Dragon's Lute is a 2 min. animatic developed by Rachel Racanelli and Steven Ray as part of the Computer Animation major at Ringling college of art and design. All artwork below belongs to Rachel Racanelli, but the characters and concept belong to both Steven Ray and Rachel Racanelli.
The storyboards, story, and animatic were all developed in our Prepro class, while all concept and artwork was created in our Drawing for Animators class/Concept and Development.
The storyboards, story, and animatic were all developed in our Prepro class, while all concept and artwork was created in our Drawing for Animators class/Concept and Development.
Alonso - Professional Knight
The initial costume and body shape of the knight is the work of Steven Ray, all character work after that point is my own development. His character is rigid in his ways, and overconfident in his skills, represented by the repetition of square shapes throughout his design, yet the roundness in his chest and features hint at his hidden friendliness.
Vito - Dedicated Minstrel
Vito is a carefree and naive minstrel who wants nothing more than to play his lute and have a friend. He's mostly rounded, but the sharp edges in his design hint at his attitude.
Dragon formerly known as dragon
Test model
[autodesk maya]
Rough Environment
storyBoards
Rejected style
Watch the Animatic on Behance
[The original animatic Dragon's Lute is adapted from by Rachel Racanelli [me] is at the bottom of this page]
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Dragon's Lute
-story treatment-
Possible Concept Statements:
You’ll find friends in the most unexpected places
Don’t underestimate your partner
To find a friend all you have to do is look
Friends are worth more than you think
A knight, named Alonzo, and his minstrel, Vito, walk down a dark tunnel accompanied by soft lute music; the walls reflecting the light of the torch the knight is holding. The minstrel, smiling proudly to himself, strums his lute, keeping a leisurely pace behind the knight. Alonzo cautiously makes his way down the tunnel to an unknown destination.
They come upon the entrance to a larger cavern. A beam of light blooms at the back of the cave, revealing their reward – a palm sized golden statue of a dragon. The knight grins in excitement. Vito suddenly starts to sing loudly. Alonzo eyes fly open in surprise and he turns in disbelief, “Alonzo travels down Dragon’s Throat Tunnel, with danger we will muddle, into a glorious unknown fate, he will surely die-.” Vito is abruptly cut off when Alonzo’s arm shoots out and grabs the neck of the lute, snatching it from his hands with a BRUMPT from the strings. “Will you Shut. Up. You’ll wake the dragon.” Alonzo turns and hurls it angrily into the darkness of the cave. The lute bounces on an unknown surface, causing a glowing red eye to snap open. Then, the sound of wood clacking on rocks is heard before it comes to a rest on the far side of the cave.
The knight turns to the minstrel again, hissing in a smothered yell. “You’re like a child! You’ve been singing since we started this adventure. I’m tired of it! I’m sick and tired of it!”
At the same time, in the background over Alonzo’s shoulder, Vito sees a reptilian tail slither out of the light beam that’s illuminating the idol. The dragon is seen progressing through the dark cave as he passes through beams of light, his eyes glowing in the dark. Alonzo ends his tirade with a reassuring, “And I’m not going to die.” He then backs into the dragon, which is now right behind him. A low growl emanates from its chest. Alonzo’s face falls into an annoyed, frown. “Brilliant,” he mutters. He drops the torch, lowers his face shield, and draws his sword, spinning to face the dragon.
The dragon roars in challenge and snaps his jaws shut right where Alonzo used to be as the knight dodge-rolls under the dragon and has started sprinting toward the idol. Reaching the center of the cave, the knight puts up his shield and braces himself for battle. Vito runs passed the knight, drawing his attention. He shouts, “Where are you going?” The dragon catches up with him immediately, snapping and growling while the knight frantically blocks and swings at its neck. Vito shouts back, “This glorious moment needs music!” He baseball slides to his lute, picking it up and readying himself to play in one fluid motion.
The knight snarls, “You idiot!” as he turns his attention back to the dragon, swinging his sword at its eyes. As the knight is fighting, the minstrel begins to play, striking a cord and strumming it three times, the notes making the dragon stop, mid-fight. The dragon swings his head toward the minstrel as he strikes the second cord, strumming that one three times and the dragon yawns. The knight realizes what’s happening as the dragon passes out, asleep, his body weight shaking the ground. The minstrel strikes the third cord and it’s very clearly out of tune. He stops, disgruntled, and goes to tune it muttering, “No no no, that’s not right.”
As he’s tuning it, the dragon’s eyes reopen and he resumes his fight with the knight, snarling and snapping. The knight holds him off and shouts at the minstrel desperately, “Keep singing! The music makes it slee-!” As soon as he says sleep, the dragon head-butts Alonzo’s shield, slamming him against the wall near Vito. Vito stops tuning and looks up, “Makes him weep? What?”
“Just keep singing!” Alonzo gasps as he struggles for air, sandwiched between the wall and the dragon.
The minstrel sings, “Now we stand with the treasure of lore, facing the demon of red and orange…” The weight comes off of Alonzo’s shield as the dragon begins to drift into sleep. “Death knocks at his door, the-“ Vito stops.
The dragon wakes in a seething rage and rears up to slam against Alonzo again. He’s surprised and dodge rolls, lifting his sword to parry the dragon’s horns as he shouts, “Why did you stop?” Vito is leaning on the pedestal where the treasure is sitting, thinking hard. “What rhymes with orange?”
Still fighting and dodging, Alonzo shouts back, “Are you serious? Uhh, forange?” The knight swings his sword again with the dragon bites close to Alonzo’s face. The minstrel thinks skeptically as he asks. “Is that a word?” The knight yells out as he blindly swings at the dragon’s head. The minstrel starts to sing again, hesitantly, “Hmm. The fire… can you say it in a sentence?”
The knight shouts out, stumbling over the words. “What? Uhh- The-the blacksmith lights his forange!” Then the dragon snaps his right claw out and knocks his sword spinning off out of his grasp. As all seems lost, the dragon rears his head back, sucking in a large chest full of air, flames flickering at the back of its throat. The knight cringes just as the minstrel begins to sing. “Oh! Facing the glow of red and orange, death knocks at his door, the fire licks likes a blacksmiths forange!” The dragon passes out, sleeping once again. Alonzo sighs in relief, then runs to the golden figure, throws it to the minstrel, and runs toward the entrance to the dragon’s den. Vito stares confused at the figure in his hands, awkwardly trying to hold the lute with it. He looks up and begins to ask, “What-?”
Alonzo is already half way through the den, yelling back to him. “Run with me Vito! RUN!” The dragon stirs and wakes up. Vito becomes elated and jumps into a run, following Alonzo.
As they begin on their way out of the dragon’s den, through the cave, the minstrel starts to sing, “The battle is won. The day is ours…” Then the knight joins in, “And now we’re off in glee!”
CREDITS
The minstrel's tune
Dragon's Lute was adapted from this original 1 min animatic, created as a solo project at Ringling college of art and design.