Runner-up Award, Animation Division Endless Journey

When I was a child, no matter how cheesy the toy was, it was real in my head. Even if you just float a small boat, in your imagination it becomes a great voyage. I created this work with the hope that if we do not forget this endless journey of imagination even as adults, the possibilities of the world will expand, and that this journey will become another asset to many people.

An ordinary boy anywhere easily travels from his room to the world. In this scene, I paid close attention to the decor of the room down to the smallest details, such as the treasure map and the graffiti on the drawers of the chest of drawers, in the image of a boy in the English countryside who longs to be a pirate. A toy ship is swept into the river by the boy and before long becomes a magnificent pirate ship. In this scene, the lighting was relatively realistic in the river scene, but when the pirate ship appeared, it was assumed to be unrealistic. The description of the pirate ship moving deeper and deeper into the room expresses the tension of approaching the treasure chest, and the passage through the broken glass before reaching the treasure chest is intended to create a sense of tension. The room is accompanied by music, and the treasure chest is placed in the center of the room. The lighting here was designed to naturally focus the audience's attention on the treasure chest, and the opening mechanism of the treasure chest was designed to create the sensation of a bond between the mind and the body, and the shape of the eyes as if the audience can see the truth of what is inside. For the last boy's scene, as I mentioned at the beginning, I tried to create a realistic lighting, but even in reality, I created a more dramatic evening lighting to make it suitable for the last scene of the work. The last line, "Let's go where you want to go! is the meaning of the phrase "Let's go where you want to go! As mentioned in the abstract of the work, I hope that this work will help people to remember this endless journey of creation.

The entire work was modeled in Maya, and only the depiction of the ocean was procedurally generated in Houdini. Textures for the models were mainly created using Substance Painter, and maps were created using Photoshop and Illusutrator. After effects was used for compositing, and Premiere pro was used for final editing and exporting.

When the boy's toy boat is floated down the river, the boat is soon rowed out to the open sea. The CG animation is short (about one minute), but it beautifully depicts the boy's dream, and the texture and dynamism of the CG and the background music match each other well. Although it could have used a little more story, the simple and easy-to-understand message is what makes this film so memorable.