Little Pig
Project Overview
Title: Little Pig
Format: Student Short Film
Director: José Carbonell
Genre: Adventure / Family
Duration: 1 min 25 sec
A small pig gets lost in the forest, and has to find his way back home.
Little Pig is my first student film, created entirely on my own. I wanted to incorporate elements from my home country, the Dominican Republic, such as Taíno cemís in the background and the Ash-faced Owl, an endemic bird of our caves and forests.
Character Designs
Cherry is a small, timid pig who gets lost in the woods. His design is intentionally kept small to emphasize the scale of the forest and heighten the sense of danger surrounding him. He is constructed from simple, easy-to-draw oval shapes, and his expressions are inspired by that of a dog.
Coco is the mysterious owl. His design features a menacing silhouette, with devilish eyes and horn-like ears that enhance his ominous presence.
Early Concept Art, Gouache on Watercolour paper
Storyboards
I began the storyboards by creating thumbnails in my sketchbook, then moved on to digital storyboards.
Thumbnails
Color Script
Concept Art
Early concept art was created using gouache and watercolor paints on watercolor paper. For the colors, I aimed to balance dark blues and greens to create a dense, immersive atmosphere, giving the forest its own distinct space and identity.
Rough Animations
For my animations, I placed a strong emphasis on the expressiveness of the eyes to convey the emotions of my non-speaking characters.
Because the animation was done digitally in Harmony, it was important that the lines blended seamlessly with the backgrounds. To achieve this, I imported a pencil brush into Harmony and focused on maintaining a clean, consistent look from the start.
Backgrounds & Layouts
The layouts were created digitally, while most of the backgrounds were hand-painted with acrylics on watercolor paper. The added texture of the traditional paintings gives the final look of the film a very warm and cozy feeling.
José Carbonell