Relive - CGI Cinematic Animation

Relive - Short Film

Yam-Cha Productions

Synopsis

A soul enters a Tea House on the edge of existence where he has to face a stern goddess, monsters and his past.

Background Story

The film started with an idea of a child's soul confronting the afterlife. At that point we already knew that we wanted to make our Chinese culture an integral part of the film. The topic naturally comes with a lot of emotions and we pondered for awhile on whether the tone should be like a fantasy adventure or full on horror. Initially it was pitched as a carefree romp through the Chinese afterlife.

However, we changed that as we wanted it to be more impactful, the story underwent so many iterations until we all reached a satisfying narrative. Despite it all, we kept to the original vision of a kid appreciating life but also learning to let it go.

Animatic and Storyboard

Concept

Once we've settled on the horror theme, we started finding inspirations for the films style. We experimented with a Pixar look initially but felt that it looked too tame. We also did not want to go a full body horror look as we still wanted this film to be family friendly. Ultimately we found inspiration in the slightly unsettling look that comes from stop motion films like Kubo and Boxtrolls.

Xiao Bao

A young soul unable to let go of his past and his deep bond with his mother.

We experimented with creating Xiao Bao with many different Materials. Paper being one that we found really interesting, however we ended up with a gentle painted plastic skin for Xiao Bao as paper would look too odd in motion and shots.

Meng Po

Watching over the end of every souls journey, this stern goddess bears that weight with grace.

We wanted to capture her otherworldly look, while allowing her to look unsettling but also kind depending on the point in the film. We elected to make her look like a porcelain doll found in Chinese craft works.

Butcher

A cautionary tale of what would happen if you led a cruel life, this wrathful slaughterer gets his comeuppance.

We wanted the souls to have a consistent look so the butcher was designed after Xiao Bao's was locked down. We experimented on varying him more but due to budget and clarity reasoning we just made him bulkier evil Xiao Bao.

Baby Xiao Bao

The reincarnation of Xiao Bao, a baby with a bright future ahead of him.

It was a fun challenge to convert Xiao Bao’s soul form into his human form, where it can be distinct enough while being feasible to be the same person.

Mom

A cabbage farmer from a village, she lives a hard life but it was happier with Xiao Bao around.

We knew we wanted the flashbacks to look like water color paintings when viewed from the tea. So we designed mother with that in mind, making sure that she looks gentle and caring while also a hardy parent.

Xiao Bao POV Hands

Within the memory scenes we have a specialized hand rig as we are seeing things through Xiao Bao POV.

There was a version of the story where we wanted to make the sickness look more visual on XB’s arm in the form of rashes. However it was thought to be too scary. In this art you can also see how his age of death went from 7 years old to 3.

Environment

Meng Po’s Teahouse

The final destination for every soul who have walked down the journey of life, they stop here for one last drink before moving on forever.

We wanted this place to feel otherworldly, and it is the only thing in this entire film that went relatively unchanged from the first concept to the final outcome on screen. The furnitures and overall shape language.

Flashback Environment

We wanted to show Xiao Bao’s life in a Chinese watercolor painted style, it depicts his simple home as well as the cabbage farm that his mother works at.

We felt that the color scheme also helped show the more mundane life he lived, serving as a big contrast to the tea house.

Simulation

As for Meng Po’s scarf we had a lot of issues with it, namely how to control it while making it feel flowy. Initially our Technical Director was able to build a rig that utilised Nhair that has dynamic constraints onto Ncloth. However that proved to be impossible to control, and very heavy for our pcs.

In the end we decided to go with a Rig in Maya that holds the cloth up on certain points, thus allowing us to simulate it in Marvelous Designer

VFX

Our ambitious film is filled with a lot of VFX to fully present this setting and story, we wanted to showcase the Chinese Afterlife to be one full of mystery and magic to keep through to the old myths.

Fog

We wanted the fog to have this stylized flair to them almost like curtains parting while emulating the look of fogs and clouds found in traditional Chinese Art. Thus we used some planes with hand drawn fogs in order to bring that vision to life.

Butcher Transformation

For the shot where the Butcher becomes the Hog, we wanted to use blend shape while putting it in close up in order to fully give in to the body horror element.

However we ended up opting for full 2D animation to make it slightly less gruesome while allowing us to control the shapes and timing better.

Water Bending

This film has a lot of water bending from Meng Po as part of her tea making choreography, it proved to be quite a challenge that our VFX team overcame. Using the curve system within Maya, the VFX artists are able to simulate a moving water trail through space using Houdini. The alembic of which is then imported into Maya then finished up in After Effects.

