The Abhorsen

Interim Crit

Jonathan Pearmain

The Old Kingdom Chronicles

Written by Australian author, Garth Nix, the undead and other monsters that Free the Old Kingdom series is a fantasy trilogy magic and its servants spawn in order to set in a world of magic, necromancy,and work their wills. (TVTropes.org) war. The trilogy details the deeds of the Set in a world sharply divided into the Abhorsen, beginning withthe young Old Kingdom, where magic rules, and the Sabriel and then continuing with the Southern Nations, where science is law, adventures of her son and her successor the Old Kingdom series revolves mostly along with a variety of companionsand around the conflict between two varieties antagonists of magic Charter and Free, which correspond roughly to the traditional alignments of Law and Chaos. Charter magic is defined by the Charter, a runic language, which gives structure and purpose to sorcery to make it a beneficial and constructive force; Free magic is wild, uncontrolled and given to corruption and wanton destruction. Poised between the two is the Abhorsen, who partakes of both to defend the people of the Charter from

The Script
The prologue will be narrated by Mogget (Yrael), and is designed to situate the player into the world. The prologue must: Establish the setting. Give some sense of the games lore. The feel of the world. Outline the story. et up potential allies and villains. S Define players role in the events. Create excitement! Get the player eager to jump into the world. By the end of the prologue the player needs to feel like they can walk into this new world already emmersed in its history, and feeling like an integral part of its future.

The Storyboard
The storyboard is a very fluid and ongoing process. Since my piece is hugely focused on the generation of a large body of finalised concept art, and the experimentation of 2D and 3D animation techniques, the storyboard serves as an exploration of the desirable results for which methods need to be found. The storyboard will continue to develop as body of work is generated; organically growing into an animatic as various frames are used as the bases for experiements and tests. Its primary role so far has been to help establish a visual style, and visual motifs such as the smoke and fire representations of Free Magic, and the contrast of colours between that and the Charter.

Nine Bright Shiners ...she saw something human in shape, taller than her, and thin, almost starved. It had nolegs, the torso and head balanced upon a column of twisting, whirling force. The Wall The Wall itself looked normal enough, past the wasteland of wire and trenches. Just like any other medieval remnant. It was stone and old, about forty feet high and crenellated. Nothing remarkable, until the realization set in that it was in a perfect state of preservation. And for those with the sight, the very stones crawled with Charter Marks marks in constant motion,twisting and turning, sliding and rearranging themselves under a skin of stone. The Wall Makers The Wallmakers had disappeared millennia ago, putting themselves into the creation of theWall and the Great Charter Stones. Quite literally as far as Sam knew... For the Wallmakerswerent exactly dead, Sam thought, remembering the Great Charter Stones and the Wall.They were more transformed or transfigured.

Design Elements
Outlined here are the various elements that need to be designed. Each of these needs to be developed to a finished concept, and then appropriated for the animation - either through using final concept art or creating new work. A variety of disciplines will be brought into play here - ranging from character design, creature design and environment design; also, an overall look and style must emerge. As a younger reader, I was always slightly disappointed by Garth Nixs description of many of the characters, creatures and structures in his universe; they were never particulary cool. They seemed somewhat awkward or incongrous. This project represents my chance to envision his world as I always wanted it to be.

The Clayr Most of the Clayr had brown skin that quickly tanned to deep chestnut out on the glacier slopes, as well as bright blonde hair and light eyes.
The Royal Bloodline The Royal Bloodline is one of the three Charter bloodlines and contains the Charter fromDyrim. The symbol of the Royal line is a golden tower, and the colour is red. -http://oldkingdomwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Royal_line

The Abhorsen ...a tunic of doeskin and breeches of supple leather, reinforced with some sort of hard,segmented plates at thighs, knees and shins... Two of them pushed her arms in to a long armoured coat that buckled up at the sides... a pair of hobnailed boots. The coat... was aslong as a hauberk, with split skirts coming down to her knees and sleeves swallow tailed at her wrists... made entirely of tiny overlapping plates, much like fish scales. The werent metal... but some sort of ceramic, or stone... a blue and silver striped turban... a clothwrapped helmet made from the same material as the armour. ...a deep blue surcoat, dusted with embroidered silver keys... Last of all came sword-belt and bellbandolier.

