The Quest for the Key

“When a tiny elf loses his house key, he must face everything he fears about the outside world to get it back…”

The Quest for the Key is a SCAD Capstone Senior Film that premiered in Spring of 2021.

I worked as a director, visual developer, 3D animator, and post-production artist on this film during my final year at the Savannah College of Art and Design. This film will soon be premiering at festivals - Follow us on @QuestForTheKey on Instagram for updates!

TRAILER & STILLS!

Over the course of our final year at SCAD, our team was tasked with bringing the concepts of our pitch to life in this four-minute short film.

You can view the full film by emailing me at KATNOWAKART@GMAIL.COM or catching a showing at upcoming film festivals!

THE PITCH!

VIEW PITCH BIBLE

The process of making QftK first began in August of 2020, during a SCAD class specifically designed to guide students toward pitching their films. I worked closely with a very skilled production manager, Emily Bulan, to gather scattered ideas and concepts into a cohesive Pitch Bible.

This was presented to the SCAD Board of Animation, who greenlit our films production and started us on our senior film journey!

3d Model References!

Since the film’s assets (like characters and environments) were primarily in 3D, I took on the job of creating references for our 3D modelers to follow.

Our team did an awesome job of turning these conceptual drawings into usable 3D models.

2d /3d Mashup!

Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 11.05.31 AM.png

Although we worked primarily in 3D, we wanted the visual style of our film to be painterly and 2D-influenced. In order to accomplish this, our background elements that made up the forest, sky, and pretty much anything that doesn’t touch our characters was digitally painted.

By using custom camera rig, we were able to get images on 2D planes to move seamlessly in the 3D space. Creating and customizing the forest became one of the strongest parts of our visual style!