'The Story of Karuta' is an animated short I came up with the idea for right before New Year's 2023. I wanted to create a short, motion-design inspired film in Adobe After Effects about a topic of Japanese culture.
Karuta is a popular game all year-round in Japan, but is played especially during New Years.
Below is an animation test of an Iroha Karuta card I created in After Effects, followed by some card ideas inspired by the standard 'Bicycle' brand playing cards we think of in the West.
After making some sample card illustrations to visualize what I wanted to animate, I created a storyboard and animatic, as well as styleframes to determine the overall look and feel of the short.
Second-draft completed animatic.
Below are the styleframes I created to establish the look and feel of the whole piece. I had planned on blending After Effects animation with digitally-hand drawn, cel-style animation, and wanted to make sure everything fit visually.