The Dead Mordicant: It was manlike, more than man-high, and flames ran like burning oil on water where it trod... its body of bog-clay and human blood molded and infused with Free Magic by a necromancer, and a Dead spirit placed inside it as a guiding force. Shadow Hand: Anintensely dark shape stood there, as if someone had cut a man-shaped figure out of the night,carefully choosing a piece devoid of stars. Greater Dead: He had no shape now, but therewere semi-human features in the great ink splash of his presence. Eyes of white fire, and ayawning mouth that was lined with flickering coals of a red as dark as drying blood. Mogget ...the white cat... twitched and turned its head ever so slightly to look at her, revealing bright green eyes... she saw the collar around its neck and the tiny bell that hung there. The collar was only red leather, but the Charter-spell on it was the strongest, most enduring, binding spell that Sabriel had ever seen... and the bell was a miniature Saraneth. The cat was no cat,but a Free Magic creature of ancient power.

Ancelstierre Ancelstierre is a country in the Old Kingdom series that borders on the Old Kingdom at theNorth. Ancelstierres speech patterns, technology and political system share some similaritieswith those of early 20th Century Britain. The capital of Ancelstierre is Corvere. Although physically connected to the Old Kingdom by the Wall, Ancelstierre is in a different plane of existence. Magic does not work in Ancelstierre except very near the Wall, just as Ancelstierran technology breaks down close to the Old Kingdom, and the seasons and Necromancer movement of the constellations do not align on the two sides of the Wall. ...a suit of leather armour that covered him from ankle to wrist, reinforced -http://oldkingdomwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Ancelstierre with plates of red-enameled metal at his neck and every joint. He carried a naked sword in his left hand... Hisright hand rested on a leather bandolier Corolini worn diagonally across his chest. Seven poucheshung from the bandolier, Corolini is a populist rabble-rouser... this politician who had risen to the smallest no larger than a pill box, the largest as big as hisclenched fist. prominence since thebeginning of the Southern War... a dangerous egotist Wooden handles hung downwards out of the pouches. Black ebony handles, who would do anything to gain power. The Bells The leather bandolier she drew out next was an old brown belt, a handsbreadth wide...Seven tubular leather pouches hung from it, starting with on the size of a small pill bottle;growing larger, till the seventh was almost the size of a jar. The bandolier was designed to beworn across the chest, with the pouches hanging down.

Creating a Look
Nix gives surprisingly little cultural exciting opportunity to create some description of the Old Kingdom, giving truly original armour, architecture and minimal clues as to what kind of culture character designs. of our world it might be similar to. As well as providing design inspiration, it There is some evidence though: also feeds into the colour palatte, style and graphic design of my piece. Turban wrapped helm. Scale-mail armour. Split skirts. Horse riding. Burying Royalty in ships. From these elements, and a desire to be original, I decided to explore a mixture of Western Asian and Eastern European design. Tradtionally in Western Fantasy the style is either very much Western Medieval, Oriental, or Norse. So it presents an

WIP: Astarael and the Abhorsen

Here are some of my initial forays into the concept stage. The juxtaposition of Free Magic and the Charter is key to the visual style of my piece, and is a motif Im continuing to develop. Using smoke and flame to represent Free Magic is providing some interesting results, and is definitely something Ill be pursuing - in both design and 3D simulation.

This project for me is about using 3D to enhance my work and create my deisired look - not to be a burden I have to constantly struggle with and defeat. 2.5D represents a liberating technique - switching the focus to high-quality 2D work, into which life is breathed through subtle 3D methods. Using projection mapping, particle and fluid simulation, and animation, 3D will allow my trailer to blur the lines between concept art and fully rendered, 3D images. The process of exploration and experiementation is going to be fantastic.

Two and a Half D

What Next?
I have three simultaneous elements happening: 1. Development of the animation. 2. Concept Design 3. Technique Experiementation I need to organise my remaining time, taking on feedback from this crit, to work update my current project plan and get the ball rolling. The foots on the accelerator pedal now, and Im eager to see where it goes. Thanks for listening!