The Lucky Seed Animation
Animation
December, 2019Lucky Seed's Morning Routine is an animation inspired by my habits, sources of affection, and Peruvian heritage. The protagonist of my short is a seed which is known by various names around the world including the ladybug seed, crab's eye, or in my birthplace of Peru, Huayruro aka the ‘Lucky Seed’. Personifying this Peruvian symbol of good fortune, the seed's morning reality is followed from the second it wakes up to the moment that it gets dressed in the colors of a Huayruro seed, red and black.
Click here to view my full animation with sound.
The Story Behind the Animation
The seed's personality is derived considerably by its oversized
charming eyes, as well as, a series of unflattering moments
including a burp and a steady stream of snores. My music
selection, Friendly Day, by Kevin MacLeod, guided the pacing
of the animation and reinforced an upbeat and quirky atmosphere
throughout. The color scheme of Lucky Seed's Morning Routine
is based on the colors of Huayruro seeds, black and red, and
incorporates muted tones and shades of these colors to create
a warm palette. The seed is white before getting dressed in what
I call 'Stamp Style', to juxtapose the darker values of its home
and to parallel the notion of dressing oneself to painting spots
on a seed. Click here to watch the full animation with sound.
My Process
As part of a study of color theory, I began by selecting my color
palette from an already existing image. The image that I selected,
on the right, was created by the creative collective, Made Thought.
I selected it for its wide array of colors, as at this stage I did not
want to limit myself in this respect. From this image, I hand picked
over two hundred different hues and organized these different
colors according to value, color, and saturation. After organizing
the basis of my palette, and representing each color by a square
swatch, I created three different abstract compositions to serve
as representation of different color schemes that I was thinking
of using in the animation. The three compositions can be viewed
below my color chart. Of these three different interpretations
I selected the middle composition to begin adding color to my
black and white sketches.