Orientation Center for the Unseen is a short film created in the spirit of a Public Service Announcement, in order to tell a concise story and showcase a different take on typical ghost stories. Ted, the main character, goes through a transition known as Ooberty, a profound physical transition.
About Ted
Our character designs were mainly inspired by the fashion and illustrations of the 1960s. We wanted to reinforce that the story we were telling could be about anyone, so we staged the story during a typical morning commute of our main character, Ted. As he meets his unfortunate destiny during the first moments of the short film, we wanted the audience to read him as a fragile, clumsy and distracted character. We had very little time to communicate Ted’s personality, so we opted to use triangular and narrow shapes that could be repeated all across his design.
Environments and Props
Knowing that our story was about Ted’s death, we designed his environment in a way to actually make his death feel lighthearted, even comical. Research began by walking through Seattle, drawing and taking notes on building details and overall feel.
As Ted enters the building and arrives at his desk, still clueless of what is happening to him, we wanted to give the audience more information about Ted. Where did he work and what does he do for a living? Ted’s cluttered and busy desk not only tell you more about his personality, but also reminds you of all the unfinished business he’s leaving behind.
Color
Color shifts from warm to cool hues throughout our film. Having a saturated color palette at the beginning, when Ted is alive, and a cooler, muted palette after his death, fit the story concept of transition. Our early ghost concept art also followed this idea, which led us to include the environment designs we had to the same warm to cool color transition.
Ghost Ted
Even though it's basic, modeling this character helped me understand what goes into the creation of a character for animation and its production pipeline. This video was also used as a test for the ghost shader, which helped us to understand how the outer glow effect would react on the model as it moved in space.