Our Environment is completely surrounded by water, we knew early on that we had to simulate and have multiple shots of water interaction. The general water surrounding the teahouse is made by using MAYA’s Plugin called “Boss Ripple”. but the water splashes it needs to simulate and have interact with the character and environment so we use Houdini to do it 

Lighting/Compositing

CREDITS

Director :

Jeremy Lim Ting Han

Line Producers :

Yew Hui Jing ( DG )

Thantasya Wijaya (IL)

Head of Story :

Vanessa Olivia

Story Artists :

Maria Ingrid Santosa

Chok Ching Wen

Elfyna Elcy Anak Frank Ritchie

Marcus Tan Tee Soon

Monica

Art Directors :

Yew Jia Jun (DG)

Krysan Yemima (IL)

Fira Angelina Nugroho (IL)

Character Artists :

Bryan Yap Jun Yang

Maria Abigail

Yong Hui Zia

Khor Jin

Phebe Felicia Chlyson

Environment Artists

Chin Li Qi

Tan Kea Boong

Ivan Ng Han Jian

Ung Zhen Xuan

Concept Artist :

Thantasya Wijaya

Fira Angelina Nugroho

Vanessa Olivia

Krysan Yemima

Elfyna Ellcy Anak Frank Ritchie

Bryan Yap Jun Yang

Maria Abigail

Chin Li Qi

Yong Hui Zia

Khor Jin

Maria Ingrid Santosa

Tan Kea Boong

Marcus Tan Tee Soon

Monica

Ivan Ng Han Jian

Ung Zhen Xuan

Phebe Felicia Chlyson

Vanessa Elvina

Chok Ching Wen

Lead Character Modeler :

Ong Yui Sern

Character Modelers :

Goh Yee Von

Cantabille Ghedin

Tan Ming Jian

Character Texture Artists :

Ong Yui Sern

Goh Yee Von

Cantabille Ghedin

Tan Ming Jian

Lead Environment Modellers :

Sebastian

Environment Modellers :

Yew Hui Jing

Lee Si Hong

Liew Woon Chiang Jackson

Tan Ming Shen

Tan Ming Jian

Diane Wan

Lead Texture & Shading Artist :

Goh Yee Von

Texture & Shading Artists :

Sebastian

Ong Yui Sern

Lee Si Hong

Tan Ming Shen

Tan Ming Jian

Cantabille Ghedin

Lead Set Dresser :

Yew Hui Jing

Set Dressers :

Ng En Qi

Diane Wan

Technical Director :

Liew Woon Chiang Jackson

Sebastian

Riggers :

Liew Woon Chiang Jackson

William Sii Qing Zhong

Thum Yu Kang

Sebastian

Yew Hui Jing

Director of Photography :

Natasha Ravindran

Rhenaldy Aristo Chandra

Layout Artists :

Ng En Qi

Jeremy Lim

Natasha Ravindran

Fanny Anggotioso

Thum Yu Kang

Lead Animator :

Sim Kai Yang

Ng En Qi

Animators :

Jeremy Lim

Rhenaldy Aristo Chandra

William Sii Qing Zhong

Thum Yu Kang

Natasha Ravindran

Fanny Anggotioso

Wong Suzanne

Yew Jia Jun

Lead Lighter :

Lee Si Hong

Cantabille Ghedin

Lighting Artists :

Fanny Anggotioso

Goh Yee Von

Rhenaldy Aristo Chandra

Tan Ming Shen

Tan Ming Jian

Lead VFX Artist :

Liew Woon Chiang Jackson

VFX Artists :

Goh Yee Von

Tan Ming Jian

Sebastian

Ong Yui Sern

Yew Jia Jun

Lead Cloth Sim Artist :

Jeremy Lim Ting Han

Cloth Sim Artists :

Thum Yu Kang

Yew Jia Jun

William Sii Qing Zhong

Lead Editor :

Wong Suzanne

Editors :

Jeremy Lim Ting Han

Sim Kai Yang

Goh Yee Von

William Sii Qing Zhong

Lead Compositor :

Thum Yu Kang

Yew Hui Jing

Compositors :

Ng En Qi

Diane Wan

Jeremy Lim Ting Han

Lead Renderer :

Sim Kai Yang

Goh Yee Von

Renderers :

Ong Yui Sern

Liew Woon Chiang Jackson

Lee Si Hong

Wong Suzanne

Cantabille Ghedin (Memory Scene)

Music Editor :

David Chok Yan Nian

Ong Yui Sern

SFX Editor :

Yew Hui Jing