Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
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D E PA R T M E N T 33 KEYFRAME this page: Raya and Sisu the dragon. opposite page: Market scene without (top) and with (bottom) atmospherics added. "Over the course of the film, we were trying to find our statement about community. We tried different ways—is it about creating hope, inspiring others, working together?" – Fawn Veerasunthorn, Head of Story SPRING 2021 33 DELIBERATE AND MEANINGFUL Early on, Lusinsky says, he, Director of Cinematography Layout Rob Dressel, and Production Designer Paul Felix visited various departments and shared the cine- matic vision for the movie, "so everybody on the show was really aware of what we were trying to do. Particularly with camera and lighting." They discussed the intent behind the color scripts and the camera effects they intended to use. Veerasunthorn says this kind of initial collaboration was new to her. "In other productions I worked on, I feel like we were just drawing. … Even though my department is happening so early on, and lighting is almost the last thing that happens, for us to be able to communicate back and forth, that helps." Although her artists weren't drawing details, she felt it was important to be conscious of the choices that were going to be made, and even the type of lenses that would be used. Veerasunthorn recalls how learning about bokeh effects influenced her work on a scene showcasing the relationship between Raya and her father. "I was trying to be conscious about, I'm going to put the window behind him so they can put all the sparkle of lights. And I was drawing some props [that can] reflect light. Layout can do whatever they want with it, but at least in my end I'm going to be keeping in mind what the lighting and cinematography team is trying to do." As a result of this inclusive approach, after the pandemic hit and everyone started working from home, the production became "this exercise in trying to see how every shot could be deliberate and meaningful, and every creative choice we were making was really pushing on those ideas," says López Estrada. Many of those ideas were shaped in part by a wide range of live action movies. It became a house joke that a meeting with Hall would inevitably include a Spielbergian reference. And a heavy influence on Lusinsky was Babel, with its different storylines shot in different settings with different film stocks. "For example, in Tokyo it was a much finer grain film stock. And when you were in the Middle East it was a very, very grainy film stock." This was particularly applicable to the five lands in which Raya takes place: Tail, Talon, Spine, Heart and Fang, together comprising the dragon-shaped fantasy world of Kumandra. As Raya undertakes her epic journey, traversing the lands, each gets its own different application of film stock and film grain to reflect its place in the overall theme of trust and distrust. Culp says this is where a lot of work was done early on, and where the