A SCAD Short Film
STORY
About the Film
“I pitched the premise for this story virtually from my childhood bedroom in Ohio to SCAD’s chairs of animation in spring 2020, in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I wanted to tell a story about family connection with a hopeful tone, that reminds us that those who we leave behind are never really gone. They remain in our hearts and memories forever. Stories like that have always resonated the most with me, and I knew that my senior film had to impart that same message. Although I am a European “mutt”, a large part of my heritage comes from Ireland. As the descendant of Irish immigrants on both sides of my family, I had a personal tie to this story and I felt like it was a way to pay homage to those who came before me and paved the way for me to follow my dreams today. I have played the violin myself for over a decade, and I felt it only appropriate that our main character should be a fiddler. I also intended for our protagonist to be a strong woman who takes risks and supports herself in an oppressive environment, as well as for there to be a magical element present throughout. Complete with cloth and hair simulation on Ailidh’s 1900s dress and flowing locks, accurate violin animation, ghostly look development, and magical particles, what a challenge this film was to offer up to our team! I cannot overstate how lucky I am to have the chance to work with the most passionate crew I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and although I’ve still yet to meet some of them in person, I thank them for jumping at the chance to create the beautiful world we envisioned and for their razor-sharp dedication to the project over the course of an entire year.
I am incredibly proud of our hard work on what was largely a virtual production from start to finish, and I cannot thank them enough for the long hours put into the film in the midst of a pandemic. This year was anything but conventional, but we have all adapted successfully to create an emotional story that truly tugs at the heartstrings. It’s been an honor to work with them, and I am excited that although we are all raising our parting glasses and travelling into our new lives like Ailidh for, that our paths cross will cross in the future in the industry - this team is truly a force to be reckoned with. We hope that you enjoy watching Heartstrings as much as we enjoyed making it.”
-Erin Donahue, Film Director
Heartstrings tells the story of Ailidh, a young Irish woman who immigrated to New York City in 1910 with little belongings except for her father's old violin.
Ailidh comes home from a long day of performing in the streets of Hell's kitchen with a broken string, discouraged, and covered in rain. Although she is on the verge of giving up on her new life in the United States, she is surprised to find that by playing her father's violin that she hadn't had the heart to touch since her journey began, she is able to bring him back to her for one final goodbye. Though the encounter with her father is short-lived, it gives Ailidh the encouragement she needs to continue to follow her dreams of becoming a performer and she is left with a newfound confidence that she will be okay in her new life.
Heartstrings was written and directed by Erin Donahue at the Savannah College of Art and Design with a talented team of eleven artists with diverse backgrounds and experiences, two sound designers, and a score by Miles Kredich.
SYNOPSIS
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CHARACTERS
AILIDH
"Ailidh was so much fun to design! Since the beginning I was leaning into more angular shapes rather than soft silhouettes, drawing inspiration from Disney’s Tarzan and Hercules, especially as I got closer to what became the final look. The 2D design was where I could let my imagination go wild - in a drawing, there are none of the limitations associated with bringing a character into a 3D space. A sticking point for me was Ailidh’s nose. I knew I wanted it to be larger and sharper than other contemporary animated characters’ noses, and while her eyes are large and her waist is small, I wanted to differentiate her a bit from what’s already been done. Her facial features were quite sharp and less quintessentially feminine than other characters her age, and that was something that I wanted to push from the start of the project and throughout. I wanted her to be beautiful, but in a unique and nearly unconventional way. As far as her wardrobe was concerned, I consulted with a fashion historian friend and conducted research to see what an Irish immigrant would have worn in 1910. After several iterations, we landed on the look in the image on the bottom right. The coolest part of the process was working with Sam, who sculpted Ailidh’s production model, to translate my 2D drawings into a beautiful living 3D character, with a lovely Disney princess appeal and beautiful hand-painted textures."
