characters in Maya

Pappu from Rohini Metharam on Vimeo.

Thesis Statement

My thesis is a humorous 2D/3D animation that inspires South Asian families to tallk about each others expectations of the children's career choices. I will showcase my animation in a workshop format that can be used by educational institutions.

version 3 of the new story

Storyboard

- We see a long shot of Ranga's Meat Shop in the Jungle

- we go into the meat shop where we see a wall filled with pictures of generations of TIGER butchers that have owned this shop and we see a picture of the current ownder

- A LARGE TIGER is cutting meat with a big chopping knife, his back is turned to A YOUNGER VERSION OF HIM, HIS SON

- we see THE SON looking back to see if his dad is looking and then he goes back to what he was doing

- we see the boy making a small sculpture out of clay
-
- THE FATHER TIGER TURNS TO HIS SON

--(THIS IS A NEW SHOT) THE SON quickly puts his sculpture away

- THE FATHER APPROACHES THE SON WITH A LEG OF ZEBRA and lays it on the table in front of the boy

- HE HANDS the knife over to the boy

- THE BOY FROWNS -- POUTS AND SIGHS

- A DREAM APPEARS ABOVE HIS HEAD (we see his dream in 2d/3d cell shaded above his head) he is showing his dad his sculpture, his dad gets mad and cuts his dream in half. The dream vanishes)

- the boy gulps
-THE BOY LOOKS AT THE ZEBRA MEAT IN FRONT OF HIM

- he moves his hand up in preparation to cut, the knife flies out of his hand and gets stuck on the wall behind him BARELY MISSING HIS FATHER

- FATHER PULLS KNIFE OUT OF WALL AND TAKES A DEMONSTRATIVE WHACK AT THE MEAT-
-FATHER HANDS KNIFE OVER.
-SON CUTS- (we don't see what he's doing)

- CLOSE-UP OF FATHER'S FACE
-CLOSE-UP OF ZEBRA MEAT WITH SMILEY FACE CUT INTO IT

-SON BACKS UP --AFRAID AND OPENS FRIDGE
CLOSE UP PAN OF FRIDGE SHELF WITH ROWS OF CLAY BUSTS

- INTERCUT CLOSE UP DAD'S FACE----
he looks even more angry and starts throwing all the little sculptures out

- boy still squeamish as dad keeps throwing the sculptures out

- he stops his dad and shows him the big sculpture he made of his dad behind the little sculptures

- close up of boy's face as he waits to see what his father's reaction, he has a big smile on his face

- cut to dad's face -- his anger turns to puzzlement

- we see a little cloud appears above the dads head, (we see a younger version of him,
pouty, we see the hands of his father handing him a knife. he looks at the picture on the table next to him of a tiger in the circus, then looks at the meat in front of him and sighs) his dreams dissappears

- the dad smiles and pats his son on the head

- he picks up the meat sculpture

- scene fades

- mid Shot of Ranga's meat shop -- in the window we see the dad's sculpture along with al the other little meat sculptures. There's a sign in the window that says "BEST MEAT SCULPTURES IN ALL THE LAND"

-- the end

New Story with better ending

- We see a long shot of Ranga's Meat Shop in the Jungle

- we go into the meat shop where we see a wall filled with pictures of generations of TIGER butchers that have owned this shop and we see a picture of the current ownder

- A LARGE TIGER is cutting meat with a big chopping knife, his back is turned to A YOUNGER VERSION OF HIM, HIS SON

- we see THE SON looking back to see if his dad is looking and then he goes back to what he was doing

- we see the boy making a small sculpture out of clay
-
-    THE FATHER TIGER TURNS TO HIS SON

--(THIS IS A NEW SHOT) THE SON quickly puts his sculpture away

- THE FATHER APPROACHES THE SON WITH A LEG OF ZEBRA  and lays it on the table in front of the boy

- HE HANDS the knife over to the boy 

- THE BOY FROWNS -- POUTS AND SIGHS 

- A DREAM APPEARS ABOVE HIS HEAD (we see his dream in 2d/3d cell shaded above his head) he is showing his dad his sculpture, his dad gets mad and cuts his dream in half. The dream vanishes)

- the boy gulps
   -THE BOY LOOKS AT THE ZEBRA MEAT IN FRONT OF HIM

- he moves his hand  up in preparation to cut, the knife flies out of his hand and gets stuck on the wall behind him BARELY MISSING HIS FATHER

- FATHER PULLS KNIFE OUT OF WALL AND TAKES A DEMONSTRATIVE WHACK AT THE MEAT-
   -FATHER HANDS KNIFE OVER.
-SON CUTS- (we don't see what he's doing)

- CLOSE-UP OF FATHER'S FACE
 -CLOSE-UP OF CARCASS WITH A CUT IN SMILEY FACE

-SON BACKS UP --AFRAID AND OPENS FRIDGE
    CLOSE UP PAN OF FRIDGE SHELF WITH ROWS OF CLAY BUSTS WITH DAD'S BUST AS LARGEST ONE.

- INTERCUT CLOSE UP DAD'S FACE----
he looks even more angry and starts throwing all the little sculptures out

- boy still squeamish, looks around and sees a price tag on the table

- he picks up the price tag and sticks it into the large meat sculpture of his dad

- close up of boy's face as he waits to see what his father's reaction

- cut to dad's face -- his anger turns to puzzlement and then a smile

- dad pats his son on his head and picks up the meat sculpture

- scene fades

- mid Shot of Ranga's meat shop -- in the window we see the dad's sculpture along with al the other little meat sculptures. There's a sign in the window that says "BEST MEAT SCULPTURES IN ALL THE LAND"

-- the end

New storyboard

What's in a name!

