdev done by team member Nick Rotolo. Rook piece used in film done by producer Saba Alakhzami based on initial 3D model
Chess Board Top Texture
Texture
Film Stills of Board
The idea when designing the top of the board was to be graphically unique and appealing enough that a kid might take interest in it.
The final design is a combination of inspiration from mosaic style chessboards I saw in museums and a marble chess set owned at home.
The flowers in the corners are white lilies commonly associated with death but also rebirth of the soul.
Chess Book Pages
The jump in page numbers are due to various pages being shown throughout the film. The exponential increase is to help show passage of time and David getting increasingly better at chess.
I created the textures because the team decided my handwriting style fit the father's character best
I took inspiration from the illustrated chess for children by Harvey Kidder, a book given to my dad by his dad.
The idea was to have a handwritten journal written by the father the son could read and learn from. This way his dad was there beside his son teaching him chess when he couldn't be in person
All pages except 7 are uniquely designed and and hold accurate chess information. 7 is a frankenstein of other page materials with a new title to avoid a texture gap back when the film might've included an animated book flip shot.
Inspiration
Numbers & Letters
Fake Page
There are two handwriting styles in the book. Harold's is lighter, calligraphy like, and tends to follow the lines. David's is bolder, uses less loops, and is thrown at angles sometimes.
Fun Fact:
Models/Textures
Animation
Animation
For the animation below I chose to display the final and one video to represent the beginning phase of the shot
Final
The challenge for this shot was conveying different emotional shifts on two characters while also having them interact with props.
For reference I got my younger brother and sister, and gave them the general concept/direction to see what came natural.
I liked how instinctively my brother began helping set up my sisters side so I incorporated that
Reference
Final
Being the soccer player on the film team, and a defender at that, I was tasked with this slide tackle shot
I tried filming exact reference but couldnt get the proper traction without risk of injury. Instead I used a combination of professional players and myself for the poses and weight shifts
Most challenging part was the left hand to make sure it came down naturally to camera
Blocking
There is more animation but it contains spoilers for the film and cannot be publicly posted at this time
story/layout
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