-Erin
AILIDH
3D model
"Ailidh's character design was one of the primary reasons I decided to work on Heartstrings. As an aspiring character artist, I was drawn to her pretty, yet strong appeal, and her design lended itself to some experimentation with shape language.When starting any sculpt, I like to gather many references from various mediums, such as other films, games, and even other concept art to get inspiration for my piece. For Ailidh, some of these references included female Irish portraiture, Tarzan, Spiderverse, and some Disney princesses.Upon starting Ailidh's sculpt, I first blocked out her shapes to match the proportions of the concept art. The blocking included primitive shapes to represent clothes and hair in order to envision the character. I was in constant contact with our director, Erin, to make sure I was bringing her vision to life. She emphasized her vision of a "carved" look for the characters and referenced Greek sculpture.Once the blockout was approved and the silhouette was reading, I could then move further and start refining secondary details, like the face and musculature; this stage included the most experimentation with shape language. The team ultimately resonated with a sharper approach layered on top of a soft, Disney princess appeal. After sculpting her body, I refined her clothes and hair, as well as her inner mouth. Her hair was definitely one of the biggest challenges throughout the whole character modeling process. It was particularly hard to translate the complexity of her concepted hair into actual 3D meshes, and also deciding between one sculpted mesh of hair or individual strands (our final decision which we were able to end up swimming!). The retopology process began as soon as the character sculpt was approved then I began texturing. The process of texturing Ailidh was very relaxing, since we created a hand-painted film, and, therefore, Ailidh was to be hand-painted. I had a lot of fun playing with painting subtle wrinkles and shadows. "
-Sam
EAMON
"Eamon’s design was tough to find in comparison to Ailidh. He was truly an enigma. I wanted him to be an older gentleman with wisdom behind his eyes, but besides that, I didn’t necessarily have a visual direction that I wanted to go with his features or body type initially. To get ideas flowing, I researched Irish actors and drew charicatures of them until something clicked. I reached an a-ha moment once I came to a design with longer hair, a sharp beard, a darker complexion than his daughter, and a distinctly-shaped nose. Once again, I found myself gravitating to an unconventional yet graceful appeal. Finally, I’d found Ailidh’s papa! After further development to integrate Eamon into Ailidh’s already established visual aesthetic and historical research into his wardrobe, Eamon started to come to life. He is a bigger man, but it was important that he did not look too overbearing or intimidating. Eamon is a sweetheart and a luthier by profession who only wants the best for his daughter, and would do anything to see her succeed, so it was essential that his onscreen look reflected his gentle and caring nature. It was very exciting handing these designs off to Ryan, who created his production model, and seeing him progressively get translated into 3D."
-Erin
EAMON
3D model
"I originally modelled the father Eamon with the more exaggerated shapes of his 2d counterpart however, as early production and look development progressed further, we found that his character's design and emotional intent would be stronger with more realistic proportions and features. Furthermore, we kept the sharp edges and angles of his original design in order to maintain his aged look while also helping to connect him visually to his daughter Ailidh. With realism in mind, I modelled additional details such as the laces in his dress shoes, the curls in his hair, and his shirts' cufflinks into the pre-existing character model that I thought would help him to appear more respectable, wise, and fatherly. I was very pleased with the end result and am so glad I got the chance to sculpt this endearing character."
-Ryan
ENVIRONMENT
Ailidh’s Small Tenement
"Our main character Alidih is an aspiring violinist that lives in New York’s small scale tenement housing. The time period is the early1900s, so we had great amount of options for inspiration that we could model the tenement after. Since Alidih lives in a tenement alone, this would then mean that she wouldn’t have a lot of personal belongings. She also lived in a small place that wouldn’t house a lot of belongings as well. So, when modeling the tenement, the Heartstrings team tried to give the room a sense of being mismatched, well lived-in, and an importance that whatever Ailidh brought to America with her was all she needed as a remembrance of home. The furniture that Alidih has is mismatched and the styles of the furniture come from different styles of the 1910s. We have representations of the Arts and Craft, Art Deco, and Missionary furniture styles. This is to show that she doesn’t have a fancy furniture set, and that these pieces were probably hand-me downs and or pieces she has found. Her tenement is also rickety and run-down, which we show through the uneven floorboards, creaky door, and a dirty and cracked window, etc. We also show that she only has one window, which only gives her one possible light source, because then she lives in a dark and gloomy space."
-Nicole Keefe
CLIFF
"The recollection of Ailidh and Eamon takes place on the cliff of Ireland. The boundless lawn is an indispensable part of the Ireland cliff. I made research on cliffs, especially the type, size, color and distribution of the grass. The feeling of recollection is lively and cheerful. Accordingly, the color of the grass is vibrant. I used Photoshop to create alpha for grass texture and opacity in Arnold, which is a very good fit for the sprite type of effect. I created one grass card, duplicated and rotated it to make them a basic lawn. Then created a MASH network, and finally adjusted the color and distribution to form the lawn for each cliff scene based on lighting and cliff color. The render time would be shortened if make a Standin for grass card. However, it caused problems during the transmission so I didn’t use it in the end. I am very pleased and cherish this opportunity to create the exterior environment despite difficulties that arose."
-Yuanshiyu