I had to give my characters names. After much thinking and inspiration, these are the names I came up with keeping in mind that they are Indian tigers:

The dad is called:
Ranga (This is an Indian name, short for Rangasami)

The son is called:
Pappu (Means little child in several Indian languages and is also used as a nickname. Incidentally, it also happens to be my nickname)

new story version 2: post midterm

I had several people look over the previous story and they like the story however the chef and butcher are too close in profession. Therefore for this version I changed the story so that the boy wants to be a sculptor.
This is the new story I came up.

Setting: A Meat shop in the jungle
Characters: Dad who owns the butcher shop
and his son (who wants to be a sculptor)
Both characters are tigers

- We see a long shot of a meat shop in the jungle

- we go into the meat shop where we see a wall filled with pictures of generations of butchers that have owned this shop and we see a picture of the current ownder

- He is cutting meat with a big chopping knife, his back is turned to his son

- we see his son looking back to see if his dad is looking and then he goes back to what he was doing

- we see the boy making a small sculpture out of clay

- in the background we see the father opening the fridge behind him

- the boys head picks up as soon as he hears the fridge door open

- he quickly puts his sculpture away

- we hear the fridge door closing and the dad comes over with a big steak in his hand and lays it on the table in front of the boy

- he starts cutting and then hands the knife over to the boy so he can try

- the boy doesn't look happy, he starts daydreaming

- (we see his dream in 2d/3d cell shaded above his head) he is showing his dad his sculpture, his dad gets mad and starts chasing him around the shop with his knife)

- the boy gulps and his dream disappears

- he takes the knife his dad is handing him to start cutting

- but when he moves his hand up in preparation to cut, the knife flies out of his hand and gets stuck on the wall behind him

- the boy looks behind and then at his dad (an embarrasses cheesy smile on his face)

- the dad sighs and shakes his head

- he shows him how to hold the knife and then gives it to the boy to attempt again

- annoyed that he has to try this again, the boy tries cutting the meat and then shows his dad when he has done

- the dad gets mad as he sees that the boy has cut a smiley face in the meat, he starts grumbling

- the boy takes the ground meet next to him and quickly starts making something

- the dad looks at him intreagued

- the boy shows the dad a small meat sculpture of him that he has made

- the dad looks at what the boy has done and smiles, his expression changes as he has gotten an idea

- scene fades

- we see the dad cutting and boy making little meat sculptures they are both happy

- camera pans out, we see little meat sculptures in the shop window

- the end

New characters and story: Post Midterm

From the midterm analysis, I realized that I had to stay away from the tribal theme in order not to be offensive. Also, I had to create a story with characters or an environment that clued the viewers in to Indian culture. Initially I had come up with a story about a boy who wanted to be a Bollywood actor and his struggle to communicate with his dad who wanted him to be a doctor. While these are Indian professions that kids would immediately recognize, they are too literal and uninteresting. 

Therefore I decided to make the father and sons characters Indian tigers. This would be a lot more fun for animation and appealing to kids than human characters. I also changed the setting and professions. The story is now set in a meat shop that the father owns and the boy is a wannabe chef

These are the characters I came up with

This is the first version of the story I came up with:
Setting: A Meat shop in the jungle
Characters: Dad who owns the butcher shop
and his son (who wants to be a chef)
Both characters are tigers

- We see a long shot of a butcher shop in the jungle

- we go into the meat shop where we see a wall filled with pictures of generations of butchers that have owned this shop and we see a picture of the current ownder

- He is cutting meat with a big chopping knife, his back is turned to his son

- we see his son looking back to see if his dad is looking

- he goes back to his part of the table where he is a preparing a meal following along with the Indian chef (from Khana Kazana, an Indian cooking show) on TV

- While he is cooking we see the dad in the background is taking meat to the fridge and putting it in

- The boys head picks up when he hears the fridge open

- he shuts off the TV and starts putting all his stuff away before his father can see

- we hear the fridge close as he manages to put everything away

- the dad comes over to the boy with a big piece of meat in his hand and puts it on the table in front of him and hands him the cutting knife

- the boy looks at the raw meat in disgust

- he goes into a day dream (2d animation) where he sees himself dressed up in chef's attire with the meat cooked in the form of a gourmet meal presenting it to his father

- the dad gets mad and starts chasing his son with the butcher knife

- the boy gulps and his dream vanishes

- he looks back at the meat on the table and the knife

- he picks up the knife and starts cutting the meat but he does it all wrong

- the father gets mad and bangs his fist on the table for the boy to try again but get it right this time

- the boy looks at his chef's hat and gets mad

- he takes it out and puts it on his head and hands the meal he prepared to his dad

- the father gets furious and picks up his knife as he is not happy about what his son wants to do

- the boy sees his fathers rage and drops the plat on the table

- the dad chases him around the restaraunt with his knife in hand

- the boy panting, stops and motions his father to stop

- the father stops in his tracks

- he takes the food that he prepared and gives it to his father to taste

- the dad takes a bite a smile on his face as he enjoys the food he is trying

- the boy looks happy

- screen fades

- we see the dad in his butcher shop cutting meat, the picture behind him has the sons cooking with the boy

- the boy is next to his dad on the stove with a sign on the wall that says "Get your fresh Kebabs here!"

The end