Introducing "Nefertiti"

Nefertiti from Priya Shah on Vimeo.

Our second year animation students have just completed the first half of Studio Module PR5001, in which they collaborate together on short film projects.  Over the past seven weeks six students created the short film "Nefertiti", an animated action-adventure set in a mysterious ancient Egyptian tomb. The film was animated in Maya, rendered in Arnold, and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro.  Directed by Eilin Berrio Pena, and Produced by Priya Shah, the film was edited by Jack Devereux, and was completed entirely from home during the Covid Pandemic. Our students collaborated remotely, animated and rendered their shots entirely with their own home resources.

Nefertiti
In "Nefertiti", an explorer finds the entrance to an ancient Egyptian tomb, in search of a mythical treasure. Inside the tomb, she gets rather more than she bargained for...

Pitch and Concept
The story and initial pitch was created by writer and director Eilin Berrio Pena, pitching her project to the other second year animation students, who voted on the three most promising projects to take forwards.

Storyboards
Later, the team drew storyboards to develop the story further, and then did a 3D Layout pass to lock down the camerawork and cinematography.

Covid-19
The project was completed during the lockdown caused by the Covid-19 crisis. The team worked entirely from home, completing the project using their personal computers, with little or no IT support.

Rendering
Rendering was done in Arnold, overseen by Lighting and CG Supervisor Priya Shah.

Still image from "Nefertiti"

Credits 

• Eilin Berrio Pena - Writer, Director, Director of Photography, Storyboards, Animator
• Priya Shah - Producer, CG Supervisor, Animator, Website creator
• Jack Devereux - Editor, Sound Design, Animator
• Simone Costa, Storyboards, Animator
• Mikhail Magnaye, Storyboards, Animator
• Karlita Rojas Tarazon , Animator
• Lanre Onifade, Animator

Official site
You can see more about "Nefertiti" at the official site, and at the IMDB.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2020, follow this link. To apply, visit the official page here.