A Sun
+Spring 2021
+Collaboration
+Title Sequence
+Motion
+Credits
Collaborators: Cathy Xiao, Joie Sui
Art Direction: Tiffany Shen, Cathy Xiao
Storyboard: Tiffany Shen, Cathy Xiao, Joie Sui
Editorial: Tiffany Shen, Cathy Xiao
3D Design/Animation: Cathy Xiao, Tiffany Shen, Joie Sui
+Special Thanks
Miguel Lee—Professor
+Awards
Promax Awards 2021 Spark Art Direction & Design- Gold Medalist
Promax Awards 2021 Spark Best Use of Music - Gold Medalist
Communication Arts Design Annual 62
Indigo Awards 2022 - Gold in Main Title Design, Student
+Collaboration
+Title Sequence
+Motion
+Credits
Collaborators: Cathy Xiao, Joie Sui
Art Direction: Tiffany Shen, Cathy Xiao
Storyboard: Tiffany Shen, Cathy Xiao, Joie Sui
Editorial: Tiffany Shen, Cathy Xiao
3D Design/Animation: Cathy Xiao, Tiffany Shen, Joie Sui
+Special Thanks
Miguel Lee—Professor
+Awards
Promax Awards 2021 Spark Art Direction & Design- Gold Medalist
Promax Awards 2021 Spark Best Use of Music - Gold Medalist
Communication Arts Design Annual 62
Indigo Awards 2022 - Gold in Main Title Design, Student
+Synopsis
A Sun, a Taiwanese film by Chung Mong-hong, is an authentic portrayal of a family bearing the hardship of unmet expectations, unspoken grief, and stubborn pride. Perseverance and healing overshadows the turmoil and conflict as the family tries to mend their broken relationship. The story is grand, yet intimate. It depicts the suffocating reality of a life that continues through the search for a solution.
+Direction
Life is a complicated subject that can be represented by simple things, such as the weaving of threads. The sequence focuses on a single thread intersecting and intertwining creating a pattern of lines that form the endless knot. In Chinese culture, it represents the circulation of life and symbolizes hope for family unification. The growing and intertwining threads represent the family’s reformation after being split by tragedies. The journey of the thread is an abstract projection of life. The knot is revealed in an ordinary Taiwanese apartment, grounding the abstract in the mundane.
A Sun, a Taiwanese film by Chung Mong-hong, is an authentic portrayal of a family bearing the hardship of unmet expectations, unspoken grief, and stubborn pride. Perseverance and healing overshadows the turmoil and conflict as the family tries to mend their broken relationship. The story is grand, yet intimate. It depicts the suffocating reality of a life that continues through the search for a solution.
+Direction
Life is a complicated subject that can be represented by simple things, such as the weaving of threads. The sequence focuses on a single thread intersecting and intertwining creating a pattern of lines that form the endless knot. In Chinese culture, it represents the circulation of life and symbolizes hope for family unification. The growing and intertwining threads represent the family’s reformation after being split by tragedies. The journey of the thread is an abstract projection of life. The knot is revealed in an ordinary Taiwanese apartment, grounding the abstract in the mundane.
A Sun Title Sequence
Styleframes
Process
Working during a pandemic forced us to work remotely. In our attempts to adapt, we worked constantly through Zoom calls, Slack channels, and collaborative prototyping sites like Figma. During the early stages of our process, storyboarding in Figma allowed us to make unlimited arrangements of our sequence. Starting with a variety of frames showing how the thread could move and interact with each other, we began arranging our sequence from there.
References
We studied real-life and digital string references to consider the possibilities and limitations of our design. Intensive research was dedicated to art directing the room to look authentically Taiwanese, We asked friends and family, and looked on Airbnb for references.
Exploration
We created several rounds of style development before landing our final look. The frames below show a variety of methods used to create the string, from Sweep to Redshift hair.
Compositing
